Origins of shashka

[ariel]

The origin and the timing of appearance of the Caucasian shashka are unknown. The prevailing notion says that they first appeared in Circassia sometimes at the end of the 18th century. The latter had been agreed upon because there were no confirmed images or actual examples of shashkas before the early 19th century.

Well, recently a paper was presented at one of the Russian historical meeting that pushed the age of shashka back to at least 17th century, with iconographic images of it coming from Western Georgia ( not Circassia).
The authors, S. Talantov and L. Dvalishvili, examined frescoes of several Georgian churches. There was a custom to draw portrais of " ktitors" , i.e. donors of funds for the erection or renovation of Greek- Orthodox churches ( in the Catholic world they were called " donators").
Here are several pictures.