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Originally Posted by Kubur
mmmm do you expect an exact replica done by Africans South of the Sahara, more than 1000 years after the end of the Roman Empire?
It's well accepted that tabouka and kaskara are African weapons inspired by Medieval swords... But we don't have any proof...
It's the same with the cuirass, it'll be very difficult to prove that they are not or they are inspired by Roman armour...
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The difference is we can make a case for the "when" and the "how" for the kaskara and the takouba taking influence from Mamluk and outside sources includes details of trade routes, political and trade contact between states, physical trips by African monarchs through Egypt etc. The same for lifida armour, the horses used by the local cavalries etc.
The problem I have with making any connection to Roman armour is that the Kanuri and Kanembu peoples who made up the Bornu empire were geographically and in terms of a timeline far removed from any Roman presence in North Africa. Otherwise any assumed Roman influence is merely a case of seeing a rough visual similarity, an argument no stronger than the Victorian assumption the kaskara was derived from the swords of Crusaders or that certain forms of daggers and swords seen in Cameroon are derived from the Celts...