The Semantics of Prussian Weapon Décor

Abstract

The proposed article reveals the principles of the semantics of the decor that adorned the weapons of the Prussians mainly in the Viking Age.The conclusions are:
 1. In Roman times, the Aestii, the ancestors of the Prussians, provided the blades of their combat knives with carvings, apparently designed to enhance the real power of this weapon in a mystical way. Triangular figures filled with vertical hollows are also presented on Prussian daggers, but their semantic meaning is not clear.
 2. At the end of the era of the Great Migration of Peoples, the Prussians, under the influence of German and Avar swords, create their single-edged blades («long sax» type), the scabbard of which is decorated with silver plates with a basmen pattern. The details of this pattern − stripes of figures of the Kegelkönig type – may
 have a protective value and are associated with the cult of Perkūnas.
 3. In the Viking Age, individual swords found in Prussian military graves have a semantically significant decor associated with the function of mystical amplification of the power of these weapons. True, they were produced outside the land of the Prussians. Swords of the Kazakevičius Desiukiškių type with images of sacrificial goats can be considered the only local in origin.
 4. In the XI century Prussian craftsmen furnish spear and javelin bushings with flame-like decor, possibly related to «military magic». By the end of the XI century jewelers simplify their creations and decorate spear sleeves with silver foil forged with
 horizontal strips of copper/bronze wire. This ornament is purely decorative.
 5. In pre-Orden times, individual specimens of lop-butted axes are decorated with figurines of sacrificial goats. This is a sign that these axes, being actually not military weapons, belong to sacrificial ceremonies held in Prussian communities by
 priests or leaders.