Remains of a Magnificent Weapon

Hello fans of archaeology and historical arms.

The above image shows a so-called Dane axe head which I examined and documented together with my patron Theodor Rosentreter at the Museum for Cultural History in Rostock in December 2023. It is one of the many weapons which were recovered from the River Warnow at Schwaan near Rostock in 1927/28. (You can read about the find history in this post. Read about our research excursion in this previous newsletter.)

Most of the Schwaan finds were subject to an electrolytic treatment which is why today many of them look as if they consisted of lead. This method of conservation has fortunately largely fallen out of favour with certain artefacts because it dissolves all corrosion products, and thus destroys a lot of substance which could otherwise be meaningful regarding the study of the object. On the other hand, the layered structure of forge-welded steel is very easy to make out on these pieces.

In the above image, note how corrosion has eaten away the thinnest parts just behind the steel edge. You can learn a lot about the making of this type of axe from the report of the reforging and complete reconstruction of the broadaxe from Langeid in Norway.

Read about this splendid 11th century axe, and find interesting links on the museum website. Do not miss their exemplary database with an abundance of photos of the find.

Speaking of photos: I have up-loaded a gallery with more than 70 exclusive images of the above axe head, available to respective patron tiers here.

And as per usual, a scan of my full size drawing of the find including stats can be accessed by my most generous patrons here. Thanks a lot for your support, guys.

If you want to see a two-handed axe in action, you can watch my friend and patron Emil wielding it in some of the training fights in this video.

If you wonder about the proper length of these long-hafted axes, I strongly recommend the excellent article on the subject provided by Tomáš Vlasatý on the formidable Projekt Forlǫg website. It offers a wealth of information, and many images.

The edge of an axe would typically be protected by a wooden sheath. Tom Jersø based his reconstruction on my drawings which I made of an original find from Schleswig.

My illustrations also made it into Volker Hilberg's monumental publication on Late Viking Age Hedeby.

Volker was the one to show me the original axe sheath during my research excursion to Schleswig in 2018. I recorded some video on the occasion.

Let us watch the video

So, that's it for today. Take care, keep your axe well-honed, and only chop wood with a straight back!

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Yours,

Roland

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