The Ubiedrze axe, theEastern Baltic axe

The magnificent, massive bronze axe features a very striking, fan-shaped blade. Interestingly, its edge is equally blunt and thick along its entire length, which means that the tool was never used for cutting or chopping. The actual purpose of the object is undoubtedly mysterious. The axe is part of a hoard of four twin pieces discovered in 1936 during potato digging in the field of Maaβa, a miller from Ubiedrze. According to the finder, the tools were found in a layer of sand at a depth of about 40 cm from the ground surface, and they were arranged in a cross. They were donated to the collection of the Pommersches Landesmuseum in Stettin (Polish: Pomorskie Muzeum Krajowe w Szczecinie; English: Pomeranian State Museum in Szczecin) by a secondary school teacher, Mr Haack from Bobolice; the caretaker of archaeological monuments in the Koszalin district secured the find at the place of discovery. In August 1944, the hatchets and other valuable relics were evacuated deep into Germany due to repeated Allied air raids. They returned to Szczecin in 2009 due to the Polish-German exchange of ancient archaeological artefacts. The deposit was published in full in 2012, in an occasional, illustrated catalogue entitled "Zaginione–Ocalone. Szczecińska kolekcja starożytności pomorskich" ("Lost - Saved. The Pomeranian Antiquities Collection of Szczecin"). The axe from Ubiedrze, dated to the 1st half of the 2nd Bronze Age (approx. 1600-1500 BC), represents a rare type, the occurrence of which is limited to the area of Middle Pomerania and Masuria.

Dorota Kozłowska