Early Sica for Comment and Questions

[Battara]

Uh........Fernando, this link didn't work for me.

[vilhelmsson]

It didn't work for me either, but I just dropped the url right in and it worked (http://www.vikingsword.com/vb/showth...highlight=sica).

Fascinating thread. If my example was a 2nd century Jewish zealot assassin's tool or an unlucky gladiator's weapon, well . . . That's pretty neat.

It would be nice to learn more about the inlay, if possible. But that could just be knowledge we don't have.

[fernando]

Originally Posted by Battara

Uh........Fernando, this link didn't work for me.

Vilhemsson got it right, José. I forgot to delete the default (double) URL that appears when inserting hyperlinks.
It is corrected now.

[Bob A]

Not European, but the same concept from the other side of the world; here's a description from the seller:

A Madurese celurit. This distinctively Madurese weapon has a terrifying reputation and has probably been responsible for more deaths by violence than any other weapon in the Indonesian catalogue of weaponry.There are a number of forms of the celurit, from a small household one that is used to prune garden shrubs, through to a massive one that is used to split firewood. Rural people in Madura and East Jawa are seldom without a celurit either dangling from the left hand or stuck into the back of their belt or trousers, as a consequence, if a difference of opinion should escalate, the weapon that is always close at hand is the celurit.

During the purges of Communists in the 1960's celurits were used extensively for mass execution. Suspected Communists and Communist sympathisers --- along with ethnic Chinese and a lot of people whose only sin
was to be disliked for some reason or other, or who were owed money --- were lined up and the executioners walked along the back of the line cutting throats. These mass killings took place during 1965 and 1966 and the
death toll is reckoned to have been somewhere between one million and three million people.

The celurit offered here is the pure weapon form, it has a robust pamor blade, the hardwood hilt fits into a socket, and it comes with an embossed leather sheath.

Blade length across the curve 10.5" (265mm) overall length across the curve 20" (505MM)

[IMG]http://[/IMG]

[vilhelmsson]

Bob, Pretty blade! Gruesome history.

[fernando]

vilhelmsson, you have two private message in your PM box.