My axe " Bible" is James Gamble " Axes of war and power"
P. 14: virtually identical Persian axe defined as " parade" and dated to 1875.
His sine qua non definition of a "war axe" is a V-construction.
Can we maim an opponent with that axe, slicing half of his face off, stabbing him with a straight protrusion at the top or just smashing his head by using an axe as a mace? Sure. But this is a AXE, and axes were supposed to cleave , not stab or bonk ( even in British jargon:-)) For that we have other weapons.
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