Women With Sickle Sword. - a photo on Flickriver

            Khopesh  is an Egyptian sickle-sword that evolved from battle axes.

A typical khopesh is 50–60 cm (20–24 inches) in length, though smaller examples do also exist. The blunted edge of the weapon's tip also served as an effective bludgeon, as well as a hook. These weapons changed from bronze to iron in the New Kingdom period. The earliest known depiction of a khopesh is from the Stele of Vultures, depicting King Eannatum of Lagash wielding the weapon; this would date the khopesh to at least 2500 BC.

The word 'khopesh' may have derived from 'leg', as in 'leg of beef', because of their similarity in shape. The hieroglyph for ḫpš ('leg') is found as early as during the time of the Coffin Texts (the First Intermediate Period).

The blade is only sharpened on the outside portion of the curved end. The khopesh evolved from the epsilon or similar crescent-shaped axes that were used in warfare. The khopesh went out of use around 1300 BC. However, in the 196 BC Rosetta Stone it is referenced as the "sword" determinative in a hieroglyphic block, with the spelled letters of kh, p, and sh to say:

    Shall be set up a statue..., the Avenger of Baq-t-(Egypt), the interpretation whereof is 'Ptolemy, the strong one of Kam-t'-(Egypt), and a statue of the god of the city, giving to him a sword royal of victory, ...

Various pharaohs are depicted with a khopesh, and some have been found in royal graves, such as the two examples found with Tutankhamun.

Although some examples are clearly sharpened, many examples have dull edges that apparently were never intended to be sharp. It may therefore be possible that some khopeshes found in high status graves were ceremonial variants.

Taken in: India / Tamil Nadu / Tirumalai (show map)

Taken on: July 21, 2018

Tags:

Nikon

LUX

PHOTOGRAPHY

18-105mm

2018

Thirumalai

Kunthavai

Jinalayam

Tiruvannamalai

கதிர்

அரிவாள்

Sickle

Variously

curved

blades « less

Camera: Nikon D5200, f/6.3, 1/500 sec, 18mm, ISO 500 (more info) (hide info)

Camera:	Nikon D5200
Lens:	18.0-105.0 mm f/3.5-5.6
Aperture:	f/6.3
Exposure Time:	0.002 sec (1/500)
Focal Length:	18mm
ISO:	500
Exposure Bias:	0 EV
Flash:	No Flash
Exposure Program:	Manual
Exposure Mode:	Manual
Metering Mode:	Multi-segment
White Balance:	Manual
Light Source:	Fine Weather
Sharpness:	Hard
Color Space:	sRGB
Software:	Adobe Photoshop CC 2014 (Windows)
Show full info

Stats: 3,391 views / 4 comments

close tools panel

Badge creator

Use Flickriver Badge Creator to create a badge linking to your photos, your group or any other Flickriver view.

You can place your badge on your Flickr profile, Blog or Website.

Add to your iGoogle or Netvibes page

Flickriver widget for iGoogle or Netvibes can display almost any Flickriver view - most interesting today, by user, by group, by tag etc. Once added to your personalized homepage, just edit widget settings to select your desired view.

Clickr on one of the buttons below to install:

Embed on your Web site

To embed this view, Copy and Paste the following HTML code:

Black background (preview):

White background (preview):

Firefox and Chrome addons

Adds a 'Flickriver' button to your browser. While viewing any Flickr photos page, click on this button to open the same view on Flickriver.

Install in Firefox
Install in Chrome

Search plugin

Add 'Search on Flickriver' to your browser's search box. Works with Firefox and Internet Explorer. Install search plugin

"View on Flickriver" Greasemonkey script

A Greasemonkey script that adds Flickriver links to various Flickr photo pages - user photos, favorites, pools etc, allowing to quickly open the corresponding Flickriver view.

Also, allows quickly viewing any Flickr photo on black background in large size.

Install "View on Flickriver" script

Bookmarklet

While viewing any Flickr photos page, click on the bookmarklet to open the same view on Flickriver.

To install: drag and drop the following link to your Bookmarks toolbar.
IE users - add the link to your Favorites under the Links folder