Ethnographic Arms & Armour - View Single Post

Emanuel · 27th February 2007, 02:32 AM

Hi Barrett!
A quick reply before going off.
First of all, drop the DNA test idea, it wouldn't get you far, as it isn't reliable. Furthermore, populations moved around a lot, even within the country, so you wouldn't get any true geographic marking past a few hundred years I don't think.

Now the curved bronze sword. I think that is purely a double-edged spada type, and that it was ritually killed for burial. The sword of the deceased was often bent in bronze-age cultures, thus killing the object's use as a weapon. I personally do not believe that it was a precursor of the sica, because this is a double-edged blade and it was originally straight. If the way it looks now is original, then we'd have the daddy/mother of the yataghan/sossoon pata on our hands

For that matter, do bronze single-edged weapons exist in Europe? A single edge would generally be seen on convex or concave blades no? with the exception of those with a T-spine. The Greek kopis is the only one that comes to mind. It would be nice to find where weapons such as the Thracian Rhomphaia come from. (the rhomphaia is the precursor of the smaller sica/falx, but what is the source of the rhomphaia?)

All the best,
Emanuel

27th February 2007, 02:32 AM	#8
Emanuel Member Join Date: Jul 2005 Location: Toronto, Canada Posts: 1,242	Hi Barrett! A quick reply before going off. First of all, drop the DNA test idea, it wouldn't get you far, as it isn't reliable. Furthermore, populations moved around a lot, even within the country, so you wouldn't get any true geographic marking past a few hundred years I don't think. Now the curved bronze sword. I think that is purely a double-edged spada type, and that it was ritually killed for burial. The sword of the deceased was often bent in bronze-age cultures, thus killing the object's use as a weapon. I personally do not believe that it was a precursor of the sica, because this is a double-edged blade and it was originally straight. If the way it looks now is original, then we'd have the daddy/mother of the yataghan/sossoon pata on our hands For that matter, do bronze single-edged weapons exist in Europe? A single edge would generally be seen on convex or concave blades no? with the exception of those with a T-spine. The Greek kopis is the only one that comes to mind. It would be nice to find where weapons such as the Thracian Rhomphaia come from. (the rhomphaia is the precursor of the smaller sica/falx, but what is the source of the rhomphaia?) All the best, Emanuel