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Early Medieval Ornamented Axes from the Territory of Poland
role in the Byzantine army and it was mainly used by mercenaries 122 . After the
quelling of the rebellion of Bardas Fokas by Emperor Basil II the Great, in which the
participation of Rus’ warriors was very important, the Emperor’s guard began to
assume a Varangian character. The memberships in this guard are defined in several
sources (among others Alexias, Nicéphore) as „axe-bearers” – πελεκυφόροι. The axes
fulfill a significant ceremonial role here. Guardsmen were holding them in the right
hand, leaning the blade against the left wrist. When the Emperor came, they brought
up the axes to lean them on their right shoulders. During the time of the name-day of
the Emperor the Varangians saluted him and banged their axes, which emitted
rhythmical sound 123 . In this case, the axe is a symbol of the guardsmen’s profession
and maybe of their ethnical identification. What kind of axes was used by the
Varangian Guard? A recently published Byzantine ivory plaque from the 10 th -11 th
cent. shows the warrior (interpreted as a Varangian guardsman) with a sword and an
axe of a fan-shaped blade 124 . It indicates that this sort of axes was characteristic for
the Scandinavian warriors’ axes of Type M according to J. Petersen 125 . The most
interesting ones were covered with various ornamentations.
Is it possible to refer these statements to the present territory of Poland? It is quite
ambiguous. As a matter of fact, axes appear more often than swords but more rarely
than spears in the 11 th and (rare) 12 th cent. grave inventories from the territory of early
medieval Poland 126 . The axe often served as a common military equipment of a dead
person. This can also indicate its important role in the early medieval equipment of
the Piast warfare and its significant symbolic meaning. The importance of this kind of
weapon is much greater because of „Polish” finds of 11 th cent. metal (in principle
bronze) miniature axes. Such finds are also known from the territory of Middle-
Eastern and Northern Europe, and they also occur e.g., in Romania, Hungary or
Bulgaria. Those artefacts are variously interpreted, but their number indicates a
possibility of social or religious identification by means of axes in the 11 th cent.
Middle-Eastern Europe 127 . Taking the ornamented specimens into consideration, it is
worth noticing that a majority of them appear in graves. They are found in richly
equipped graves of the local or foreign elite (e.g. Pień), or in graves where an axe or a
battle-axe was the only equipment (e.g. Lutomiersk). Unfortunately, all mentioned
122 Schreiner 1981, p. 234-236; Kolias 1988, p. 163.
123 Kolias 1988, p. 166-167; Wołoszyn 2006, p. 598-599.
124 Beatson 2000; D’Amato 2005, p. 42; Wołoszyn 2006, p. 599. See also scene on Folio 26 in the
Scylitzes Manuscript (2 nd half of the 12 th cent.) where axes of this kind are held by guardsmen of
Emperor Michael the Amorian – Bruhn Hoffmeyer 1966, p. 11-12, Fig. 23; Grotowski 2011, p. 424-
425, footnote 281.
125 It is worth noticing that axes of this type are depicted as the weapon of guardsmen in ceremonial
scenes in the Bayeux Tapestry, such as: bringing the news to Wilhelm the Conqueror by Guy, Count
of Ponthieu and the arrival of Harold Godwinson to Edward the Confessor (La Tapisserie... 1957, Fig.
12, 31; Wilson 1985, p. 225 and Fig. 10-11, 28; Näsman 1991, p. 173). It can be a significant proof
for the high rank of warriors equipped with “Danish axes”.
126 See e.g. Nadolski 1954, p. 91-93.
127 Panasiewicz, Wołoszyn 2002; Kucypera, Pranke, Wadyl 2010.
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