LOT 0261

Caucasian Bronze Hilted Iron Sword

IRON AGE, 8TH-6TH CENTURY B.C.

30 3/4 in. (2.2 kg total, 78 cm including stand).

A broad sword with tapering blade and rounded shoulders, bronze hilt with crescentic pommel and apotropaic eye motifs to both sides; accompanied by bronze scabbard or baldric elements including a pair of eyelets with suspension loops, four circular appliqués with conical tips and ropework borders, and a scabbard chape with two opposing ibexes; mounted on a custom-made display stand.

From the private collection of a London gentleman, from his grandfather's collection formed before the early 1970s.

Accompanied by an academic report by Dr Raffaele D'Amato.
This lot has been checked against the Interpol Database of stolen works of art and is accompanied by search certificate number no.12914-245170.

Cf. Voronov, Yu. N., ‘Weapons of the Ancient Abkhaz Tribes in the 6th-1st Centuries BC’ in Скифский мир., Киев, 1975, pp.218-234, fig.4, no.1, for a similar blade; Gorelik, M.,Weapons of Ancient East, IV millennium BC-IV century BC, Saint Petersburg (2003) in Russian, pl. VI, no.65.

The sword belongs to the Caucasian culture of the Colchis, and represents a very rare typology. A similar blade was found together with early Scythian arrows during excavations at Karmir-Blur. A similar combination found at Kulanurkhva’s excavations suggests that the appearance of such blades in Abkhazia is linked to the Scythian campaigns in Near Eastern Asia.