It has been stated that some of the Spanish palstaves[559] with two loops were, when first discovered, attached to a straight handle of wood. But this opinion may have been formed from the grain of the wood impressed on the upper part of the blade running along and not across it. In the first account[560] given of the discovery, these palstaves were regarded as having been used for picking out the strata of coal, and one of them is said to have been firmly attached to a wooden handle by means of thongs interlaced and held by notches in the wood. This handle was described as having been straight, so that the instrument was fitted to be used as a crowbar and not as a hatchet. But inasmuch as the groove for the handle is only 2¼ inches long and ½ inch wide, while the length of the blade projecting beyond the handle is nearly 5 inches, it is almost impossible for it to have served in this manner.
Axe-heads of bronze of the modern form with an eye through them to receive a straight helve have not been found in this country, though, as already observed, they are not uncommon in Hungary, Southern Germany, and Italy. That the form was already known in Greece in the Homeric Age is evident from the feat of skill in shooting an arrow through the shaft holes of a number of axe-heads, arranged in a row, recorded in the Odyssey.[561] I have in my collection a fine double-edged axe, or πέλεκυς, from Greece, 8½ inches in length, with a round shaft-hole ⅞ inch in diameter. I have also two from Salamis.
Looking at the widespread distribution of perforated stone implements, especially battle-axes, throughout Europe, it seems strange that so few bronze weapons of the same class should be found. Possibly, however, these stone weapons may have remained in use even until the latter part of the Bronze Period, as they certainly did through the earlier part of it. In this country it seems doubtful whether any of the perforated battle-axes of stone belong to a time when bronze was absolutely unknown, as bronze knife-daggers, like Fig. 279, have so often been found associated with them in interments. Hungary is the country in which the perforated bronze battle-axes seem to have arrived at their fullest development, many of them being of graceful form and beautiful workmanship. The perforated copper implements of that country were probably used for agricultural purposes, and I see no reason for assigning them to so early a date as the commencement of the Bronze Period of Hungary. They may, indeed, belong to a much later period. It is hard to account for this absence of perforated axes of bronze in Britain, but various causes seem to have conduced to render their introduction difficult. When first bronze came into use it must have been extremely scarce and valuable; and to cast an axe-head in bronze, like one of the perforated axe-hammers of stone, would have required not only a considerably greater amount of the then precious metal than was required for a flat hatchet-head, but would also have involved a far higher skill in the art of casting. Moreover, the flat form of these simple blades rendered them well adapted for being readily drawn out to a sharp cutting edge, and when once they had come into general use they would not have been readily superseded by those of another form, hafted in a different method, even were that method more simple. If the bronze celts were mainly in use for peaceful industries, while the warlike battle-axes were made of stone, the progressive modifications in the shape of the former would be less likely to be affected by the characteristics of the latter. It must also be remembered that in France,[562] which then as now set the fashion to Britain, perforated axe-heads of stone were very seldom used, and those of bronze were in the north of the country unknown.
But, to return to the celts of the British Islands, there can, I think, be but little doubt that the loop is, as already described, connected with the method of mounting these instruments on their hafts; and is not intended for the attachment of a cord, by which they might be withdrawn and recovered after they had been thrown at the enemy. Like the American tomahawks, they may, no doubt, have occasionally been used as “missile hatchets,” the “missiles secures” of Sidonius;[563] but the days of young Sigimer, whose followers were provided with these weapons, are many centuries more recent than those to which the bronze celts must be referred.
In the same manner, any idea of the loops having merely served for hanging these instruments at the girdle may be at once discarded. For such a purpose the projection which we find substituted for the loop would be useless, and the presence of two loops would be superfluous.
Fig. 189.—Everley. 1/1
On the whole, we may conclude that the majority of these instruments were mounted for use, somewhat in the manner described, so as to serve as axes or adzes. A smaller proportion of them may, however, not improbably have been provided with short straight handles, to serve as chisels, especially the socketed celts of small size and without loops. This is the more probable as several socketed instruments closely resembling them in character cannot be regarded as other than chisels and gouges. No example, however, of a socketed celt provided with a handle of this kind has as yet been found. The little instrument of brass fixed into a handle made of stag’s horn, which was found in a cist in a barrow at Everley,[564] Wilts, by Sir R. Colt Hoare, has more the appearance of being a tanged chisel, such as will subsequently be described, than a flat celt. It is shown full size in Fig. 189, which I have copied from Sir R. C. Hoare’s plate. There were no bones or ashes found in the cist, but several pointed instruments, and what appears to be a kind of long, flat bead of bone, as well as two whetstones of freestone, and a hone of a blueish colour had been deposited with it.
Professor Worsaae[565] has published an engraving of a narrow Danish palstave, which was found in a hill in Jutland fastened to its handle by three rings of leather. This handle was straight, but unlike that from Store Hedinage, which was an ell and a quarter long, was not more than about 8 inches in length. In some other instances, he says, the blade has been fastened to the handle by nails or rivets.
I have already mentioned that some of the socketed celts of iron belonging to the early Iron Age of Denmark have been found mounted as chisels. A good example of one thus hafted has been figured by Engelhardt.[566] The part of the handle which goes into the socket is tapered to fit it. Above this the handle expands with a shoulder projecting somewhat beyond the outside of the celt. It continues of this size for about 1½ inches, and is then again reduced to the same size as the mouth of the celt. The whole of the handle beyond the metal is about 4 inches in length.