Sahel ? dagger
 

Hi

I found this little African dagger fairly recently, its of a type I havn't seen before. Can anyone help to identify it ?

Those iron hoops round the hilt make me think of northern Nigerian type arm daggers etc., but the sheath of hide over wood, seems more like East African work.

Any ideas, or images of comparative examples etc would be appreciated.

Anyone have some ideas on this dagger ?

South Sudan. I think there are similar daggers in the Pittrivers south sudan project.

http://southernsudan.prm.ox.ac.uk/

similar form
http://southernsudan.prm.ox.ac.uk/details/1930.86.13/

Thanks Tim, you could be right. The Jur knife shown certainly has similarities of form. However, the iron bands round the hilt and line decoration to the blade centre on my dagger, don't seem to appear on Sudan or East African examples ??

Any other comments/ideas are welcome.

What I always find intriguing is that even 20th century examples of Sudanese daggers often carry various crudely inscribed markings, and often in these linear fashion groupings. It seems compelling proof of deep symbolic meanings in many of the markings on these weapons which far exceed the idea that natives simply copied established markings to signify quality etc as with spurious European markings.

Obviously in many cases, perhaps even this one, this crude application may simply be simulated motif seen on other arms, but many 'rocker' type designs may have that deeper significance.

It would be interesting to see other Sudanese daggers with markings of this kind to look further into these possibilities.

A three-knife case of knives from Sudan
 

Hi Jim,

Here are three knives from Sudan with interesting markings. Perhaps they will be useful for your research!

Best,

Dave A.

WOW! Those are superb examples Dave! Thank you so much!
These show pretty much what I mean about symbolism, and often these configurations are applied by tribesmen themselves as well as by local artisans. While as I noted, in many cases these stylized motif are copying decoration seen elsewhere, examples such as in the dagger in photo #2 with the linear arcs paired .....and these are imitating the 'Lohr' panel seen on the upper blade of many kaskara.

The geometric lines and dots seem to imitate certain 'map' type configurations with strategic locations represented on some Islamic blades. Geometrics and symmetry are key symbolism often seen in tribal folk religion and talismanic imbuement .

I really do appreciate these additions Dave, and definitely ideal additions to my notes! :)

Good!
 

Happy to be of service! I ask only that you share your findings. :)

Now that I know what you are looking for, I will dig deeper and see what else I can find.

- Dave

You bet Dave! That is what we do here, and while research is often slow, it is always good to see threads from some time ago reopened with new data. These threads are archives which always remain 'open cases' and always essentially active, so hopefully others will also join in adding examples they have or have seen.
Thank you again!!!
Jim