FLANGED BRONZE MACE

Comments: This bronze specimen with its six vertical flanges could be dated to the 13th - 14th century A.D.. It shares striking analogies with a similar example from Madara, an important site of the second Bulgarian Empire. As the specimen from Madara, the shaft of our specimen should be a metallic one even though the Madara mace has got an iron head. This hypothesis is corroborated by the fact that this specimen has two flanges restored but was originally split from its main body by a violent stroke which has broken the missing lower edge of its head.

The mace was introduced in Bulgaria by the Romans and found there, among the Bulgarian warriors. Its widest application was at the height of the feudal period of the second Bulgarian Empire, between the 12th and the beginning of the 15th century A.D..

Maces with iron staffs are already recorded in the Roman sources of the 10^th century as employed by the heavy cavalry (Nikephoros Phokas, Praecepta Militaria, 11, 30-32). Eustathios of Thessaloniki, in his commentaries ad Homer (Il, 427, 7-14), writes that a shock mace (quoted in the Ilias) was composed entirely of iron, both in shaft and head. Al Tartusi (p. 139) said in the same 12^th century that “…Some of them (maces) are made exclusively in iron. Others have an iron head and wooden shaft, appropriated for strength and diameter, covered by kimukht (a sort of leather) and arranged with painted decorations, while others do not need painting or tint and are beautiful in their round shape…”.