Quote:
|
Originally Posted by cel7
Hi there,
Bought this mace this week. Not sure what it is but according to the seller it would be a 19e century Mongolian mace. Does anyone have any idea what it really is?
Thanks!
|
its a modern made fantasy item. probably indian.. more than likely..
there is still maces and flails made in inner mongolia.. although probably native inner mongolian population are pretty much under sever pressure or worse from the chinese government so knife making and traditional handcraft making is probably severely curtailed at this point or just outright suppressed... .. there some collectors in the chinese version of the internetz showing recently made inner mongolian maces, flails,, boomerangs, axes and throwing flails that that are still made and used that people have collected but information on the items is pretty limited. although it appears the ongls there still make them...... .. they have several types.. maces generally have bronze cast cog type heads.. some have a curved handle to facilitate throwing.. they are designed to be used from a horse.. the axes too and the look very much like the socketed axes from 1000snsds of years ago.. the boomerangs come in several forms as to the throwing flails.. some boomerangs have a heavy impact end with metal on it.. all items sort of overlap to a degree with some maces with handles long like axes.. or clublike boomerangs with a hand grip and a weighted end. or some throwing sticks with lead weighted heads or axes with small heavy heads like a mace almost.. ect.... . ect.. the all seem to be designed as both hunting tools and weapons interchangeably, to be both thrown and to be struck form the hand .. .. the throwing flails are used to kill wolves based on picture sive seen.. .
in mongolia none of these weapons survive and even probably look totally exotic to outer mongolians there who have used superior firearms and russian traded weapons since at least the late 18th century when compared to thier southern brethren ... just the fact that mongolians in outer mongolia used a decent flit lock mechanism of their own division while their southern brothers used a matchlocks like tibetians in style sort of tells that one group was much more keen on guns than the other.. im not sure exactly why none of these traditions survived with the outer mongolians.. but even pictures from the 1890s of khalkha and buryat mongols .. it shows mostly russian shashkas.. muskets maybe bows for hunting and sport, even lots of russian made axes.. rather than local products.. .... ect.. seems that such items were abandoned very quickly by one group and retained very late by the other..
anyway back to the maces none ive seen have iron hafts.. they are wood, heads normally they can be forged fluted iron but more common bronze or brass.. some have a twist to the fluting.. heads are small and handles quite long.. some have lanyards on them in the manner of kazakh/kyrgiz axes once had..