
Three
Olmec celts. The one in the foreground is incised with an image of an Olmec supernatural. It is likely that these "tools" had a strictly ritual function.
:''This article is about the archaeological tool, for the
top, see
rattleback.''
'Celt' (pron. //) is an
archaeological term used to describe long thin
prehistoric stone or
bronze adzes, other
axe-like tools, and
hoes.
By the beginning of the twentieth century, the term had largely been abandoned by archaeologists, who were beginning to classify the tools into more precise sub-groups. It remains in use in a few specific
artifact types such as the
Danubian and
Shoe-last celts, as well as in
Olmec studies.
The term "celt" came about from a misreading of Job 19:24 in the
Sixto-Clementine edition of the Latin
Vulgate Bible where the ''certe'' in ''Stylo ferreo, et plumbi lamina, vel ''certe'' sculpantur in silice'' was read as ''celte''. A 'Celte' was wrongly assumed to be a type of ancient
chisel, when in fact it was a misspelling of the word ''certe'' ("indeed"). During the late
11th century, the word appeared with this interpretation in scholarly
medieval Latin. Eighteenth century
antiquarians then adopted the word for the
stone and bronze tools they were then finding at prehistoric sites.

Celt