Ref #:  4

Type:  Axe

Material:  Iron

Period:  Byzantine (Eastern Roman)  6th - 14th Cent. A.D.

Provenance:  Balkan Region

Measurements:  15.6 cm x 3.8 cm

Comments:  Important information about the axe types used among the 9th and the 10th centuries AD are preserved in the Leo VI Tactica.  He distinguishes among the types as follows:

1) Double edged axe (tzikourion), with a side similar to a sword, i.e. rather long and sharpened, and the other side shaped like a spear point

2) Double edged axe, with a straight side and the other convex (Tactica, VI, 25).  Professor Kolias suggests that the first edge was presumably used for the thrusting blows, the other edge for the cutting blows.

3) Double edged tzikouria "which were like Pelekia" so said expressly Leo. Probably simple double edged axe provided of two sides used for cutting blows.

4) Single edged axe (V,2).

To this last category belongs our specimen, probably used by infantrymen, which could be dated to the turn of 9th and the 10th centuries AD by comparison with a very similar specimen from Madara (actual Bulgaria).  It was carried in a special case and attached to the waist belt of the warrior by leather straps. The Madara specimen differs only by being oval and not square in the cross-section of the body.