A point also not made totally clear....

It's not completely certain whether some of the Celtic/Germanic long knives are/were actually weapons.

Clearly the Hjorspring ones were weapons from the find context. However, the celtic knives could easily be tool as much as sidearm. Most of these were found in grave contexts, however often you also have other luxury goods, sacrificed animals, wine-drinking gear, etc. They're not always very big, and even the shape and cross section I don't believe to be definitive---something good for carving meat is shaped to efficiently slice flesh, and could therfore look weapon-ish

Even the large ones could be more along the lines of ostentatious carving knives, given the prominence of the feast and the Hero's right to the select portions of the roast animal (boar). So even the bigger celtic ones might be something like a really big carving knife, that shows status.

These curved knives are also not omnipresent in warrior graves (unlike a spear or some such), so, who knows?

Ok then I just posted this pic on a other board here.
But I ques it also belongs here...

Maybe the right one is another candidate for ancester of the Falcata..?

And what about the falcata on the left?
Dus it look like something, a good replica, reproduction for example, or is it way to ornated..?

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Here is a very speculative idea. As I understand it, the kopis has an Egyptian antecedent. Boomerangs were widely used in ancient Egypt. Boomerangs in Australia historically are known to be used as swords. Many were never thrown. From descriptions of fights the strokes sound much like the motion of a kopis/kuhkri. Is it possible that the kopis has a wooden boomerang ancestor?

Hey, if you're going to club people to death, you might as well do it in style. Actually, I was like Kirk in thinking this theory a bit strange at first, but I don't why it couldn't be true, either. Thanks Tim, that is certainly something interesting to contemplate.

-Grey

Thanks for the consideration. Warming to the subject, I took a look at Richard Burton's "Book of the Sword". He devotes quite a bit of space to this idea, or at least a lot of similar thoughts. I haven't really studied it completely yet but there is a lot of interesting material there.

I happened to see this topic,this is a interesting question I have thought about for a long time.But I started from the searching for the source of Yatagan.

there is a kind of sword spread form pre-Roman Hispania,to Greek,Turk,Caucasia,Afghanistan,and other central asia countries,east even to China.

they have two obvious characteristics:

1.forward-curving blade
2.animal head hilt

the cultural source and actual spread route is still uncertain,because these areas are the route Alexandria the Great march east and also the southen border of the ancient nomadism zone form Siberia to Black Sea where hordes moved around from prehistoric era.

here are some archaeological informations in China ,maybe can expand the horizon on this topic.

dagger-axes and knife ,1600BC-1500BC,unearthed in Henan Province ,China ,

Great changes the culture relics of the fourth phase of Erlitou culture,Zhu Xiao-jun

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I

Daggers with animal head hilt ,1200BC, unearthed in Henan Province,China,

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II

sword ,1000BC-900BC,unearthed in Beijing,China

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III [ Download ]

dagger ,800BC, unearthed in inner Mongolia,China

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IV [ Download ]

daggers,100BC, unearthed in inner Mongolia

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V

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locations where these relics are unearthed [ Download ]

Read,
Thanks for these pictures. Unlike some other forums, we allow users to attach more than one picture per post. It saves page space and the annoyance of having to scroll through many individual posts with only one picture. Thanks!

Those daggers and working knives with animal heads remind me of artifacts found in the region between the western mountains of China,(Altai and others) and the Black Sea. They would seem to come under the genre called the "animal style". Very interesting. Thanks.

Where are the items kept?

Hi Read...

Thanks for the interesting pictures and ideas... And welcome to the forum!

Central Asia really seems to be a no-man's-land for spathologists, but there are some really interesting forms that echo the broader cultural influence as people groups went progressively west onto the steppes with further cultural diffusion into Europe. Very interesting stuff.... thanks for contributing.

ks

Kirk,


The guys in the tomb painting have rather non-Egyptian looking beards. Is there any information as to their origins?

Agreed. These men are bearded, and also are wearing very non-Egyptian robes. I would think they are from Canaan, Syria, or adjacent lands.