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#1 |
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Join Date: Apr 2005
Posts: 3,252
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Hello SEA aficionados!
In a recent thread and another one, Aceh pommels with a tassel of hair attached to the distal cavity of the horn were shown. I'm attaching pics of known examples below for reference - please add any additional examples you may come across! Due to the large size of Aceh horn hilts, the natural cavity of horn (usually from water buffalo) is often still present when the hilt is fully carved. In hilts with big pommel (hulu tapa guda, hulu cangge gliwang, etc.) this cavity is usually left open. In hilts of the gaping mouth types (hulu tumpang beunteueng, hulu peusangan, hulu rumpung, hulu babah buya) this cavity tends to be small and is often filled with jabung (cutler's resin); sometimes the tang seems to be sticking out, too (the usual tang of these blades doesn't seem to be long though; this might rather be a separate pin - some x-rays would be great to check!). The Dutch subdued Aceh (or pretty much all of northern Sumatra) quite late and there was immediate scientific work done on the local cultures to foster the Dutch colonial rule. Despite of several detailed accounts on weapons, I know of no early source that even mentions any kind of tassels with these weapons. There are loads of genuine antique swords from northern Sumatra that got into European musea and private collections during the Aceh war (and subsequent military/police actions) or during the early colonial period. Only a minute fraction of these do exhibit tassels of hair as shown in this thread, a huge majority of the "bald" hilts does not show any signs of later losses/removal/repair; this includes many high-status pieces with gold decoration which will, on average, have received more attention for preservation and study. In the light of this evidence I don't think tassels of hair are a genuine feature of any culture in northern Sumatra. This is a probabilistic approach though, certainly not written in stone. I'm certainly trying to keep an open mind and ask you to falsify my hypothesis. We all know that dealers and collectors often restore decorations of hair (as it is fragile and easily lost to clothing moths, dermestid beetles, etc.); I don't think it's unreasonable to assume that some would be dumb enough to also do this to pieces from a culture without any such tradition... ![]() There is still another possibility though: Aceh was one of the important trade ports and political powers throughout the archipelago. A few swords from northern Sumatra have been found in other regions, e. g. a sikin panjang found early in Banjarmasin (Schmeltz, 1890). There is a slight chance that such a sword ended up in a culture with hair tassels and received an ethnographically legit upgrade by the new owner. However, this chance will not be terribly high IMVHO... ![]() Short of a full CSI investigation, maybe the mode of attachment could give some additional hints: It would be great if you were to add close-ups showing the base of any tassels to this thread! Regards, Kai |
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#2 | |
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Posts: 3,252
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Example #1 from this thread: http://www.vikingsword.com/vb/showthread.php?t=22732
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#3 | |
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Example #2 from this thread: http://www.vikingsword.com/vb/showpo...98&postcount=1
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#4 |
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Example #2 from this thread: http://www.vikingsword.com/vb/showp...098&postcount=10
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#5 | |
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Join Date: Aug 2014
Location: Germany
Posts: 525
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2: To add a hair tuft as an upgrade to increase the price is also not senseful, because most collectors know what the buy and they will laugh about such an attempt. In my case the hair is braided and surely not a kind of silly upgrade by a collector. Roland |
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#6 | ||
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Hello Roland,
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![]() However, I have seen enough of "upgrades" and other stupid things done to genuine artifacts as to never exclude their possibility, even if deemed unlikely. Caveat emptor... ![]() (Just a general comment, not aimed at any piece specifically since I haven't personally handled any of them yet.) Quote:
It probably won't be possible to assess from pics whether any of these attached tassels are really genuine - it may be possible to recognise later additions though. Anyway, I believe gathering as much data as possible will be a good start! Regards, Kai |
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#7 | |
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Submitted via email - thanks, Karel!
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#8 | ||
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Hello Karel,
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The pinned construction is certainly unusual for the whole archipelago. Regards, Kai |
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#9 | |
Member
Join Date: Aug 2007
Location: Germany, Dortmund
Posts: 8,732
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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 |
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#10 | |||||
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Hello Detlef,
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![]() 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. Quote:
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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 |
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#11 |
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Join Date: Feb 2013
Location: Stockholm, Sweden
Posts: 12
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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 |
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