Antique blade... roman, celtic, iliria?

[Miyamoto]

Originally Posted by TVV

Unfortunately recently while browsing eBay I cannot help but notice the enormous amount of "ancient" weapons: mahairas, "Byzantine", "Celtic" and "Roman" daggers and swords, all coming from a few sellers who appear to have endless supplies of them and all with the vague "found in the Balkans" description. Determining the authenticity of ancient artefacts is a very hard task, and even museum curators get fooled often.

I completely agree. I've spotted them either. But you from my point of view a lot of them are originals. Why? Thoose greek mahairas are found in the Macedonia in verry large quantities,. They are all verry bad condition, however. Macedonia is full of greek graves and there are areas wich are not researched yet. I know that 'cos a friend lives there. Why anbody had put a gladius for sale? If thoose are reprdoctions, why they are not reproducing roman 5000$ worth Gladiuses instead of mahairas for 30$?