Saxon type ax

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The richly ornamented ornate axes of the Salzmünder culture (3600-3300 BC) called axes of the Saxon type by archaeologists are status symbols that point to a fertility cult .

Some Neolithic axes are not only distinguished by their elegance and size, but also have patterns. Only 10 of these specimens were found in Saxony-Anhalt , Saxony and Thuringia . The first copy was published scientifically in 1822.

The magnificent axes from Halle-Radewell, Raßnitz and Wallendorf point to the main distribution center. It is assumed that the workshop for such objects was near Halle or Merseburg . Like most other axes, the Raßnitz ax was handed down as a reading find. The ax from Wallendorf comes from a stone box , but the additions and the skeleton have been lost. Radewell's ax is also believed to have come from a grave. Once a splendor ax fragment could be recovered from a pit.

The similarity with undecorated specimens from closed finds of the Salzmünder culture allows a reliable assignment and dating. At the same time, decorations that match the motifs on the axes were also placed on ceramics and on the inner walls of stone burial chambers in central Germany. Almost all axes have grooves on the narrow sides. On the broad side, they almost always show a number of circles drilled in, which can have different numbers on the top and bottom. On some pieces there are incised feather patterns. The splendid specimens from Radewell and Wallendorf deviate from this basic pattern. While the 35 cm long ax from Radewell has a stalked eyelet with a halo around the shaft hole, the Wallendorfer ax has four double angles in the shaft hole area and two line-filled pointed arches between the cutting edge and the handle opening.

In view of the ornamentation and their rarity, these axes cannot be interpreted as tools or weapons. Tools were designed in a simple and function-related manner by ancient people. So it is not surprising that a different use was considered as early as 1822. The motifs point to the fertility cult. Unadorned axes may have had such functions.

As early as 1900, attempts were made to determine the origin of stone tools (also by means of thin sections). According to the results of the studies at the University of Halle, B. Radewell's ax made of hornblende slate , as it appears in Thuringia's "Ruhlaer Kristallin". This tough, metamorphic and finely crystalline rock was extremely popular with prehistoric people because of its properties.

literature

  • DW Müller & S. Clasen: Mysterious symbols or decorative accessories . In: State Museum for Prehistory (Ed.): Beauty, Power and Death 2002 ISBN 3-910010-64-4 p. 70
  • Ulf F. Ickerodt: The discovery of a find - the fragment of a Salzmünder splendid ax in a late Latène Age waste pit In: Archäologie in Sachsen-Anhalt NF Heft 2, 2004 p. 30ff

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Quotation: “A hammer made of serpentine, of a very unusual shape, 10 1/2 inches long, at the round end 2 inches wide, only 1 1/8 inches high, the hole 3/4 inches wide, weighing 1 pound 20 Loth , on the surface with dug-in small circles, on the sides decorated with dug-in lines, excellently worked and excellently preserved ”. The attached lithograph shows the features described with sufficient clarity.
  2. ^ The ax "cannot have been intended for any real use; Rather, it is to be assumed that [she] adorned the command staff of a leader "

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