CELTIC SOCKETED AXE (CELT) C.400 BC

Forged iron, dating to the Iron Age. Comprising a flared bit below a tapered rectangular socket, its form evolved directly from its bronze predecessors. It was mounted on a haft made from a tree branch junction with the limb forming the haft and the branch stubbed to engage the socket. It was a parsimonious use of metal requiring perhaps half as much as an axe with a circular socket above. Its 4 ¼” height in stable excavated condition. It is very unusually struck with a mark, somewhat obscured and perhaps only a rectangle, but definitely impressed with a tool.