Weaponry of the past

VERY RARE HARDCOVER - Could be mistaken for BRAND NEW (minor wear on the dust jacket).

The weapons, presented in this volume, pertain to the slightly known and almost unstudied group, marked by the features of the complicated fate that befell the lands where they originated. In the last millennium B.C. the present-day territory of Bulgaria was inhabited by people known under the generalized name Thracians who, as the 'father of history' Herodotus pointed out, were the most numerous after those of India. The Thracians created a distinctive culture, which bore 'bestial style' features specific of the Scythian peoples, above all characterized by images of fantastic animals. Skillful metallurgists the Thracians left behind them first-class bronze weaponry: spears, swords, armour and decorated umbones. Weapons in the Bulgarian lands have a well marked specificity in decorative respects and partly in technical ones. The weapons, which are presented in this book and which are to be found in the collections of the Bulgarian museums, bear marks of this specificity, almost without exception. The general form and decoration are pronouncedly distinctive and bear almost no similarity to the specimens known in Europe and the Far East.