Sacred Daggers, Part 2

of the Ivory Lady. Wonderful sequence of words. There a fascinating blade found in the grave of a woman in modern day Spain who died and was buried during the Iberian Copper Age, which would have been roughly thirty two

hundred twenty two hundred BCE. This dagger was interesting for a number of reasons, not least of which because of its beautiful, semi transparent rock crystal blade is a blade you can kind of see through, and for its inclusion as part of an assemblage of grave goods, indicating that the woman buried there was probably a figure of great

importance and authority. And then we also talked about the bush Barrow Dagger, a famous Bronze Age masterwork knife found in a barrow grave about a kilometer away from stone Hinge.

You can kind of see stone Hinge from this barrow, And that one was notable because it also came with a particularly rich and interesting collection of other grave goods, but also because of the almost unbelievable level of craft that went into its manufacture, particularly the way the handle had been decorated with around one hundred and forty thousand microscopic gold pins, each no wider than a human hair, made at a time before magnifying glasses, leading some researchers

to speculate that it really could only have been made by children child goldsmiths, since only children would probably have had eyesight sharp enough to see and place the studs. And now we're back today to talk about more rob Have you had dagger thoughts since our first episode?

So if you want to send us pictures of knives that are of great importance to you or you know, fascination points for you personally, you send us information about it. We'd love to learn more.

more often just say knife or tumi. But as a dagger, I think it's interesting because it challenges the boundaries of the concept, both in shape and in function. So in function, I think it challenges the idea of a dagger because this item was clearly used for much more than just offensive violence. In fact, that seems like if it was used for that, that was one of its much less

common uses. Last time, we made the distinction that while a knife usually refers to an all utility blade, a dagger is usually understood to be something meant for violence. The tome was used for all sorts of things, including ritual sacrifices and as we'll get to, medicine. In shape, it also challenges our idea of a dagger because the particular to me tradition I'm talking about that the idea the word to me actually just in a way means knife.

I'll get to that in a second. But the form of to me I'm talking about challenges the idea of a dagger because it is not long and pointy. In fact, it's almost the exact opposite. The blade could be called crescent shaped or semi lunar. Generally, it's a bent, semi circular or half moon shape with the bend running perpendicular to the length of the handle.

one is a sharper curve that. Yeah. If we were to compare it to a kitchen implement, it would probably be those yeah we used to slice up some herbs.

So it is a word with a broader meaning, but also it is used to refer to these half moon blades. These half moon blades would have been called something else by the pre Incan peoples who made them, but the ketchwa word used by the Incas has been passed down and used in the archaeological context, so that's what we call them today. So I figure we should just look at a couple of specific examples. Rob I've got some pictures that you can look at in the outline here,

so we can discuss them. But folks at home, I'm going to describe them in some detail and then talk about what we know about these artifacts. So the first one I want to look at is an example of a beautiful ceremonial to me made by the Chimu culture of northern coastal Peru sometime between eleven hundred and fourteen SEVENTYCE. This is a highly ornamented dagger made of gold with

turquoise inlay. It's about thirty four centimeters long and thirteen centimeters wide, with a half moon curved blade at the bottom attached to a purpen deday killer shaft, and then at the top of that shaft, coming up from the half moon, a gold humanoid figure with a large broad head and face in proportion to the body, topped with a patterned gold head dress with inset turquoise discs and also turquoise discs gauging the lobes of the figure's ears.

And then we see the posture of the figures. The arms are folded in on the stomach, not across each other, but just coming in toward the belly, button folded in on the stomach, feet splayed outwards.

any other pronunciations wrong in this section. I'm doing my best. Here a figure known as name Lap who is said to have been the hero who settled or colonized the region of the Lembayak Valley on the coast of Peru and formed a powerful ruling dynasty that lasted many generations.

So I was looking up stories about this figure, name Lap, and I found some more details in a UCLA Today article by Cynthia Lee about the work of an archaeologist named Christopher Donna And this article was from twenty twelve. I believe Donnan studied the relationship between the oral tradition of name Lap and the archaeological record at a couple

of sites in the Lumbayaka Valley. So it is said that Name Lap arrived to the coast of Peru on a fleet of balsa wood rafts with a large entourage that included his wife and many concubines, as well as a host of warriors and lieutenants. And he brought with him a holy idol made of green stone that I think in some tellings is said to be his own image in a way, that was kept in his palace.

And he seems to have been honored in ways that are symbolically associated with the sea, receiving fanfare on seashell trumpets, and I thought this was interesting. He was so powerful and revered that his servants would spread a carpet of ground up seashells on the earth wherever he walked.

for him. So, coming back to this specific to me, assuming that that is the figure depicted on it, name lap does seem to have often been depicted in gold with these turquoise inlays in other representations as well, and many of the indigenous peoples of Peru used turquoise to symbolize the spiritual power of water and the sky, kind of in the same way that gold might symbolize the spiritual power of the sun.

royal dynasty, be used in practice. I couldn't find a definitive answer to that, but my best guess based on what I'm reading is probably not. It might be symbolic, so as a as a gold version of a tool used in ritual, it would kind of symbolize the king's

power over the whole religious enterprise of the culture. Rough analogy, but kind of like if a Christian king had a gold communion chalice and people don't actually drink the wine out of this one at the church services, but it might symbolize the King's power and relationship to the central ritual of the church.

separately hammered or cast then soldered into place. All right, so that is the very very impressive gold ceremonial to me. But I've got another to me for us to look at, rob a new one. You can see the picture in the outline here. I will describe now. This is a later artifact from the Inca from some time between fourteen hundred and fifteen thirty five, also from Peru, made of bronze. This one is held by the met Museum in New York, and it's far less elaborate than the gold knife from

the earlier Chimu culture. A sort of a simple bronze blade curved like a slice from a circle, though it's actually by volume less than half of the circle. You know, it's not a semicircle. It's I don't know, by volume, it looks like maybe a fourth of a circle, but it's the outer edge, so it's still the curve.

of an eagle. So the met exhibit points out the diverse skills on display in the metal working industry that took place at the Incan capital of Cusco, with items being made of gold, silver, copper, and bronze, and with Toomey's being one of the most commonly represented metal tools from that industry. Many of these everyday Toomey's have loops

at the top of the handle. I guess kind of like what we see here with the curved bird talons, and this is taken as an indication that they probably hung from something, so people might hang a to me maybe on the necklace or on a belt something like that. The tome is commonly associated with ritual sacrifice, for example the sacrifice of lamas during the harvest festival, and this association with blood sacrifice goes back thousands of years in

Indian cultures between the toomey and the animal sacrifice. The museum explains the raptor talent motif on the handle in terms of the association with sacrifice by saying, quote, the eating habits of raptors and vultures give them a natural symbolic connection to sacrifice and the world of the dead.

and artistic representation. They are depicted in the art of pre Incan and Deean cultures such as the Moche, the chi Mu, and the sikhan as wielded by gods, demi, gods and supernatural beings, sometimes threatening other beings with the tumei or indicating that the tumei might be used for decapitation, which also had ritual significance to multiple pre Incan cultures of the region as an act that could bring about

agricultural and ecological rejuvenation. But earlier I mentioned that, apart from its role in animal sacrifices and religious purposes, the half moon shaped tume was also important in indigenous medicines, specifically indigenous surgical techniques, including trepanation.

throughout history. A very common thing. It is where a surgeon cuts or bores or scrapes a hole in the skull of a living person, not with the goal of killing them, but with the goal of treating a medical complaint or supposedly enhancing them in some way. The reasoning behind the procedure varies, but trepienation has been used especially to treat head injuries that might lead to swelling inside

the brain inflammation in the head. So like head injuries that involve the fracture of the skull arising from accidents or violence. This is a big thing that would cause somebody to seek trepenation and maybe they get hit in the head. There's a fracture and there's some swelling. Some bits of bone can be removed and a hole can

be cut to allegedly relieve the swelling. It's also been speculated that it may have been used to treat headaches, you know, bad headaches, or other things that were thought to be the swelling of the brain. Maybe as a hypothetical treatment for a variety of mental and neurological conditions, such as epilepsy. But one of the really startling things about trepnation is in certain times and places, how often

this procedure was survivable. You know, I would just assume that before modern medicine, this is just one hundred percent death rate on drilling a hole in the skull.

has not. But in cases where the bone has healed over, it proves that the patient survived the operation for a significant time afterwards, dead people don't heal, So of course there are lots of times where you know it might be a coin flip whether you would survive trepanation. But some estimates based on surveys of tripand remains, indicate that during the late Incan period they had gotten really good at this Somewhere around eighty percent of trepanning patients probably survived the operation.

could be any number of things. You would need some kinds of scrapers and blades, These would be any number of obsidian or bronze implements. But the semi circular bronze to me was absolutely a common part of the tripanning toolkit. And this connects to an article I was reading an ARS Technica article from twenty twenty two by Keona N. Smith called ancient Peruvian was buried with tools for cranial

surgery and then good subheader quote. He was also buried with the partial skulls of two former patients, taking a little keepsake. Yeah yeah, So the article describes it was at the time a recent discovery from a tomb excavated in a temple complex at Waca Las Ventanas, which is an archaeological site in Peru, and this would have been a site from the Sican culture or the Lumbayak culture.

The body in the tomb appears to have been that of a secon brain surgeon, a person specializing in trepanning, and we can tell that in part because of the tools that were buried with him. These include bronze awls with wooden handles, needles, and blades, as well also non occupation grave goods indicating the burial of a relatively rich and high status person. These non occupational grave goods would be a gold mask with feathers around the eyes, big

bronze breastplate, and copper bowls lined with gold. But specifically addressing the Toomey, the author of this article rights quote. Most of the knives were single edge blades, but one was clearly special. The semi circular blade called a toume, was a staple in both surgery and ritual sacrifice for the Sicon. Their predecessors, the Moche and later the Inca, ritual tomes were large and elaborate, but ancient surgeons used

a smaller, more utilitarian version for trepanation. So you might have your big, gorgeous gold ceremonial to me that's got the picture of a you know, a founding culture hero on it, or you might have a smaller bronze when that you actually used to cut holes in people's skulls. The article here quotes Sicon National Museum Director Carlos Alera, who says that the museum is trying to compare the instruments found in this grave to those that would be

used by a modern surgeon. One big difference that gets called out is material. Of course, you know modern surgeons are going to be using modern probably steel surgical knives. Actually I didn't even look this up. What are knives usually made out of for surgery? I assume their steel anyway, whatever that material would be. But these surgical knives are

made of copper with a high arsenic content. The reason there was high arsenic content was that it helped strengthen the metal, so like a copper arsenic alloy is stronger than a copper one alone.

taken with him. I wonder what that means. Is that just like a you know, oh this is a time I did a really good job, or well.

with you. I think of how in various medical professions, you know, you will practice using you know, some real teeth, real bones, some sort or you know, or real other actual pieces of a body in order to practice your craft, and if it's not something that decays, you may keep that potentially as a as a as a teaching implement So yeah, maybe with something like that.

be where to cut to avoid excess bleeding. You know, these are all important things to know to help the patient survive the procedure. And it must have been like part of the answer of like how did these did the late INCA period end up with these relatively high survival rates for trepidation because again, think about these other times when all throughout history where like maybe half the people who did this died. The skill of the surgeon was probably a very big deal. But another factor cited

in this article I was talking about is hygiene. They must have somehow been practicing a relatively strong hygiene regimen to do successful surgery without deadly infections on the regular.

did they use for anesthesia? We don't really know the answer is kind of an interesting mystery, though this article points to a discovery within the surgeons to him at Wacallas Fintanas that might contribute knowledge to that, and it was that the kit that was buried with the surgeon also included a piece of tree bark, which the curator at that museum, Alera, had said, you know, we wonder if this might be a medicinal bark of some kind,

because of course medicinal barks do exist. We don't know that, to be clear, but we don't We know that there are some medicinal barks like willow bark, of course is anti inflammatory, and so I guess there are questions about whether this bark might have been something like that.

this style of blade in its entirety. This is one of the blades that inspired this series that I was like, Oh, I should really cover this, But when I started looking at it, I realized it was just such a huge topic because the specific blade I'm going to reference here is a chris that is a type of traditional, highly stylized Indonesian blade. Generally it's associated with Java, but also

other parts of Indonesia. And when I first started looking into it, I was like, oh, this could maybe make for a nice artifact episode, and then I was like, oh no, there's too much here. This would have to

be at least a full episode. And then I quickly realized like it would have to be like multiple episodes because one is tempted to compare it to say the Samurai sword in terms of the artistry, the technique, the history, but in other ways it seems even more complicated than that, because you have a lot of diverse imagery, and it's going to depend on exactly where it was produced, when

it was produced, the details of what everything symbolizes. But it is such a fascinating blade because you've probably seen examples of it out there, listener, at the very least

you would recognize it. The version that is often depicted and certainly catches the eye is a very wavy blade, like a highly stylized almost snake shaped dagger, often with a highly stylized hilt and a highly stylized sheath, and just looking at it like you you know, the mind run wild, runs wild, you know, whether you know anything about the traditions involved here or you know, or you're you're just coming in completely cold. You know, it's like why is it shaped like that? And you know, why

is the handle like that? And then what are all these little images that are a part of the blade, So that in many ways it feels like the ultimate transformation of a utilitarian implement of some sort of a tool or weapon into a thing that is just pure symbol and meaning. Though you to be clear, you still could absolutely top somebody with one of these. So I'm going to be talking about Chris's, but I want to and that is generally spelled kr I S and in English.

I'm going to talk specifically though, about the Chris of Nod, also known as the Keras of Nod because sometimes Keras instead of Chris is used, also known as just Nod's Chris.

which I'm not. In this case, Well, this was the name of a nineteenth century Dutch physician, and his name is only attached to the dagger in question because it was gifted to him by paku Alum, the fifth Duke of the Javanese Duchy of paku Aliman. The duchy still co rules in the special region of Jagi Karta in Indonesia, and the current Duke is Pacu Alum the tenth. The Dutch were, of course highly invested in the region, to say the least, first via the colonial influences of the

Dutch East India Company. The British then occupied Java from eighteen eleven through eighteen sixteen, and the Duchy of Pacu Aliman was established during this period, and when the Dutch regained control of Java in eighteen sixteen, the Duchy became an independent state of the Kingdom of the Netherlands under the Dutch East Indies administration until Indonesia's independence in nineteen forty five. Okay, So obviously there is a lot of

history that I just skimmed pasted really quickly. There's obviously a lot of back and forth in a lot of nuance there. But hopefully this gives you just an idea of why a re old Javanese ruler would have gifted an elaborate dagger to a dutch Man.

According to author and expert David van Duran in his book Charles Nod's Karis. Some of the identifiable elements include the monkey warrior Hahneman, the demon king, Ravna dwarfs or paquin Kawan. These are the like the clown dwarf servants of the hero in Javanese puppet theater, but they're also snakes, possibly nagas dogs. There's a demon army, there's a monkey army, and more. I know that sounds like a lot to fit on a single blade that again does not have

an intact hilt anymore, a Hilton handle or anything. It's just the blade. But yes, they really do pack that much detail into this, into this, this highly stylized blade.

are often associated with the Chris. The Cris blade has been produced throughout the islands of Indonesia, but they're especially prominent in Java, also prominent to a degree in Bali as well. So the history of this particular Chris roughly breaks down as fall. These are some of the main the main points in its known history, so according to an inscription on the blade itself, it was forged in

at least thirteen forty two CE. This would make it a product of the Majapahi Empire, a Hindu Buddhist empire that ruled Java in some surrounding territory, ultimately lasting from twelve ninety two through fifteen twenty seven, when it was conquered by the Demak Sultanate. This was just a little more than a decade fallollowing first contact in this region with Europeans. I believe it would have been the Portuguese.

Then at a much later date it is gifted to Charles Nod and this would have been the late eighteen hundreds, and then it was presumed lost around nineteen oh three, but it apparently remained in the family's possession in Indonesia, was hidden during the Japanese occupation that's forty two through forty five, and then the family took the blade to the Netherlands during the Indonesian National Revolution that immediately followed, and it remains to this day time to understand in

Amsterdam's kit Royal Tropical Institute. So this blade is apparently the oldest surviving Chris that has a verifiable age. So again that's not to say this is definitely the oldest, like may there are other blades that may be older, but this is the one that currently has a verifiable age according to most experts.

but this it has to be this old, okay. And now I have to admit I was a bit dubious of this claim at first, again knowing nothing about this previously, you know, could the oldest surviving example of this tradition really have been given away to a foreigner as a

gift and eventually sent away to a European museum. As it turns out, though, there seems to be a case for this, a strong case for this, for a few different reasons, and with a few different caveats For starters, there's the base fact that we're dealing with iron based artifacts, and some of these I should also mention to call

back to an episode we did previously. Sometimes they use meteoric iron in these artifacts as well, But at any rate, we were talking iron based artifacts in a humid tropical climate. So if a blade is not properly protected, it's just

going to naturally deteriorate. Also, as we see in other blade cultures, such as that of the Samurai sword, the blade itself was considered the most important and the most sacred part, and additional parts such as hill sheath so forth, these were interchangeable and so they might change multiple times during the lifetime of a particular blade, and this can

apparently complicate accurate datings of a blade as well. And then, as our brief history overview might have suggested to listeners were also dealing with the region, they saw a great deal of upheaval during the colonial period. You had the Dutch East India Company, the British and the French were also involved at different points, and the ensuing conflicts also pitted various factions against each other. Artifacts were destroyed, lost,

absconded with, sometimes into private collections. Also, you had blades that were just outright and neglected. And all of this, as we've seen with various cultures impacted by colonialism, led to a great deal of cultural loss, including material loss.

So the fact that the Chris of Nod could survive six centuries despite all of this is generally quite remarkable, again, especially given all the pivotal moments in its timeline where it could have just been lost, it could have just remained buried, it could have been more neglected than it was. So apparently we're rather lucky to have this one at all. Now, at this point, I want to back up a little bit sort of widen and talk a little more generally

about the chris as a type of blade. One of the main sources I turned to for this, in addition to the aforementioned book, is Introduction to Chris, a Traditional Weapon of Indonesia Preserved Lingering Issues of Facts by Purwatou and Nurhamada, published in twenty twenty one in the Indonesian

Journal of English Educational Literature and Culture. So the name Chris or sometimes keras this is apparently this apparently stems from an older Javanese word that meant to slice, and the blade is again often identified by its highly asymmetrical design. Generally it's stylized hilt and sheath and in some cases that wavy snake like blade. Again, not every Chris is wavy,

but many are. And it's one of those things like if you pull up like a Wikipedia article about it, you're gonna you're definitely gonna see images, or you just do an image search for Chris, you're going to see that wavy blade almost saw Like I guess.

a solid comparison as well. So it's said that the blade was originally a close combat weapon that was treated with poison. The poison here was known as warrengon, also known as arsenic. Oh yeah, And the interesting bit here is that we have there seemed to be a couple of different dimensions to this. So on one hand, there was the idea, Okay, the blade is ritually treated with this arsenic, but apparently like not a situation where like, okay,

you're going into battle rubs some arsenic on the blade. No, the arsenic is used in the creation of the blade, treatment of the blades tip, it's forging, and this process would bring out the contrast apparently between the dark black iron and the light colored silvery nickel layers.

the interesting things about poison. We just discussed this on the show before in the past, talking about poisons and various East Asian belief systems, where yes, there were definitely real poisons then as there are today, but poison also takes on the connotation of curse, and not only curse, but sort of like accusations of poison, and we see this in belief systems throughout the world, like the idea that if something evil has happened, illness or or something else,

it must be a poison that was used by evil doers, the poisons of witches. So the poisons and curses of magic users are kind of interchangeable, and therefore we might think of this as kind of like a holy poison in some respects a wholly magical poison.

For example, the shape of the blade apparently has different meanings. The wavy blade symbolizes wisdom and is linked to the iconography of the serpent Naga in motion. And furthermore, the exact number of curves in the blade is tied to precise ideas about theology and power. Ones in the relationship

between kings and the gods, that sort of thing. In that paper publishing the Journal of English Educational Literature and Culture, there's like a whole chart of like, okay, two waves it means this, three waves it means that, and they're all They're all very to my eye complex ideas about again the theology of the theological properties of power. The straight Cris blade, on the other hand, is said to symbolize determination to maintain principles, and it's tied to the

idea of the Naga at rest. So the Naga is not moving, it's not waving, you know, it's not slithering, but it is straight. The exact period of production is also going to dictate exactly how one might read a Chris like this, And this is again not even getting to all the various outright illustrations and inscriptions are going to be on the blade as well. One example of

the differences you encounter. So if it was created within a Hindu Buddhist culture, you're going to have, you know, you probably have a lot more illustrations of gods and beings and animals. Meanwhile, Islamic cultures, as you can well imagine, under Islamic cultures, you're going to have Islamic crises that typically employ fewer of these elements.

most of these execution techniques, I don't know. I couldn't find. I didn't find any papers that like really dug into how effective this would be. But I guess on paper, if someone's like, hey, this guy knows what he's doing. He's going to stick it right through your neck straight to the heart and then it's done, I guess I'm okay with that. Certainly better than some of the horror

stories we've discussed involving multiple strikes of the headman's axe. Right. Yes, Now, this does lead me to another issue that comes up.

There are some arguments that that curvy wavy blade, the snake like blade, the snake in motion, that this would be an ideal blade because it might produce a wider wound channel when it's actually used in battle, or that you would encounter less friction and suction inside the wound, so allowing for like a deeper and faster stab, like you'd be able to stab in and then pull it back out, save time and then you can move on to your in the next battlefield stabbing that sort of thing.

As far as I can tell, a lot of these arguments seem to be kind of speculative. I couldn't find an example of anyone like actually testing them out on some sort of you know, you know, cadaver or animal body.

So it seems more likely that these that it's a you know, a major esthetic factor here rather than a performance design. Yeah, finally, this is this is a somewhat lesser cultural value. But if you listen to our Weird House Cinema episodes, you might remember a few months back we discussed the nineteen eighty eight Indonesian supernatural action movie

Lady Terminator. That film does feature a holy demon slaying Chris in it, which I think, you know, again that's a that's an exploitation action film, but it does give you an idea of just how important the Chris is within these different Indonesian traditions, like it is the holy blade, it is the of course, it is the blade that you would use to eliminate some sort of supernatural evil.

them from Amsterdam. But again, deep topic. I didn't want to just go on and on about the Chris here, but hopefully I've given you just a sample of just how rich and amazing these blades are.

want to get my hands on that. I want to put that right on the pad of my thumb and see how sharp it feels.

weapons of that have shed blood. How they kind of take on a life of their own, and they have their own their own ambitions and their own grudges, and we as mortal humans just we occasionally get to hold them, We occasionally wield them. We occasionally rub our thumb against their edge to see how sharp they are.

in we'd love to hear from you. Or if you just have blades that are of personal cultural importance to you and you would like to share them with us. Yeah, send us your story, send us some pictures of that night. We would love to hear from you.