Quote:
Originally Posted by Lee
... I have never been able to work out the chronology or geography of the various blade styles. I very strongly suspect that many are significantly older than is generally accepted and documented. Look at the dark brown patina on the exposed tangs: one uncovered over a hundred years ago while the blade remained bright and the other protected by resin until I dissolved it off. Then consider the patinated appearances of the tangs of Japanese swords which may be dated from signatures.
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I agree Lee. The variety and chronology are confusing. I've seen no study of dating these spears (other than an early attempt on this site).
In most cases, Moro war spears were used as thrusting rather than throwing weapons. At least this is what we see from the pictorial evidence of the late 19th and early 20th C. Some of them had unusually long shafts which appear to approach 5-6 meters in length. Adding to the confusion is that Lumad groups in the area often used similar heads on their combat spears. It is hard to know who borrowed from whom with some of the styles, although there appear to be one or two distinctively Moro versions. Simple, effective designs seem to have been copied freely.
As far as dating old Moro weapons, I agree completely.
I think we often underestimate the age of Moro weapons that appear on these pages. It is tempting to label edged weapons from the area as late 19th C because they look older than when they were collected by Americans in the early 20th C. We don't have a clear idea of how old Moro weapons may be, or even when most of them came into existence. Spanish museums help a little with dating, but prior to the presence of Spain in the area there is very little to go by.
There are several groups of Filipinos who have been studying these questions for some time, but no clear data have emerged from their deliberations (or at least none that have been published widely).
I have been collecting data for some time on the varieties of Moro spearheads that appear online from various sources, including here, and will put my findings on these pages when I can make more sense of them.
It would help greatly if someone could point to Spanish or Filipino sources that provide provenance for older items (spears, swords, knives, etc.). I already have the data from this site. What we need is mainly museum information (pictures) with dates for collection of these and any other information available. Online sources barely scratch the surface of what museums hold.