Ethiopian shotel

[Jim McDougall]

Originally Posted by roanoa

Hi everyone. The FORUM holds a lot of information about Ethiopian swords. All you have to do is to search for it. It's there. Many of the questions have been answered more than once.

Well noted, there is indeed a great deal of information archived here and while I recall most of it having been here from the beginning, it must be remembered that it was a process of evolution. It was always amazing to see many types of arms presented, more examples shown, often intense discussions, and quite often long standing mysteries solved in degree.

However these days many of those dynamic contributors and participants are no longer around on these pages, and things get pretty quiet. Sometimes I see a response to a thread from years ago bumped by a simple note, and when I see the heading and often realize the thread was last active years before, some even over a decade.

While great to see old threads revitalized, especially with new examples and evidence, sometimes it seems worthwhile to start new threads on topics which are of course of notable vintage, but with a 'fresh start' (so to speak).

Clearly the archived material here is easily accessible, but while of course questions often have been asked and discussed, sometimes a fresh start is productive, especially as these days there are many new 'players' , and frankly in most cases those from old threads are often long gone to other venues.

On that note, its REALLY good to see you posting, and you were always one of the most notable specialists contributing on the subject of these weapons.
While I have always used the SEARCH function as I research, my goal was to instigate new discussion as noted.