Category: Fake Hercules Swords

Three for Thursday: Demography, Swords, and Trophy Bases

3/16/2017

Following the spring break hiatus, the Broad River Field School will be back in session tomorrow. We'll be shifting gears a bit to carefully work our way into what appears to be a buried Late Archaic/Early Woodland component. I'm also anticipating continued work on the deeper deposits at the site. Hopefully it will be an eventful day. It's supposed to be sunny and in the mid 60's. I'll just leave it at that.

Here are a few quick updates on other things for those playing along at home: a new modeling paper about the minimum size of demographically viable hunter-gatherer populations, new Fake Hercules Swords en route, and an identification of last Friday's whatzit.

How Small is Too Small?

I'm happy to announce that a paper I submitted to the Journal of Artificial Societies and Social Simulation (JASSS) has been accepted for publication. The paper ("A Model-Based Analysis of the Minimum Size of Demographically-Viable Hunter-Gatherer Populations") uses computational modeling to systematically investigate how large hunter-gatherer populations have to be to survive over long periods of time. Spoiler alert: my results suggest that populations much smaller than the "magic number" of 500 are demographically viable over several centuries under the conditions I explore with my model (in this case, FN3D_V3). JASSS is open access. I'll let you know when the paper becomes available.

Two New Swords on the Way

Two new Fake Hercules Swords should arrive at my office any day now. Alert #Swordgate enthusiast Hartman Krug spotted these swords, which are currently being produced in Italy. Because the company doesn't ship to the U.S., I asked a relative in Germany to purchase them for me and ship them to South Carolina. After arriving in New Jersey a few days ago, they are currently listed by the USPS as "in transit to destination."

It will be really interesting to have a look at this and delve into the history of the company making them. Could this finally lead us back to the original Mother of All Fake Hercules Swords?

The purchase and shipping of these swords was supported by your contributions to Woo War One. There's still a positive balance there, but it's dwindling. If you'd like to help keep the pressure on and get to the bottom of this, please consider contributing.

The Whatzit: A Trophy Base?

The "what the heck is this" post I put up last Friday was fun. Within a few minutes of asking the question to an artifact group on Facebook, someone suggested that the item is a base for a trophy. That explanation made sense to me (you can see some new ones for sale here).

Following the post, the owner of the artifact told me he returned to the same creek where he found the original artifact and found another one (left) that lacks the rounded corners of the first one (right). What these things are doing in a creek in Tennessee I do not know.

If you've got a whatzit, send me some photos and maybe we can get it figured out.

Finally, following up on yesterday's post about Against Me!, I would like to encourage you to listen to the song "Rebecca" if you like the rock'n'roll music. It's on repeat in Andyland.

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Additional Photos of Fake Hercules Sword No. 17

2/27/2017

3 Comments

The owner of Fake Hercules Sword 17 has sent some additional photos of the hilt and the portion of the blade nearest the hilt. Based on the blade length, shape, and apparent amount of detail on the Hercules figure, I speculated previously that Sword 17 might represent a generation that immediately post-dates the "F" swords (best represented by Sword 3 aka the California sword). Here are the new photos as they were sent to me:

Sword 17, front of hilt and proximal blade.

Sword 17, front of hilt.

Sword 17, close up of front of hilt.

At first glance, I see nothing in these photos that tells me I'm wrong about the placement of this sword. The blade clearly has no fullers, and the figure does seem to be fairly detailed relative to swords from the "J" and later generations.

The image below shows the hilts of Swords 17 and 3 side-by-side (I cropped the Sword 17 image and brightened it up a bit to bring out more details). While the hilt of Sword 17 compares fairly well to the hilt of Sword 3 (the California sword), however, I believe I do see a few spots where Sword 17 is less detailed: the lions' paws on the knees, the beard, and the grain of the wood seem less distinct in Sword 17. It would be nice to examine this one firsthand, have a look at the blade,and create a 3D model that could be directly compared to the one of the California sword.

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Fake Hercules Sword #24: The Sea Sword

2/23/2017

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Maybe you thought you'd never live to see the documentation of Fake Hercules Sword Number 24. Congratulations: you made it.

The 24th sword comes to us from Matt Sea, who emailed me about his sword a couple of days ago. He says he acquired the sword in 1998 during a family visit to Pompeii. The sword was purchased from a roadside vendor. Sea's parents "remember the vendor we bought it from had various swords, armor, and things like that. The vendor was also near where our tour bus dropped us off near the entrance of Pompeii." Matt says he sanded the patina from parts of the sword when he was young.

Here are some photos:

Sword 24: front.

Sword 24: front of hilt.

Sword 24: back of hilt.

Sword 24: front of blade.

Sword 24: detail of front of blade.

In the last image of the front of the blade (immediately above), a vaguely Texas-shaped depression is visible. I made an illustration showing the comparable areas of the other swords that we've classified as "Type CS." The same depression is clearly visible on the Cvet sword (Sword 12). I'm pretty sure I can see it in the photo of Sword 13 (Alejandro), and it's possibly (barely) discernible on Sword 10 (Florida eBay). I can't see it on Sword 15 (Frioacero).

Comparison of proximal blades of swords classified as "Type CS."

What does this mean? If that Texas-shaped depression -- clearly visible on the Sea and Cvet swords -- isn't present on some of the other swords we're calling CS, we're going to have to subdivide.

I'm hoping to get a chance to examine Sword 24 firsthand. It will be the first CS I've been able to look at up close. If my current chronological model is correct, the metrics of the Hercules figure on Sword 24 should fall somewhere between those of the Italian eBay (Type J) sword and the Design Toscano sword.

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Sword 17: Do I Sense Another Fake Hercules Sword Tipping Point on the Horizon?

2/20/2017

13 Comments

I just received the first photos of Sword 17. I don't have a lot of time today, but I wanted to pass along these photos, the information that we have about the sword, and few initial thoughts. I think this sword is potentially very important, possibly filling a gap between the Type F swords and the later "J" generation. First, here are the photos we have so far, emailed to me by the owner:

Sword 17, front.

Sword 17, back of hilt.

Sword 17, right side of hilt.

Sword 17, left side of hilt.

Here are the two comments by the owner left on this blog post:

"ladies and gentleman I have the exact match of that sword . I tried to contact the show but got no answer ( I wonder why). I purchased the sword some 35 years ago in a roman flee market in Rome. I took it to the Metropolitan Museum of Modern Art to be examined buy the curator of the museum in new York .he said it wasn't a real roman sword that was possibly made for a Cecil B DeMille movie. I have it hanging on my wall where it will probably be for a long time. Like the man said that show is all show and no go. I am posting my email address I have nothing to hide all you suckers excuse me believers can contact me if you wish. 3/20/16"

"Sword is brass or bronze. I was told 40 years ago by the curator of the Metropolitan Museum of Modern Art the sword was possibly made for a movie. There is a cast mark on the back of the handle the sides also seem to be two pieces combined together. I bought the sword in Rome at a flee market. The sword might be a collectors item if you're into old movies."

My first thought in looking at the photos was that Sword 17 looks like a Type F but without the partial fullers. While we don't have a good close-up of the front of the Hercules figure, it's evident even from the long shot that the detail is pretty good (the beard, belt, and lion's paws are discernible and it's got the two-bumped log). The blade is longer than the J blades, has "nicks" like the F blade, and is lacking the "J" anomaly. So it's like an "F" in many ways, but there aren't any fullers visible. Here's a side-by-side comparison of the Sword 3 (California) and Sword 17, scaled using the tape measures:

The comparison isn't perfect because of the oblique angle of the Sword 17 image. It looks to my eye, though, like Sword 17 could easily have been created by simply removing the fullered section of the blade from an "F" sword. If that's the case, it would post-date the "F" generation and presumably pre-date the "J" generation.

At some point soon I'll create of a graphic depicting what I think is the most likely sequence of these things at this point. I'd lay it out like this:

Earliest = Sword 21 (Type X);
Type F = created by replacing the expanding section of a Type X sword with a straight blade, retaining a short "fullered" section near the hilt (Swords 3 and 8); available for purchase in Italy in the mid 1970's;
Type K = created by cutting out the fullered blade section from a Type F, producing a sword with a straight, unfullered blade that still retains much of the detail of the earlier generations (Sword 17); available for purchase in Italy in the late 1970's and/or early 1980's;
Type J = created by replacing the F/K blade with a shorter, cruder, blunt-edge blade (Sword 1, 2, 4, 6, etc.); available for purchase in Italy in the 1980's [there appear to be multiple variants within the "J" generation, perhaps including versions with longer/shorter blades];
Type CS = created by replacing the blade of a "J" sword with a slightly shorter, less crude blade (Swords 7 and 12); available for purchase in Italy in the early 2000's;
Type I = created as a cast iron version of a Type CS; manufactured since at least 2003.

There's more to it than this, but I think this is a reasonable working model of change in our beloved Fake Hercules Swords. I can tell you that more data will be forthcoming, and I hope to be able to examine more of the swords firsthand. I can't think of anything we know right now that falsifies this general sequence -- let me know if I've overlooked anything! I'll post the updated database after I estimate some measurements from the Sword 17 images.

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A Video is Worth a Thousand Swords

2/4/2017

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In our new era of "alternative facts," I'd like to offer my support and empathy to the mainstream media. As someone who has been in the trenches with the "everything you've been taught about history is wrong" crowd for a couple of years now, I know it's frustrating to deal with people who have embraced lying not just as an occasional expedient behavior but as the organizing principle of a lifeway, Don't give up -- you'll get the hang of it eventually.

As evidence that the steadfast collection and presentation of facts can eventually have an effect on the narrative, I present to you this video by Critical Thinking:

Now that's some funny stuff.

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Sword 20: The Toronto Yard Sale Sword

1/22/2017

32 Comments

Information about Fake Hercules Sword 20 comes to us from Michael Castagne, who reports that he was given the sword around 2007 by a friend who purchased it for $5 at a Toronto yard sale.

I've added the sword (a "J") to the database, estimating some of the basic dimensions from the scaled images.

Sword 20: front of sword.

Sword 20: back of sword.

Sword 20: front of hilt.

Sword 20: back of hilt.

Sword 20: detail of Hercules' head and chest.

Sword 20: detail of side of hilt showing molding seam.

Alert readers will have noticed that I have added slots for Swords 22 and 23 to the database. Those are going to be interesting. My gut tells me we may be nearing another "tipping point" in the saga of the Fake Hercules Swords.

Oh wait, we're in a new era now so indulge me while I reframe the issue:

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Is Sword 21 the Earliest Fake Hercules Sword Yet?

1/15/2017

20 Comments

This blog post brought to you by insomnia.

A comment by Graham on yesterday's blog post about the newly-discovered Sword 21 raised the possibility that Sword 21, with it's fullered/ribbed "xiphos" blade was a member of the parent generation to the Type F swords (California [Sword 3] and Sonja [Sword 8]):

"Interesting. That design with the full length rib running down the center of the blade looks like the 'fullers' on the California and Sonja blades. Could one of these 'daggers' have been broken in two near the hilt and then used to cast those blades."

I think that's a reasonable working hypothesis.

One mystery that it would explain is the origin of the partially-fullered blade on the F swords . . . those swords have fullers that begin at the guard but end just a few centimeters down the blade.

The hypothesis that Sword 21 is a representative of a pre-F generation of swords raises several expectations. As I discussed in this post from last January, we can presume that successive generations of swords will be smaller and less detailed. Loss of both size and detail would have been the expected results of the process of making successive new molds from swords. If Sword 21 is earlier than Sword 3 (the Type F sword about which we have the most detailed information), we would expect the hilt to be larger and at least as detailed as Sword 3.

Unfortunately, we have only a single photograph of Sword 21. It isn't scaled, so we can't say anything about size. Comparison of the Sword 21 hilt with those of other generations of swords does seem to me to be consistent with the idea that it is early in the copy chain.

Even with the low resolution of the photo, several features are visible on Sword 21 that are absent from the later swords (e.g., the Type J's and the current Design Toscano version).

Log Bumps: The two pronounced bumps visible on the top of the log are important, as the California sword also has them but they are absent in later generations. The J and CS versions have a single pronounced bump; the Design Toscano version has a very muted bump.
Lion Paw Digits: The individual digits of the paws of Hercules' lion skin are visible on Sword 21. They're also visible in the California sword. They're less discernible on the J swords; by the time you get to the Design Toscano swords the lion's paws are just blobs.
Fullers: As Graham pointed out, if you chop off the blade of Sword 21 near the hilt, you've got a blade segment that appears from the photograph to be more-or-less identical with the fullered blades of the Type F swords. The fullers are lost completely in later generations as the blades become shorter and cruder.

I didn't fully appreciate the possible significance of Sword 21 when I first looked at the image -- I thought maybe it was a bizarre side-branch. But now I think it could be closer to the root. I wish we had some better pictures of the thing. I wonder if it would be worth following up with the auction site to see if they know anything else about the sword (perhaps even who purchased it).

I'm looking forward to seeing what my fellow Swordgate fans think of the idea that Sword 21 gets us closer to the elusive Mother of All Fake Hercules Swords. My plan today is to take the kids to the beach. Hopefully you guys can solve the mystery while I'm looking for shark teeth.

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Sword 21: Daga Romana (by Pablo Benavente)

1/14/2017

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This is a guest blog post contributed by Fake Hercules Sword Whisperer Pablo Benavente. There's been an uptick in the pace of discovery, and it's been difficult for me to keep all of our information up to date. Thanks to Pablo and JA Sterling for continuing to shake primary data out of the internet.

What Swordgate discoveries does 2017 hold? Last year was exciting, and I have enjoyed every discovery. But how many more of these things could there be?

Leave it to JA Sterling in her spare time to find this beauty:

If you scroll down to the end of this post about the "Sonja sword" (Sword 8), you'll see a photo from a newspaper that shows a sword with a strange blade shape (that's Sword 11 in the database -- we know nothing about it other than what's in the article). The photographer in me thought that the strange shape could have been a result of the photo being taken with a wide angle lens. Now, in the presence of evidence, I change my position! It's obvious that swords with "pugio" blades were indeed made at some point.

The sword shown above (Sword 21 in the database) was for sale on an auction website in 2013. The description on the website can be translated as follows:

"Model of Roman Dagger, XX Century. Iron with green patina, with a figure of a warrior on the hilt. Length: 67 centimeters"

That description and the single photo is all we have. It's not clear how detailed the Hercules is or if maybe he's "thinner" Hercules (maybe sign of an older model?). The blade shape is obviously different, and the central rib is a feature we haven't seen anywhere else. Assuming the reported length is correct, this is the longest Fake Hercules Sword we know about. The description of "iron with green patina" is curious.

I'm looking forward to hear everybody's opinions about it.

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SEM Analysis Shows that Fake Hercules Swords 3 and 4 are Modern Brass

1/10/2017

19 Comments

My field school starts this Friday, so I've been spending most of my time lately getting things ready: assembling equipment, building screens, finalizing forms, and learning to use the department's total station. I'll be moving equipment and shooting in some datum points tomorrow. We'll begin on Friday by clearing trees and brush from the excavation area and laying out the first units.

I wanted to take moment to report that Dr. Christa Brosseau at Saint Mary's University in Halifax, Nova Scotia, has now analyzed the metal composition of the California sword (Sword 3) and the Italian eBay sword (Sword 4). Followers of Swordgate will remember Brosseau from her role in the epic debunking of the "Roman sword from Nova Scotia (Sword 1 in the Fake Hercules Sword database). I mailed Brosseau the samples that I obtained from the California sword, and Trevor Furlotte and Kel Hancock visited Saint Mary's with the Italian eBay sword to watch samples from both the swords being tested.

Christa Brosseau removes a sample from the blade of the Italian eBay sword (Sword 4) (image courtesy of Kel Hancock).

Without divulging all the particulars (Brosseau and I are contemplating writing a paper together), I'll just say that both newly-tested swords are made of modern brass. Interestingly, analysis showed that the three swords have statistically different compositions (though all are broadly similar). The composition of patinas on the Nova Scotia and Italian eBay swords, both "J" types in our classification, were similar.

Slide showing magnified images of the samples analyzed and graphs of the metal composition (image courtesy of Christa Brosseau).

I would love to get more of these swords analyzed. With a larger sample of quantitative metal composition data, it could be theoretically possible to identify particular "batches" of swords that share both comopositional and morphometric characteristics.

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Sword 10 (Florida eBay Sword)

1/7/2017

4 Comments

Refreshing my memory about the narrative arc of #Swordgate yesterday, I was reminded that I never produced a blog post about Sword 10 (Florida eBay). This sword was spotted for sale on eBay in January of 2016. It was offered by a store in Stuart, Florida. As of this writing, the original listing for the item is still available here.

The seller was clearly trying to capitalize on the interest generated by the appearance of the "Roman sword" on The Curse of Oak Island, asking an even thousand dollars to purchase the sword outright.

Screenshot of the eBay listing for Sword 10.

There are many photos of the sword, some with a tape measure. By description and the photos, the sword is almost certainly a copper alloy sword. We classed this sword as a "type CS" along with Swords 7(Span), 12 (Cvet), 13 (Alejandro), and 15 (Friocero). My working hypothesis is that this generation of swords falls between the so-called "J" swords (e.g., Italian eBay sword, Nova Scotia sword, etc.) and the iron alloy Design Toscano swords. Type CS swords are (presumably) copper alloy swords with relatively "clean" blades missing the suite of anomalies that we're using to define the J type. A close comparison of the images we have may be useful in recognizing commonalities and variation among the "CS" swords.

I've entered more information on this sword into the database. I used the weight (2.6 lbs; 1179 g) and total length (17 inches; 43.2 cm) reported in the description. I estimatd the hilt length/blade length and proximal blade width from images taken with a ruler. Here are some basic photos: