Now you see me, now you don’t. The repeated (re)discovery of the Pietersheim axes (Lanaken, prov. Limburg, Belgium)

In 1989, Eugène Warmenbol published an overview of the Belgian winged axes, and listed an example from P[i]etersheim that he could not study firsthand. It was deemed lost due to severe bombing of the museum that housed it in WW2. Seven years earlier, S.J. De Laet in his "La Belgique d’avant les Romains" similarly lamented that this winged axe may have originated from a hoard whose composition was unknown, but may also have comprised socketed axes (De Laet 1982, p. 496). Unknown to both authors, this axe – and two other Pietersheim axes – was however already "redisco vered" in 1976. It would take until 2025 for the last two axes to "reappear". In this contribution, we document the storyline of the Pietersheim axes and reflect on their association and composition.