Himyarite Sword
 

For those who are interested, I took this photo of a Himyarite sword from Yemen 2nd century BC at a show of Yemeni pre-islamic art at the Smithsonian. The hilt looks very much like rhino and the rings remind me a bit of an Omani jambiya. There was also an Omani exhibit at the Folk Life Festival on the Mall where I shot a photo of several Omani kattaras and some tourist jambiyas for sale. The bronze of a Sabean from 700 BC which was in the Yemeni exhibit shows a dagger that looks very much like a Jambiya.

Very nice. I definately need to get down there this week-end. I hope I don't sweat myself into a coma, thought (brutal, stagnant weather here lately).

Which side of the sword has the edge? When I saw the grip the first thing that popped into my head was "kampilan!", and given the curve at the tip, I'm sort of curious.

Were those swords hanging outside for sale? :)

The blade on the Himyarite sword looked like a piece of drift wood it was so rusty and flakey so I'm not sure which the sharp edge was. I presume the remainder was silver given its good condition. The Omanis were selling the Jambiyas but I did not ask about the swords. I think they may have been dressing for the Jambiyas. By the way, I came across a photo (below) on an archeological website of a Sabean sword that has a very similar handle to a Yemeni tourist sword I posted earlier. I guess they are getting pretty sophisticated at creating copies in Yemen these days.