eted form is reached by leaving
out the centre division between the wings. Figure 20 may be noticed,
as it is very similar to certain Continental forms.

[Illustration: Fig. 16.--Ornamented Bronze Celts.]

[Illustration: PLATE I. Irish bronze celts in the order of their
development. _p. 24._]

Some of the earlier flat bronze celts may have been hafted like the
stone celts, by merely fixing the smaller end into a stick with a
thick head; but this method must soon have been abandoned, as after a
certain number of blows had been delivered, the axe-head would be
forced back into the shaft. A more practical method was to place the
head in a handle having a forked head, and the origin of the
stop-ridge was to prevent the two sides coming down too low on to the
blade. The side flanges and palstave-form developed naturally from
this. The manner of hafting the socketed celts is well shown by a
handled socketed celt found at Edenderry, King's Co., and formerly in
the Murray collection. This object is now in the Ethnological and
Archaeological Museum at Cambridge; and it is to be regretted that so
rare and important a find should have left the country.

[Illustration: Fig. 17.--Ornamented Bronze Celts.]

Some of the flat bronze celts are very finely decorated with incised
chevrons, triangles, cross-hatchings, and other Bronze-Age linear
ornament. One example has a kind of herring-bone pattern, somewhat
resembling the well-known leaf-marking at New Grange. Some examples
show a kind of cable-pattern on the side flanges; and the size of
a few specimens is remarkable. A flat celt, with a remarkable
ornamentation from the Greenwell collection found near Connor, County
Antrim, is figured by Sir John Evans, _op. cit._, p. 64. It has a
border of chevrons along the edge of the side; and this is carried
across the celt in the centre and at the commencement of the
cutting-edge. This border is joined by a similar centre band of
ornament.

Several of the Irish palstaves have a shield-shaped ornament below the
stop-ridge. The socketed celts are, as a rule, unornamented; but there
are a few which have been found in Ireland which are ornamented with
ribs ending in pellets.

[Illustration: Fig. 18.--Ornamented Bronze Celts.]

The question is often asked as to whether the bronze celts were used
as weapons or tools; and the probability is that they were used as
either as occasion demanded. The celts do not show any mark