The Balustrade of Athena Polias Nikephoros in Pergamon

[MeinPanzer]

Probably you're right,Ruben.Does it happen to have some pics of those artefacts?That's what I had in my mind when i said it probably shows a kopis.

Khaire
Giannis

Here is the Istanbul frieze:

http://www.antiquemilitaryhistory.com/i ... rieze1.JPG
http://www.antiquemilitaryhistory.com/i ... rieze2.jpg

Giannis: I see what yo mean, but I have a few issues with your interpretation. The first is that the scabbard looks unlike any other kopis scabbard represented in the archaeological evidence. It seems that kopides scabbards only ever had at most one side curved while the other was flat. The second is that on the Pergamon frieze, while not all equipment depicted was obviously to scale, all the kopides do seem to have been represented to scale with one another; this dagger is quite a bit smaller than the kopides depicted. The third is that kopides always (as far as I know) have the grip entirely offset on the side away from the cutting edge, while this weapon has only a slightly offset grip.

So Ruben, which edge is sharpened if it is a Cretan dagger? Inner, outer, or both?

I have no idea, because without an actual archaeological example or a depiction of it in use, I don't think we can ever tell. However, what was stated earlier in this thread that curved blade weapons with sharpened outer edges are not found in this time period seems to indicate that it would have had a sharpened inner edge.

I did not know there was a post-classical break in the sickle tradition, thanks. Perhaps I'm thinking of Thracian elements.

I finally found the article that I know I had floating around somewhere about Hellenistic war sickles... It was courteously sent to my by Mr. Duncan Head, who is probably reading this thread (considering his presence in the Cunaxa thread).

Nick Sekunda wrote an article called "Anatolian war-sickles and the coinage of Etenna", in Richard Ashton (ed.) "Studies in Ancient Coinage from Turkey" (London, 1996). Unfortunately, I don't think I can reproduce the images here because of copyright considerations.

One Etennan coin (Etenna being a city in Pisidia), "probably 3rd century BC,' has a sickle alone on it; it may be a war sickle, but various sickles appear on Anatolian Hellenistic civilian funerary stelai that look very similar to these and which were clearly not used as weapons (often being depicted with agricultural equipment), so it's unclear for what purpose exactly it was used. There is, however, another coin which undisputably shows a war sickle in use. A man wearing a short tunic is shown lunging to the left with a short war sickle in his raised right hand and what seems to be a scabbard hanging on his left side.

Another coin from Selge in Pisidia, "probably 4th-3rd century BC," depicts a slinger with some sort of sickle under his arm, but it is different in form from the ones seen on the other coins. It is quite large, with a handle longer than its blade that flares out gently as it reaches the base of the blade and the shape of which the blade continues almost seamlessly until it reaches its tip at an approximately 90 degree angle to the handle. The handle has at it's butt two or three angular blunt "hooks" coming off of it. An almost identical sickle is depicted on a fragment of a "Roman-era" relief on which remains only the hand of a warrior and the weapon. From the size of the hand, it is clear that it is about the same size as the weapon shown on the coin. It has some sort of crosshatched texture on its grip and similar angular "hooks" coming out of its butt. Sekunda thinks these are scabbarded, but I don't see how they could be.

These sickles are, however, very different in form from the weapon shown on the Pergamene reliefs. The weapons from the first Etennan coins have much wider blade with much sharper curves only near the tip, while the second weapons look entirely different.