Viking halberd "spear". The "kesja" was another halberd-type weapon. The name is thought to come from Celtic-Latin "gæsum". The Cleasby and Vigfússon dictionary notes that ""kesja", "atgeir" and "höggspjót" appear to be the same thing". It's interesting to note that "Egils saga" shows the "kesja" being thrown like a javelin or spear, and describes it in detail, calling it also a "mail-piercer" ("brynþvarar"): The "kesja" would thus have a blade around 90 cm in length with a diamond cross-section at the end, and an additional spike attached to the socket, whose placement and purpose is not explained. The length of the weapons'
Altarpiece of the Halberd Altarpiece of the Halberd The Altarpiece of the Halberd is a painting from around 1539 by the Italian High Renaissance painter Lorenzo Lotto. It is housed in the Pinacoteca civica Francesco Podesti of Ancona, central Italy. The work was seen by the art biographer Giorgio Vasari in the church of Sant'Agostino in Ancona, where Lotto had fled in reply to the hostility received in Venice. It was later moved to the church of Santa Maria della Piazza and, after other locations, the current one. The painting dates to a few years after the coup by which Ancona had been restored