An interesting series of finds presents itself in various places from central Europe and Russia. Here we have a series of dragon or stag looking creature (yasher?) on, mostly, axeheads (plus stirrups and as a sword) found in the following locations:

• Gubin/Guben, Poland/Germany
• Żagań, Poland
• Schaunburg, Austria
• Vienna, Austria
• Moscow, Russia (stirrup)
• Olen’-Kolodez’, Voronezh Oblast, Russia
• Florence, Italy (sword)

These were described by the Russian archeologist Vladimir Kulakov in “The Cultic Weapon of the Balts and Slavs of the 10th-12th Centuries” (Культовое оружие балтов и славян X-XII вв.) in Slavia Antiqua, 1991/1992 (volume XXII, page 115). And he repeated some of this in 2001 in “The Silver Axes of the Chieftains” (Серебряные секиры вождей). The next year after that, in 2002, we had a more detailed description by Felix Biermann in his Mittelalterliche Kriegsausrüstung mit der Darstellung eines gehornten Tieres (in Die Zeitschrift für Waffen- und Kleidungsgeschichte or Kostümkunde?). The same was then further elaborated by Normen Posselt and Paweł Szczepanik in their “Zoomorphic Applications and Representations on the Slavic Temple Rings in the Northern West Slavic Area” (Zoomorphe Applikationen und Darstellungen auf slawischen Schläfenringen im nördlichen westslawischen Raum) in Beiträge zur Ur- und FrühgeschichteMitteleuropas 82, 2017, pages 193-220.

Here are some of the pictures from the above articles in some more detail. A further set of publications is listed in Biermann’s article.

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Gubin/Guben, Poland/Germany

This was found on the land of a certain wine dealer, Mr. Pötko of Osterberg street in Guben in 1884. It was lost in 1945. First reported by Jentsch in the Zeitschrift für Ethnologie, Volume 15.

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Żagań, Poland

Found in 1850. Kept at Sagan/Żagań till 1945. Not clear what happened with it afterwards.

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Schaunburg, Austria

Found in 1876. Today kept in Linz, Austria.

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Vienna, Austria

We know this has been in the Art History Museum in Vienna (Kunsthistorisches Museum Wien)since 1820 but provenance is unknown.

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Moscow, Russia

This stirrup has been in Moscow at the State Historical Museum (formerly the Imperial Russian Historical Museum) since 1926 but the origin of its find is unknown.

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Olen’-Kolodez’, Voronezh Oblast, Russia

This is the most recent discovery, found in 1996 by Yefimov in a Golden Horde kurgan from the 13th-14th century. However, it was dated by the discoverer to the 12th-13th century.

Interestingly olen, refers to a stag or deer.

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Florence, Italy

Currently this sword is at the National Museum of Bargello (Museo Nazionale del Bargello) in Florence. It was an 1894-1895 gift from the Italian diplomat Francesco Costantino Giuseppe Ressman and is part of the Ressman collection. The location of the original find is unknown. According to Biermann, the museum suggests that it may have belonged to Jaxa (or Jaksa) of Miechów of the Gryf family (1120–1176). There has alway been some people who also believe that this is the same person as Jaxa of Köpenick.

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What is the origin of all these axes, the sword and the stirrup? And more importantly, what is the concept behind the motif? No one knows for sure. Biermann argued that the axeheads may have come from Novgorod – at the intersection of Scandinavian, Baltic, Finnic and Asian trade routes. However, an interesting stylistic relative of the above (in my view) is the following depiction of the Karkonosze mountain “spirit”, the so-called Rübezahl, from the year 1561:

You can see the Riesenberg – Giant Mountain – just above.

Riesengebirge is the German name for the mountain range Karkonosze (Polish) / Krkonoše (Czech). Of course, they are curiously close to the Jesioniki (or Jeseníky or Gesenke and Vandal Mountains?) and both are part of the Sudetes Mountains.

On the stag/deer side, there are also potential parallels to the Polish jeleń or leleń that is a stag/deer that, apparently, may have had some divine attributes. You might look for Kazimierz Perkowski’s article on that topic (as well as pics). The Posselt-Szczepanik article mentioned above has further references to Suavic and Polish animal motifs, including stags/deer.

Turning to a dragon alternative/connection, there is also the curious fact that jaszczur means lizard in all Suavic languages, from a reconstructed (apparently) *aščerъ. Whether this was the actual name of a lizard or can be derived from the genitive case of the Name to which the lizard belongs or whose prey it is (or who also is a dragon?), is another matter. The giant Thjazzi also comes to mind, naturally.

And then there is this find of, clearly, a dragon which you can see in Schuchhardt’s Vorgeschichte von Deutschland. It was found in Strzelce Krajeńskie area (German Friedeberg). Totally different style but the same concept of a turning head. Of course, that can just be a result of trying to fit the motif in the limited space available.

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