[Jeroen Zuiderwijk]

[Kirk Lee Spencer]

[George H.]

[Kirk Lee Spencer]

[George H.]

Thanks. I'll try to lay hands on the book...

[Read Hill]

[Fernando Q.]

I am adding something -yes, I'm afraid it's in Spanish - on the uses of 'kopis' and 'machaira' in classical sources, and also about the origin of the word 'falcata'.

http://www.ffil.uam.es/equus/warmas/online/ma...alcata.pdf

[Kelly Powell]

Is there any documentation of the middle ground between wood weapons and bronze? Could there be throwing stick/kopis looking wooden clubs grooved for pieces of shaped copper? Sort of a egyptian version of the new world weapons(Which had onyx,flint,sharks teeth, and some copper/bronze teeth for their blade)....A weight forward design like that would help maximize the small pieces of metal fitted into a grooved face.....my .02$ of conjecture.

[Kirk Lee Spencer]

[Kirk Lee Spencer]

This is an abstract from:

http://translate.google.com/translate?u=http%...&tl=en

The text in brackets is where I have added material or was unsure of the google translation.

..............................................................
[The Falcata Difference]
In Spain, there was such a deep Iberian transformation in the earliest kopis-like forms that a new weapon type appeared—the falcata:

1. It is on average, 20-30 cm shorter than the kopis. This allowed the weapon to be used more effectively in close hand to hand combat.

2. It has a sharpened edge on the blade spine near the tip almost completely lacking in other Mediterranean forms . This would both make the weapon more effective in the thrust and would also allow the upward cut from below the shield toward the belly.

3. It has increased lightness and resilience in the blade with a greater number and depth of narrow fullers.

[Falcata Symbolism]
Although these transformations may make the falcate blades more efficient than the longer Kopis, it is not significantly better adapted than the older straight double edged shorter swords, such as the xiphos and antenna forms. If these were equal in efficiency on the battle field, what precipitated the widespread adoption of the falcata in Spain? The added value in the eyes of the Iberians may have been simply tied up to the symbolism of the form and not its function. It has been proposed that its adoption was simply a matter of a new and attractive weapon gathering value as a prestige item. Easier to defend is the possibility that the falcata’s popularity arose from its association in the realm of sacrifice and funeral customs.

[Falcata Grave Finds]
It is difficult to know if the sword communicated justice and royalty in the Iron Age as it would do in more modern times. One thing is clear, the length and weight of the sword, very early came to symbolize war. [This is true in both the east and west. In the Bible most of the references to t he word sword is as a synonym for “war.”] In this context, the fact that there are more falcatas found in the Iberian necropolis than any other sword or dagger form may signify that once the falcata was adopted as a weapon of war, it quickly gained a symbolic association with the military elite. But the falcata’s association is more than a simple signifier of military office, for they appear in particular places and orientations suggesting a more complex symbolism. The blades are often bent double with notched edges produced by intentional hard blows against hard blunt objects such as a stone. They are also burned, indicating they were placed in the funeral pyre with the deceased, again giving it a higher symbolic significance. The bending and notching of the falcata could be for a more practical reason such as to make the weapon useless and thus discourage grave robbers. [However, the iron itself would be enough value to entice grave robbing.] More likely is the more symbolic practice of “ritual killing” of a weapon. The weapon is “killed” in its bending and notching so that it, also being killed, would be useful to its dead owner in the afterlife. There is literary evidence to support such a practice in the writings of Herodotus and Luciano.

[The Falcata as Oversized Sacrificial Knife]
When a war-lord went out arrayed in his prestige items as symbols of wealth and power it is more likely that he would carry a decorated dagger as opposed to a battle sword or fine spear. These larger weapons would be cumbersome. Likewise, they could not be taken to peace meetings without communicating threatening implications. In many areas, even today, fine decorated daggers are carried as symbols of lineage, freedom and wealth. [The diminutive size of knives and daggers would be less threatening than a sword, but would still communicate as a weapon and also offer itself in case of a need for self-defense. This connection in size and symbolic meaning is important in connection to the similarity of the form of the falcata to smaller sacrificial knives.]

There have even been found votive offerings in miniature (17cm in length) in the form of falcatas. Many of these found, not in graves but sanctuaries. This demonstrates that, it is not mere coincidence that the blade for of the falcata is very similar to that of sacrificial knives of the early iron age. These sacrificial knives were not simple objects but carried symbolic connections with the world of death and sacrifice. In Greece and Etruria, the kopis, from which the falcata developed, had become associated with sacrifice. The Greek term machaera could be used for both a weapon of war and a sacrificial knife.

In short, falcatas are to the tombs of the 5th century what knives are to the tombs of the seventh century. Rarity of iron in early tombs made small knives a prestige item. Silver rivets, instead of bronze, in some of the iron knives would suggest this. [As iron became more plentiful, it was no longer a prestige item in itself. However, it could be prestigious to have a larger version, such as a falcata.] The fine bone and ivory grips, along with the carved and inlayed hilts and blades would also identify it as a clear prestige item. The similarity in form adds support to this connection, suggesting the falcata was a larger reproduction of the primitive knives. The symbolic connection of swords and sacrifice is strengthened when we consider that, in terms of war, there is a natural ritualistic or symbolic ambivalence. The fighter is either victim and/or sacrifice, depending on the outcome of the battle.

The falcata has many symbolic meanings. As with all swords it can symbolize war. Its fine decoration can speak of wealth and prestige. Added to this, in the case of the falcata, is its sacrificial symbolism as a larger version of the sacrificial knife. [As the falcata is used in the larger slaughter of the battlefield it recalls the smaller sacrificial knives used in the ritual slaughter of animals scarified to the gods before or after the battle.]

[Kirk Lee Spencer]

This is an abstract from:

http://www.ffil.uam.es/equus/warmas/online/ma...alcata.pdf

The text in brackets is where I have added material or was unsure of the google translation.

..................


[“Falcata” as a Modern Term]
While it is true that the falcata was used in different variants by Greeks, Etruscans, Persians and Barbarian Tribes, because of its popularity with the Iberians, it is considered by investigators as a featured weapon of the Iberian people. The term “falcata” was first used in publication in 1872 by M. Fulgosio. The term caught on quickly in scientific literature.

[The Falcata to the Ancients]
In ancient literature, the term “falcatm” appears as an adjective and does not reference a specific type of weapon. This brings us the question of what term the ancients would have used in reference to the weapon that we now call a “falcata.” [Because of its size, the weapon we call a “falcata,” would have been called a “sword.”] In Greek, the most common terms used for “sword” are machaera, xiphos and kopis. [It would be simple to see the xiphos as the straight double edged sword and the machaera as the curved single edged sword.] This would suggest that when the ancients used the term machaera, they would be referring to the falcata or a falcata-like weapon. The problem is that when referring to swords, Greek authors would interchange all the different words for sword (machaera, kopis, xiphos). And while it is true that, in context, “xiphos” is usually associated with the shorter straight leaf-bladed sword of the hoplite, the two other common terms, machaera and kopis, were used in a much more elastic sense.

[Diverse Usage of Greek Words for “Sword”]
What works to complicate the picture is the fact that the ancients were more interested in a particular literary or poetic effect than communicating specific (or even general) sword typologies. Usage of the word “machaera” was so diverse that there was no distinction made between weapons of war and other edged cutting tools. Cutting utensils from swords to kitchen knives were called “machaera.” For instance in the Illiad, machaera is used for a sort of razor knife kept by the sword (xiphos) and used for battlefield tasks such as cutting an arrowhead from a wound. Herodotus also uses machaera to refer to a kitchen knife. In Herodotus, Euripides and Aristotle, machaera is not only used of kitchen utensils, but references sacrificial knives or knives used in sacrificial acts.

In the 4th century BC, machaera begins to be used in reference to swords. But it means “sword” in the most general sense. It is used for both curved single edge and straight bladed swords. Xenophon writes of the cavalry and recommends the machaera over the straight short sword (xiphos). In some instances the term machaera is used in reference to a weapon of Persian origin. Polybius does not make distinction between machaera, kopis and xiphos. He uses machaera and xiphos as synonym for a straight double edged sword. Because of this ambiguity, it is advisable to use what we know from the distribution of sword finds [along with any clues from the context. This is especially true of the word “machaera.” For instance it is possible that, in Iberia, a machaera in many cases may very well be the falcata. This would not be the case in reference to more northern areas.]

The word kopis can be used in reference to swords or to sacrificial knives. It too appears as an adjective. On occasion the word kopis is used of a weapon which delivers very powerful blows producing deep cuts, such as cutting the trunks off of elephants. [In this context it would appear to be referring to a large single edged blade such as the kopis or falcata.] It is usually in this context that Livy is brought into the discussion with his use of the term gladius hispaniensis to describe a weapon that produced terrible injuries and forced the Romans to reinforce their shields. However, this is clearly a reference to the straight sword used by the Celto-Iberians and not the falcata.

[Though there is a broad usage of the terms for sword in the ancient texts. Convention has lead to association of particular words and sword types. The association most supported by contextual evidence is the xiphos as a straight double edged leaf-blade of the Greek hoplite. The kopis is associated with the long single edged curved bladed weapon. Machaera is much too broad for any associations, though some may try to associate it with the falcata or a falcata-like weapon.] In the end, the ancient textual evidence referencing the weapon given the modern term “falcata” is almost non-existent.

[Kirk Lee Spencer]

[Kirk Lee Spencer]

[Jean Henri Chandler]

[Jean Henri Chandler]

I also think you may want to consider the dacian falx, thracian rhomphaia as a possible antecedant, or cousin or distant relative of the falcata / kopis family.



http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/d/d1/Rhomphaia.jpg
http://toknowasiamknown.files.wordpress.com/2...ncient.jpg

There is a myArmoury thread on the rhomphaia here:

http://www.myArmoury.com/talk/viewtopic.php?t=5972

EDIT: googling for falces, I found this image, purporting to be of "dacian" weapons, from a Museum in Romania?

Anyone know anything about these weapons or this museum?

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Image:Dacian_Weapons.jpg

There also seems to be an interesting curved spearhead and something like a long-sax.

[Fernando Q.]

[Douglas G.]

Kirk,
The flint sword boggles me. Where in Northern Europe was it found, do you know? Has it been dated?
To my eye the sword shape it echo's looks to be Iron Age, spare and devoid of curlicue embellishment
ala Bronze Age antennae swords or bellied out like an Urnfield. This could easily be due to the organic
material into which the flints were mounted having turned to dust. Dunno. Great puzzle piece! I'm reminded
of Native American clubs shaped like rifle stocks.

Cool.

Doug Gentner

[Jeroen Zuiderwijk]

[Tomas Mihalyi]

Hello everybody,
I'd like to thank you all for the ideas that you shared here because I'm trying to write a study about falcata/kopis/machaira for my final work at the University. I really appreciate this information because for me it gets quite difficult to gather any information about this topic because I am from Slovakia and here almost nobody of local archeolofgical comunity takes any interest in this. I'd also like to thank prof. F. Quesada Sanz who promtly answered may email half a year ago and provided me with lots of useful info. I am working on this project only for several months but it would be a great honor to share any new material.

Best regards, Tomas Mihalyi.

[Boris R.]

Khopesh you say?
i've got your khopesh right here (look at this marvelous piece of Belarus extravaganza)

http://www.kxo.ru/en/e-store/weapon/index.php...NT_ID=2403