Small Axe

The autumn breeze sends a slight shiver through your skin. You know that winter will soon be approaching and every last bit of wood will need to be chopped and ready for the fire. With this small axe you have had to work harder than before, but you move as fast as you can knowing that the effort to stay warm in the deep cold winter will be much easier if you have fresh logs to use. The axe is an implement that has been used for millennia to shape, split and cut wood; to harvest timber; as a weapon; and as a ceremonial or heraldic symbol. The first true hafted axes are known from the Mesolithic period (ca. 6000 BC). Axes made from ground stone are known since the Neolithic. The axe has many forms and specialized uses but generally consists of an axe head with a handle. The earliest examples of axes have heads of stone with some form of wooden handle attached in a method to suit the available materials and use. Axes made of copper, bronze, iron, steel appeared as these technologies developed. In Minoan Crete, the double axe (labrys) had a special significance, used by women priests in religious ceremonies. Steel axes were important in superstition as well. A thrown axe could keep off a hailstorm, sometimes an axe was placed in the crops, with the cutting edge to the skies to protect the harvest against bad weather. An upright axe buried under the sill of a house would keep off witches, while an axe under the bed would assure male offspring. This sound uses the following file from Freesound: http://www.freesound.org/samplesViewSingle.php?id=126910