In celts, the terms are the same, so far as they are applicable; blade referring to the lower half of the implement; that is, to the portion on which the cutting edge is formed.
Ground and Pecked Articles.
Grooved Axes.
The implements known as grooved axes seem to be of general distribution throughout the United States; being, so far can be learned from various writers, much more numerous east of Mississippi river than west of it. It must be remembered, however, that thousands of diligent collectors have carefully searched for such things in the east, while in the west little attention has been paid to them; consequently, deductions are not to be made concerning their relative abundance or scarcity, until further knowledge is gained. The same remark will apply to every form of aboriginal relic.
In the eastern and interior states, the grooved axes are far more abundant than the celts of the same size[9], because as a rule only the larger implements of this class are grooved. All the ordinary varieties of axes and hatchets are found about Lake Champlain, by far the most abundant being celts, or grooveless axes.[10]
According to Adair and other early observers, the southern Indians had axes of stone, around the grooved heads of which they twisted hickory withes to serve as handles; with these they deadened timber by girdling or cutting through the bark.[11] According to travelers of a later generation among the western Indians, similar implements were used on the plains to chop up the vertebræ of buffaloes, which were boiled to obtain the marrow.[12]
These statements, which might be multiplied, show that such objects are to be found widely scattered; none, however, give information more definite than that the axes are “grooved,” no reference being made to the shape of the ax or the manner of grooving.
The various modes of mounting axes and celts in handles are illustrated in the Smithsonian Report for 1879.
Stone axes were used in Europe by the Germans at as late a period as the Thirty Years’ war, and are supposed to have been used by the Anglo-Saxons at the battle of Hastings.[13]
