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Translated by
Codruta Rusu
Feared sign of prestige, with a special spiritual load, the sica dagger
is a reference point in the attempt to establish the proportions of the
Thracian military phenomena on the whole, but especially the role in
society of the military elite. Our approach tries to bring into
discussion a typological repertory, with the artistic and spiritual
implications that can be built around this weapon, with the necessary
prudence, starting with the iconographical, archaeological,
historiography sources, the symbolist interpretation and experimental
archaeology.
One of the most characteristic curved weapons that can be found in the
panoply of the Thracians is a sharp dagger, with a curved blade and a
triangular section, with a “blood channel” along the blade and
zoomorphic or geometrical motifs incised into it. The size of this
dagger, generically called sica, varies between 25 and 35 cm length. The
rashness, with which various curved weapons of medium size, dispersed in
the Thracian world, of machaira or falx type, are considered to be
daggers, has made it extremely hard to catalogue and to study the real
daggers, despite de fact that the lasts are present, in a relatively big
number, in archaeological contexts and also in representational art. The
large number of pieces discovered, with various characteristics, but all
specific for daggers, along with the ambiguity of the antic sources,
obliges us to make a difference between daggers and small swords (machaira),
which is possible only by taking into account the functional and
physical characteristics of the weapons in discussion.
From a morphological point of view, starting with simple shapes, through
successive transformations, at the end of the third century B.C. and the
beginning of the next century, a final shape is reached, functionally
and aesthetically elaborated, proper for a mixed warrior elite, whose
arsenal contains also a Thracian component. The area covered by these
warriors is the North – Western Bulgaria, Western Muntenia, a good part
of Oltenia, with a consistent expansion in South – Eastern Transylvania,
simply said: the archaeological and cultural grounds called
Padea-Panagjurski Kolonii, where the inventory also contains curved
daggers of the sica type.
From a typological point of view, though there is a strong tendency
towards standardization, the sica daggers can be organised in three main
types that differ only by morphological aspects, not functional.
The first type is characterised by its solidity, sometimes with a broken
figure immediately after the blade’s middle part, with a short and sharp
point, with a slight curvature, a short handle cane, usually of a
triangular shape, that has a hole for the fixing rivet, close to the
blade. The blade has incised ornaments and a "blood channel" deeply
carved into it. These characteristics are not general, the only standing
arguments for this type being the size and the shape approximately
similar.
The second type, not very different morphologically speaking, doesn’t
have the solid shape of the first type, but a longer blade, with a
"blood channel", and keeps, most often, the haft’s tongue short and of a
triangular shape.
The third type, more numerous, gathers a series of daggers characterized
by a long blade, elegantly manufactured in most cases, by the
ornamentation with incised circles or/and lines along the blade, the
presence of the "blood channel", the haft’s tongue as long as the haft
and a guard muff. These distinctive elements are found either all
together, or some of the pieces present one or more of these cha-racteristic
features. The sizes show a relative standardization, some-where around
30-40 cm length and approximately 3 cm width. From a chronological point
of view, this type of dagger is dated mostly in the second and first
centuries B. C.
The most frequent associations of weapons in the graves from the
Padea-Panagjurski Kolonii group are spear tips, the helmet, the straight
sword, shield bosses and the curved dagger, sometimes a coat of mail and
chariots, and adding different pieces of harness: pasterns, bits,
buckles. This type of funeral inventory, almost the same in the graves
from where the daggers come, allows today the identification and
reconstruction of some specific inventories, scattered along the time
because of different reasons.
The daggers’ decoration, remarkably complex, offers them a sum of
spiritual, artistically and symbolical valences. On the blade
geo-metrical shapes were incised, but also eagles and snakes, in which
case their schematization requires the existence of a certain “code”, or
they were an emblem that underlined the membership of a certain
brotherhood at arms or a certain social status.
From the facts presented above, it can be stated that the sica dagger
represents an important historical artefact which, due to it’s
importance and the role it played in the Thracian world, contributes to
the understanding of the social and military mechanisms of this society
and, through the special spiritual dimension, to the reception of a new
side from the religious mosaic of this people. From all the curved
weapons used in the Thracian area, the sica daggers are the only ones
that make the connection between the Southern Thracians and the
Thracians North to the Danube, being spread the same on both sides of
the river.
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