Spartan Gold: Weapons

pg 308

History buff that he was, Sam immediately recognized many of the weapons: the famous claymore, the Scottish two-handed broadsword, a bardiche, a Russia poleaxe, a short, curved French falchion, a shamshir, a Persian sabre, the Japanese katana, the samurai's weaponn of choice, the classic Roman short sword known as the gladius.


Claymore replica

Two examples of a bardiche.

 

 

Falchion

 

 

 Shamshir

 

Antique Japanese (samurai) daishō, the traditional pairing of two Japanese swords which were the symbol of the samurai. showing the traditional Japanese sword cases (koshirae) and the difference in size between the katana (top) and the smaller wakizashi (bottom).

 

 
Replica pseudo-Pompeii gladius.

 

Still others were new to him: a British mameluke saber, a Turkish yataghan, a Viking throwing ax known as ther Mammen, a ruby-inlaid Moroccan koummya.

Turkish kilij from Topkapi Palace Museum

 

Yatagans from Imperial Armoury-Topkapı Palace Museum

Mammen Axe 17-3/4 Overall

 

 

Koumya dagger and sheathe 

 

Paused to admire a gleaming, sickle shaped Egyptian khopesh.


18th century BC khopesh found in Shechem, West Bank; the blade is decorated with electrum inlays.