Quote:
Originally Posted by Jim McDougall
That is so interesting!
Begs the question, what does this 'flared' or 'spatulated' design element on scabbards represent, and which region did it originate? Years ago an archaeologist specializing in the Sudan told me this design had iconographic origins from ancient Meroe.
If that was the case, then how and why does it become significant in the Mande linguistic regions?
Not meaning to deviate from the original topic concerning classification, but these 'regional' characteristics do seem to have bearing.
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Indeed, there are rock reliefs from the Meroitic period in Classic Antiquity where flared scabbards can be seen. However, they dissapear from Sudanese art and can't be seen in Medieval Nubian depictions.
Had they, in fact dissapeared? Are they just absent from art?
Another possibility is that they did rise in West Africa during the Middle Ages independently. The earlier sources do not give clues either way as to whether the scabbards of sabers had these spatulated tips, so basically we start seeing them in the record as the same time as kaskaras.
But the flared tip might be drawing on indigenous traditions. Leatherworking in the Mande-speaking world is very associated to the Soninke and lineages of Soninke descent (for example, Mandinka leatherworker lineages often claim a connection to the Soninke). After the fall of Ghana, there was a diaspora, and the Soninke people became dispersed around the region, and often had connections to trade. An element in Soninke mythology is the Bida snake, that in oral traditions is related to the rise and fall of Wagadu (Ghana). And snakes are also important in general in traditional religions of the area. So the flared up scabbards might be drawing on this theme.
But was this actually the case? We do not know, because there is no evidence. Until someone digs up a 16th century tomb in Sierra Leone, for example, and finds one, we do not have a clue of the origin of the flared tip.