{"id":890,"date":"2018-01-31T08:48:36","date_gmt":"2018-01-31T08:48:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ageaeditora.com\/?p=890"},"modified":"2018-01-31T08:48:36","modified_gmt":"2018-01-31T08:48:36","slug":"nimcha-616","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/agea.campusconexion.com\/en\/2018\/01\/31\/nimcha-616\/","title":{"rendered":"Swords of the Museum: Nimcha 616"},"content":{"rendered":"

This article belongs in a series titled \u00abModern swords of the Ourense Archaeological Museum<\/strong>\u00bb which consists on technical files of the said Museum\u00b4s weapon collection. These files were documented by Juan Diego Conde Eguileta and Santiago Vilar Labarta who studied, besides their historical context and archaeological value, the fencing characteristics [or properties] of the swords. Due to their variety and singularity of some of the documented pieces, we think these files could be of interest for the HEMA community. You can read other articles in this series here<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

The\u00a0Archaeological Museum of Ourense<\/a>\u00a0keeps a large amount of pieces acquired by the Comisi\u00f3n Provincial de Monumentos Hist\u00f3ricos y Art\u00edsticos de Ourense. This commision was founded August 8, 1844, and its function was to collect and guard the artistic heritage of the province. There is no data on the work of this commission until march 1898, when the bi-monthly publication of a newsletter begins, documenting its activities. The publication of these newsletters continued until 1960.<\/p>\n

Among the many pieces purchased by the Comisi\u00f3n de Monumentos throughout the province of Ourense there are ten swords from the modern age. Of these pieces, the oldest can be dated in the end of the 17th century, and the most modern one in the beginnings of the 20th century. We had the privilege of being granted access to these swords in order to study them from both a historical and practical point of view. To perform this study we created a data collection template which allowed us to make a measurement of the pieces as exhaustive as possible. He curators of the museum even allowed us to wield them to adquire a better understanding of their use and functionality.<\/p>\n

In this article we will talk about one of the latest pieces added into the collection, a nimcha, with catalogue number 616. But, before beginning the analysis of the item, it is necessary to explain what kind of weapon are we talking about.<\/p>\n

The nimcha<\/strong> is a single edge sword used by the muslim peoples of the area between the west african coast and the Arabian Peninsula (both inclusive). This weapons are easy to identify due to the morphological characteristics of their hilt. Not so for their blades, because in for many of these swords those are of european origin (usually saber blades).<\/p>\n

The identifying characteristics of a nimcha are as follows:<\/p>\n