Lame de hache

The foot-shaped axe, or rìu, is a weapon that is characteristic of the Đông Sơn civilisation. This type of object has been found in the tombs of high-ranking persons, which were richly furnished with bronze funerary equipment. A wooden haft was originally wedged into the axe’s socket. It was used in three different ways: to strike blows, to cut, when held like a billhook, and as a throwing weapon, since its curved shape enabled it to rotate. However, the finely wrought decor that is often found on this type of object and the very fact that a material as precious as bronze was placed in a grave suggests that this axe was a symbol of prestige, designed to be worn at the belt or else borne aloft like a standard.
The small deer decorating the Cernuschi Museum axe appears to have been of important symbolic or sacred significance, like the bird motif found on all the bronze drums. The top of certain large drums are decorated with friezes of small deer between concentric bands depicting birds in flight or circled dots connected by tangents.