Ethnographic Arms & Armour - View Single Post

LJ · 20th September 2014, 10:09 PM

I think once we start talking about names, this opens a whole can of worms. Perhaps somebody might want to start a separate post on this !

I think the European Armoury guys might be happier if long thin weapons were generically called 'Pole Arms', but I've always been quite happy to use 'spear' for long pointy things that were either thrown or held. In fact, I suspect that in many cases there might have been no clear distinction ... one spear might have been both thrown AND/OR held at different times depending on circumstances. Assegais, with 'throwing' and 'stabbing' varieties being a notable exception.

Lances ... yes, I think the name is usually restricted to things used when riding horses.

All of which is interesting, but gets away from this post a bit. Yes, I'm fairly certain it isn't a Japanese Yari. Following Maurice's lead I've looked at the Volkenkunde Museum (Leiden) website and although their images are low-resolution you can see there are several Pole Arms from Aceh in their collection that have facetted shafts. They are listed on the database as lances, rather than spears, which begs the question ... were they used on horseback ?

20th September 2014, 10:09 PM	#10
LJ Member Join Date: Mar 2014 Posts: 93	I think once we start talking about names, this opens a whole can of worms. Perhaps somebody might want to start a separate post on this ! I think the European Armoury guys might be happier if long thin weapons were generically called 'Pole Arms', but I've always been quite happy to use 'spear' for long pointy things that were either thrown or held. In fact, I suspect that in many cases there might have been no clear distinction ... one spear might have been both thrown AND/OR held at different times depending on circumstances. Assegais, with 'throwing' and 'stabbing' varieties being a notable exception. Lances ... yes, I think the name is usually restricted to things used when riding horses. All of which is interesting, but gets away from this post a bit. Yes, I'm fairly certain it isn't a Japanese Yari. Following Maurice's lead I've looked at the Volkenkunde Museum (Leiden) website and although their images are low-resolution you can see there are several Pole Arms from Aceh in their collection that have facetted shafts. They are listed on the database as lances, rather than spears, which begs the question ... were they used on horseback ?