Sword from the lesser Sunda islands (Timor?)

[Albert]

I asked Karel Sirag for comment about this sword, for he has much more expertise on this type of weapons than I have. Here it is:

This sword really is quite megalomaniac! Such a big one I have never seen in my life!, the largest ever came to my attention. The normal size for this kind of weapon is 70/75 cm, with blades from 40 to 50 cm, so this one is outstanding large.
I agree with Kai this could be a status piece. With a blade of 70 cm it is usable and you can fight with it. The status mostly comes from the length of the scabbard.

This sword comes from the island of Alor, situated North of the island Timor. About the age of this piece I cannot say a word, it is very difficult to judge this from photographs. For such things you have to handle the piece itself, hold it in your fingers, smell it, even bite in it...

The handle is from the common type: Type A (1), the one on the picture has a slooped side, this type is slightly more frequent than the straight sided ones: Type B (1).
The decoration on the handle is traditional and quite similar with others I know. Although there are handles without any carving, with only a single 'eye' in the centre.
The carving on the picture is, compared with the ones I am familiar with, a bit more crude.
As Kai states, the ferrule on the lower side of the handle should be completed with a tightly fitted ring of horn, this to prevent splitting.
Often these handles are adorned with bundles of goatshair, as we see in the picture. But this is not a standard feature. I have seen several handles without any hole to put the hair into.

About the blade: I do not know what Sajen means with 'Mono steal'. Most of the 'normal' blades we found on Alor or the surrounding islands came there by trade. As far as I know, they were not made locally. The bunch of these blades, and especially the more older ones, were made on Solor by the thousands and traded everywhere (a.o. by the VOC). That is why you find on these islands always so many swords with blades in the same shape. (3)
Although you also find on Alorswords shortened European swords and even altered machetes.
The blade on the photograph looks similiar to the 'common' ones, but a bit longer. As stated before, I cannot say anything about the age of it.

The scabbard, with the exception of its length, also looks very traditional, with only two deviations: the mouthpiece and the foot.
First, the mouthpiece on the picture is broader than its height: rectangular, while we normally see, with no exception, that this piece is square.

The typical decoration on the mouthpiece, compared with decoration on bamboocontainers from this aera (3), indicates that this weapon originates from the centre of the island.
Although there should be more of course, I only know two other Alorswords with a decoration like this one. One in a private collection in England and another one from the Vatter-collection, collected in situ, 1928/29.
The latter one is shown in his book "Ata Kiwan" (4) and also in Ruth Barnes (3) ill. 684, page 270.

Second, the foot: This is the first one I see with a rounded foot. I do not think this is original.
Traditionally there should be a foot in the shape of something that looks somewhat like a 'fat comma' (has anybody a better description?) (see 1, page 138, ill. 582, 583, 584) projecting to the edgeside.
Perhaps the foot on the sword of Sajen is a restauration or replacement?

The sheaths of all the older swords from Alor I know, are made in a special way. Two flat pieces of wood bound together with a rattan winding is normal on swords, but on Alor there is a small difference. The special way they differ from a 'normal' sheath is the foot: this is óne single piece. The backside of the scabbard is shorter than the piece of wood in the front. In this way the foot is stronger.
On the sides of the foot mostly there is a hint of carving and sometimes you find a small hole for attaching some goatshair.

The difference of the last two mentioned deviations does not say this weapon is not genuine. It only says that it differs from what we see as 'normal'.

About the name: For this type of weapon are several names in circulation. Like OPI, but Baessler (5) states this is the name for the sword on the island of Wetar. Foy (6) uses the name MOSO and RUGI for almost two identical swords. Also I read somewhere the name SONDI.
I prefer the name HAR. This name is given to this type of sword (3, pag 270) by the forenamed Vatter. He was, in contrast with lots of closet scholars in those days, a person who travelled himself. And every piece he collected was noted with a small drawing, names, measurements etc.
I think, but this is personal, this name HAR is the closest we can get to what concerns the namegiving of swords from the island of Alor.

K.S.
April 2011.

(1) See: A.G.van Zonneveld, "Trad. Weapons of the Ind. Archipelago" (2001), page 137-139.
(2) See: A de Roever, "De jacht op sandelhout" (2002), page 22, 159, 172, 290.
(3) See: Ruth Barnes, "Ostindonesien im 20. Jahrhundert: Auf den Spuren der Sammlung Ernst Vatter" (2004), page 241.
(4) See: Ernst Vatter, "Ata Kiwan - Unbekannte Bergvölker im Tropisch Holland" (1932), page 79.
(5) See: A.Baessler, "Ethnographische Beitrage zur Kennis des Ostindische Archipels" (Int. Archiv für Ethn. 1891), Tafel VII/9, page 74, no. 20.
(6) See: Foy, "Schwerter von der Celebes-See" (Dresden, 1899), Tafel VI.

[Sajen]

Hello Albert,

thank you very much for your help and effort!

Hello Karel,

also to you: many many thank's for your very detailed comment.

In your articel in (1, "Trad. Weapons of the Ind. Archipelago") you write that the handles of Type A are from horn, this handle is from wood.

Sorry about the confusion I create by the words "mono steal", meant was "mono steel" (sometimes I make mistakes in english, sorry). I can't see any hint that these blade have a lamination but I may be wrong by this.

You are most certainly correct that the foot is a later replacement, the patination is very different from the other parts of the sheath. I have had the same impression when I received the sword.
I have bought it from a "runner" in Indonesia who is from Alor, so I think that this replacement was carved later to get a better price. Confusing is only that he sold it to me as a Tanimbar sword.

Again, many many thank's for your effort by comment this sword!

Kind regards,

Detlef

[Sentrad]

Dear members,
though I am a member since 2010, due to some reasons my first post is following only now.

I think Karel Sirag has given about the Alor sword in this thread a very in depth going comment about this “megalomaniac” big sword. So just only some shorts notes from my side:

I am lucky to have got this big sword into my hands (Alor 1) and another one with some similarities, but no carvings at the scabbard mouth (Alor 2). Both of them are very top-heavy and difficult to handle, and a usual swordplay is not possible.

I had checked the foot of Alor 1, which was definitely a not well made repair, pre-sumably made in Indonesia. As Karel Sirag mentioned, the buntut of the swords of this region are like fat commas or shoe-shaped, but this is rounded. Normally repairs are made after existing pieces, so there is at least the opportunity that there are vari-eties with such a scabbard point.

Alor 2 has the length of 98.0 cm with scabbard, 86.7 cm without scabbard and the blade measures 61.5 cm. The blade is a common one, no watered steel. The mouth-piece of the scabbard and the sarong is out of very heavy hard wood kaju hitam. It is rectangular as Alor 1 and not square, but without any carvings. The foot consists out of one piece of wood and it is rounded as Alor 1. On one side of the foot there is a rough carving of a sun motive. For me it looks original in all parts, the blade is fitting to the scabbard and the wrapping has a nice patina.

So it looks for me, that there could be a subtype of this Alor sword with a variation of the foot.

A word to the carvings of the mouthpiece of Alor 1:
Vatter [lit. 4, page 243, plate 79] and Barnes [lit. 3, page 270, Abb. 648] describe the carvings of the only Alor sword collected by Vatter as Naga ornaments. Unfortunate-ly the pics in both books are not very sufficient, but the carvings at Alor 1 are very different from all the other Naga illustrations in Vatter’s book. Within this forum (lit. 7) we can see a similar mouthpiece in a very fine photo, which shows the same motive like Alor 1.

The blades of the swords within the region are made by Muslims; two of the 4 Raja families in Alor are Muslims as well. So perhaps this ornament could be a Muslim motive, the symbol of the Paradise Rivers flowing into the four cardinal directions. It appears often in the Muslim world on objects of utility, for example [lit. 8, page 178-85].

Is there anybody within the community who could give some advice on this subject?

About the name: Some thirty years before Vatter J. Adrian Jacobsen travelled within Nusa tenggara timur. He was a Norwegian ship captain commissioned by one of the world largest and very famous Ethnological Museum in Berlin, former Museum fuer Voelkerkunde. He did so much in getting ethnographical pieces from Indonesia and later the northern coasts of North America, that still until today a memorial plate in the museum commemorates him. He names that Alor sword rugi-glawang and within his book is a nice sketch of an Alor warrior [lit. 9, page 93].

Udo

(7)
http://www.vikingsword.com/vb/showth...highlight=rugi

(8)
Alantar, Hüseyin
Die Sprache der Motive
Istanbul 2007, Yorum Yayincilik; 304pp., numerous colour illstr., bibliography. Ger-man text.

(9)
Jacobsen, Johann Adrian
Reise in die Inselwelt des Banda Meeres
Berlin 1896, Mitscher & Röstell; 271 pp., numerous b/w illstr., German text.


The pics show the status sword in comparison wth a normal rugi, both status swords, Alor 2 (four pics) and an Alor warrior.

[kai]

Hello Udo,

welcome to the non-lurking members guild of the forum!

Thanks for sharing the 2nd example of what may well be another pattern of these swords and all the effort you put into posting it!

Despite their vibrant tribal appeal, I believe the swords from Nusa Tenggara Timur are undercollected. It's great to have another enthusiast studying these!

I am lucky to have got this big sword into my hands (Alor 1) and another one with some similarities, but no carvings at the scabbard mouth (Alor 2).

Could you please also post close-ups of the back of the scabbard foot and mouth as well as close-ups of the hilt? TIA!

So it looks for me, that there could be a subtype of this Alor sword with a variation of the foot.

I hope we'll come across a third example to confirm this really is another traditional pattern. Surik (II) from Timor can have a round scabbard foot and there also is another type of scabbard with almost symmetrical albeit kinda rectangular foot (AvZ Figs. 580+581; somewhat alluding to styles seen on Sulawesi). Thus, esthetics in the region seem to be compatible with a round or symmetrical finial, too.

BTW, any provenance or other details known for example #2?

The blades of the swords within the region are made by Muslims; two of the 4 Raja families in Alor are Muslims as well. So perhaps this ornament could be a Muslim motive, the symbol of the Paradise Rivers flowing into the four cardinal directions. It appears often in the Muslim world on objects of utility, for example [lit. 8, page 178-85].

Is there anybody within the community who could give some advice on this subject?

I need to hit the books first.

I'd expect Muslim influence to concentrate on the coastal regions whereas Karel posits that this is an traditional Alor motif suggesting an origin from the center of the island. This doesn't preclude it having outside roots though.

He names that Alor sword rugi-glawang and within his book is a nice sketch of an Alor warrior [lit. 9, page 93].

Yes, Rugi seems to be an old name, too. Obviously, glawang is an alternative transliteration of the generic (pan-Indo/Malay) term klewang.


Thanks again for your posting and keep it coming! BTW, I notified Karel of your contribution and hope he'll chime in again, too.

Regards,
Kai

[Sajen]

Originally Posted by kai

BTW, any provenance or other details known for example #2?

Hello Kai,

this one coming primarily some years ago from an Austrian seller who living on Bali and was in the collection of a man from Berlin and was lately offered to me.

Regards,
Detlef