a few exhibitions/articles, great photos

[Rivkin]

... unfortunately, the text is in russian
Iran/Caucasus
http://knifelife.ru/misc_vystavka.htm
Kuban (Kipchaq/Khazar, not "Kuban culture")
http://tgorod.ru/index.php?topgroupid=2&groupid=7&subgroupid=5&contentid=252
http://tgorod.ru/index.php?topgroupid=2&groupid=7&subgroupid=5&contentid=36
http://tgorod.ru/index.php?topgroupid=2&groupid=7&subgroupid=5&contentid=265
http://tgorod.ru/index.php?topgroupid=2&groupid=7&subgroupid=5&contentid=36
http://gorod.crimea.edu/librari/kavveapnew/
http://www.artsales.com/ARTistory/Ancient_Ships/Ancient_Weapons_Bronze_Age_Daggers_and_Swords.html

[TVV]

Great links! I have a question about one of the items from the St. Petersburg Ethnographic Museum: is that an Uzbek shashka, because to me it resembles a flyssa?
http://knifelife.ru/images/vystavka/vystavka_11.jpg

[Tim Simmons]

I think you are right. It will not be the first time a wrongly catalouged item is repeatedly presented by museum staff; some are indeed highly educatated and very knowledgeable. On the over hand many have nothing else to go on except the previous generations erroneous labeling and legacies from the turn of the 19/20th centuries cataloguing, something I might add we all come across.

[TVV]

I think you are right. It will not be the first time a wrongly catalouged item is repeatedly presented by museum staff; some are indeed highly educatated and very knowledgeable. On the over hand many have nothing else to go on except the previous generations erroneous labeling and legacies from the turn of the 19/20th centuries cataloguing, something I might add we all come across.

Well, in one of the exhibits a straight Qajar Revival sword is presented as Zu-l-fiqar, but then I think in SFI forums somebody mentioned that Astvatsaturian is the head of the St. Petersburg Ethnographic museum. However, the sword in question from the Uzbek display to me at least appears to be misplaced. If it turns out to be a flyssa, how it made its way into the royal arsenals of the Tsars is a whole different question.

[ariel]

Astvatsaturyan worked all her life in the State Historical Museum in Moscow. This misindefication is not her fault.
I saw this catalogue posted on another Forum ~ week ago and sent an e-mail to the organizers re. Flyssa; no response yet...
Here is the link
http://forums.swordforum.com/showthread.php?threadid=64364
Many nice weapons. I was very intrigued by the Central Asian "promise", but did not see much I did not know already. I would love to learn more about Kazakh, Uzbek and Kirghiz swords in a systematic fashion.
Any good source?