BYZANTINE IRON AXE

Comments: This very unusual kind of axe could be considered a tzikourion of infantry, usually worn at the belt by the light infantrymen or psiloi, and used in combination with slings, bow and arrows and swords. This does not exclude the use of such weapons from the heavy infantrymen (Skoutatoi/Oplitai). In the Praecepta Militaria (I,3) of the Emperor Nikephoros II Phokas (963-969 AD), the weapons of the infantrymen (in general) included swords girded at waist, axes and iron maces: "...They must have thick caps of felt to be fastened over with low turbans made of bands of cloth, and certainly swords girded at the waist, axes or iron maces, so that one man fights with one weapon, the next with another, according to the skill of each one...".

The considered specimen was fixed to its wooden shaft (which was often painted as shown from many East-Roman illuminations) by means of two parallel rivets, and its arced shape can not exclude also a possibility of employment for job duties. The specimen could be dated on the turn of IX-X century, for its analogies with a specimen found in Prahovo-Selo (former Yugoslavia) where probably a garrison was positioned until the Kingdom of the Emperor Romanus IV Diogenes. That axe was found together with a socketed barbed arrowhead, confirming the belonging of the equipment to a Psilos (light infantryman).