Possibly to avoid conflicts with Nethack4[0], which was a fork of the Nethack 3.x series back when development was stalled. I think the guy behind it later joined the main Nethack dev team.
I guess properly is important there, in reality certain initial orderings are more common and we use certain techniques for shuffling with our hands making it less random than "properly".
That was my first thought as well, "The camera will be used to take photographs" seem pointless, if it's a camera app it's obvious if it's not it does not help the reviewer.
I don't think you can date the axe-heads from the material? I assume they date based on objects found nearby and the technique used to make them. Which is also why knowing the exact location is important.