MAN FROM THE FARTHEST PAST 
well as thrusting (Fig. 86). By the time man had devised 
all these improvements he had learned the use of iron, 
which gradually crowded out bronze for the manufacture 
of weapons. 
In hafting his spears at the opening of the Bronze Age, 
the armorer naturally copied the method in use with flint 
spears; that is, he 
split the end of the 
spearshaft and in- 
serted and_ lashed 
fast the spearhead. 
Later on he fas- 
tened it with rivets. 
Eventually the 
bronze heads were 
provided with sock- 
ets into which was 
thrust the end of the 
shaft. We still re- 
tain both these an- 
cient methods of 
hafting in some of 
Fic. 87. Bronze axes cast with loops for lash- 
ing to the helve. After Keller our modern tools; 
for example, we use 
chisels with tangs and others with sockets, the latter es- 
pecially for types of work where hammering on the end of 
the handle would be apt to cause it to split. 
Bronze axes served both as tools and weapons; with 
them one might split either firewood or the heads of one’s 
enemies. In the beginning they were hafted much as 
stone axes had been. Later in certain regions a sort of 
socket back of the blade was gradually developed (Figs. 
87 and 88). Finally the plan of passing the helve through 
the ax head, just as we still do, was devised, apparently in 
southwestern Asia pretty early i in the Bronze Age. 
The men of some regions of scarce metal copied bronze 
battle-axes in stone—shape, perforation, and all. Some- 
[ 270 ] 
