Original 9th – 10th Century Rus’ People “Viking” One Handed Skeggøx Bearded Battle Axe Head Excavated in Western Ukraine with Stand Original Items

Original Item: One of a Kind. A bearded axe, or Skeggøx (from Old Norse Skegg, “beard”, and øx, “axe”) refers to various axes, used as a tool and weapon, as early as the 6th century AD. It is most commonly associated with Viking Age Scandinavians. The hook or “beard”, i. e. the lower portion of the axe bit extending the cutting edge below the width of the butt, provides a wide cutting surface while keeping the overall weight of the axe low. The “beard” of the axe would also have been useful in battle, for example to pull a weapon or shield out of a defender’s grasp.

This is a wonderful example of a 9th-10th Century Bearded Battle Axe head, intended for a lighter one handed axe, excavated from a site in the Ukraine. This is one of the last of the few we were able to purchase and likely the last for a while until the conflict with Russia ends.

As expected, it shows quite a bit of rust damage, however the original quality can still be seen. It has the classic profile, with inlets around the socket / eye for securing the axe to the haft. It measures approximately 5.5 inches in length, with a 4 inch long edge with the lower portion missing.

It comes complete with a very nice wooden display stand, which has a brass plaque reading:

VIKING BEARDED BATTLE AXE
LIGHT PATTERN “SKEGGOX”
CA. 9TH-11TH CENT. AD
WESTERN UKRAINE

A wonderful display piece, ready to add to your collection!

The Rus’ were a people in early medieval eastern Europe. The scholarly consensus holds that they were originally Norsemen, mainly originating from present-day Sweden, who settled and ruled along the river-routes between the Baltic and the Black Seas from around the 8th to 11th centuries AD. In the 9th century, they formed the state of Kievan Rusʹ, where the ruling Norsemen along with local Finnic tribes gradually assimilated into the East Slavic population, with Old East Slavic becoming the common spoken language. Old Norse remained familiar to the elite until their complete assimilation by the second half of the 11th century, and in rural areas, vestiges of Norse culture persisted as late as the 14th and early 15th centuries, particularly in the north.

The history of the Rus’ is central to 9th through 10th-century state formation, and thus national origins, in eastern Europe. They ultimately gave their name to Russia and Belarus, and they are relevant to the national histories of Russia, Ukraine and Belarus. Because of this importance, there is a set of alternative so-called “Anti-Normanist” views that are largely confined to a minor group of East European scholars.