Archaeology, Ethnology & Anthropology of Eurasia 44 (3) 2016   DOI: 10.17746/1563-0110.2016.44.3.056-062

Annotation:  The Middle Paleolithic of the Levant Faunal Remains from the Early Complexes of the Sagan-Zaba II Multilayered Habitation Site (9120–7880 Wooden Saddle-Trees from Yaloman II in the Altai: An Interdisciplinary Analysis A Scythian Age Sword from the Forest-Steppe Altai Above-Ground Frame Buildings in Western Siberia: Archaeological and Ethnographic Parallels New Evidence on the Early Saka Horse Harness from Eastern Kazakhstan “Caster’s Cache” from Tartas-1, Late Krotovo (Cherno-Ozerye) Culture, Baraba Forest-Steppe Modeling the Deformation of Bone Points: Archaeological and Experimental Data Woven, Knitted, and Wattled 17th–18th Century Textiles from Tara Fortress, Western Siberia Ceramics from Novoilyinka III, a Chalcolithic Site in Kulunda, Western Siberia Shatra and Jurt: The “Return Address” in the Altaian Ritual The Distribution of Bashkir Tribes Before and During their Integration into the Russian State Mythological Characters of the Domestic Space in Russian Folk Beliefs: Lexicographic and Ethnographi Dental Anthropology of the Mesolithic and Neolithic Populations of the Eastern European Forest-Stepp An Upper Paleolithic Human Mandible and a First Cervical Vertebra from Afontova Gora II   

A Scythian Age Sword from the Forest-Steppe Altai

Y.V. Frolov

Altai State University, Lenina 61, Barnaul, 656049, Russia

In 2008, a long iron sword dating to the Scythian Age was found near Klyuchi village, northern Altai. It has a kidneyshaped guard, and a pommel sculptured as two griffi n-heads and decorated with gold. The grip is braided with gold wire. The archaic designs of the guard and the grip, as well as the zoomorphic pommel, suggest that the sword is no later than the 6th–early 5th centuries BC. The li felike way of rendering griffi n-heads evidently originated somewhat earlier in the east of the Scythian world than in the west, where imitations of them with claw-shaped pommels circulated from the 5th–4th centuries BC onward. A large series of Scythian Age swords and daggers, found accidentally, comes from the forest-steppe Altai. Many o f them have broken or bent blades, implying that they had ritual functions. Three more long iron swords dating to the early Scythian Age were found in the south of the Ob-Irtysh watershed. Because prestigious weapons of that type are more numerous in those regions than elsewhere, they probably originated in an area that included the northern Altai as its easternmost part.

Keywords: Swords, Scythian Age, pommel, guard, griffi n.

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