Hilary Wilson on… Axes

Egyptian axes could be used to fell large trees. Among the most prominent stone items in museum collections from prehistoric Egyptian cultures are axes shaped from flint or other hard stones. The simple Palaeolithic hand axe with a narrow tapering cutting edge, like a pickaxe, developed into a rectangular bifacial blade, which could be fixed to a forked or socketed shaft to be used as a woodworking tool or weapon. The first metal tools made from smelted copper began to appear around 3500 BC in the form of axe-heads, spear points, daggers, and adzes with hammer-sharpened edges. Gerzean (Naqada II) copper axe-heads shaped in imitation of polished stone axes were cast in open moulds, and at