Ethnographic Arms & Armour - View Single Post

Billman · 19th September 2013, 09:14 AM

Hi, I collect billhooks - now have over 6000 from various countries and continents - one thing I have noticed is parallel development in shapes, handles, methods of construction etc. Japanese and Chinese billhooks are very similar to European ones - they have had them for at least as long as we have had in the West (at least 2000 years). Ditto those from India and Africa, in fact almost any civilisation that has had iron working in its development.

Similar parallel development can be in other basic hand tools: sickles, axes, adzes & hammers and in weapons: spears, swords, bows & arrows...

The same is probably also true in respect of ornamentation/decoration e.g. scroll work, inlay and incised decoration. I have decorated billhooks from several different countries - certain types of decoration are common in tools from widely separated areas, especially punched (or chiseled) lines, curves, whorls, stars and combinations thereof...

My best guess is that tools of this type were used by women on a daily basis. India has a tradition of decorated tools, especially sickles. These may have been part of a marriage dowry, or a gift from the groom to the bride. Judging by the degree of wear on some of the blades, they were regularly used over a long period of time. Searches of images for rice or grain harvest show mainly women working in the fields - the men undertaking the heavier tasks such as ploughing the land....

19th September 2013, 09:14 AM	#21
Billman Member Join Date: Nov 2010 Posts: 129	Hi, I collect billhooks - now have over 6000 from various countries and continents - one thing I have noticed is parallel development in shapes, handles, methods of construction etc. Japanese and Chinese billhooks are very similar to European ones - they have had them for at least as long as we have had in the West (at least 2000 years). Ditto those from India and Africa, in fact almost any civilisation that has had iron working in its development. Similar parallel development can be in other basic hand tools: sickles, axes, adzes & hammers and in weapons: spears, swords, bows & arrows... The same is probably also true in respect of ornamentation/decoration e.g. scroll work, inlay and incised decoration. I have decorated billhooks from several different countries - certain types of decoration are common in tools from widely separated areas, especially punched (or chiseled) lines, curves, whorls, stars and combinations thereof... My best guess is that tools of this type were used by women on a daily basis. India has a tradition of decorated tools, especially sickles. These may have been part of a marriage dowry, or a gift from the groom to the bride. Judging by the degree of wear on some of the blades, they were regularly used over a long period of time. Searches of images for rice or grain harvest show mainly women working in the fields - the men undertaking the heavier tasks such as ploughing the land.... Last edited by Billman; 19th September 2013 at 09:45 AM.