Update on 1st Century Sarmatian Weapons

[Michael Kerr]

Hi, just wondering if there is any books or articles about the construction of contus? Most books available on Sarmatians and the fact that in most grave sites the head of the contus is left and wooden shaft is gone. I only ask as most web sites or books just state that contus shaft used by Sarmatians was usually made of fir and can be anything in length from 3.5 metres upwards.
I was reading a book called "Eastern Influences on Polish Arms" by Michal Dziewulski which is about "Polish Hussars" which I know is not covered by RAT but I am curious if contus was made in a similar way. It mainly mentions that Polish Armies were influenced by Hungarian, Turkish and Crimean Tartar battle tactics and weapons. The author discusses the long lance used by the hussars and how weapon was manufactured and used. Basically 3.5 metres to 5.5 metres long made of fir wood with maybe aspen in fore part of lance to lighten the head. Lance was split along its length and both sides hollowed out and then joined back together with glue and reinforced with string webbing which was covered in tar. The Polish lance had a weighted apple at the hand grip so it could be used one handed, unlike Sarmatians who used contus with two hands. Anyway the Polish lance was created to break on first impact and then discarded. Could an ancient era contus have been constructed in the same way to break the line and then discarded to get stuck into enemy with sword and sagaris.
Speaking of Sagaris I noticed that Hussars used a version of sagaris called Nadziaks(Polish War Hammers from Turkish word Nadshak).It differs from sagaris in that instead of axehead to help lop of enemies heads it had a hammer head to punch through armour. It was a sign of high status and was eventually banned from Polish court to stop killings over arguments amongst lords. Image below.


[attachment=7122]nadziaks-web.jpg[/attachment]

Any help would be appreciated

Regards
Michael Kerr