Ancestors of yataghans

[Radu Transylvanicus]

TVV welcome to the Forum... Zdrasti , priyatno mi e ... I have a feeling you will be a very good asset to this team ... I was born a few miles north of you in Romania ...

[TVV]

Originally Posted by Radu Transylvanicus

TVV welcome to the Forum... Zdrasti , priyatno mi e ... I have a feeling you will be a very good asset to this team ... I was born a few miles north of you in Romania ...

Hi Radu, I have been a lurker on this forum for quite a while. Interestingly enough, as I live in the Bay Area currently, now I get to be several miles north of you, as it seems.
As far as the bronze weapons go, I also think that 1500 B.C. might be a little exaggerated, to me they look quite similar to some Luristan ear-pommelled daggers dating back to c. 750 B.C. . For an example take a look at p. 137 of Michael D. Coe's book (sorry, I do not have a scanner).

[erlikhan]

Yannis, the material is bronze as I told. About being fake or not, as many other, my basic criteria is who brings and offers it to market. I also understand your point of view but , about Schytian artifacts, if you search as" luristan" you will find many. They were nomads and warriors, having a superior bronze casting technology. They were also the first community to train horses enough to be used efficiently in wars starting mounted riding. First bronze, then iron working of nomads were always superior in any age(in general all kinds of metal, gold, silver etc. too), as strong,educated horses and efficient weapons were the things they needed to have whatever they wanted. As far as I know, they conquered and ruled today's Ukraine, Caucasia and Persia for several centuries, later forming a union till Egypt in 8th century b.c. So they have conquered not all, but much of the developed lands of their time .
About the date they belong to, some sources say 8-9th centuries b.c., and I knew like that till short time ago, but at that age, it had been more than 500 years since Hittites found iron working, and all near east was using iron instead of bronze, since it was much cheaper and easier to work. It doesnt seem logical for anybody to prefer expensive and difficult bronze swords at that age (but bronze continued to be used in helmets and shields, I dont know why). .
And, I learned the date 1500 b.c from the site of Azerbaijan national museum . They have samples like mines. They have dated their sample to b.c. 1500. Ariel had given its link in the previous forum. I dont remember it now. He can help us but I am unable to insist on the date as I am not an expert myself.
And one more sign about being fake or not, you can see many samples being sold in respectful auctions (not cyber. Real auctions). I can give you some links if you wish. Most have even much better conditions and sure much higher prices, compared to these ones. (Not only the Schytian ones, also Middle European ones, which was certainly not a civilized land in that age). Bronze stands against corrosion of natural effects under soil uncomparably better than iron. Thats why clean bronze age samples are more than much later's iron weapons of Roman, even Middle age times. But again, my judgement about being original or fake depends on just my feelings and reference books or auctions. The exact result can be taken only by carbon 14 test, nothing else i guess.

[erlikhan]

www.hermann-historica-ohg.de . This is the site of a German antiques auction company. You can see the better samples of the same type, and middle european bronze swords, belonging to another nomadic tribe, Kelts.
Most of the existing bronze age weapon samples belong to 2 main cultures as far as I have seen till now.
Schytian. Caucassia,Ukraine,Persia and Iraq. Name in the literature is Luristan culture.
Kelt . Middle Europe. Austria, Germany, Swiss, perhaps eastern France. Literature name is Hallstad culture.
Why samples of those two are seen much more, is perhaps that they were nomads , where not only noble soldiers, but all males were warriors living a tough life and needed to carry weapons to be strong enough to stay alive. I have seen pictures of Hittite or Babylonian ones too, some even having cuneiform inscriptions on them but samples belonging to those civilizations are more rare (maybe because of the this theory) and very expensive.

[Yannis]

I didnt found not even ONE link about Scythian civilization before 700BC. For example

Scythian World claims that the tribes lived 6 to 3 centuries BC.

Also it is the first time I hear about a nomadic tribe with good metallurgy. So bronze swords in 600 BC maybe where good for Scythians but they were not good enough for Persians and Greeks.

Dorians came to Greece 1100 BC and overruned Achaioi because they had iron swords. Agamemnon times are over. Troia is fallen...

[erlikhan]

What I remember is,he Azerbaijan museum had exactly the same type of bronze sword and they were dating it to something like b.c. 1500 and Schytians. I dont remember the link. As I said Ariel can give it again. Or if there is a way to see, it was in the previous forum, i guess under black sea yataghan topic.
About the metallurgy of nomads issue, how were the nomads like Turkic tribes,Magyars and Moghuls conquering huge lands in very short time, because of which advantage you think? By throwing stones very accurately? Iron and iron working was accepted something holy and by far the most used subject in Turkish legends.
And about iron-bronze subject, one must know that bronze and iron comparison can not be based on the improvement in unit quality of weapons, but total quantity. I read in several sources that, if iron was preferred instead of bronze , it was mainly because iron is very cheap and sources are plentiful everywhere, but zinc in bronze is rare and expensive. Some types of bronze cast is quite stronger than iron. Or there is nothing like, bronze technology is simple and iron technology is very complicated. After the development of simple method of iron forging,(you can melt iron even with just a big fire on a windy hill) everybody around immidiately turned their arms to iron mainly NOT because so they became able to produce stronger weapons, but they became able to produce much cheaper weapons ,so much more weapons with the same budget, which meant to have much more crowded armies.Schytians or anybody else should be just maniacs to insist on bronze weapons in years closer than 1000s b.c. They would vanish in a few days instead of conquering big areas.

[Yannis]

1. Even if Azerbaijan museum says so we dont have to believe it. I prefer to believe historical sources and we cannot find Scythians at that age.

2. Quality of weapons is not the only reason of victory.

4. Turkish tribes used mainly Mogol tactics and Persian weaponry to establish.

3. Iron melts at 1100 C and bronze at 700 C or less. The difference is very big, specially when you have to reach theese temperatures with fire from wood. It is another level of technology, thats why we speek about "bronze age" and "iron age"

P.S. I wanted to write 1453 in the other topic, not 1943. I dont like flames but I cannot stay quite when AFTER my apologies I read offensive and provocate posts.

I understand why Andrew locked the other topic and I hope he will not lock this one too

[Jeff D]

Interesting discussion,

I also have to wonder about the attribution of these weapons to the Scythians. As mentioned there is no written history left by the Scythians, but, Herodotus discusses them in his 4th book. Archeological evidence is also shedding some light.
The Scythians occupied the area of modern Ukraine from around 700-200 BC. They probably originated from just east of the Don river. The Scythians displaced the Cimmerians (Conan the barbarian) from the Ukraine, and were replaced themselves by the Sarmatians.
The first evidence of horse riding is found in the Ukraine and dates to 4350 BC. lt predates the Scythians.
Throughout the Ukraine Iron tools start to replace bronze in 900 BC. It is true the Scythians ruled to the boarder of Egypt, but this lasted for only 28 years. This also occured in the 7 th century BC.
The weapons that started this thread do not look like the Scythian weapons that have been dug up in the Ukraine. There is a slight similarity of the 2nd picture with the Scythian akinakers. To my knowledge these do not have the ears seen. The primary weapon of the Scythians was the composite bow (Scythian is derived from an Irainian word for shooter or archer).

Hope this helps,
Jeff