Batak ceremonial sword - simunung

[Loedjoe]

Has this type of sword been discussed on the Forum anywhere? I would appreciate a reference to the relevant thread(s).

It would be very interesting to see any examples that members own, or have come across in museums, articles, etc.

This example is 48.5 cm, blade 33.5 cm (5 mm thick at the base), hilt 15 cm. (the whole sword very light in weight).

Van Zonneveld has an entry for the name (simunung) but no description. C. D. La Rue, ‘The weapons of the Asahan Bataks’ (Papers of the Michigan Academy of Science Arts and Letters, 16 (1932), 73-104, pl. V-IX), has one paragraph (p. 92) describing a simoenoeng, with the same sort of blade, with the protrusion on the back, but with a hilt more like a hulu tapa guda (Van Zonneveld, p. 55), without the extension at the top in the usual examples (with a very small photograph, pl. VI, no. 27).

Wilhelm Hein, ‘Indonesische Schwertgriffe’, Annalen des K. K. Naturhistorischen Hofmuseums, XIV (1899), 317-58, has, p. 345, a drawing, fig. 73, of the hilt of a [simunung], called by Hein the hilt of a Timor-Batak sword, briefly described on p. 346, as belonging to a Schwertmesser “Pué suring” of the Timor-Batak, from the collection of Theodor Josef Hirsch [1838-1916], Inv.-Nr. 45.873. (A reference I owe to Michael Marlow.) [Auction catalogue of his collection of coins and medals, no weapons, 2 Apr. 1900 and following days, Brüder Egger, Vienna.] There is a colour photograph of an example in Achim Sibeth, Living with ancestors. The Batak, peoples of the island of Sumatra (1991), p. 164, fig. 213, 3rd item from the bottom.

Does anyone know anything about the collection of Hirsch (a few lines above)?

[Albert]

Here is a snapshot of a similar sword in my collection.