Anglo-Saxon era military equipment

[Matthew Amt]

While I agree that spear and shield would be by far the most common equipment for any Anglo-Saxon-era warrior, there is apparently some regional variation in grave finds. One area will generally have a shield boss and spearheads in a grave, others will turn up more axes, etc. Of course, we can't prove that a man was always buried with exactly the gear that he usually went to war with! There is comparable variation (over time and space) in graves in Denmark and northern Germany.

I'm not sure that an axe was generally for throwing. Some certainly were (the francisca), but others were probably meant to be used as hand weapons. Some of these could double for domestic work, but many battle axes were clearly not tools, and many carpenter's axes were clearly not meant to be weapons. Two-handed axes were used by Harold Godwinson's housecarls at the Battle of Hastings (and presumably had been well-known for a while)--I understand they were introduced by the Vikings, who had arrived in force in England in the 9th century.

Valete,

Matthew