Alpine rock axeheads became social and economic exchange fetishes in the Neolithic
(PHYSorg.com Archaeology & Fossils)

Axeheads made out of Alpine rock had strong social and economic symbolic meaning in the Neolithic, given their production and use value. Their resistance to friction and breakage, which permitted intense polishing and a re-elaboration of the rock, gave these artefacts an elevated exchange value, key to the formation of long-distance exchange networks among communities of Western Europe. Communities that had already begun to set the value of exchange of a product according to the time and effort invested in producing them.