Details

LOT 1087

Volga-Ural Nomad Sabre

9TH-11TH CENTURY A.D.

35 in. (725 grams, 89 cm).

An iron single-edged sabre with slightly curving blade showing battle nicks, evidence of a possible iron extension together with a tongue to the side of the blade, beneath the straight guard. [No Reserve]

Provenance

Acquired 1971-1972.
From the collection of the vendor's father.
Property of a London, UK, collector.

Accompanied by an academic report by military specialist Dr Raffaele D'Amato.

Literature

Cf. similar specimens in Харламов, П.В., ‘Weapons complex of the Nomadic tribes of the Volga-Ural Region in the 9th -11th Centuries (in Russian)’ in Archaeology of the Eurasian Steppes, Vol. I, Kazan, 2017, pp.364-379, esp.figs.6, 14; Lebedinsky, I., De l’epée scythe au sabre mongol, Paris, 2008, pp.172ff.; for discussion on the sabres see Pletneva, S.A., Antiquities of black hoods (in Russian) SAI. Issue, E1-19, Moscow, 1973; Evglevsky, A.V., Potemkina, T.M., ‘Eastern European late nomadic sabers’ in Evglevsky, A.V., European Steppes in the Middle Ages, Vol.1, Donetsk, 2002, pp.291-336.

Footnotes

Various sabres of similar typology were found in a complex of medieval nomad weapons in archaeological excavations in the steppe and forest-steppe zone of the Volga-Ural region; chronologically, they were dated to the 9th-11th centuries.