Socketed Axe Head

One small, semicircular loop emerges from the side of this socketed axe head, which is otherwise featureless. The cutting edge is quite thick and dull, with no chips or other signs of use. The blade flares out at the edges and tapers in profile, expanding slightly at the butt. The socket is widest at the butt and narrows toward the blade. The opening of the socket is rectangular. This socketed axe head is probably an example of G. Eogan’s Class 11 A (1). An axe head as a cutting tool would have been attached perpendicularly to a wooden handle; the shaft of wood would have been fitted into the socket and secured with some type of rope passed through the loop. NOTES: 1. See G. Eogan, The Socketed Bronze Axes in Ireland, Prähistorische Bronzefunde 9.22 (Stuttgart, 2000) 115-16, nos. 998-1008 and 1016-18, pls. 56-57. Lisa M. Anderson