4. That in the Bronze Period such stone implements, with the exception of mere flakes and scrapers, as remained in use, were, as a rule, highly finished, many of the axes being perforated and of graceful form, and some of the flint arrow-heads evincing the highest degree of manual skill. The subsequent manufacture of stone implements in Roman and later times needs no further mention. Having said thus much on the methods by which the stone implements of antiquity were manufactured, I pass on to the consideration of their different forms, commencing with those of the Neolithic Age, and with the form which is perhaps the best known in all countries—the celt. |55| IMPLEMENTS OF THE NEOLITHIC PERIOD. CHAPTER III. CELTS. The name of Celt, which has long been given to hatchets, adzes, or chisels of stone, is so well known and has been so universally employed, that though its use has at times led to considerable misapprehension, I have thought it best to retain it. It has been fancied by some that the name bore reference to the Celtic people, by whom the implements were supposed to have been made; and among those who have thought fit to adopt the modern fashion of calling the Celts “Kelts” there have been not a few who have given the instruments the novel name of “kelts” also. In the same manner, many French antiquaries have given the plural form of the word as _Celtæ_. Notwithstanding this misapprehension, there can be no doubt as to the derivation of the word, it being no other than the English form of the doubtful Latin word _Celtis_ or _Celtes_, a chisel. This word, however, is curiously enough almost an ἅπαξλεγόμενον in this sense, being best known through the Vulgate translation of Job,[189] though it is repeated in a forged inscription recorded by Gruter and Aldus.[190] The usual derivation given is à _cælando_, and it is regarded as the equivalent of _cælum_. The first use of the term that I have met with, as applied to antiquities, is in Beger’s “Thesaurus Brandenburgicus,”[191] 1696, where a bronze celt, adapted for insertion in its haft, is described under the name of _Celtes_.