Fig. 16.—Ornamented Bronze Celts.
Plate I.
Irish bronze celts in the order of their development.
p. [24].
Some of the earlier flat bronze celts may have been hafted like the stone celts, by merely fixing the smaller end into a stick with a thick head; but this method must soon have been abandoned, as after a certain number of blows had been delivered, the axe-head would be forced back into the shaft. A more practical method was to place the head in a handle having a forked head, and the origin of the stop-ridge was to prevent the two sides coming down too low on to the blade. The side flanges and palstave-form developed naturally from this. The manner of hafting the socketed celts is well shown by a handled socketed celt found at Edenderry, King’s Co., and formerly in the Murray collection. This object is now in the Ethnological and Archæological Museum at Cambridge; and it is to be regretted that so rare and important a find should have left the country.
Fig. 17.—Ornamented Bronze Celts.