Two uncommon deer antler axes courting to the Bronze Age have been unearthed exterior Löddeköpinge in Skåne, Sweden. Related finds have been made in Denmark, the place 155 Bronze Age axes have been discovered largely as deposits in wetlands and bogs, however solely a handful are recognized from Sweden.
The antler axes had been present in excavation pits which have been preliminarily dated to between 1700 and 500 A.D. One among them is closely worn with damaged items, however the different is in adequate situation to make it instantly clear that it was labored and designed. It has a pierced gap within the heart the place a wood shaft went by and a carved, ground-down leading edge.
Whereas deer antler axes had been widespread in Sweden throughout the Mesolithic period (ca. 10,000–4000 B.C.), they disappear from the archaeological file throughout the Neolithic interval as nascent farming settlements developed new instruments and used completely different supplies. They reemerged in an altered kind within the Bronze Age. It’s not clear what their operate was, however researchers on the Lejre experimental archaeology heart in 
Denmark with newly manufactured deer antler axes discovered that they’re extraordinarily efficient at slicing down timber, chopping dry wooden and splitting wooden.
Archaeologists additionally hypothesize that Bronze Age antler axes in Denmark had ritual or ceremonial functions. Of the 155 recognized examples in Denmark, 59 of them had been embellished with motifs together with dotted circles, wheel crosses and spirals. It’s attainable the ornamented examples had symbolic that means past the sensible use of the device.
