Identifying/Conserving a Kaskara from the late 60s or earlier

[Jim McDougall]

Originally Posted by dbpro

I appreciate everyone's comments. I think I'm going to try the Rust Eraser and/or the Ballistol as suggested. I would be interested if anyone had any insight on the human head etching attached. Most of the rest I recognize from other Kaskara posts. I've attached an "enhanced" image that has been rotated.

The head on this kaskara blade is likely commemorative for Emperor Johannes IV of Ethiopia (1872-1889) who was killed at the Battle of Gallabat 10 Mar 1889. This was result of ongoing turmoil between the Mahdist forces and Ethiopia (then Abyssinia). The complexities of these geopolitics involved Great Britain, Italy, Eritrea and Ottoman Egypt and far exceed explanation here.

However the death of the Christian Emperor was of great importance to many of the tribal groups in Ethiopia, and the dramatic act of the Mahdists beheading his body and parading the head on a pike in Omdurman was long remembered.

The Battle of Gallbat took place at Metemma near the Sudanese border in March 1889. This is in the ASMARA region of Ethiopia . The Emperor was actually killed by the Beni Amir warriors of Eritrea, which suggests the possibility of Eritrean provenance for these kaskara with the head mark, however it is equally possible of Ethiopian provenance as they celebrate the Emperor himself, not the trophy element which was carried out by Mahdists.

These stylized marks of a human head are typically regarded as representing Johannes IV and these events.



As Ed has pointed out, the stylized crescent moon heads imitate the types of cosmological motif typically seen on many German import blades, which had arrived in considerable volume from 1820s onward and well circulated through trade entrepots and networks from Sudan through the Sahara.
I attached the plate Ed refers to.
These moons were seen as Ed notes to represent blade quality as on the German blades, which were highly regarded by the native people, but equally were deemed as symbols which imbued magic in the blades.

These kaskara were highly treasured heirlooms of the families who owned them, and were regarded as not only honorific symbols of paternal and dynastic power, but icons of the warrior exploits and history of the ancestors.

I trust this wonderful example that was brought home by your father will be held in similar manner representing this adventures in foreign lands, and treasured accordingly.