HOLMES ANNIVERSARY VOLUME 



the gallery in the dolmen of Gavrinis (Morbihan). The blade is set 

 in the handle through which the pointed pole projects. The handle 

 is sharply recurved at its haft end, resembling in form a crozier 

 (fig. u). The same style of handle is found in the lake-dwellings of 

 Switzerland. An excellent example in its original wooden handle, 

 found in the bed of an ancient lake in Cumberland, is reproduced by 

 Sir John Evans. 



The sculptured figure of a hafted ax decorated the under face of 

 the great "table" stone of the dolmen des Marchands (Morbihan). 

 This and four of the eight figures of the ax sculptured on a stone at 

 the entrance to the dolmen of Mane-Hroeck, at 

 Locmariaquer (Morbihan), are hafted in a manner 

 similar to the foregoing, with the difference that 

 in several the recurved end of the handle is made 

 to fuse with the end of the pointed poll. This type 

 is repeated in the dolmen of Kerverez, which by no 

 means exhausts the list of hafted axes represented 

 on the megalithic monuments of Brittany. An 

 example of the hafted ax not unlike the type from 

 Brittany reappears on one of the dolmens in 

 Charente. Sculptured figures of the ax without 

 the handle appear in the Morbihan (at Gavrinis), 

 in Charente (dolmen de la Grosse-Perotte, Fon- 

 tenille), and Seine-et-Oise (dolmen du Trou-aux- 

 Anglais, fipone). When visiting the late Paul du 

 Chatellier at Kernuz, Finistere, the author recalls 

 having seen in the Chatellier collection a bronze 

 ax and handle all in one piece. 



The stone age of Scandinavia offers many examples of the sym- 

 bolic or ceremonial ax. This is to be expected when one recalls that 

 the symbol of Thor, one of the most important gods of the north, 

 was the hammer-ax, which was likewise the symbol of the sun-god. 

 Amber beads in the form of an ax or hammer are reported from 

 various parts of Sweden; and an amber ax three and a quarter inches 

 long (8.3 cm.) from Bohuslan has been reproduced by Montelius. 

 The same author figures representations of the hafted ax taken from 

 rock sculptures in Sweden; also a large ax of thin bronze cast over a 

 clay nucleus, which never could have served a practical purpose. 

 According to J. J. A. Worsaae, certain extremely heavy and highly 

 ornamented Danish axes of bronze with awkwardly placed handles 

 could not have been employed as weapons or as ordinary tools. 

 At Kivik in southern Sweden there is an unusually large tumulus, 



Fig. 11. — Hafted ax 

 engraved on a small 

 block of granite; from 

 the dolmen of Gavrinis, 

 Morbihan. %. (After 

 de Mortillet.) 



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