Etruscan warrior weapon

[Lenny.Dick]

I need some help for some research I'm doing. What weapon do you think this Etruscan warrior is holding, the statue is from 500 B.C.

A picture of the statue is found at :
http://www.tiscali.co.uk/reference/ency ... 23712.html

The statue would be the far left image.

I have my own ideas but it is difficult to convince my professor.

Thanks,
Lenny

[JeffGentry]

Lenny

All I see is what appear's to be a handle/hilt of some sort, it appear's the weapon is broken off and so i have no idea, it could even be a spear broken off on both side's for all I know, If we could seee the actual statue it would be a diffrent matter, that picture is so small i cannot see much of anything in his right hand.


Jeff

[Patrick Hardin]

There appears to be a sort of knuckle-bow or loop over the statue's fingers, doesn't there? If so, it might be a falcata/kopis, which was a common weapon at that time (although I think the falcatas with full knuckle-bows were found more commonly on the Iberian Peninsula, and were later, 400-200 B.C. or so.)

Another thing the loop over the knuckles might be is a thong that would be tied to a javelin or short throwing spear. It was quite common to wind a loop of cord around the shaft so that the weapon would spin upon release to increase accuracy. However, the warrior is clearly not a skirmisher, so I might rule out the javelin. However, many of the Italian peoples of c. 500 B.C. used infantry that carried two short spears that were heavy enough to use for thrusting and light enough to throw.

Still, I think I would put my money on the falcata/kopis, because as you can see, he's not wearing a sword on his left side. Hope this helps.

Patrick Hardin

[Mike Cartier]

the hand position makes me think it definatly a spear type weapon but the thickness looks like a sword. i would bet on some sort of assisting grib thing for a spear/javelin

[Steven Blakely]

I believe the weapon could be what is called a dussak i think?
the weapon is basically a blade that has a handle cut out in a half moon. it is single edged. you could probably find a picture of one at medeavil collectables.com

[Mike Cartier]

no definatly not a Dusack, it would be about about a 2000 years too early. Even the Falcata was a bit later than Etruscan.

[LafayetteCCurtis]

The dusack, sadly enough, is not an Etruscan weapon. We must be careful not to conflate anything pre-modern with each other--there was a much greater span of time separating the Renaissance dusack from the Etruscans than the one separating the Renaissance era from ours.

As for Lenny's original question, there's actually a definite answer: the historians themselves said they don't know! Still, most of the references I've seen to it seem to lean towards the conjecture that it was a spear or a (heavy) javelin.

[Steven Blakely]

well I was taking a stab in the dark. it was the conclusion i took by only being able to see the portion and with what looked like a knuckle guard. I did not think that what seems to be such as rudimentary tool took so many years to come up with

[Lenny.Dick]

Personally, I believe the weapon to be a sword, probably a Kopis. The Etruscans fought like Greek hoplites at this time, primarily with spears, but this warrior is clearly of the “first class.” Livy, the great Roman historian explained the first class armament as; “The arms enjoined them were a helmet, a round shield, greaves, and a coat of mail, all of brass; these were for the defence of their body; their weapons of offence were a spear and a sword.” A bronze statue of this time was probably not done for a standard soldier, but someone of importance, like this “first class soldier. Why a sword…his posture certainly resembles “Vom Tag”; his legs are in the correct orientation, his arm is high, his grip is correct, and his shield is held close to the body. A spear is not that wide and we have no desription of any kind of a spear handle, and javelins were not regularly used for a few hundred years, and certainly not by a “first class” warrior. A sword would make this statue look glorious and threatening in his day, a spear held on this downward angle looks like defeat, and not how they were normally held, parallel to the ground.

Lenny

[Martin Wallgren]

I would advice you to ask the question at the www.romanarmy.com/rat forum. The guys there are experts on the classical eras.