Greetings,
Manolo:
Salut,
Quote:
Hi Barrett!
A quick reply before going off.
First of all, drop the DNA test idea, it wouldn't get you far, as it isn't reliable. Furthermore, populations moved around a lot, even within the country, so you wouldn't get any true geographic marking past a few hundred years I don't think.
Now the curved bronze sword. I think that is purely a double-edged spada type, and that it was ritually killed for burial. The sword of the deceased was often bent in bronze-age cultures, thus killing the object's use as a weapon. I personally do not believe that it was a precursor of the sica, because this is a double-edged blade and it was originally straight. If the way it looks now is original, then we'd have the daddy/mother of the yataghan/sossoon pata on our hands
For that matter, do bronze single-edged weapons exist in Europe? A single edge would generally be seen on convex or concave blades no? with the exception of those with a T-spine. The Greek kopis is the only one that comes to mind. It would be nice to find where weapons such as the Thracian Rhomphaia come from. (the rhomphaia is the precursor of the smaller sica/falx, but what is the source of the rhomphaia?)
All the best,
Emanuel
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Thanks for the quick reply before you left. Also, about the DNA test, thanks for that tidbit of advice. I never knew that. I was thinking of the tests used to find the geographical location of a skeleton, or a remains of a body, so that was what I was basing my premise on.
Also, I agree with you about the bent spada,
. I never connected that the blade was therefore not a forefather to the sica, falx since it had a double-edge. Also, isn't the forefather to the yataghan/sosoon pata the kopis/makhaira. I love the look of both blades, the kopis/makhaira and the yataghan, though barely know of the sosoon pata. Though, I've always wondered, "?why haven't we seen more historical blades that are curved and double-edged such as the one that I've shown, throughout history?" I think such a blade would be a clearly efficient and useful weapon. But then I may be inputing to much "Modern" thinking into such a question. Who know's?
To the extent of my knowledge, I have seen examples of small single-edged bronze age curved knives, but nothing so large as a kopis/machaira, or falcata. I think that these blades were made out of iron later on, as can be seen in Classical Greece and other later Hellenistic areas.
As for the Rhomphaia, their are some historical authentic blades that I have seen with a T-spine, a few pieces by John Pipsico (all iron), that were featured in a myarmoury thread, which I could find again. And if I remember correctly, the Thracian Rhomphaia was a distinct, seperate development, and it developed from the falcata/kopis, and was purely a weapon development rather than an agricultural tool/self-defense weapons as was the Dacian falx. I don't think that the Rhomphaia was made out of bronze at any time at all throughout the Bronze Age, the technology not being able to cast something so long. But I may be wrong, when I get around to it, I'll ask around on the Bronze Age Center.
Hope, I have answered all your questions. Cheers!
Jim McDougall:
I'll get to you as quickly as possible, though right now, I have fitness class and have to work those sword-fighting muscles!
(Kinda, more like build strength and endurance, lol) Cheers! Get back to you soon!
Best regards,
Barrett Michael Hiebert