Trident head for I.D. South-East Asian ?

[colin henshaw]

Could anyone help to identify this trident head, presumably from South-East Asia somewhere ?

I would be interested to know the... area of origin, approximate date range etc. If someone has comparable, complete examples, do please post them.

With thanks in advance.

[kronckew]

(oops double post)

[kronckew]

looks like a javanese trident, which would be inserted in a socket in the end of a pole like a spear. some spearheads get mounted as daggers tho. not sure about tridents.the pamour (laminated and arsenic washed) steel is nice. it also pins down the area to indonesia. the only other ones similar i found googling were listed as javanese. a forum search didn't bring me any examples either. personally it looks fairly new, hasn't been 'washed' much. but i am not an expert in this area (if any :)) anyhow, i like it.

a fairly unusual item. hopefully the keris guru can flesh out the details.

[Sajen]

Hi Colin,

yes, most probable from Java, called trisula. Can't say if it's an old one but old ones rare and expensive.

Regards,
Detlef

[Henk]

Yep Java. Very nice trisula. Always mounted as a tombak. I've never seen a trisula mounted seriously as a dagger. Just as Detlef I cann't say anything about it's age.

[A. G. Maisey]

Agree with the above posts.

Definitely not old, made within the last 100 years.

Two types of older ones, those from approximately the Majapahit era, these are quite small, and I seriously doubt were ever used as a weapon to spill blood, later ones after the domination of Islam in Jawa, which seem to have been intended as serious weapons, some of these can be pretty big, up to over a foot long and proportionately wide.

It is possible that the ones from early Jawa were used as finials for the poles used to carry banners into battle, the Javanese from the classical eras (both early and late) regarded banners as a weapon of war.

[colin henshaw]

Many thanks for the informative comments on this piece. It looks a bit similar to the trident attribute of the Hindu deity, Shiva.

[A. G. Maisey]

Yes, and of course that is the reason for the pattern in Jawa.

[Rick]

Three within three; nice form for this trisula . :)