11th century AD. A Byzantine or Armenian wide iron forged axe-hammer comprising triangular blade with curved edge, round socket with raised sides and heater-shaped beak to the reverse, double trapezoidal section socket; beak and blade decorated with triangular incisions. See similar forms in Nicolle, Arms and Armour of the Crusading Era, 1050-1350 AD, volume II, Islam, Eastern Europe and Asia, London, 1999, figs.33p &118c, pp.355 and 373. 213 grams, 25cm (10"). Property of an East Sussex, UK, teacher; formerly in a Devon, UK, collection since the 1990s. The miniatures of the Studite Psalter (British Library, Ms.Add.19352) evidence the employment of improvised weapons mounted upon shafts, used by Byzantine peasant levies (folio 191r"). Armenian codes of the same period (Armenian Gospel of 1057 AD at the Patriarchal Library of Ejmiatzin) show similar peculiar hafted weapons. This is a high-quality weapon and as such may have been used by a cavalry soldier. [No Reserve] Condition Report Fine condition, cleaned and conserved.