Ethnographic Arms & Armour - View Single Post

ariel · 13th April 2017, 04:42 AM

Dating of Chooras is notoriously difficult: 99.999% of them are not dated or inscribed. Only materials ( plastic handles) or stupid etchings of the blade + general condition can give general clues. I have two Chooras whose wooden scabbards with paper labels were dated by a world class paper/ wood restorer to mid-19th century. Circumstantial, but still evidence.

There was a sweeping theory of some person that any Afghani weapon with even trace of brass is no earlier than 20th century ( this is despite Moser and Egerton's collections). Balderdash, of course, but it was published in the proceedings of a conference in Russia:-)
I guess that Afghani Khyber denizens did not care much about future academic disputations, but just adapted a Pesh Kabz to their own tastes and kept it unchanged for hundreds of years. It could stab good! And that all that mattered to them.

13th April 2017, 04:42 AM	#5
ariel Member Join Date: Dec 2004 Location: Ann Arbor, MI Posts: 5,503	Dating of Chooras is notoriously difficult: 99.999% of them are not dated or inscribed. Only materials ( plastic handles) or stupid etchings of the blade + general condition can give general clues. I have two Chooras whose wooden scabbards with paper labels were dated by a world class paper/ wood restorer to mid-19th century. Circumstantial, but still evidence. There was a sweeping theory of some person that any Afghani weapon with even trace of brass is no earlier than 20th century ( this is despite Moser and Egerton's collections). Balderdash, of course, but it was published in the proceedings of a conference in Russia:-) I guess that Afghani Khyber denizens did not care much about future academic disputations, but just adapted a Pesh Kabz to their own tastes and kept it unchanged for hundreds of years. It could stab good! And that all that mattered to them.