Flanged Axe

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In the Chalcolithic (or ‘copper age’) and Early Bronze Age, axe heads of metal were flat, and fixed by organic binding to a split wooden shaft. These wooden shafts must have been very vulnerable to breakage during use. By the middle of the Bronze Age, axe design became much more sophisticated, however. The flanges on this cast bronze axe accommodated the haft, preventing the wooden head from slipping and splitting.

The advances in bronze casting technology made during the second millennium BC made much more sophisticated shapes possible, meaning that axes were better designed, would last longer, and were more efficient.

Axes of this type were in use in the later second millennium BC, from around 1500 to 1000 BC. This axe was found near Upper Dounreay in Caithness, Scotland.