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108
Piotr N. KOTOWICZ
several specimens decorated on the parts of their hammers, but never on the blades
and necks 35 .
One more specimen whose discovery can be defined as the result of contacts of
“Polish” tribes with territories situated on the South of the Carpathian line, is the
accidental find from Łaszczów 36 (Tomaszów Lubelski distr., Lublin Region). This
type of battle-axe, rare in the territory of Poland 37 , belongs to Type 2 according to J.
Poulik 38 (probably dated to the 9 th or the 10 th cent.) and on the right side of its
hammer there are three carving lines (Fig. 2:3). The author has not found any axe of
this type with analogical ornamentation till now.
The next large group of decorated axes found in Great Poland, Pomerania and
Masovia are considered as a result of contacts of the young Polish Piast State and the
Pomeranian Slavs with their neighbours – mainly the Vikings and the Rus’ State. Of
course, some of them could be manufactured in local workshops. They are
represented by specimens decorated with carving lines on their necks and, in the case
of battle-axes, on the hammers too. Originally, the lines, as it was mentioned above,
could be filled with coloured metal wire 39 . Most of them are dated to the 11 th cent.
and they generally belong to Type IA according to A. Nadolski 40 and Type M
according to J. Petersen 41 .
Battle-axes of Type IA decorated in this way are mainly known from inhumation
cemeteries. The first of them (Fig. 3:1), with decoration of three lines on the neck and
five on the back parts of the hammer, was found during the excavations by F.
Tarczyński in 1885-1886 in the cemetery with stone casing in Karwowo (Płock distr.,
Masovia) 42 . The next (Fig. 3:2), with three carving lines on the neck, was found
before the Second World War in Buszkowo 43 (Bydgoszcz distr., Pomerania). In the
cemetery in Szarów (Poddębice distr., Central Poland), excavated by German
archaeologists during the Second World War, the battle-axe with three lines on the
neck and the hammer 44 was discovered (Fig. 3:3). Additionally, we do not know
anything about their positions in graves, nor we have any information about other
grave-goods, and even sex and age of the persons buried with those specimens. Much
more information is available about the battle-axe from Lutomiersk (Pabianice distr.,
Central Poland). This specimen with two carving lines on the neck and the hammer
35
Kouřil 2006, fig. 5; Góra, Kotowicz 2008-2009, p. 246; Kouřil 2008, fig. 3:7.
36
Unpublished, private collection of Adam Kita from Lublin.
37
Only three specimens of this type were mentioned in the literature. These are battle-axes from
Czechowice (Silesia), Włodarka (Pomerania) and an unknown place in Pomerania – see Świątkiewicz
2002, p. 53-54, pl. XII:1,3; Strzyż 2006, p. 43-44, fig. 5:3.
38
Poulík 1948, p. 33.
39
Borowczak 2008, p. 97, cat. I.58.
40
Nadolski 1954, p. 40-41, pl. XII:1-2.
41
Petersen 1919, p. 46-47, fig. 44-45.
42
Tarczyński 1901, p. 31; Nadolski 1954, p. 41, tab. B/99; Kordala 2006, p. 50, cat. 34, tab. 24/3.
43
Langenheim 1936, p. 276, fig. 3; Hensel 1950, p. 99, fig. 68; Nadolski 1954, p. 41, tab. B/8, tabl.
XII:2; Wilke, Potemski 1970, p. 9-10, fig. 2.
44
Nadolski 1954, p. 41, tab. B/125, tabl. XII:1.