These have been shaped from the local shale to form a hatchet or cleaver-like head with a handle.

Stone cleavers from Sumburgh, Shetland

These have been shaped from the local shale to form a hatchet or cleaver-like head with a handle.

These were most likely some form of agricultural tool - hafted to be used as mattocks or hoes. They are common to Bronze Age sites in Shetland and Orkney where they can occur in their hundreds.
These unusual tools have a distinctive carefully-shaped handle . They were in use in the Early Bronze Age of Orkney and Shetland.