Hey guys, on a mondial preview  ;D I'm showing you my reconstruction of an Iron Age warrior who lived where I live now.... only 2600-2700 years ago. Those are pics I had to do for the book that's coming out:

http://www.hosting.universalsite.org/image-conspadanovilara5mini-5574_5A1D47AB.jpg

He's quite rich for he has an iron sword and a bronze helmet, plus a long iron spear with a defensive bronze wire attached to the socket. The originals of all of these weapons dates to the 8th C. and have been found in my town (the spear) and in a nearby one (sword+helmet).

His shield is totally made of raw leather (taken from the back of a kind bull), 2 layers sewn together for a thicknesso of about 1 centimeters, on the model of 3 original 8th C. shields found in Ireland.

http://www.hosting.universalsite.org/image-scudospadanovilara1-964C_5A1D47E3.jpg

The belt is also made of leather and was somewhat the symbol of his status: you're not a warrior if you haven't a belt like that! Something that will evolve into the later Roman cingulum.... The belt hook is modeled on an original found in Novilara, the town from which the helmet and the sword come.

The leather disc on the front is the kardiophylax, a cuirass which coupled with a similar one in the back. Our warrior is currently pillaging villages in order to get the money to commissionate a cooler bronze kardiophylax.... anyway this is modeled on 8th-7th C. cuirasses found all around the Region.

http://www.hosting.universalsite.org/image-conlancia2mini-E8C9_5A1D4776.jpg

All the rest is hypothetical and based on founds or frescoes dating from the 9th to the 5th C. He's wearing a woolen tunic, leather shoes and a necklage of imported Oriental glass beads.

Sweet, that is great work

That's amazing work. I've seen curved swords such as the sica  but I've never seen a sword like that. What are they usually called? I'm a big fan of inwardly curving swords and knives (sica like I said, falx, kukhri, karambit, sickle swords of Africa...).

Thanks!
That, in Italian, is called "spada di Novilara", means "Novilara type sword" and it's named after the town in my Region (Marche) where they've been found in greater numbers.

It is known to be the first iron sword that could outmatch bronze ones and be more effective than those. It is of Balkan origins and its presence along the coast of Marche testify cultural or merchant exchanges between the shores of the Adriatic Sea (the Balkans are right in front of region Marche, and the sea occupies a mere 60 miles is in between).

I forgot to say, one of these swords has also been found in a 7th C. grave in my town, along with (few) other items that are interesting because they testify the dead was a warrior (spear, sword and axe), a fisherman (2 harpoons, 2 hooks) and possibly a merchant (Celt and Greek pottery).

http://www.hosting.universalsite.org/image-fontispadanovilara1-0AF3_5A1D5969.jpg

Interesting. Like I said, I really like inward curving or inward facing knives and swords. I'm currently waiting for a kukhri to arrive in fact :D I like the design and it looks like you did a good job with it :)

Thanks, Kick.
This sword is important for me because it has been the first of my production to have been made of steel - starting from iron.
In fact I've been trying to convert iron into steel through forging for a couple of years and discouraging attempts - I made more than 60 or 70 blades before this one, which bear a differentiate temper to show the success.
Means that while the tip has hardened to steel, the rest has remained forged iron, thus showing the limits of forging in a small pit like the ones we sometime find digging ancient villages.
After this one I begun to train better and better and nowaday it's not much of a problem to make a steel blade starting from scrap iron.

A kukhri is a great weapon. Some years ago I had the chance to share my cabin with an Indonesian guy while working on board ships, and he told me they used to have inward curved knives so that once you stab someone in the stomach, the recurved blade helps slaying him/her with a single gesture of your wrist and very little effort.

EDIT: oh btw, my sword is a little worn out not because I go around stabbing people, but because I regularly used it to take care of my garden  :)

Mauro, your ancestors would be horrified to see you use a sword in a garden.   ;D

;D ;D
They probably would!
Anyhow, there's a Roman rustic farm under that garden, and under the farm there're 22 Neolithic ovens used to make bread (they found some cereals inside)  ;)
Thanks Bill I always appreciate your comments!

Kick wrote on Nov 28^th, 2017 at 7:11am:

That's amazing work. I've seen curved swords such as the sica  but I've never seen a sword like that. What are they usually called? I'm a big fan of inwardly curving swords and knives (sica like I said, falx, kukhri, karambit, sickle swords of Africa...).

Ever hear of the falcate? ? The other name for it is shield breaker. Supposedly, you could break shields with it.

falcata

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Yeah that's another that I really like the design of. It seems, from my very amateur and not all that extensive research, that really the falcata, sica and Greek kopis are all probably the same design copied and adapted to local tastes. They all look very similar, were used in seemingly similar ways and used in neighbouring countries or at least close by regions at pretty close periods of history. I don't know what it is but it's a design that really appeals to me. I really can't wait for my kukhri to arrive.