[Jim McDougall]

The subject of the mysterious ancestry of the flyssa has really brought in some great discussion here, and excellent observations. I honestly have been thinking a lot about things that have been brought up, and while the fascinating idea of the Rohrschach application, if you will, in bringing together two flyssa doppelgangers revealing an ancient Celtic sword is admittedly most appealing, it must remain hypothetical.The waisted blade on the Celtic example corresponds nicely with the deep belly on the flyssa, and presents a tempting suggestion, but without either well supported evidence or archaeological proof in examples of prototypes, cannot be developed as a theory.

The subject on Celtic influence in North Africa seems to be best considered as indirect diffusion. While the Celtic culture was clearly widespread over considerable ancient periods, it permeated many developing cultures, with its influences remaining as fiber in all of them. I was thinking, I myself carry Celtic influence, as clearly my surname reflects Scottish ancestry, and as often the case in American people, my geneology reflects Germanic and other influences, all Indo-European, as well. In this sense, Celtic influence did exist in North African culture. I think the link that David posted showed it well, reflecting linguistic associations between Berber language and Gaelic.

The development of the flyssa seems most likely as previously mentioned, through Ottoman influences, which indirectly seem to have evolved from the Meditteranean edged weapons that prevailed in ancient times; the kopis, the machaira and the falcata. These all have the prominant deep belly that seems to have become a key feature in a number of weapons in places such as India, and of course the kukri, which though associated with Nepal, seems to have earlier influences from India. There are of course other sword forms carrying this early Meditteranean influence, including the later developing yataghan of Turkey, bringing us to our point of contact.

Rather than progressive line of development, which of course we know does not exist presently in archaeological evidence, I believe there has been often in many cultures, a reaching for tradition in weaponry, which in many cases might best be considered sought in iconographical sources. Possibly this might explain the adoption of certain distinct features on weapons that have appeared with ancient appearance in relatively modern times. I believe there are a number of examples that reflect this possibility such as the shotel, and others such as the yataghan, therefore indirectly....the flyssa.

All best regards,
Jim