Early Yataghan for Comments and Discussion

[TVV]

Thank you for posting some examples of ancient weapons from the Balkans, GP - they really help illustrate the forms that existed in these lands in antiquity. The ones from Varna with the Rayed Sun/Spoked Wheel symbol are fascinating in the similarity of those markings to the most commonly found markings on shepherds' knives from the 19th century. Solar symbols can be fairly universal and it may just be a coincidence, yet the resemblance is striking.






Finally, I was able to find a picture of some knives excavated at Tsarevets fortress in Veliko Tarnovo. Those are some of the few medieval knives we have that we can at least date approximately, in this case to the 12th - 14th centuries, and definitely pre-Ottoman invasion. One of them has a blade that looks very much like a sika blade. I have been told there are other ones, dated similarly or even earlier in various regional museums in Bulgaria, but I have no pictures, so it may or may not be true.

[gp]

what a beautiful and most interesting place Tarnovgrad!

https://www.tsarevets.eu/en/index.html
https://lakshmisharath.com/veliko-tarnovo-bulgaria/

certainly worth a visit !

[TVV]

Going back to the start, I was able to find a very similar yataghan to mine that Rick Stroud had on his site (it is no longer for sale).

[gp]

for those less familiar with the matter, hereby some additional info

sika:

The sika is a short sword or large knife used by the ancient Thracians, Dacians and Illyrians, also used in Ancient Rome. Preserved archaeological finds in today's Albania, Romania, Bosnia, Bulgaria and Serbia indicate that the weapon was about 40-45 cm long. The Sika is depicted on Trajan's Column in the scene of Decebalus' suicide. see first picture and the ones above

and the likeness with one of the first and also best yataghans
Exquisite workmanship and lavish use of precious materials distinguish this sword as a princely weapon and exemplifies the opulence and refinement of Ottoman luxury arts. Almost identical to a yatagan (now in the Topkapi Palace, Istanbul) made in 1526–27 by the court jeweler Ahmed Tekel, for the Ottoman sultan Süleyman the Magnificent (r. 1520–66), this sword was undoubtedly made in the same imperial workshop. The gold incrustation on the blade depicts a combat between a dragon and a phoenix against a background of foliate scrolls. These figures, like the gold-inlaid cloud bands and foliate scrolls on the ivory grips, are Chinese in inspiration, and were probably introduced into Ottoman art through contacts with Persia.

This sword is one of the earliest known yatagans, distinctly Turkish weapons characterized by a double-curved blade and a hilt without a guard. Yatagans were commonplace in Turkey and the Balkans in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries and served as sidearms for the elite troops known as janissaries.
See second picture .

And in the third picture some yataghans from Montenegro 18th century

so all together a 1000 yeas between them