MACE

Copper alloy hollow cast knobbed mace head, 58mm in diameter, 24mm high. The shaft hole is 17mm in diameter. The mace has twelve pyramidal knobs in three rows of four, consisting of four four-sided knobs and eight three-sided knobs (half knobs). The mace shows signs of extensive wear. There is no metal shaft extending below the head as in many other European examples. A ferrous corrosion product caps the top of the mace hole, which was probably originally a fitting that secured the mace head onto a wooden shaft. Wood fragments are present inside the hole.

The earliest known maces originate on the continent, dating to around the 9th century AD, and are of the knobbed type, into which the Fiskerton mace belongs. Flanged maces do not seem to be as old, and are rare until around the 13th century. The Fiskerton mace is of a form found across Russia, Ukraine, Moldova, Romania, Hungary, Bulgaria and the former Yugoslavia. Known as the Kirpichnikov Type IV, it originated in Kievan metal foundries and was based on a local adaptation of the Khazar mace type (Kirpichnikov Type I). The four upper and four lower corners of the Type I's cube have extended outwards forming smaller knobs giving the Type IV twelve knobs (four large and eight small). These maces were first produced, mostly in bronze, in Kiev and other southern Rus cities. Bronze maces were first exported and later copied (in both bronze and iron) throughout much of Europe. Examples are known from the Baltics, Hungary, Romania, the Western Balkans, Germany, Sweden and England.

Only a few examples of knobbed mace heads from England have so far been found. One made of Iron was reputedly found in Kent, and another made from bronze was found in the cesspit of Dryslwyn Castle in Wales. The Wales example is a similar example to the Fiskerton Mace, and is believed to date from the 1287 siege of that castle. Interestingly two further unstratified examples of knobbed mace heads have been found in Lincolnshire, one at Tickhill and the other at Edlington with Wispington reported to Norwich Castle Museum.

This object has been published in Geake (2005, 336; fig. 5b); noted in Daubney's 2007 catalogue (Daubney 2007, 206; cat. no. 6).