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Etienne Hamel




Location: Granby (QC) canada
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PostPosted: Fri 13 Jul, 2007 7:42 am    Post subject: historical 4' maces?         Reply with quote

I wanted to know if in all the period there was traces of 4' to 5' hafted flanged maces?

thanks anyway if you don't find.
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Sean Flynt




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PostPosted: Fri 13 Jul, 2007 11:26 am    Post subject:         Reply with quote

I have never seen any that long. Everything I've seen at that length is either a hammer or axe. Morgensterns would be the nearest things to a long-hafted mace, and those tend to be slightly longer than what you're describing.


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-Sean

Author of the Little Hammer novel

https://www.amazon.com/Little-Hammer-Sean-Flynt/dp/B08XN7HZ82/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=little+hammer+book&qid=1627482034&sr=8-1
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Felix Wang




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PostPosted: Fri 13 Jul, 2007 5:00 pm    Post subject:         Reply with quote

Middle Eastern and Byzantine heavy cavalry sometimes used long handled maces, upwards of 4' long. I am not sure about the flanged head, though. Nikephoras Phokas' treatise prescribes arming the elite heavy cavalry with the mace as the primary weapon, not a lance; and later Byzantine image shows a rider using something akin to a polo mallet as a weapon.
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Justin Pasternak




Location: West Springfield, Massachusetts
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PostPosted: Fri 13 Jul, 2007 9:03 pm    Post subject:         Reply with quote

Here's an illustration where one of the mongol warriors is armed with what appears to be a 3' foot hafted mace (it falls a little short of the 4' to 5' foot range, but it looks longer than normal) and may have a flanged mace head.
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Lafayette C Curtis




Location: Indonesia
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PostPosted: Sat 14 Jul, 2007 12:34 am    Post subject:         Reply with quote

Felix Wang wrote:
Middle Eastern and Byzantine heavy cavalry sometimes used long handled maces, upwards of 4' long.


Wouldn't this be the menavlion--an infantry weapon?
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Luka Borscak




Location: Croatia
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PostPosted: Sat 14 Jul, 2007 3:35 am    Post subject:         Reply with quote

Sean Flynt, do you know from which period and country is that armour on that picture with morning stars?
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Felix Wang




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PostPosted: Sat 14 Jul, 2007 12:34 pm    Post subject:         Reply with quote

No, this is very clearly a cavalryman's weapon.


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Felix Wang




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PostPosted: Sat 14 Jul, 2007 12:56 pm    Post subject:         Reply with quote

The menavlion is explicitly the tool of elite infantrymen, and is much longer than 4'. If you look at Phokas' discussion of offensive operations, his cavalry wedge formation is headed by heavily armoured men and horses, and the mace is a primary weapon.

Skimming the mace section of Manouchehr Khorosani's Arms and Armour from Iran, it seems the Persians did indeed used flanged maces widely, although none quite as long as 4 feet; the I found was just under 3 feet long.

See Nicolle's Arms and Armour of the Crusading Era, vol. 2 (Islam) for illustrations.
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Lafayette C Curtis




Location: Indonesia
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PostPosted: Sun 15 Jul, 2007 4:25 am    Post subject:         Reply with quote

Well, I stand corrected. And the mention of Anemas alone is enough to convince me. Wink
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Sean Flynt




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PostPosted: Mon 16 Jul, 2007 6:37 am    Post subject:         Reply with quote

Luka Borscak wrote:
Sean Flynt, do you know from which period and country is that armour on that picture with morning stars?


That's in the Armoury of the Dukes of Burgundy:
http://www.truefork.org/Photography/Burgundian_Armoury.php

The page where I found this has no caption for that photo, but I would guess this is 16th c. European with some Eastern/Turkish influence. So, maybe Hungarian or possibly from your part of the world?

-Sean

Author of the Little Hammer novel

https://www.amazon.com/Little-Hammer-Sean-Flynt/dp/B08XN7HZ82/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=little+hammer+book&qid=1627482034&sr=8-1
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Luka Borscak




Location: Croatia
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PostPosted: Sat 11 Aug, 2007 4:54 am    Post subject:         Reply with quote

It might be from Croatia or Hungary because many Croats and Hungarians used turkish equipment but I haven't seen such armour until now in our museums or books...
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