Early Medieval Axe-like Iron Bar in the Collection of the Numismatic Cabinet, National Museum in Krakow
Early Medieval Axe-like Iron Bar in the Collection of the Numismatic Cabinet, National Museum in Krakow

Summary/Abstract: Among the objects of interest recently donated to the NumismaticCabinet of the National Museum in Krakow, there is an axe-like iron bar. This object does not have any specific archaeological context and unfortunately can only be determined as a find with no specific location in the upper Vistulabasin. Made of iron, the bar is similar in form to an elongated axe and represents the so-called Lesser Poland type. Artefacts of this kind have been dated to the 9thcentury, i.e., to the period prior to the creation of the structure of the early Piaststate. The function of axe-like bars has been a subject of scholarly debate for years. It is now predominantly assumed that they were a deliberately standardized form of iron material; at the same time, they may have functioned as money.

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