350 



EARLY MAN IN BRITAIN. 



[CHAP. x. 



would cease to be so important, agriculture would im- 

 prove, and a higher civilisation inevitably follow. When 



first the sound of the wood- 

 man's axe was heard in the 

 forests of the north, the vic- 

 tory of man over his natural 

 environment was secured, 

 and forest and morass be- 

 came his for ever. The 

 invention of the metal axe 

 FIGS. no. us. 120. is, therefore, of the highest 



Bronze Axes in Handles (Lane Fox). importance in the history 



of civilisation, and its use marks a new phase in the 

 history of Europe. 



The axes of the Bronze age consist of three distinct 

 types. 1 The first and the oldest is that represented by 

 the simple wedge secured by being fastened into the 

 wooden handle in the manner shown in Fig. -116. An 

 axe hafted in this manner must obviously in the course 

 of time have split its handle, and to prevent this the 



FIG. 117. Palstave, Nettleham, Lincolnshire, . 



% 



form of Fig. 117 was invented, in which the handle 

 was applied to the head as represented in Fig. 118. 

 The edges of the simple wedge gradually developed 



1 See Gen. Lane Fox, Journ. Royal United Service Instit., xiii., " Primi- 

 tive Warfare ;" and Mr. Evans, Proceed. Soc. Antiq., 23d Jan. 1873, "on 

 the Bronze Period." 



