Pattern-welded (twist core) Budiak

[Maurice]

Originally Posted by Lee

Maurice, I have scanned in one of the plates from Krieger (1926) below and have labeled the spears with the tribal associations given in the text. Numbers 8 & 9 appear to have a square neck, but are Bagabo & Moro, respectively. Similarly, the etched panels on the blade faces are present and absent with both associations. The text describes the ferrules of these examples as being of brass or iron.

Lee, thank you for the scanned Krieger plate. I do have the Krieger images on my computer, but in a smaller format, so it is more clear to see now.
Bagobo & moro, panels present and absent, I think a lot of work and research can and need to be done here to find out more about these great pieces...

Originally Posted by Lee

I suppose that these Malaysian spearheads would have spread throughout the region by trade and capture and so can no more be precisely placed geographically than a European winged spearhead of the 9th - 10th century (socketed instead of tanged, but of about the same size and with sometimes with similar pattern-welding!) Mountings would clearly help, when present, in the rare cases where examples of known provenance are available for comparison. Hopefully, some day the chronology and regional variations will be worked out for these most impressive artifacts.

Yes I agree with the trade and capture part. Therefore it is harder to track down the origine for us.
I hope there is somebody able to study the regional variations.
I once started a thread about provenanced pieces. But I was the only one it seemed who was interested in, cause there were no reactions or postings from others. This could enlighten a lot and would be a great threat as reference material and might be an important "Sticky".........but forumites need to post their pieces first...:-)

Maurice