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Details
LOT 1422
Viking Age Iron Bearded Axehead
9TH-11TH CENTURY A.D.
4 3/8 in. (252 grams, 11.2 cm).
With curved blade and chin to the lower edge, round socket with lateral triangular flanges and flattened rear-edge. [No Reserve]
Provenance
Private collection, 1990s.
Property of a Sussex, UK, teacher.
This lot is accompanied by an illustrated lot declaration signed by the Head of the Antiquities Department, Dr Raffaele D'Amato.
Literature
Cf. Sedov, B.B., Finno-Ugri i Balti v Epokhi Srednevekovija (Ugro-Finnian and Baltics in the Middle Ages, in Russian), Moscow, 1987, pl.CXXIV, items 3-4.
Footnotes
This type of bearded axe seems to correspond to the E2 category of the Viking axe classification. Usually these bearded axeheads (skeggöks) had a longer edge, designed to split tree trunks into planks and beams. Some of the bearded axes were known as halfÞynna öx; the neck on such 'half thin axe' was thinly forged, to make it lighter. Bearded axes of this type appear also in the weaponry of people from the Baltic.
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