Aceh pommels with tassels - a hairy issue?

[Sajen]

Originally Posted by kai

This is certainly interesting and may help to narrow things down. Any chance to shoot close-ups without the hair getting into the way?

Hello Kai,

first, there was no attack intended by my comment in the other thread. When you have felt attacked I apologize!
I have a lot pictures from Rolands new treasure which I have assigned wrong as Amanremu since I agree with Roland that it is in fact a very rare Batak Pakpak landingin in my folder where you clearly can see the braiding, picture taken when still uncleaned.
Hope Roland don't mind when I post this picture.
You will agree that this let suppose that this is an original decoration. The same I can say about the gliwang from Thomas, the attachment isn't fine like by the sword from Roland but IMHO a tribal work and not a later addition for selling purpose.
And I've handled both swords in the meanwhile.

A thought come to my mind, could it be that all this pieces are of Pakpak origin? There are not many published Pakpak swords to compare so is the chance high that it was maybe not uncommon that some Pakpak warriors liked to adorn their swords with hair??
Like said before, I think we all haven't seen every sword variant and will maybe never see.

Best regards,
Detlef

[kai]

Hello Detlef,

first, there was no attack intended by my comment in the other thread. When you have felt attacked I apologize!

No worries, frank communication is perfectly fine with me!

I agree with Roland that it is in fact a very rare Batak Pakpak landingin

I have handled quite a few of these swords and just don't see it. To me the blade shape of Rolands sword does not seem to fit with typical ladingin; it clearly seems to be an amanremu/mermu (even if the tip might be a bit worn); and I don't see any features suggesting it originates from any Batak group. Let's discuss this on the thread dedicated to this sword - more close-ups would certainly be nice to see!

You will agree that this let suppose that this is an original decoration.

Not necessarily, I'm afraid - horses and braiding hair were not exactly unknown in other parts of the world (including Europe... )

One region that springs to mind where braiding was used to attach hair decorations would be southern and central Sulawesi. On swords I'm used to see human hair while on tawara (spears) goat hair seems to had been utilized.

The same I can say about the gliwang from Thomas, the attachment isn't fine like by the sword from Roland but IMHO a tribal work and not a later addition for selling purpose.

Just playing devil's advocate - how do you tell the difference (if made well)?

A thought come to my mind, could it be that all this pieces are of Pakpak origin? There are not many published Pakpak swords to compare so is the chance high that it was maybe not uncommon that some Pakpak warriors liked to adorn their swords with hair??

There are a bunch of Pakpak swords around: Van Daalen & Christoffel and Volz & Christoffel were among the first Europeans to transverse the region. There is no mention of pommels with tassels in the records; and weapons were carefully studied for military reasons.

We should be careful with making up stories. None of the examples shown here does exhibit features that clearly suggest any Batak, much less Pakpak origin. All could possibly had been traded to Pakpak owners as well as to just about any other ethnic group in the northern half of Sumatra (and beyond - cp. Schmeltz). IMHO, the currently available evidence does suggest a much more northern origin of these swords though (Aceh or northern Gayo).

As already mentioned, it is possible that these tassels were modifications by some more distant ethnic groups. Let's see if we can narrow things down by details of the attachment and possibly any braiding work, etc.

Regards,
Kai

[Machetero]

I checked my Sikin if the hair was braided, but no. However, the hair was certainly separated into sections, as if the hair had once been braided, but in that case, clearly not as elaborately as on Roland's sword.

/Odd