This iron axe was discovered in 1840, and is typical of those made during the 17th and 18th centuries. Its discovery in the middle of the north meadows in what is now Greenfield, Massachusetts, near what had been the junction of the Hinsdale and Punch brooks, suggested to some historians that it was a part of the plunder taken from Deerfield, Massachusetts, during a raid on February 29, 1704. The town was attacked in mid-winter by a combined force of French soldiers and their Native Americans allies from Canada. They took more than 100 people captive and marched to to Canada where they were adopted or held for ransom money.