A Danish flint dagger
Late Neolithic Period, circa 2000-1700 B.C.
Of grey flint, with elongated leaf-shaped blade and long straight-sided grip of lentoid cross-section, 23.3cm long注脚Provenance:
Commander Coventry Makgill-Crichton-Maitland (1877-1958) collection; thence by descent.

The above dagger belongs to Scandanavian flint dagger Type II. For examples of Danish flint daggers with similarly proportioned grip and blade, see A. MacGregor, Antiquities form Europe and the Near East in the collection of the Lord McAlpine of West Green, 1987, pp 78-80, figs. 4.210; 4.212 and 4.211.

It is likely that daggers such as the above were objects of status rather than being of practical use. When the National Museum of Ireland carried out microwear analysis of its Late Neolithic Danish daggers it was found that the wear was consistent with the implements having been frequently taken out of their protective sheaths, probably for display purposes, and that it was unlikely that the wear suggested any utilitarian purpose. Great skill would have been required of the flint knappers producing such fine daggers, and it is believed that these craftsmen were inspired by contemporary European Early Bronze Age metal daggers.