Ethnographic Arms & Armour
 

Go Back   Ethnographic Arms & Armour > Discussion Forums > Ethnographic Weapons
FAQ Calendar Today's Posts Search

Reply
 
Thread Tools Search this Thread Display Modes
Old 20th August 2024, 12:36 AM   #31
RobT
Member
 
RobT's Avatar
 
Join Date: Mar 2005
Posts: 493
Default I Agree...Regretfully

an,

Your belief that there is a tendency to underestimate the age of kris is supported by the fact that there are a large number of blades still available today. This argues for a period of manufacture a lot longer than early 19th to mid 20th century (even when factoring in good preservation of existing swords within the culture). Since earlier styles persist and coexist with later styles, I have to agree with you that early and later 19th century or later 19th into 20th century is the best age estimate we can give for most kris

Sincerely,
RobT
RobT is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 20th August 2024, 04:24 AM   #32
Ian
Vikingsword Staff
 
Ian's Avatar
 
Join Date: Dec 2004
Location: The Aussie Bush
Posts: 4,203
Default

Thanks Rob. Key data are missing regarding the dating of kris. This may exist for pusaka kris maintained in families for long periods of time as heirlooms. Even though I have traveled to the Philippines and visited Mindanao a few times, I have not had the opportunity to sit down with a Moro family and talk about great-great-great-grandfather's kris. Those swords are probably out there for some investigator to discover, but that requires a particular entrée to Moro society that I didn't have as a foreigner in a strange land. We may get there eventually.

In the meanwhile, I have been exploring in what way the modern kris was developed incrementally from the Indonesian/Bali keris. My reasoning is that the more features a Moro kris has in common with the keris of 16th C Indonesia, then the older the kris is likely to be. That may be overly simple, but at least it provides a rationale for beginning to date Moro kris.

This requires definitions. What is a Moro kris? I suggest those kris that were made in Mindanao and the Sulu Archipelago (and perhaps Palawan) are in this category, but what about Sabah, Brunei, and Sarawak? At one time most of Sabah and Sarawak were part of the Sultanate of Brunei. I would group Brunei kris with Moro kris because of this Brunei Sultanate's longstanding, close ties with the Moros of Sulu (particularly) and Mindanao.

Then what about the "cousins" of Moro kris made in the Malaya States (now Malaysia), formerly the Sultanate of Melaka? I define the Malay kris that resembles some Moro kris as a separate group. The Malay sundang style is usually sufficiently different to warrant a separate classification, but some Malay examples are almost identical to Moro kris. There is another reason to consider the Malay sundang as a separate entity. Malay culture is also a keris culture and has its own forms of keris that continue to be made today. That, in turn, has likely influenced the style of sundang in ways that the Moro kris has not.

Whether the Malay sundang and Moro kris are examples of parallel development, or one departed from the other at an early stage, is unclear. Also, to what extent trade and cross over of ideas may have influenced each over the centuries is hard to know.

Lastly, with respect to trade, I have attached a map of some of the trade routes in SE Asia during the period from 1200 to 1450 C.E. There was a lot of commerce happening in the region before the arrival of Europeans in force.

So this is the environment I'm trying to understand from an historical perspective, while thinking about how the "Modern Indonesian Keris" was transformed into a Moro kris over the following centuries.

While there are some similarities between "early" Moro kris and the keris, there are some important differences too. Some of these may be put down to style, but others are clearly functional and developed from practical experience. Indeed, there are so many major and minor changes from keris to kris that these changes must have occurred over a substantial period—I would suggest several centuries.

I'm in the process of trying to document what all these changes are and in what sequence they may have occurred. I'm looking at online pictures and my collection of kris as primary sources of information. It is a time consuming process!

Regards,

Ian
.
Attached Images
 

Last edited by Ian; 20th August 2024 at 04:41 AM.
Ian is offline   Reply With Quote
Reply


Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off

Forum Jump


All times are GMT +1. The time now is 10:12 PM.


Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.11
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, vBulletin Solutions Inc.
Posts are regarded as being copyrighted by their authors and the act of posting material is deemed to be a granting of an irrevocable nonexclusive license for display here.