Dear Friends,

The Khmers (Cambodians) founded a kingdom in what is now Cambodia some time during the 6th Centuries AD. By the 10th Century they ruled an empire that included parts of Thailand, Laos and Vietnam. http://www.infoplease.com/ce6/history/A0827550.html

I searched unsuccessfully to find illustrations of Khmer swords but I was not successful.
If you would like to know more about the Khmer, go to:
http://aolsearch.aol.com/aol/search?invocatio...=9&y=5

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Very interesting! I'm starting to get into south-east Asian history and hoplology, but I know so little. thanks for posting this fascinating pic and information.

Interesting swords. Can you tell us a little more about them -- provenence, age ... whether any are for sale ;)?

The ones with the "clipped" tip resemble montagnard swords from highland Viet Nam and Laos, both either within, or in the sphere of influence, of the Khmer Empire at one time or another. The handles are much shorter than one generally sees on montagnard swords, however, which usually have handles as long as or sometimes even longer than the blade.

The bottom two closely resemble swords appearing in the numerous relief carvings of the temples of Angkor. While there are some curved weapons depicted, they generally have more slender blades and lack the abrupt upturn at the tip seem in your examples.

There is literally nothing of substance published about the swords of continental Southeast Asia, other than a few articles or book sections on contemporary swordmaking. The history of the area is very interesting and extremely complex, with numerous ethnic groups moving in and through the area, and political boundries shifting a great deal as the fortunes of one or another group rose and fell. I recommend the Cambridge History of Southeast Asia (in four volumes) for a comprehensive overview of the history and culture of the area.

Dear Mark,

Your suspicions are correct, I received the following message from one of the dalers who sold me three of the swords:
Dear John ,

you got an impressive assortment of swords from Cambo.//however after recent discussion with my freind who work for AD of Cambo. i am inclined to think it is Cham swords ..top dagger you got from me is certainly Khmer ..Cham swords have a chinese infulence in style and can be seen on sandstone panels ..

if you can manage to get a pic of Cham warrior i will forward it to you ..

SEA artifacts is still a mystery in many cases .

best Paul

I took a new picture with my sole Champa sword at the top of the board, not that it has three pieces of scabbard fittings. I now come to the conclusion that I have that I have 8 Champa swords and 3 Khmer swords, at least until I get some new input.

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Dear Friends,

For those interested in learning more about the Champa Kingdom:
http://aolsearch.aol.com/aol/search?query=champa+kingdom
http://pnclink.org/annual/annual2003/programe...110931.pdf
http://www.viettouch.com/champa/champa_history.html