#ankus

[rabiezcore]

featured creature

[azvolrien]

Gonna round things off with my personal highlight of the museum, the near-complete set of incredibly rare Indian elephant armour. It’s missing two panels on the right, but it’s still easy to imagine how terrifying it would’ve been to face a line of these in battle, especially if they were equipped with tusk swords.

Tusk swords are also very rare, with only a few surviving pairs worldwide. Most of them are of a fairly lightweight construction and were likely used more for parade occasions than active combat; the Royal Armouries’ pair is very robust, but I have no idea if they were ever used in battle.

Plus bonus ankus:

[armthearmour]

An Ankus wonderfullt inlaid with gold koftgari, India, ca. 19th century, housed at the Wallace Collection.

[handfulsofhistory]

A mahout would have used this ankus to motivate a young elephant

[eighteen-d6]

Indian ankus (elephant goad), Nayaka period, probably early 17th century

[peashooter85]

Gold inlaid Indian ankus, 19th century.

from Czerny’s International Auction House

[rabiezcore]

ankus’ prediction

[rabiezcore]

literally this emoji 😈