An axe with wings

This magnificent, slender axe was cast in bronze. It is equipped with the so-called wings, which created a place for fixing a wooden handle. It could be permanently connected to the blade by ropes or leather thongs, thanks to a small eyelet near the edge of the hilt. The tool was probably used for woodworking, but it could also have been used as a weapon. The artefact was discovered in a large hoard consisting of axes, weapons, body and costume ornaments, elements of horse harness, and objects connected with metallurgy and foundry at the end of the 19th century. The deposit, dated to the 5th period of the Bronze Age (ca. 900-750 BC), rested only 15 cm below the surface of a flooded meadow belonging to Mr August Schiewer. All the bronze objects were placed in a substantial earthenware vessel next to a large stone. The axe represents a form found in the younger Bronze Age period in a large area of Europe: from France through Switzerland, Austria, Germany to southern Scandinavia. In Pomerania, this type is known from several discoveries, against which the Witkowo hoard is distinguished as it is the only one with as many as nine axes. They were probably imported from the Rhine-Main basin zone, as that is where the greatest concentration of them is visible.

Dorota Kozłowska