12-07-2016, 12:08 AM
(12-06-2016, 07:57 PM)Dan DSilva Wrote:(12-05-2016, 12:09 AM)Alanus Wrote: Her longest dagger (#9) is almost a forerunner of an akinakes. It measures 17 inches, has a semi-mushroom pommel, one side of which is engraved with a "portrait"-- a round-faced man with a brachycephalic skull, also commonly called "Andronovo," "Ferghana-Pamir," or more accurately "Siberian."
Hello, hope you don't mind me focusing on such a small part of this very interesting post. I'd recently read about the Krotov-culture and Karakol daggers, which seem to me to be the forerunners of the akinakes. But they lack guards, while these more easterly ones have a rudimentary one; perhaps the historical akinakes is a fusion of the styles?
And as with the Karakol daggers, the appearance of this one from Baifu puts me in mind of nothing so much as a long spearhead with the socket turned into a hand grip.
Dan, the Karakol daggers appear to have the same or close origin with the Baifu daggers, their predecessors being the Seima-Turbino phenomenon. I don't know when the dagger first showed up, but the idea (as you say) may have come from early bronze spear heads. Also, I can't pinpoint the emergence of the akinakes but one may have been within the artifacts found at Arzhan 1. Surprisingly, photos or even drawings of Arzhan 1 artifacts are almost nil.
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
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