X–XIII a. kirviai: kai kurios jų formos ypatybės

The paper reviews the axes used in Lithuania in the tenth–thirteenth centuries with a special focus on their shape. It discusses the characteristics and peculiarities of the structural parts – the butt, the head/wedge, the blade, and the shaft-hole. The analysis of the shape is based on the data of 239 axes randomly selected in museums. Certain features, e.g., the blade bend radius and the blade line angle relative to the shaft, are compared with those of the axes of the fourteenth–sixteenth centuries. The analysis of the shape of axe butts found that the axes with simple butts take the dominant position, while the axes with flanged butts comprise about one-fifth only. The latter group of axes is dominated by the axes with their flanges located at the top of the butt; about one-fourth of them display flanges on the sides of the butt. Axe butts featuring upper flanges are large, but four cutouts make them look slender and expressive. Axe butts with lateral flanges are small; when viewed from the lateral perspective, they resemble a double cut cone. The analysis of the shape of shaft-holes revealed that round, egg- and oval-shaped shaft-holes are characteristic of the axes under analysis. However, the proportion of round and egg-shaped shaft-holes is approximately equal; it is therefore likely that the characteristic proportion of tenth-thirteenth-century axes is a certain transitional link from the dominant egg-shaped shaft-holes to round-shaped ones.The shape of the wedge showed that tenth-thirteenth-century axes repeat the earlier tendency with the axes of an average wedge taking the dominant position and other shapes being relatively rare. All axes feature a significant extension of the rear part of the head towards the shaft, the so-called “beard”. Therefore, their blades are far wider than the width of axe blades of the earlier period and they are known as wide-bladed axes.[...]

Straipsnyje apžvelgiami X–XIII a. Lietuvoje naudoti kirviai. Pagrindinis dėmesys su-telkiamas į jų formą: aptariami struktūrinių dalių – penties, liemens / pleišto, ašme-nų, koto kiaurymės – ypatumai ir savitumas. Formos analizei naudojami muziejuose atsitiktinai atrinktų 239 kirvių duomenys. Palygintos X–XIII a. ir XIV–XVI a. kirvių kai kurios ypatybės, pvz., ašmenų išlenkimo lankas ir ašmenų linijos palenkimas koto atžvilgiu. Gauti rezultatai leidžia daryti išvadas apie X–XIII a. kirvių savitumą. Straipsnyje pateikiamos iliustracijos ir diagramos.