Second picture shows Sheba setting out to go to Solomon

Third picture Queen on Sheba welcomed by Solomon, The she settles down beside him,

Fourth Picture Solomon makes an offer to Sheba, she accepts (see upper left of picture on right).

Fifth Picture Solomon gives his ring to Sheba and tells her if she bear a son, send him to Solomon with that ring to recognize his son. Name the son Menelik.


I don't have the next panel, but I think this is neat!

Apparently, there is another story of a meeting between the two: Solomon ordered to make a mirror floor in his Royal Hall. Sheba, thinking it was a water pool, lifted her skirt and everybody saw she had hairy legs.
She was the first example of a liberated and proud feministic womyn!
Betty Friedan aside, Ethiopian women are beautiful and Old Solly had a very good taste :)

Ariel,

My straight blade is identical to yours. Same marks. Lion of Judah on one side and GG on the other side. Same floral design in the double fullers. Everything! Must have been made by the same guy or at least same shop.

37" overall length, right?

Well, mine has a rhino grip -- no, cow -- no, it IS rhino -- wait - wait - cow -- a rhinocow . . . . . cowrhino -- more Ouzo, please. It is a cowino grip! Ah who cares?

Mine has a different grip but shaped like yours.

Posted in the other thread.

But wouldn't he see up her skirt? Like the guys in high school with the small mirrors on their shoes? :rolleyes: ;)

Bill, I myself am into Ethiopian "stuff" big time. Have a colelction of crosses, jewels, paintings. The works. Of course, my prime interest is swords and shields... The straight bladed sword in question is a fairly common pattern (in my lingo it means I have seen more than a dozen). Of course they are identical as they were manufactured in quantity. Here is mine. Grip is, as you can PLAINLY see, COW... Not rhino (sob sob), just cow. I have another one in poor shape (cow again...). C'est la vie. The cow vs. rhino debate will rage on long after we are gone. Hurts me to envision that shotel with ivory grip. I have seen only one in Rome. And a gurade that was offered to me about 10 years ago from an Italian dealer. Too much money at the time. Reasonable to-day...

These are excellent!

Here's another straight blade that managed to get a rehilt in Yemen.

http://www.ancient-east.com/collecti...on/seif1-1.jpg

http://www.ancient-east.com/collecti...ion/seif-1.jpg

This is from a rehilted straight blade as well. Although the blade has lost its temper and bends easily, it is rare in that it has Haille Selassie, The empress, and Menelik II on it.

http://www.ancient-east.com/collecti...seif-faces.jpg

Hi Derek. Great to hear from you. The first sword, though virtually identical, differs from the others as: 1) it has the crown; 2) it has an inscription; and 3) has the patented mark of S. TERZIAN's Lion of Judah.
The second one is quite nice. The faces are, as you said, those of Menelik, Empress Taitu, and ???? I really don't know. I think Haile' Selassie was too young at the time. But it is a good guess. MAYBE it's his father, Ras Tafari of Harar. Great sword, regardless. Here's mine.

Another Solomon and Sheba painting to go with Bills, this is behind glass and the flash is on.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v4...appy/EP002.jpg
I do believe there has been a considerable clamp down on the export of these late 19th early 20th century paintings.

Bill

As per your request.

Lew

Nice Gile'. Yes, it's an AFAR/ISSA knife from the Danakil area. Judging from the style of the grip and the grooves on the blade, I would say it comes from an area close to or overlapping with Ethiopian border. Just a guess. The central portion of the grip looks like..... RHINO. Would have to take a very close look.

The central portion of the grip looks like..... RHINO. Would have to take a very close look.[/QUOTE]

Picture added up top.

Is it possible to get a photo of the end grain Louie? {on the pommel perhaps.?}

Even some cow & buffalo horn can be fiberous, the only 100% certen identification I know is a close up of the end grain. The fibre in matrix appearance is ummistakable.

http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y266/qwer3/rhino.jpg

Whether translucent ,opaque, black,brown,green or orangey yellow the texture like orange skin remains the same.

Spiral

Spiral

The dagger is capped off with cow horn at either end so there is no way to tell.

My rhino horn does not have this orange peel surface. I shall try to show this latter. I know some African cattle can have horns 32" long but they are hollow.

Whether translucent ,opaque, black,brown,green or orangey yellow the texture like orange skin remains the same.

Spiral[/QUOTE]

Spiral

The orange peel is from a cross cut against the grain of the horn. So if you cut along the grain lengthwise yo will not see the orange peel effect.

Lew

Thanks Louie, I am not confident enough to offer opionion on its side grain.

But yes the orange peel is just visible on the end grain. {crosscut like firewood logs.}

I can only say Tim what I have learnt from people who spends thousands of pounds on individual antique rhino horn carvings & who are not intrested in cow or buffalo horn , fakes of which riddle the market.

I am always happy to learn more though.

Spiral

Throwing knife for French and Belgian fans.
 

Sorry

Hi guys. Trying to keep this thread going. There's so much stuff. So, here are three Ethiopian daggers with "fancy" scabbards. They are actually no scabbards at all... Two daggers have their original leather scabbards; one (Hi, Derek) does not. All three daggers have been inserted into the metal sheaths that originally decorated the terminal portion of SWORD scabbards. I have found another dagger like these three. So I have actually documented this practise in four cases. It is unclear, at least to me, how sword furniture was used like this. Two theories: 1) the daggers were produced in this configurations by scabbard makers who had a surplus of these sheaths; 2) they were made using broken swords picked up as throphies on a battlefield. Any other guesses?

Abyssinia a fascinating area. The array of poorly documented weapons. From your previous thread we saw those lovely examples from the south with a sickle knife influence, then in this thread the European influence. Where does the eastern influence begin from Somalia and the Arabian peninsular? possibly with these knives. Is the shotel solely Abyssinian? I know we have seen an ebay purchase post here by Ariel, one of those curved sabers having the tangent at the scabbard tip with an eared grip. Are there Kaskara with Abyssinian marks? not including the straight European blades. lots of questions.

Hi, Tim. Yes, the diversity of weapons found in Abyssinia is amazing. Local blades, European blades, Ind-persian and Arabian blades. LOTS of Kaskara in Abyssinia, either used as such (Ethiopia shares a very long border with Sudan and there is lots of ethnical overlapping) or re-hilted to traditional Ethiopian SEIFs. The opposite is also true. I posted a Kaskara that I believe to be Eritrean and asked for help with the translation, which is in Arabic, but no luck so far (under KASKARA NEEDS TRANLATOR). I will keep on posting "stuff" for your enjoyment. Ron

Ron,

Here is my shotel. Have a neat scabbard also, not in pictures.

I have read that the long curved blade was for getting around an opponent's shield. Guess that would have been a surprise! :eek: :eek:

I think that the handle is rhino horn -- no wait, it is cow horn....er..Rhino? cow! gotta be rhino. have a couple of Uzo drinks and it could have come from an authentic 1952 Studebaker Commander :D

Comments, please, i would like to know more about these interesting swords and the people who made and used them. :eek:

Hi Bill. EXCELLENT example of shotel. Nice curve. Hilt: COW. Everybody says that the shotel is curved so that one could go around the enemy's shield. Personally, I believe it's one of those myths that have been perpetuated and become gospel. First: not all shotels are curved enough to do that job. Second: I have several shotels and I have tried to do that only to find out that you really lack the power to strike. So, I believe it's a nice theory and I can see how people would go for it. I, for one, do not.

Ron,

Thanks. I have always wondered about that "going around the shield" concept. The shotel seems to be an unwieldy sword with very strange balance. Niether a thrusting nor a slashing weapon. Any ideas about how it was used?

COW is fine with me. It is solid and has a nice color and seems well put together.

Hi. The shotel is truly ans Abyssinian sword. It is designed to strike with the tip and it has enough force to "stab" through a shield. I believe it is native of the Tigray region. There even was a village in Eritrea called "shotel'". I found the photo of a painting about the battle of Adwa (1896). It is a huge painting that is VERY accurate in details of weapons used by the Abyssinians and the Italians. I cropped this portion. It shows how the shotel was used!!

Hi guys. Here something for you, Abyssinian swords lovers!! This is a selection of traditional design hilts using different materials. They are all in scale. A) Wood; B) Bakelite; C) Plastic; D) German silver; E) 3 piece Buffalo horn; F) 1 piece Rhino horn; G) 2 piece Rhino horn with joining silver band.
Brass and Ivory were also used. Reports of SOLID Gold leave me skeptical because of the weight; gold plated metal or hollow cast gold seem more likely. Please, note that when Buffalo horn was used, BY NECESSITY, construction was ALWAYS of two or three pieces; I have one with FOUR pieces, but that's very unusual. Also, when Buffalo horn was used, the top cross piece was quite thin. When Rhino horn was used, the top piece usually extended to, and beyond, half of the total length of the grip. Comments?

Hi Roano, please write a reference book on Ethiopian weapons!!!!! :)

Flavio

Hi Ron,

Just a note to say i really appreciate what you are doing here. Just wish I could contribute.

All the Best
Jeff

P.S. Can I preorder your book :)

This time I want to share with you four of my best pieces. Best because they are complete with thier decorated scabbards. Scabbards are usually found in terrible shape, when they are not missing altogether. Ethiopian scabbards for shotels, gurades and seifs were made of tough raw hide covered with very thin leather, usually red in color, or velvet. The leather was poorly tanned and did not last very long. It became brittle and simply fell apart. Velvet had a better chance of survival.... Some scabbards were decorated with furniture in brass or silver. As pointed before in this thread, some of these furnitures were used as knives scabbards. The seif in the picture has a leather covered scabbard. The 3 gurades have velvet covered scabbards. If you have an Ethiopian sword with decorated scabbard, PLEASE post it.

WOW!

have nothing like this!

I would like to contribute and keep this thread bumped up, but am running out of Ethiopian weapons. The culture fascinates me.

Is there enough interest in creating a sub-forum on Ethiopian and other North African weapons and artifacts?

I nominate Ron to moderate it! Maybe Tim and Freddy also?

How shotels were used
 

Someone, a LONG time ago, posted a comment about an old piece of film that showed two Abyssinian warriors sparring with shotels. It was described as a lot of jumping and attempting to pierce the opponent --- over the shield.

Jim McD, was it you that posted that comment? Did you actually see that film?

-d

I sure would like to see that clip. In any case, my point is that, since shotels vary so much in curvature, I doubt that most of them could do any damage when used that way.

Maybe they were used as giant ice picks or sugar hammers?

I use mine as a back scratcher. Works great.

http://www.ancient-east.com/collecti...n/shotels3.jpg

Here's something different. The sword is Ethiopian, as per Menelik's portrait, Lion of Judah, Amharic writing, the works, (thanks, Gennady), SO what the heck is this supposed to be???? The blade is very nice and clean, hetched and plated. I believe it is British. Don't ask me why; just a feeling. On one side, it has this scene, instead of the usual quotation from the Bible in Ge'ez. What do you see??? I see two scenarios: 1) some Amhara horsemen involved in a punishing party against an unruly tribe. 2) Arabic slavetraders raiding a village. I LOVE this puzzle. I did not know this was there when I bought the sword.... Have any of you guys seen anything like this?

Roano,

That is fantastic. Like the shotels made in Europe, this was certainly conceptualized locally and executed in Europe. I would guess something like this would be to commemorate an event. It's too deliberate and would have been even more expensive to produce than the usual imported blades. Those don't look like Italians, so what battle would it be?

-d

I have a similar, funny jewelry.
Luc