CHAP, x.] HABITATIONS IN BRITAIN IN BRONZE AGE. 



351 



flanges (Fig. 119), and passed into the palstave (Figs. 



117, 118). This again proved inconvenient, and a third 



form was invented, in which 

 the handle was let into a socket 

 in the head of the axe, as in 

 Figs. 120, 121. The second 

 and the third of these have 

 never been found in association 

 with the first in this country. 



FIG. 119. Flanged Axe, Arreton, 

 Isle of Wight, i. 



FIG. 121. Socketed Celt, 

 Thames, Kew. . 



It is strange that the bronze-smiths should not have 

 hit upon the mode by which we insert handles in 

 our axes, which seems so natural and obvious, and 

 it is still more so when we reflect that the hammer- 

 and battle-axes of stone, perforated for the reception of 

 the straight handle, were used in the early Bronze 

 age. 1 These, however, were not copied from bronze 



1 For an account of these see Evans, op. cit. chap. viii. 



