How old is the kampilan as a form?

[kai]

Hello Timo,

The original Italian is:
uno con un gran terciado (che è como una scimitarra, ma più grosso)
<snip>
Since it's explicitly scimitar-like, it doesn't sound like a kampilan to me. If it's similar to modern Philippine weapons, a big pira or a panabas?

I've also been wondering wether it might not have been a tabas/panabas - it's function as a mop-up weapon would be perfectly suitable for finishing off an fallen/wounded opponent with compromised fighting abilities.

I believe we can exclude pira since antique examples are relatively small as compared to European swords and wouldn't warrant a description as being "più grosso" IMHO.

Even considering that the oldest kampilan tend to have somewhat shorter blades, I'm not sure we can exclude them from this cursory account. It seems possible that the descriptions "gran terciado" and "una scimitarra, ma più grosso" were not meant as an exact description of the actual form but rather just used to emphasise a really broad and very long blade (by comparing it to swords known to the European reader). This was not meant for a hoplological society meeting but to the interested public in general.

I doubt that katana, dha or typical examples of the klewang family would provoke such a description by an European though.

Regards,
Kai