axe

Weapon or tool with a stone or metal head. In archaeology, it denotes the stone and bronze axeheads used by the prehistoric peoples of Europe. More generally, the term ‘axe’ or battle-axe is used for a one- or two-handed weapon, later made of iron or steel. The poleaxe or halberd is an axe with a long handle.

Stone axeheads, made of flint or other types of rock, are usually 18 cm/7 in long, but vary in the range 2.5-50 cm/1-20 in. Some jadeite examples were almost certainly prestige objects of symbolic value, and are often found in elite graves. Bronze axeheads are commonly 12-15 cm/5-6 in long, but may be up to 25 cm/10 in long. Later bronze axeheads often had a socket for the handle, which would have been lashed to the head with cord made of leather or other organic material.

Axes served also as chisels, adzes, and other tools. The term celt is sometimes applied to stone axes (from Latin celtes ‘stone chisel’).

The remains of early axeheads were once superstitiously regarded as ‘thunderbolts’, or as objects endowed with strange curative powers.