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Forum Index > Historical Arms Talk > Mystery pick/axe head from the Balkans! Fokos? Reply to topic
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Weapon, tool, or both?
Weapon
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Tool
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Both
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Phil Killian




Location: Manhattan
Joined: 29 Dec 2018

Posts: 3

PostPosted: Wed 16 Jan, 2019 11:53 pm    Post subject: Mystery pick/axe head from the Balkans! Fokos?         Reply with quote

Purchased this one about 10 years ago and was told it was dug in the Balkans and is in the realm of 1000 years old... Similar to some shepherds axes from the region but have not seen one in this same configuration. Seems to me to be a weapon rather than a tool. One side is heavily pitted, and the other bears decorative engravings on the socket and cheek. Definitely a vicious little thing. Any ideas?

Also, if anyone could tell me how to get the images to display below I would appreciate it.



 Attachment: 618.86 KB
[ Download ]

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Pitted side. [ Download ]

 Attachment: 672.59 KB
[ Download ]

 Attachment: 739.99 KB
[ Download ]

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Detail on socket. [ Download ]
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Jacek Gramlowski





Joined: 17 Jun 2015

Posts: 20

PostPosted: Thu 17 Jan, 2019 7:16 am    Post subject: Re: Mystery pick/axe head from the Balkans! Fokos?         Reply with quote

Phil Killian wrote:
Purchased this one about 10 years ago and was told it was dug in the Balkans and is in the realm of 1000 years old... Similar to some shepherds axes from the region but have not seen one in this same configuration. Seems to me to be a weapon rather than a tool. One side is heavily pitted, and the other bears decorative engravings on the socket and cheek. Definitely a vicious little thing. Any ideas?

Also, if anyone could tell me how to get the images to display below I would appreciate it.


Hello. as ussual nothing that mysterious . Search for khazar axes and tzikourions(or russian translations of theese). if you are more to hammers than search for akufion (there is unsolved ambiguity with that word yet.). Theese nations use theese axes/hammers/whatever regulary. I have seen such examples, but i dont download and save everything i see-sorry.



 Attachment: 80 KB
Khazar ones not exactly the same but similar [ Download ]
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Victor R.




Location: Klein, Texas
Joined: 28 Jan 2008
Reading list: 4 books

Posts: 347

PostPosted: Thu 17 Jan, 2019 6:55 pm    Post subject:         Reply with quote

As for getting pictures to display, the site will tell you under 1Mb and 1280 pixels wide by 1024 pixels high (at least if you're a "Basic"). In reality, it's a crapshoot.

I generally open my target images in MSPaint, which allows me to resize by pixel count. I bring the longest edge down to the maximum size under these parameters and the program resizes the other edge proportionately. Arguably, with the edge measure parameters met, so long as the byte-size is under 1Mb, there should be no problem; however, even though I've had all parameters under nominal maximums, I find that images still will not display when attached, so I just have to play with them from there.

The last image I attached started at 569kb and 1130x1245. I reduced to 929x1024 and 317kb and it still would not display. I tried a couple of different reductions and finally got 680x750 and 182kb to display. And, because the commentary was more visual than textual, I had to get it to display. Larger images would attach, but they were like yours - click to view.

This isn't so bad with one image, but when you cannot rely upon what the parameters say and have to play with every image, it can get tedious for a post with more than one picture to attach, especially if you want them to display.
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Phil Killian




Location: Manhattan
Joined: 29 Dec 2018

Posts: 3

PostPosted: Fri 18 Jan, 2019 10:56 am    Post subject:         Reply with quote

Thanks a lot, guys! The axes you posted bear a close resemblance, any info on that particular group?
As far as the photos displaying is concerned, yeah thats a shame... Photoshop allows you to adjust the quality with a slider bar when you save as a jpeg and displays the size in kb or mb, which is pretty useful.
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Jacek Gramlowski





Joined: 17 Jun 2015

Posts: 20

PostPosted: Fri 18 Jan, 2019 1:08 pm    Post subject:         Reply with quote

Phil Killian wrote:
Thanks a lot, guys! The axes you posted bear a close resemblance, any info on that particular group?
As far as the photos displaying is concerned, yeah thats a shame... Photoshop allows you to adjust the quality with a slider bar when you save as a jpeg and displays the size in kb or mb, which is pretty useful.


Theese exactly are from caucassus regions from detectorists. They are accepted as "Khazar" ones. If you want more info about this topic you need browse materials about Byzantine empire or Saltovo-Majack ("khazar") culture. Majority of theese soures are however in Russian language. One of few english sources is here. http://www.oocities.org/kaganate/axerus.html

and one picture from museum https://i.pinimg.com/originals/41/10/bd/4110bdc0ddea60bcb6a648035f20b4f4.jpg
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Phil Killian




Location: Manhattan
Joined: 29 Dec 2018

Posts: 3

PostPosted: Fri 18 Jan, 2019 4:06 pm    Post subject:         Reply with quote

Excellent! Thanks a lot. Id like to mount it for display, wonder what the proper shaft length would be.
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Jacek Gramlowski





Joined: 17 Jun 2015

Posts: 20

PostPosted: Sat 19 Jan, 2019 2:58 am    Post subject:         Reply with quote

Phil Killian wrote:
Excellent! Thanks a lot. Id like to mount it for display, wonder what the proper shaft length would be.

That is beyond my knowledge. 70 cm should be ok since it is one handed axe.
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