Page:Early Man in Britain and His Place in the Tertiary Period.djvu/378

350 would cease to be so important, agriculture would improve, and a higher civilisation inevitably follow.

When first the sound of the woodman's axe was heard in the forests of the north, the victory of man over his natural environment was secured, and forest and morass became his for ever. The invention of the metal axe is, therefore, of the highest importance in the history of civilisation, and its use marks a new phase in the history of Europe.

117.—Palstave, Nettleham, Lincolnshire, $1⁄2$.

The axes of the Bronze age consist of three distinct types. The first and the oldest is that represented by the simple wedge secured by being fastened into the wooden handle in the manner shown in Fig. 116. An axe hafted in this manner must obviously in the course of time have split its handle, and to prevent this the form of Fig. 117 was invented, in which the handle was applied to the head as represented in Fig. 118. The edges of the simple wedge gradually developed