Iain Norman | Iain Norman

Swords and Individualism

One of the interesting characteristic of dha/daab is the endless variety but also common patterns. While many dha or daab were made for in large numbers for military purposes and generally follow a familiar form, there are others that exhibit countless variations and configurations as a reflection of their owners. This can range from decoration, talismanic elements, changed pommels and furniture and use of exotic materials but also at a more fundamental level the core elements of the sword which dictate its use and function. Read more

Tracing Echoes of the Champa and Khmer

The Champa kingdom and the Khmer kingdom of Cambodia were great regional rivals with a history of frequent and bloody conflict. However, they were also similar in many respects being both Hindu kingdoms drawing on a long tradition in southeast Asia of Indian influenced culture, in particular the kingdom or Mandala of Funan. This was manifested not only in religion but also in the use of Sanskrit and a shared iconographic style. Read more

Giants of Southeast Asia

While most collectors would be familiar with dha/daab and some of their many variations, depsite their proportions and long handles these swords are not in fact two handers but rather use the long handles to achieve the desired balance and handling characteristics. However, far more rare and barely known, there exist true two handed swords in these regions, from Thailand to Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam. The history of these weapons is fascinating and involves the brief period of Japanese overseas adventurism in the mid to late 16th century and early 17th century before an enforced return to isolationism by the Tokugawa shogunate in 1635. Read more

A Weapon and a Tool

This particular piece is from an intriguing family of weapons, most commonly found in Cambodia but also in Thailand and parts of Laos and Vietnam, often known to collectors as a ‘mak’ but locally known as a ‘kokok’ ‘phkeak’. The exact source of the term ‘mak’ is currently not known to me but for some reason has become the term of choice among western collectors. Similar to a phenomenon seen with other ethnographic weapons where a label that may belong to only one language or people group is applied as a blanket term over time. Read more

A relic of Invasion

This is an unusual sword, both for the fact that I don't usually collect anything in this condition and also that it is part of a subset of swords that have surfaced in western auctions over the years, all in a similar state. They have often been advertised with outlandish claims of medieval dating, presumably because of the 'relic' like appearance. The truth is much more mundane but no less interesting. Read more

A Nomadic Collar

This may sound like a strange title but as with many of my articles and musings, this is an attempt to paint a picture, through a small physical characteristic of a sword, of a wider interconnected world of trade, warfare, and cultural exchange. In this case the title is a bit literal as the collar under discussion quite literally migrated across large areas of the globe. The sword I will use to illustrate this is an early example likely from the northern regions of Thailand where the modern day borders meet Laos and Cambodia. Read more

Battle Scars

have a tendency to sometimes buy swords that might turn off most collectors due to issues with condition. This could be a piece that requires extensive cleaning or stablisation, or, in the case of this piece, damage which for some might make the perceived value much lower. This particular sword has a hole in the pommel, likely due to a weakness in the original lost wax casting, which was further exploited by factors like humidity expending organic materials within the hilt. Despite this there were several factors that led me to purchase the sword. Read more

At the Crossroads - a sword of many influences

Swords of southeast Asia are very much a reflection of the cultures that made them and by the 17th century what is now modern-day Myanmar, Thailand, Laos and Vietnam were truly diverse in the personnel and influences to be found in their militaries. Read more

A Well Travelled Warrior

This is a particularly interesting dha sword from Burma, most likely from the Ava region, it is a very large example with a blade of unusual quality and a finally made silver hilt. Dha are notoriously difficult to pin down due to a lack of archeological record and published typologies. There tends to be an extremely wide variety of variations seen according to the preferences of the owners and users of these swords. However there are at times characteristics of blade shape and hilt attributes that help to narrow down the probabilities. Read more

A Burmese Mystery

This intriguing sword is a mystery on several levels. When it appeared at auction in the UK it attracted no attention, I was in fact the only bidder. Part of that can be attributed to the condition, a heavily pitted and corroded blade, and partly the piece simply does not fit into the usual types of dha seen. Read more

The Everyday Sword

After something of a long hiatus this website will start to be somewhat active again. After a break in actively acquiring new pieces and much work on a hopefully soon to be available small book summing up my work with the takouba form, I have decided to indulge collecting interests long dormant as I pursued only pieces relevant to my African research. Most of those pieces have found new (and I daresay good!) homes, leaving space for a part of the world I have always found fascinating - South East Asia. Read more

A Likely Byzantine or Fatimid Sword of the Xth – XIth Centuries

This extremely rare sword from the collection of Dr. Lee Jones represents a rarely encountered subtype of swords which are thought to be either Fatimid or Byzantine and heavily influenced by Arab designs. Extant examples are few and the piece presented here is unique in several respects. Read more