Words and bids

[Rivkin]

Originally Posted by Miyamoto

Am I really totaly wrong?

If Ashoka knew what it was, and he is a great connosieur of asiatic arms I think, he would obviously write it down...

Look carefully to both of the auctions again. Eftis wouldn't lie that it was found in Hungary (wich is the case, that it is verry close to Slovenia) I think. And Ashoka would be certain of its origin if it were rather a recent beduin piece. Ab further there is strong evidence that a similar weapon (again with turkish blade) was used in central Europe 300 years ago...

I think Eftis said "purchased from a hungarian collector". Does not mean he observed it's being excavated... In general there is a lot of eastern stuff being sold as eastern european - the reason being that the arms of eastern europe are the arms or steppe tribes (well, not to mention that genetically eastern europeans are in between of Khazach and Kyrgyz people).

The same problem comes up here and there with turkish karabela being sold as "polish sword" etc.

Concerning the beduin blade - I also thought the first time I've seen this sword "hey, here is afghani-uzbek shashka"... However the hilt seemed suspicious to me. But I'm a newbie and ariel is the shashka guy.
I don't think in this case someone suffered a financial setback, because I think afghani shashkas command similar prices to beduin pieces, and most of them are basically from the same period - XIX to early XX century ?

Ham: I'm genuinely surprised. Just to give you a sence of "how it can be" - the guy I know was recently hired by a high profile institution. One of the first thing he did - made sure that everyone who disagreed with his scientific theories and does not have a tenure, got fired. Made sure these guys will not a position in good places, too.