Re: What Is It?? | Forum — The Modern Antiquarian

fitzcoraldo Jul 1, 2004 15:47:02

Replying to BrigantesNation

We have to get away from the modern concept of an axe, the term is misleading, some axes were huge and used as ploughs, others were tiny
A modern analogy could be a Sword or a knife.
We use knives in our daily activities but large knives & swords can have a deep significance depending on it's function.
Some Swords and knives produced in certain areas carry a deep significance such as Toledo steel for swords or Sheffield or Solginen steel for knives.
Look at the role of the sword in our mythologies. Excalibur and the lady of the lake has echoes in prehistory with the deposition of swords in water just as axes have been found ritually deposited in water

bit more on axes here
http://www.themodernantiquarian.com/user/328/weblog/0/16451

StoneLifter Jul 1, 2004 22:18:09

Replying to fitzcoraldo

Yes, I have several iron axe heads. They are each entirely different. The Countryside Stewardship Scheme also values inaccessible stonework, to a certain extent, by paying the highest rate for it. My bit of branch appears to have been hacked with a metal blade - maybe a halberd - yet the accepted date for this scrub clearance is usually given as around 3300BCE.

FourWinds Jul 2, 2004 07:03:34

Replying to fitzcoraldo

But nearly everything has been found 'ritually deposited' somewhere and what hasn't been found either will be one day or won't be because it's bio-degradable. The finest brooches and the crappiest brooches. People. Shells. Swords, shields, beads. All sorts. A lot of heavy weapons deposits could be actually where a defeated army's weapons were destroyed and disposed of as a power and control statement more than in any ritual. I know it's unlikely, but it is possible with some of them.

Some axes are definitely ornamental, but these probably date to a time when axes were becoming obsolete, just as ornamental swords tend to date to times when swords were on the way out as a weapon.