BALEEN “GE” AXE-DAGGER BLADE , WITH FOOT

Description This dagger-axe (ge) constitutes a good example of the production - standardized but accurate - of bronze weapons from the Warring States period: short blade with a triangular tip, wide baleen, heel underlined by a raised rib and extended downwards, long rectangular tang. The rib was fitted into a wooden rod that was crossed side by side by the tang; to ensure effective fastening, some laces passed through the three oblong holes distributed along the heel and the long, narrow one in the center of the tang. The shaft was locked to the foot by a transverse spike inserted into two through holes. The drop-section insertion is garnished in half by a raised band and at the bottom, beyond the holes, by a more prominent asymmetrical decoration: an inclined band from which two flexible and pointed elements protrude, diametrically opposed, one with the tip pointing upwards and the other downwards. Beyond this decoration the graft progressively closes into a hexagonal appendage.