Early Yataghan for Comments and Discussion

[TVV]

GP, congratulations on your new yataghan. I have what I believe is a similar yataghan, except mine has lost the original leather on the scabbard and has been shortened. The scabbard has a very similar pattern carved on it and ends similarly in a thimble at the chape. Based on the scabbard and the thimble, I used to think it was Algerian, but now I am not so sure. When I showed mine to some yataghan collectors in Bulgaria they thought that it was from Macedonia or Northern Greece, at least based on the hilt and bolster.






Your question about the relation between yataghans and the sikas and machairas of Thracians, Illyrians, Dacians and some of the Celts which settled in the Balkans during Antiquity is a very good one. I personally believe there is a relation, but I cannot prove it in any conclusive manner and I do not really want to create even more controversy in this thread.