HISTORY IN TOOLS — PETRIE. 565 



the cleaving ax with a long back to the socket (figs. 5, 6) to aid in a 

 lifting pull to get it out of the wood. In the agricultural tools there 

 are clear distinctions between the scythe or sickle worked with a saw- 

 ing motion from the hand at the end of the blade (fig. 7), or the 

 reaping sickle with a circular arc around the wrist which rotates it 

 (fig. 8), or the pruning hook to top off high vine-sprays in the south 

 (figs. 4, 6"), or the bill hook to cut copse wood in the north. The 

 different kinds of motion must be considered before we can under- 

 stand the varying use of each tool. In weapons, similarly, the width 

 of spear or arrowhead is conditioned by the defense. On bare bodies 

 wide cutting blades are the most effective, to attack clothed bodies a 

 narrower blade is needed, and for piercing armor of leather or metal 

 a mere spike is required. 



These forms which result from the necessities of use and the guid- 

 ance of utility may very probably be evolved in many different 

 centers quite independently. We know, in modern times, the Patent 

 Office shows how often a simple thing may be reinvented. The 

 case is different, however, when we look at artistic style; in that, 

 each race or country has its own characteristics which cling to it for 

 ages, and are seldom adopted by others. When a design recurs we 

 can generally trace its descent, sometimes through thousands of 

 years. Sometimes principles of form also have an astonishing per- 

 sistence. The northern and Syrian peoples used flanged edges to 

 stiffen tools, the Egyptian and most Mediterranean peoples would 

 have none of them. The European and Asiatic used socket holes, 

 the .Egyptian always rejected them. The European cast in flat 

 molds, and used punched ornaments ; the Asiatic cast in closed molds, 

 and used cast relief ornament. The Asiatic and east European 

 used recurved outlines; the European and Egyptian used straight 

 or simply curved outlines. In all these respects we see a funda- 

 mental artistic difference between races. 



Another curious aspect of the subject is the worship or reverence 

 given to weapons. Spears were kept in the temples of Italy as 

 means of divination, and immense ceremonial spear-heads are known 

 from early Mesopotamia, Italy, Sweden, Britain, and China. The 

 scimitar was adored in Scythia, and the Quadi adored their swords 

 as deities. The driving of a nail into the temple of Jupiter in Rome 

 was the means of averting pestilence. The double ax was a usual 

 tool, and also a sacred form ; ceremonial copies, which could not be 

 hafted, were made in various northern centers, apparently as stand- 

 ard weights. 



Several stages of inventive activity may be discovered, when a 

 great outburst of new types appears. The most prolific period seems 

 to have been in the later bronze ages, about 900 B. C. The most per- 

 fect forms of bronze chisels were then devised (figs. 9 to 13), both 

 136650°— 20 37 



