Bimetallic Cimmerian Sword from the Southern Transurals
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.24852/2587-6112.2024.6.129.137Keywords:
Early Iron Age, nomads, South Urals, bimetallic bladed weapons, sword, Cimmerians, migrations, military campaignsAbstract
The paper considers a sword with an iron blade and bronze hilt found not far from Baymak, the Republic of Bashkortostan. It is 82 cm long with end of blade is missing. The pommel is mushroom-shaped, the crossguard is straight. It represents a Cimmerian blade weapon with a cross-shaped hilt dating back to the late 9th – early 8th century BC. The sword was found at a destroyed burial site as its blade had been bent and there were remnants of fabric on it. The majority of such swords have been found in the Ukrainian forest-steppe zone. Some of them come from the North Caucasus (Adygeya) and from the Middle Volga region (Tatarstan). Together with rare burials (Yelbulak-Tamak and Shatmantamak burial grounds in the Bashkir Ural region) and solitary finds of bronze Cimmerian daggers in the Trans-Ural region, the Baymak sword is evidence of migrations to the South Urals at the beginning of the Early Iron Age of certain groups of the Cimmerian population from the western territories to the South Urals.
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