Shepherd's Lane Cemetery

The first written mention of the shepherd's axe comes from Emperor Qin Shi Huang's court. It is also depicted on Scythian imagery (see sagaris). Apart from them, the Bulgars and also the Alans and Slavs used similar weapons. Vlach shepherds brought their shepherd's axes into Central Europe when they migrated along the Carpathian Mountains and Dinaric Mountains from the 14th through 17th centuries. These were used by shepherds as versatile tools, providing a small axe, a supplemental hammer and a walking stick. Although a shepherd's axe could not be used to effectively cut down heavy trees, it was still able to cut smaller branches. In Slovakia and Poland, shepherd's axes were inseparable…