About the Sword of the Huns and the "Urepos" of the Steppes

Abstract

About the Sword of the Huns and the "Urepos" of the Steppes HELMUT NICKEL Curator of Arms and Armor, The Metropolitan Museum of Art THE METROPOLITAN MUSEUM'S Department of Ancient Near Eastern Art has in its collection a splendid gold-mounted sword with jeweled scabbard and hilt, reported to have been found in northern Iran and thought to be of the fifth-sixth century A.D. (Figures I-3). It has a long pommelless grip with two finger rests and a very short quillon bar; its scabbard is in its upper two fifths enclasped by a pair of large cufflike mounts with irregularly P-shaped flanges.' These are fixtures for the two straps-a short one and a long one-that held the sword suspended from the waist belt. The different lengths of the straps caused the sword to hang at a convenient "quick-draw" angle. This way of carrying a sword was particularly practical for a horseman, and is in principle still used for the modern cavalry saber (Figure 4, right). Sasanian representations, especially on the famous silver bowls with reliefs of royal hunters, show cross-hilted swords with round i. The total length of the sword is I00.3 cm. Its double-edged iron blade is covered with rusted-on particles of the wooden scabbard core, powdered with remnants of the leather lining under the gold mountings. The scabbard consists of two large pieces embossed with a feather pattern on the obverse side and held together by two large clasps with P-shaped attachments. The hilt has a gilt-bronze quillon, and is riveted to the tang by means of two rivets with large globular silver heads; its decoration consists of a panel filled with triangles composed of gold granulation, framed by a row of dotted circles; it is jeweled with one small semiglobular glass stone at the upper end and a rectangular beveled garnet at the quillon end. The scabbard mountings are decorated en suite with one large cabochon garnet and twelve (two now missing) glass stones. Vaughn Emerson Crawford, Annual Report, The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulltin 24 (I965-66) p. 45

The Akchakhan-kala Wall Paintings: New Perspectives on Kingship and Religion in Ancient Chorasmia

“…11). 33 The only peculiarities of the Chorasmian sword consist in its bent hilt, which find parallels only in later Sasanian weapons of the same class (e.g., Nickel 1973), and the second thong departing from the chape of the scabbard, perhaps a local variation on the suspension system. 34 Overall, the Achaemenid iconography of the figure is remarkable.…”