Palstave

It was common in the middle Bronze Age in northern, western and south-western Europe.

In the technical sense, although precise definitions differ, an axe is generally deemed to be a palstave if it is hafted by means of a forked wooden handle kept in place with high, cast flanges and stop bar.

Palstaves were cast in bivalve moulds made of clay, stone or bronze.

The archaeologist John Evans (1881, p. 72) popularized the term 'palstave' in English following Danish archaeologists who borrowed the term from Icelandic: paalstab.

However, the term had become so common with Scandinavian and German archaeologists that Evans thought it best to follow suit.