HISTORY IN TOOLS 79 



(fig. 25), and the long edge set in a stout baton (fig. 26) for a 

 cutting blow. All of these were common in Egypt, but never 

 spread elsewhere. 



The adze in Egypt was at first a straight long blade of 

 copper with parallel sides (fig. 27). Later it developed a 

 rounded head-end (fig. 28), with contracted neck (fig. 29), to aid 

 in binding it on a handle. Neither of these was copied in any 

 other country. 



The chisel was at first sharp at both ends, and held by the 

 middle (fig. 30). Later there is a deep mortising chisel with an 

 equal curve of each face (fig. 31). Neither of these Egyptian 

 forms appears anywhere else. 



The dagger, from prehistoric times onward in Egypt, had a 

 crescent handle held in the palm of the hand (fig. 32), so as to 

 use the weight of the arm end-on for a thrust ; whereas the 

 European dagger was always held as a knife, across the hand. 

 The Egyptian ornament was by parallel ribs along the axis 

 (fig- 33) ; in all other countries the ornament is by lines parallel 

 to sloping edges. Some forms are entirely restricted to Egypt, 

 as the cutting-out knife (fig. 34) with a curved blade for cutting 

 linen, the forked spear-butt (fig. 35), and, in Roman times, the 

 shears with detachable leg (fig. 36), and the sickle with replace- 

 able teeth (fig. 8). 



Here, then, are seventeen tools and weapons, mostly of 

 general importance and use in Egypt, which were none of them 

 required by the neighbouring lands, where there must have been 

 some useful equivalents. 



The converse is equally true ; many forms were used around 

 Egypt which never were adopted there. In Cyprus and other 

 lands the earliest axes are of a pillowy form (fig. 15), with bulging 

 faces. In Europe the double axe (fig. 16) was not only a tool 

 and a weapon, but also a sacred symbol and a standard weight. 

 In Mesopotamia the sloping socketed axe was usual (fig. 17), in 

 Assyria the pickaxe (fig. 18). Not one of these was made by 

 any Egyptian, and only two such were rarely brought in by 

 Greeks in late times. 



The principle of sockets for handles was well developed 

 in Italy and spread elsewhere, for axes, hammers, and chisels, 

 yet no Egyptian would make a socketed tool, and the only ones 

 in Egypt were brought in by Greeks. The use of hammered 

 sides to a blade, to form a flange for stiffening it, was of early 



