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Details
LOT 1488
Viking Age Bearded Axehead
9TH-10TH CENTURY AD
6 3/4 in. (838 grams, 17 cm).
A hand-forged side-axehead with square-section socket, broad blade offset with extension to the lower edge. [No Reserve]
Provenance
From the private collection of a London gentleman, from his grandfather's collection formed before the early 1970s.
This lot is accompanied by an illustrated lot declaration signed by the Head of the Antiquities Department, Dr Raffaele D'Amato.
Literature
Cf. Petersen, J., De Norske Vikingsverd, Oslo, 1919, fig.32; Arbman, H., Birka I: Die Gräber, Uppsala, 1940, pl.14, no.1.
Footnotes
The axe belongs to the type C of Petersen classification. They are axes of Eastern type, of narrow bearded type, characterised by an almost completely round hole for the shaft, rather than the more triangular or drop shape we see on the western typologies.
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