Nomadic swords

[TVV]

Nice swords Ariel, I especially like the Cuman period one, which is not only extremely well preserved but is also of beautiful proportions. I have been interested in these ever since I read a book about archaeological arms and armor finds from First Bulgarian Empire. With the additional knowledge from the Furusiyya Foundation book and of course Rivkin's most recent excellent book I can now see how many of these finds were from the 12-14th centuries and misidentified as earlier.

The good news is that there are quite a few "digging" entrepreneurs in Russia and Ukraine, who are finding a lot of these swords from the Khazar all the way to the Golden Horde and even the Crimean Tatar periods, including some really well preserved examples like your Cuman period saber. What is better, they can be obtained for prices that are comparable to those of lower end replicas, and so I am trying to acquire a few as well. For whatever reasons these are neglected compared to other medieval swords, but I do not mind it, as it makes collecting these less competitive.

My understanding is that Rivkin called these swords after the dominant entity in the Steppe region during a particular period, not necessarily implying that it is the only group/entity to use the type. For example, you can find Khazar period swords all the way from the Northern Caucasus (Khazars, Alans) to Central Europe (Avars), the Balkans (Bulgars) and even Asia Minor, as the Eastern Roman Empire was quick to adapt these (the paramerion?), not to mention anything of mercenaries in service of the Basileus.

I do not have much to add to your swords, other than what you have posted, but we are still in the early process of learning about these swords and I hope to see more examples in this thread.

Teodor