Viking Hook-Billed Axehead

12th-14th century AD. An iron axehead with long, deeply curved blade, short neck, round socket with triangular wings above and below, long rectangular extension to the rear. Cf. Arbman, H., Birka I: Die Gräber, Uppsala, 1940, pl.14(1) for the original typology; see evolutive typology in Nicolle, D. & Lindholm, D., The Scandinavian Baltic Crusades, Oxford, 2007, p.17. 542 grams, 22.5cm (9"). Property of an East Sussex, UK, teacher; previously in a Dorset, UK, private collection formed in the 1990s. This type of broad axe is depicted in a 14th century painting of Skamstrup Church, Denmark, in the hands of St. Olaf. The axe was mounted on a long shaft, and its socket was extended as a hammer-like head. Although a forerunner of the poleaxe, it indicates that the long shafted broad axe, wielded with two hands, continued in use throughout the Middle Ages. [No Reserve]
Condition Report: Fine condition, cleaned and conserved.