Excavated Battleaxe with Integral Langets

[fernando]

Such an elegant shape, this axe had in its glorious days !

The fascination for the morbid, which takes the common observer to conclude that, all such large axes are beheading instruments is, in the case of this example, rejected by the existence of an "appendix" in its back side, an implement i would love to learn further in detail.
Being called a hammer, my curiosity raises two questions:To hammer ... what, in particular ? And why, being its purpose to actually hammer, is it so small, comparing its proportions with those of the actual axe; in a manner that it would be rather slippery (weight wise) to firmly sustain its blade vertically, to strike whatever object with its hammer tool ?


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