Axe

Axes made of copper, bronze, iron and steel appeared as these technologies developed.

The axe is an example of a simple machine, as it is a type of wedge, or dual inclined plane.

Hatchets tend to be small hafted axes often with a hammer on the back side (the poll).

Certain types almost never show traces of wear; deposits of unshafted axe blades from the middle Neolithic (such as at the Somerset Levels in Britain) may have been gifts to the deities.

[citation needed] In Minoan Crete, the double axe (labrys) had a special significance, used by priestesses in religious ceremonies.

[citation needed] In 1998, a labrys, complete with an elaborately embellished haft, was found at Cham-Eslen, Canton of Zug, Switzerland.

[citation needed] Basques, Australians and New Zealanders[9] have developed variants of rural sports that perpetuate the traditions of log cutting with axe.

The Basque variants, splitting horizontally or vertically disposed logs, are generically called aizkolaritza (from aizkora: axe).

[10] In Yorùbá mythology, the oshe (double-headed axe) symbolises Shango, Orisha (god) of thunder and lightning.

Shango altars often contain a carved figure of a woman holding a gift to the god with a double-bladed axe sticking up from her head.

[citation needed] The Hurrian and Hittite weather god Teshub is depicted on a bas-relief at Ivriz wielding a thunderbolt and an axe.

Modern hafts are curved for better grip and to aid in the swinging motion, and are mounted securely to the head by wedging.

The name axe-hammer is often applied to a characteristic shape of perforated stone axe used in the Neolithic and Bronze Ages.

Iron axe-hammers are found in Roman military contexts, e.g. Cramond, Edinburgh, and South Shields, Tyne and Wear.