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British Decorated Axes and their Diffusion during the Earlier Part of the Bronze Age

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 May 2014

B. R. S. Megaw  and
E. M. Hardy
B. R. S. Megaw
Affiliation:
Manx Museum, Douglas
E. M. Hardy
Affiliation:
Newnham College, Cambridge
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Extract

It is intended in this paper to describe briefly the occurrence and, to a limited extent, the variety of ornamented metal axes belonging to the earlier part of the British and Irish Bronze Age, rather than to publish the results of an exhaustive study, such as the present writers have had no opportunity of making. The present aim is to indicate in a general way the importance of these axes in the material culture of our Bronze Age, and that of Western and Northern Europe. The objects themselves have been well discussed up to a point by Wilde (51) and Evans (23), but without special consideration of the significance of their distribution and associations.

These ornamented axes, which are of the ‘flat’ or ‘flanged’ type, are apparently all of bronze. Some analyses have been made (3, 27, 42), but without spectrographic examination (48) it is difficult to draw any definite conclusions as to the source of the ores used or the place of manufacture. Open moulds for casting axes of the ‘flat’ form (e.g. pl. LIII, c, d) have been found in various parts of the British Isles, and their distribution is discussed on page 287.

Type
Research Article
Information
Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society , Volume 4 , Issue 2 , December 1938 , pp. 272 - 307
Copyright
Copyright © The Prehistoric Society 1938

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