Afghani pulwar: old and ( perhaps) revealing

[mahratt]

Originally Posted by ariel

Thanks. Very helpful.
When the picture is enlarged to 400-500%, one can see clearly that the pommels marked in red are not solid spherical, but flat on top ( hemispherical), hollow inside, have no lids and in some of them balusters protrude above the boundaries of the pommel. Also, their quillons are fleuret-like and not down-turned, strengthening Jens' statement of their earlier origin.

You probably did not enlarge the miniature that I showed.
Although there are also hemispherical pommel on the miniature (I highlighted with a white arrow). The ratio of spherical pommels and hemispherical pommels is about the same, so it is difficult to say which shape of the top was more archaic.

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Memoirs_of_Babur_(Walters_MS_596)#/media/File:Zahir_al-Din_Muhammad_Babur_-_The_Battle_of_Sultan_Husayn_Mirza_Against_Sultan_ Mas'ud_Mirza_-_Walters_W59618B_-_Full_Page.jpg