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Old 30th June 2019, 05:27 PM   #2
Jim McDougall
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Join Date: Dec 2004
Location: Route 66
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The term 'shotel' is of course an Ethiopian parlance term for 'sword' though there has been confusion on its application.
This appears to be a 'gile' which is an edged weapon of Afar tribes situated in and around Danakil regions in Africa, which are in the areas near Ethiopia, Eritrea and Somalia.

This seems a variant form reflecting obvious influences of Ethiopian shotels, but seems with closer affinity to the Danakil types.

It is of course not unusual to see these kinds of hybridization as these influences diffused throughout these regions and may have been favored and applied by tribal craftsmen at their whim. These 'large knives' are often regarded in the sense of the janbiyya daggers of Yemen in their manner of wear and use, while of course not entirely corresponding to the form itself.
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