Falcata swords

[Jesper D]

http://forums.dfoggknives.com/index.php ... cata&st=25

[Dan D'Silva]

The greek Kopis and the iberian Falcata are all superfically similar and seems to have developed from the sickle swords used by the egyptians and the phoenicians called khopesh. I imagine these developed from farmers bringing sickles to battle and building on their positive qualities.

Quite a few of the discussions on the several fora seem to indicate that this isn't the case. Jeroen notably holds that the kopis and falcata are enlarged versions of Bronze and early Iron Age fighting knives, and FWIW to my amateur eyes there's still quite a jump in shape from the late khopesh to the falcata in Kirk's chart. There's also a popular (perhaps the mainstream) theory that the khopesh is in turn derived from a type of axe rather than a sickle.

[Jesper D]

Hey,
Yes I read it too, I find the pole axe to khopesh to be more likely to be sickle to khopesh, but that is just merely my relatively uninformed opinion. Regarding the jump from khopesh to kopis I would agree that it is questionable however I think the charts should be seen more as the development of an idea rather than linear weapon development. They were just thrown out there as a start of the thread to be modified via discussion methinks. I apologise if I was a little quick there, I just remembered that the thread was a good one... the conclusion of it is quite different from the start.

Yes I have seen some of Jeroen's post like this one http://forums.dfoggknives.com/index.php ... cata&st=25 , but I would appreciate a link to where he elaborates on his opinion.

"N.b. before you get misinformed, mind that there is no link between the Egyptian khopesh and the falcata and kopis (aside from the similarity in name, which has totally different meanings though), nore is there any proven link between the falcata and kopis and the Nepalese khukuri, despite those things getting repeated again and again." Jeroen Zuiderwijk

"Forerunners of the falcata can be traced to the Late Bronze Age/Earl7y Iron Age in northern Illyria, but the prototypes of the machaira/kopis/falcata family are very different." Prof Quesada

Both quotes are from the sites linked above. I'd like elaborations on both though

[ParthianBow]

Jesper, Fernando, Dan - thanks a lot for your posts! I too saw the posts Jeroen made about the origins of falcata swords, and found them very interesting.

Fernando - that falcata sword is lovely! Would you know by any chance its specifications?

[Thersites]

Regarding the origin of the falcata and other types of assymetric, curved blade swords, I can only point to one long paper I published sometime ago. More recent discoveries seem to be consistent with my theory, that falcatas are typical weapons of the bastetani-contestani in southeastern Iberia. They took the model from Etruria, although they modified it so much as to create a completely different weapon, whatever the superficial similarities can be.
The etruscan model itself came from the Picenum. Ant the origin of all the families of kopides/(machairai can be traced to Illyria in the Early Iron Age.

The paer can be downloaded at http://www.ffil.uam.es/equus/warmas/onl ... %20red.pdf (long paper, heavy, please be patient)

On the differences between Greek kopides, Italic machairai and Iberian falcatas, I'll try to very briefly summarize drawing on an earlier post of mine in this site:
<!-- l <a class="postlink-local" href="http://www.romanarmytalk.com/rat/viewtopic.php?f=17&t=11589&p=102845&hilit=dorsal+edge#p102845">viewtopic.php?f=17&t=11589&p=102845&hilit=dorsal+edge#p102845<!-- l

For more details, see above publication and my web page equus (see below signature)

[ParthianBow]

I've had the specifications back from the chap in Argentina who made the sword recommended by Fernando/Thersites. So I've just been on the phone to the swordsmith. He's going to make the falcata according to those specs. Woo hoo!

Only 18 weeks to wait...so my treat to myself for finishing Soldier of Carthage will be late, but hey. I can't wait to see it.

[ParthianBow]

Tantara! At last, the falcata sword I've been waiting for these last months, is ready. I haven't received it yet, but the swordsmith, the incredible Iain at Armour Class has emailed me this photo. He forged the blade using the archaeological template so generously supplied by Fernando/Thersites. I think it's incredibly beautiful, and I can't wait to get my mitts on it :grin:

[Dithrambus]

Congrats on such a fine sword, there will be many jealous admirers I'm sure.