2,500 year old khukuri up for auction

not2sharp

not2sharp

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Lot Nr.42
A garniture of five Iberian weapons
late Hallstatt period, early Iron Age, 6th to 4th centuries B.C.
Consisting of: (1) A forged short-sword, also called Front¢n dagger, with slightly flared, double-edged blade with several fullers, the completely preserved quillons or cross-guard and the mushroom-shaped pommel with several projections riveted onto the blade tang: L 43 cm = 16.9 in. (2) Its sheath, riveted at several points, with a flat oval locket band and three partly still movable carrying rings. L 34.5 cm = 15.6 in. (3) A pertinent knife to be lodged, as were sometimes also spear and lance points, in a bulge provided for it in the sheath, with traces of silver damascening on the lower grip sheathing. L 19 cm = 7.48 in. (4) A pertinent lance with a short centrally ridged point, a stepped shaft, and a long hollow facetted socket with two holes for nailing it to the staff. L 26.5 cm = 10.4 in. (5) A pertinent lance shaft with two holes for affixing to staff. L 14.3 cm = 5.6 in. Excavated, well-preserved, well-restored pieces with an attractive surface patina. Compare a dagger blade acquired in 1989 by the Römisch-Germanisches Zentralmuseum in Mainz, published in the museum Jahrbuch No.36 (1989), Part 2, p.777, Fig. 66/1.

Here is the link to the catalog:
http://www.hermann-historica.de/auk...emgroup_1_GB&start=1&dif=10&db=kat44_1_GB.txt
 
Stupid question time:

Does "limit" on that auction page signify the opening bid, or is it an upper limit (a la Ebay's "buy it now for...")?
 
Bruise, You have the funniest sense of humor on the whole forum ! I love it


Looks like the previous owners weren't using Hooflex. :)
 
Good stuff. That would make a nice karda for my HI Falcata (Kopis)

Look at the seax-like "Celtic combat knife"
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Keith
 
Looks like the previous owners weren't using Hooflex.
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Bruise,

If you think that looks bad, you should see the original owner. :eek: :rolleyes: :eek:

n2s

BTW, The oldest known khukuri dates from the 16th century. If this piece is real it is definitely interesting.
 
Great link, N2S!
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Thank beoram for the great link. We were both posted to these forums at the same time, or I would have made my comments on his thread.

n2s
 
for the links! Intersting to note that the Falcatas picured above are around 20inches overall. Suddenly those 20inch berk specials start loooking pretty familiar...

The HI Falcata is a bit bigger, 27inches. Course I'm biggerthan most ancient Celt-Iberians, so the size is nice.
Keith
 
thought people might be interested to see some of this stuff -- though a lot of it should probably be in museums :( , esp. this one:

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Lot Nr.318
A skull with helmet fragment
Burgundian, 5th-6th century
Male skull with elongately deformed cranium. The iron fragmentary helmet originally composed of four plates(?) with a continuous decorative trim of fire-gilt bronze discs and decorative punches. On an old mounting of velvet covered wood. Skull height 16 cm, helmet height ca. 18 cm. A beautiful archaeological group from a princely Burgundian grave dating to the time of the Nibelungen. The custom of permanently shaping the human skull in childhood with banages can be traced to 1st century Mongolia. Through the expansion of the Huns, this practice also spread over Europe and is documented in the 5th- 6th century in Burgundy, Thuringia and the alamannic areas.

Condition: III
Limit: 3500.00 EURO

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which was actually the piece which I saw referred to at another forum which drew my attention to the auction site.
 
"A pertinent knife to be lodged, as were sometimes also spear and lance points, in a bulge provided for it in the sheath, with traces of silver damascening on the lower grip sheathing. L 19 cm = 7.48 in."

Interesting.....Presumably that's blade length. It looks to be a pretty slender knife. One has to wonder if it had any chopping capability, was even double edged. Is shape, but not function enough to count as a khukuri?

Could it be similar to the blade described below:

"The "sica" was any kind of a curved foreign dagger as far as the Romans were concerned. They called the Jewish terrorists who used these daggers, which they carried concealed under thir clothes, to assassinate their enemies in large crowds, walking off and leving the dagger in the victim, "sicarii" or, singular, "sicarius".* It was considered a "dishonorable" weapon that no true Roman would carry, at least no true Roman Patrician.

The weapon as used in the Games is a bit of a mystery as we have never found a real one. We have found what appears to be a wooden practice version and we have many depictions in art, but no examples. From the depictions, it appears that it curved sharply upwards, almost at a right angle, and must have been used, not to slash or chop as the falcata, khukri, kpis, etc., were but to stab up under the ribcage and into the heart. We do not know for certain just where and how they were sharpened. For further details, I would refer you to long discussions of the Games and of the sica in the Ancient Weapons Forum of SwordForum.com, where John Maddox Roberts and Peter Morwood, both published authors on Rome, as well as Quintus, Matthew Amt of Legio XX, have posted extensively on the subject."

http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=247962
 
"The "sica" was any kind of a curved foreign dagger as far as the Romans were concerned. They called the Jewish terrorists who used these daggers, which they carried concealed under thir clothes, to assassinate their enemies in large crowds, walking off and leving the dagger in the victim, "sicarii" or, singular, "sicarius".*
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Perhaps a khanjar? (see below)

475993khanjaroldsm.jpg


-or-

attachment.php

n2s
 
A 2500 year old blade? Somebody get me the email of that bladesmith--those suckers are built to LAST.
 
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