an ancient weapon in the form of a shaft with a small head at the end, approximately 0.5 to 0.8 m long. The mace had a stone head in the Neolithic period and a metal head in the Bronze Age. This type of weapon was typical of the ancient Orient. It was rarely used in the world of the Greeks and Romans; the Romans adopted the mace (clava) only in the second century A.D. In the Middle Ages the mace existed in the Muslim Orient, Western Europe (from the 13th century), and the Russian Empire, where it was used between the 13th and 17th centuries. Two types were distinguished: a mace with an ordinary ball-shaped head, and the shestoper, the head of which was divided into small longitudinal lobes. Among many tribes and peoples the mace was less a weapon than a symbol of authority. Until the 19th century it served as a symbol of authority and dignity among the Turkish pashas and the Polish and Ukrainian hetmans. Among the cossacks it was retained until the 20th century (under the name of naseka) as the sign of office of stanitsa (large cossack village) and settlement hetmans.
A. V. ARTSIKHOVSKII