We all know what battle axes are. There is no particular secret, because this tool is widely used today. Even if not for military purposes, but for domestic purposes. Nevertheless, battle axes represent a whole layer from the history of edged weapons. They have been used on all continents and in many different cultures and eras. Modern archaeologists and historians know battle axes of the most diverse and bizarre forms: small and large,
throwing and designed for the next battle, with ingenious additional devices and a heavy wide blade. Of course, this impact-chopping cold weapon deserves interest in itself.
Stone Age Axes
The product, apparently used for similar purposes, existed at the dawn of human civilization. The first archaeological finds of stone tools with a cutting-cutting edge and a hilt date back to the 6th millennium BC. They were then used, of course, very universally: both for cutting trees, and for building dwellings, and for military purposes. The blade of the first axes was stone, at first rough, and then more and more skillfully polished.
Ancient battle axes
The advent of metal mining and processing technologies has led to significant shifts in the material culture of mankind. This was reflected in all spheres of human life, but military affairs took on a special form. After all, it was then that the first real edged weapons appeared. Oldest metal
battle axes were made of bronze - such were found during excavations of the states of Mesopotamia and Babylonia, in Ancient Egypt, later in the Scythian steppes and Celtic Europe.
However, such a weapon for antiquity was quite expensive and not as common as it would seem to the modern layman. They were, rather, a tool of military leaders, later began to be used by infantrymen. Even then, axes gained a significant scatter in their forms. So, in ancient Greece, a heavy bilateral ax - labris was popular. His image can often be seen on copies of murals of ancient Greek amphoras. At the same time, among the nomadic peoples of the steppes, such as the Scythians or Sarmatians, small battle axes with which the riders armed were spread.
Edged weapons of the Middle Ages
At this time, cold steel reaches its highest prosperity and sophistication in its design. So, at the beginning of the era among many Germanic tribes, a small throwing tool gained popularity, which was even shorter than the arm of a warrior - Francis. The battle ax of the Slavs in the early Middle Ages was also often small, however, the spread of plate armor leads to its weight. Any compatriot at least once saw in the museum one of the branches of the complete evolution of this weapon of war - berdyshs. By the way, contacts with the Scandinavians and the popular Viking battle axes, axes, contributed to this evolution. Western European glaive and halberds are also the result of the development of these weapons. But at the same time, swords are in serious competition with axes. However, the great ergonomics of the first, their versatility, the large impact force in melee combat, their effectiveness against armor, and simply cheapness, led to the fact that they were never replaced by the second. Although the sword really became the weapon of the elite, as well as a symbol of the aristocracy, axes until the end of the Middle Ages were popular among ordinary warriors.