Greetings All!
I think the draco standard originated with the Sarmatians' and Alans' predecessors, the Scythians and Saka. Early on, the Dacians had dracos but they were probably influenced by the neighbors, the Scythians. The draco on the Orlat plaque has no dragon-head, just a dragon windsock.
Here is a picture of some of the trilobate arrowheads found at the Filippovka kurgans:
[attachment=622]filippovkaswordarrowheads005.JPG[/attachment]
They're bronze and not much different than Scythian ones. A later 1st cent.BC kurgan excavated at Rostov-on-Don had 112 iron heads, a dozen bronze ones, and 5 highly polished bone ones.
On the subject of Filippovka, here is photo of the Kurgan 1 sword, a fancy one with gold inlay reminiscent of Chinese ones although the artistic style is totally different:
[attachment=623]filippovkaswordarrowheads002.JPG[/attachment]
The sword is 87cm long or 35.5 inches. This is early, about 4th to 3rd century BC, but it shows a sophisticated blade with two wide grooves (fullers) on each side of the central spine.
The accompanying akinakes has a doubled gryphon-head pommel and was 17 inches long. It is almost identical to the one strapped to the right leg of the "Golden Woman" of Issyk Kul. The weapons changed slightly over time, but the practice of akinakes on the right leg and sword at the left hip seems to be standard, as noted in Treister's excellent research.
Alan J. Campbell
member of Legio III Cyrenaica and the Uncouth Barbarians
Author of:
The Demon's Door Bolt (2011)
Forging the Blade (2012)
"It's good to be king. Even when you're dead!"
Old Yuezhi/Pazyrk proverb