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116
Piotr N. KOTOWICZ
higher social status by their new owners. It also indicates a special value of decorated
axes, which was beyond their material price. It is confirmed by the most popular
opinion that ornamented axes were associated with the social elite of early medieval
Europe. They were symbols of power, rank and wealth. That was surely the case of
artefacts with inlay decoration 118 . On the other hand, the signs marked with punching
or engraving techniques did not need to be associated with rich owners.
This conclusion refers to the afore-mentioned group of artefacts discovered in
Poland. In general, it can be noticed that a matter of decoration of this category of
specimens mainly appears in such areas where an axe plays a role both as a military
and a “cultural” attribute 119 . It is not strange that decoration of this category appears
on bradatica type battle-axes. Their presence in the Polish territories is regarded as a
result of contacts of local tribes with the Great Moravian State, where they appear
widely. Worth mentioning is the fact that these ornamented Polish specimens are
unique not only in Poland but also on the South of the Carpathian line.
A theory that the specimen from Bardy arrived to Pomerania through the
Scandinavian medium is the best explanation for this. Therefore, ornamentations
which are typical for this region can be noticed on them 120 . Another theory says that
the most spectacular specimens of weapons usually got to peripheries of culture
influences of civilization centres and were given to the “Barbarian” elite as a result of
willingness of making stronger political and economic relationships.
Another problem are axes which appear at the turn of the 10 th and the 11 th cent. It
is connected with a completely new political situation in this region caused by the rise
of the First Piast State, the consolidation of the tribal structure in Pomerania and the
presence of Scandinavian settlers in the coasts of the Baltic See. In addition, there is
also an increase in military and symbolic significance of this kind of weapon among
the societies of the Baltic Sea. In the 10 th cent., in the northern part of our continent,
especially after Christianization, the number of axes in graves increased significantly.
They often belonged to persons of lower social position. As a rule, they were the only
military equipment of the dead. According to the opinion of U. Näsman, so many
graves with an axe as the only weapon show that this was the most common weapon,
probably not in war, but adapted to the funeral ceremony as a symbol of dead
warrior’s social position and mainly character 121 .
The rise of significance of the axe as a symbol of the warrior’s profession in
Scandinavian communities is clearly visible based on the example of the so-called
Varangian Guard of the Byzantine emperors in the end of the 10 th and the 1 st half of
the 11 th cent. As it was stressed by most researchers, the axe did not play an important
118 Pedersen 1997, p. 130; Макаров 1988, p. 455; Drozd, Janowski 2007, p. 122.
119 Ornamentation of axes and battle-axes appears both among the Avars and the Khazars, where this
type of weapon belongs to the most common elements of their graves’ equipment. However, it is
intriguing that there are no ornamented specimens of the francisca type among West-European and
Merovingian specimens.
120 Wachowski 1981, p. 154-156; Wachowski 2001, p. 169, 173.
121 Näsman 1991, p. 180; Wołoszyn 2006, p. 599; see also Trotzig 1985; Pedersen 2002, p. 29-30, 34;
Mäntylä 2005.