Antique blade... roman, celtic, iliria?

TVV · 22nd October 2005, 12:24 AM

Well, if have bought it first hand from the treasure-hunetrs, then there is no reason for concern. However, I still doubt the huge number of mahairas on eBay. There are thousands of Thracian burial sites in Bulgaria alone, and in Bulgarian museums the mahairas are not too many. Actually, they are probably less than the ones currently on eBay. And while one can doubt the mahairas (which when you think about it are extremely easy to fake), I certainly do not doubt the so-called Byzantine daggers, which are all late 19th, early 20th century village knives.
As far as Slavic weapons, this is a great topic. In Bulgaria, only one or two swords have been found and catalogued, and even those two are not certain to be Slavic, since they can also be Bulgarian, Byzantine, Avar or even Varyag. In a Czech book about early medieval Slavic artefacts I was once able to look at, there were a few swords, which were very similar in structure and hilt decoration to early Viking swords, which is not surprising as swordsmith centers in Western Europe were situated along the Rhein. Your piece does not seem at all like them, while with its ring hilt it has a very far resemblance to some central Asian pieces: maybe it was brought to the Western Balkans by the Huns. But this is an area I have very little knowledge in and so would stop speculating.
Regards,
Teodor

22nd October 2005, 12:24 AM	#8
TVV Member Join Date: Dec 2004 Location: Bay Area Posts: 1,664	Well, if have bought it first hand from the treasure-hunetrs, then there is no reason for concern. However, I still doubt the huge number of mahairas on eBay. There are thousands of Thracian burial sites in Bulgaria alone, and in Bulgarian museums the mahairas are not too many. Actually, they are probably less than the ones currently on eBay. And while one can doubt the mahairas (which when you think about it are extremely easy to fake), I certainly do not doubt the so-called Byzantine daggers, which are all late 19th, early 20th century village knives. As far as Slavic weapons, this is a great topic. In Bulgaria, only one or two swords have been found and catalogued, and even those two are not certain to be Slavic, since they can also be Bulgarian, Byzantine, Avar or even Varyag. In a Czech book about early medieval Slavic artefacts I was once able to look at, there were a few swords, which were very similar in structure and hilt decoration to early Viking swords, which is not surprising as swordsmith centers in Western Europe were situated along the Rhein. Your piece does not seem at all like them, while with its ring hilt it has a very far resemblance to some central Asian pieces: maybe it was brought to the Western Balkans by the Huns. But this is an area I have very little knowledge in and so would stop speculating. Regards, Teodor