Viking Age axe from the Baltic

[Jeff Pringle]

Thanks
Paulsen separates out axes decorated with stamps, punches and lines in the aforementioned book, this one not only has the stamps and punch marks but also has the remnants of some incised crosshatch decoration where the bit transitions to the socket, so I’m not sure how he would have classified it. The type is also addressed by Kirpicnikov in his book “Old Russian Weapons” (Древнерусскoе oружие, 1966); despite saying that they show up earlier in the Baltic he tries to claim they are a Russian invention if google translate is not steering me wrong.

Here is the decoration with more oblique illumination.