152 Militarism in temperate Europe
still meant to be wielded with one hand: a shaft-holed bronze axe with a diskbutt.
A few of these have been found in the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Austria and
southern Scandinavia. Between 80 percent and 90 percent, however, come from
Transylvania, western Romania and eastern Hungary: well over 300 have been
found there. In Alexandru Vulpe’s catalogue of 570 bronze axes from Romania,
278 are disk-butted.^78 Vulpe concluded that they were produced especially toward
the middle of the Romanian Middle Bronze Age, or toward the transition from the
Bz B to the Bz C period.^79 They were prized, however, as early as the Hajdúsámson
hoard, ca. 1500 BCon our chronology.
These disk-butted axes were often elaborately decorated with either incision or
chasing, the Wellenband(“wave band”) being especially favored. An axe
beautifully decorated with a Wellenbandwas found by chance in 1989 during
agricultural work at Petrova Ves, in northwestern Slovakia.^80 On another axe, found
at the eastern Romanian village of Iorcani in the 1950s but only recently published,
the entire surface was once covered with chased decoration.^81
Disk-butted axes show up as single finds, in hoards, and in votive deposits (none
has been found in a settlement), and must be regarded as a symbol of high status.
Because swords and spears were available, and a man could not wield more than
one weapon at a time, it is doubtful that the axe was primarily a weapon.^82 Twelve
disk-butted axes (with much decoration) were buried with the Apa sword at
Hajdúsámson, however, and that suggests that the axe did have military
connotations. Appropriate here is speculation about the Iorcani axe:
What was the disc-butted axe from Iorcani: a weapon or an insignia? One
can assume based on its original appearance and intricate decoration that it
was meant to be foremost a ceremonial weapon, a symbol of wealth, power
and/or warrior skills; at the same time, its design, blade and weight are clues
that, in case of necessity, the axe could also be a deadly weapon.^83Whatever its purpose, the disk-butted axe seems to have been a favorite with
a military class in and around the Carpathian basin from the end of the Bz A2 to
the Bz C period.
Spears in the Carpathian basin
Bronze spearheads came to the Carpathian basin late in the Bz A2 period. In his
comprehensive study of the Otomani-Füzesabony culture, Matthias Thomas
included spears as one of the important novelties in western Romania and eastern
Hungary at this time.^84 The spear, although not with a metal head, had been known
forever in temperate Europe: even Neanderthal hunters seem to have used spears
with stone heads to bring down their prey. Metal spearheads, however, were
apparently unknown in temperate Europe until the second quarter of the second
millennium BC. This was not only 700 or 800 years later than their first use in the
Near East, but also 300 years after they had come into use in southern Caucasia
and on both sides of the Ural mountains. Not surprisingly, when metal spearheads