THE REAL DEAL!
 

This is it, incredibly well preserved, back from the days when the Celts invaded Egypt, together with the Romans apparently. After the serious datu kris discussion, I thought we needed a good laugh:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...MEWA:IT&ih=009

Just got to have it!

:D :D :D :confused: :rolleyes:

don't get me started! :p

Actually, on a serious note, the Roman did make their way up into England though I believe they never made their way up north where the Picts fought against them. I recall seeing Roman ruins in England a long time ago. Also, didn't they just uncover a more recent Roman find?

None of this however would support the claims on that sword.

arabic inscriptions look just like ruinic :)

obviously kaskara are a very early form if found in roman britain. ;) maybe he can 'discover' it was actually excalibur!


on another note, hadrian's wall , built to mark and control trade at the northern border between the roman and celtic britains was dotted with forts, one of them, Vindolanda, they recently found an underground armoury with examples of what we call Lorica segmentata , as well as a lot of other stuff they are still meticulously sorting thru. they also found a lot of ordinary letters that had been thrown out onto the rubbish heap & partially burned. one of which was a letter where a legionnaire had written home for his family to send him some warm woolen socks and some new underpants. they have found a number of grave markers, one of which was in latin and aramaic where a syrian auxilliary centurion posted to the wall mourned the death of his british wife. rome was the original 'melting pot' of cultures. the wall was mainly manned by auxilliaries from all over the empire after they replaced the legions that originally built it.

the recent King Arthur (2004) movie gives a flavour of life on the wall as rome abandoned its borders and drew in on itself. just don't take it too literally. the arms and armour while gussied up by hollywood were not bad, and i liked the drako standard arturus uses.

p.s. - i've got the 'director's cut' dvd's on my desk as i type, think i'll watch it again now that i'm thinking of it....

What? You seem to think this is not authentic?

I am sure I saw Persian elite shock troops using them in "The 300." We all know THAT was a worthwhile and historically correct movie!

Somehow my wife liked the movie better than me.

Oh well,let's all chant SPAR--TAH!

Bill
iPhone Message

300
 

Hey Bill,

300 was based on a comic book...... But I wish they would have done a historically accurate version, believe it to be a better story and would certainly hold my interest longer.


Saw that the Seller posted correct information when notified....

rand

Hi Rand,

Knew it was based on a comic book I was just hoping for more.

Still don't see this sword being valuable. "Interesting" scabbard and dress, but more of a curiosity.

So...what everyone is saying is that the Celts did not make it to Africa? :D

Although this might have been just another example of blatant misidentification as often seen on many items that appear on ebay it evidences the unbelievable unfamiliarity with weapons by the general public. It seems with the computer search potential that a simple effort would at least give people the idea of where to look further.

While obviously the description exceeds the basic fantasy material, it is interesting to see one of these Nilotic kaskaras, and thankfully it actually went for a reasonable price without a frenzy thinking this was Excalibur!! :)

I have often wondered if these crocodile hide covered weapons actually were mounted contemporarily with some sort of totemic value observed by tribal warriors, or whether these were produced to satisfy curious tourists of the post-Mahdist period. In efforts to discuss the use of crocodile hide and the possibilities of such association over the years, the results were consistantly disappointing, and in some cases produced unwarranted negativity.

In discussions with one young man who had come from Darfur, he did note that use of the totemic associations with feared animals was indeed in some degree practiced among warriors and would explain such use of crocodile etc. That is of course just one note from one person, though well qualified.I have seen examples of kaskara mounted much like this but with much older and formidable blades, suggesting mounting of 19th c. The example I refer to had hilt mounts consistant with those found on Darfur weapons (Briggs).The blade on this example seems more likely 20th c.

While continued discussion on this topic would be interesting and always hopefully productive, I realize it is as noted, unlikely. Regardless, I thought I would add these notes for anyone interested in furthering what we know about these intriguing examples of kaskara.

With best regards,
Jim

the celts didn't quite make it to africa. of course, the germanic tribe of Vandals did, occupying a large part of it, centered on carthage. likely using their own ruinic lettering. they surrendered eventually to the romans, who threw them out. some of them were given lands in galatia (a corruption of celt/gelt/gell/gael/gaul) where they mingled with the celtic natives. there are 'galatia' regions of spain, asia minor (turkey) and southern poland. all celts/gauls.

Though I meant it as a joke, I am fascinated by Galatia and other aspects of early Turkey.

so am i, tho not necessarily the turkish bit in particular, my maternal grandmother was a galician from the northernmost province of austro-hungary, roughly halfway between Krakow and Wien. the other galicia is in the northern part of spain. celtic groups lived in a broad band north of the roman empire, the gaels, gauls or celts were ,of course, a cultured people with a rich history of justice, artistry and craftsmanship.

a warrior culture of the heroic individual that could not deal well with the organized synchronized soldiery of rome who were deathly afraid of them and thus had to destroy them; which they did by not only conquest but by absorption into the pax romana and by documenting them as 'uncivilized barbarians' they even tried to destroy their history...

Oh very, very true......

Also fascinating that you have Galatian blood. :D

I can only claim Scots and Irish (along with Cherokee and Filipino). No Galatian though.....

My family is the typical irreverent american mix, english, irish, german, austro-hungarian (the 'Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria' granny), blackfoot, scots, italian, polish and a few more. family reunions are fun - especially the food sessions ;) we come in a variety of shapes, colours, politics, and religions (mostly christian and hebrew flavours, but not exclusively).

broadens my interest base.

also leads me to believe that there was a lot of cultural trade going on that is not recorded or admitted in history from the stone age at least. clovis flint points in europe and america, norse stone barrows & runes in maine, etc. people just like us with just the same emotions and goals, and our trading instincts must have done a lot more than we know. i'd love a tardis trip......

which segways me back on track, could a north african /sudanese weapon have made it's way from one end of the empire to the other? the men did, why not weapons. i'd bet there are rusty proto-kaskaran regional weapon items out there waiting for discovery, or unrecognised. i'd also bet they did not have lslamic arabic etchings & did not look like the modern kaskara which initiated this amusing and informative discussion.