Thank you Gav, and absolutely beautifully said!
Stu, thank you so much for the well placed link. It is often truly amazing at how far the trade networks of Spain actually reached, and with interaction with those of other powers and cultural spheres it becomes phenomenal.
Ed, thank you as well for the link to the exellent work by Marc on the metallurgy of many of these type blades! I wanted to also respectfully disagree with your extremely modest note on your experience with this topic. You have undertaken some of the most serious field work on the weapons of Sudan, and your outstanding work remains as one of the key perspectives on which much of the continuing research has benchmarked.
Thank you all for the great input and well wishes!
The quest for examples of these blades in these contexts continues!
All the best,
Jim
Jim
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