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Axes went through an interesting evolution through prehistory.
People have always wanted to keep the axehead attached to the hats as firmly as possible. Already in the Neolithic, the method of attaching the stone ax head to the rod was mostly focused on creating a hole through the head and attaching it that way, creating shaft-hole axes. Most modern day axes still work on this principle.

However, during the bronze age, such axes were mostly absent throughout the continent. Instead, different designs were used, first axe with flanges, then winged axes with medial wings and winged axes with butt wings, which were typical at the transition into the iron age. In addition to those, bronze socketed axes were also used. These spread to central Europe from the east. They had a tubular socket into which the haft was inserted and secured with straps, which passed through the eye on the side.

While they still did the job, such designs are less practical and effective than the, so their use was not a result of improved engineering, but rather had cultural motives.

The bronze winged axes of the eastern alps often bear incised markings. While it would be easy to assume these are the first examples of a written language in the area, opinions of archeologists differ. Some scholars believe them to be workshop marks, while others that they could be royal inscriptions, like those in the eastern Mediterranean, or votive inscriptions of the axes offered in sanctuaries. The context of such a writing system therefore remains open.

The finds of sickles and socketed axes in central Europe indicate connections with the east, the wider Pannonian plain, while winged axes were more typical towards the alps and northern Apennine peninsula.


Sources: docs.google.com/document/d/1mnK9tpEvz9UgeVWuUh8fPF…

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