Holy Lance
The Holy Lance in Vienna is displayed in the Imperial Treasury or "Weltliche Schatzkammer" (lit. Worldly Treasure Room) at the Hofburg Palace in Vienna, Austria. It is a typical winged lance of the Carolingian dynasty. At different times, it was said to be the lance of Saint Maurice or that of Constantine the Great. In the tenth century, the Holy Roman Emperors came into possession of the lance, according to sources from the time of Otto I (912–973). In 1000, Otto III gave Boleslaw I of Poland a replica of the Holy Lance at the Congress of Gniezno. In 1084, Henry IV had a silver band with the inscription "Nail of Our Lord" added to it. This was based on the belief that the nail embedded in the spear-tip was one that had been used for the Crucifixion of Jesus. It was only in the thirteenth century that the Lance became identified with that of Longinus, which had been used to pierce Christ's side and had been drenched in the Blood of Christ and water.
Instrument of Jesus' crucifixion
In his book "Crucifixion in Antiquity", Gunnar Samuelsson declares that, while the New Testament terminology is in itself not conclusive one way or another for the meaning of the word, "[t]here is a good possibility that σταυρός, when used by the evangelists, already had been charged with a distinct denotation − from Calvary. When, e.g., Mark used the noun it could have meant 'cross' in the sense in which the Church later perceived it. [...] The Gospel accounts probably show that σταυρός "could" signify "cross" in the mentioned sense, but they do not show that it always did so." In his Q and A page he adds: "(The Gospels) do not describe the event in length [...] The non-detailed accounts of the Gospels do not, however, contradict the traditional understanding. So the traditional understanding of the death of Jesus is correct, but we could acknowledge that it is more based on the eyewitness accounts than the actual passion narratives."