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Ancient battle ax Klivets Kievan Rus - Vikings15th - 17th centuries AD.
Iron.
No restoration.
Extremely rare .
Weight - 1090,0 grams.Length - 17,0 cm.Handle length - 53,0 cm.
The Polish Hussars, already from the middle of the 16th century, gravitated towards the Western tradition, had various weapons and willingly used light protective equipment - armor, chain mail, breastplates and other types of armor. From the second half of the 16th century, Polish hussars became heavy cavalry, having a mandatory set of weapons, equipment and paraphernalia. In 1577, Stefan Batory, who had been elected a year earlier by the Polish king, standardized the weapons and equipment of the hussars - the wearing of a shield was abolished, and instead the hussars began to wear metal breastplates.
A fairly detailed description of the hussar was left by the French engineer and cartographer Guillaume de Beauplan. This is how he describes the Polish hussars:
The hussars serving as lancers are nobles with great wealth, having an income of up to 50 thousand livres.They have very good horses, the cheapest of which costs at least 200 ducats; they are Turkish horses originating from Anatolia, from a province called Caramagna.Each lancer serves on five horses; so, in the banner of a hundred lancers there are only 20 comrades who ride in one line, so that each one leads his own line; the next four ranks are their servants, each in his own row. The length of their spear is 19 feet, it is hollow from the tip to the apple, the rest is made of strong wood; on the tip of their spears they attach badges, always two-colored: white-red, blue-green or black-white, 4-5 cubits long.This is probably done in order to frighten the enemy horses, because when they lower their spears and rush at full speed [to attack], the flags flutter, describing circles, and terrify the enemy horses, whose ranks they want to break through. They are dressed in armor, handcuffs, knee pads, helmets, etc. At their side they have only a saber, under their left hip is a broadsword tied to the saddle, to the right bow of which is attached a long sword, wide at the hilt and tapering to the tip, in the shape of a tetrahedron, in order to be able to stab a person who has fallen to the ground, but is still alive.The sword is 5 feet long and has a round brand to make it easier to pin the enemy to the ground and pierce the chain mail; The purpose of the broadsword is to chop the body, and the saber is to fight with its help and chop chain mail. They also carry battle Axes - Klevts weighing up to six pounds, which are similar in appearance to the ends of our tetrahedral lances, very sharp with a long handle, so that they can strike at enemy shells and helmets, which are broken by such weapons.
— Guillaume de Beauplan, 1660.
