Dating the 3 identifiable ages of the Moro Kris ?

MABAGANI · 6th February 2005, 04:16 PM

No, the sheath does not fit and not particularly garab in form, the hilt is actually similar to one of Vandoo's and Labantayo's Visayan kris from old threads, but with this keris/kris the hilt nor the scabbard fit, they look like they were just matched at a later point. Strange about the "dagger", the thickness of its tang does not leave room for the guard which looks like its missing in form but may have been intentionally made that way. IMHO, the type seems Brunei to me which makes sense if they were introducing them into Sulu, Mindanao, the Visayas and Luzon, noting Brunei's early connection to the Moros of Manila and the Brunei's later alliances with the Mindanao and Sulu sultanates in their struggle to control the Visayas. "If" this is in fact an early prototype keris/kris it would be safe to push the origin dates to around early/mid 16th century, where written accounts can be found about Brunei and their native dagger/keris?, this leaves approximately a century to the era of Buisan and Kudrat, for the keris to kris to develop into a sword or what we call the archaic type kris, when convergence in faith and kris type can be found among the Moro regions.
Again if this doesn't fly, we could always fall back on an alien origin...

6th February 2005, 04:16 PM	#17
MABAGANI Member Join Date: Dec 2004 Posts: 221	No, the sheath does not fit and not particularly garab in form, the hilt is actually similar to one of Vandoo's and Labantayo's Visayan kris from old threads, but with this keris/kris the hilt nor the scabbard fit, they look like they were just matched at a later point. Strange about the "dagger", the thickness of its tang does not leave room for the guard which looks like its missing in form but may have been intentionally made that way. IMHO, the type seems Brunei to me which makes sense if they were introducing them into Sulu, Mindanao, the Visayas and Luzon, noting Brunei's early connection to the Moros of Manila and the Brunei's later alliances with the Mindanao and Sulu sultanates in their struggle to control the Visayas. "If" this is in fact an early prototype keris/kris it would be safe to push the origin dates to around early/mid 16th century, where written accounts can be found about Brunei and their native dagger/keris?, this leaves approximately a century to the era of Buisan and Kudrat, for the keris to kris to develop into a sword or what we call the archaic type kris, when convergence in faith and kris type can be found among the Moro regions. Again if this doesn't fly, we could always fall back on an alien origin... Last edited by MABAGANI; 6th February 2005 at 04:51 PM.