4th century BC. An iron akinakes sword of Central Asian typology, strong hilt, narrow ogival guard with Steppe style ornamentation, tipped hilt, triangular tapering blade fitted with a central triangular blood channel with fourteen grooves. See Gorelik, M., Weapons of Ancient East, IV millennium BC-IV century BC, Saint Petersburg, 2003, in Russian, see pl.VIII, n.53, for a similar sword; see Meliukova, A.I., Vooruzhenie skifov. Moskva: Nauka Svod arheologicheskih istochnikov, Moscow, 1964, pl.18,10, for a sword from Sofievska.477 grams, 58cm (22 3/4"). Ex private collection of Mr M.B., Mainz, Germany, since the 1980s; this lot has been checked against the Interpol Database of stolen works of art and is accompanied by AIAD certificate number no.10388-169239. The akinakes was a characteristic type of weaponry of the Scythians, which they used throughout their history (7th-3rd centuries BC"). With the departure of the Scythians from the steppe in the 3rd century BC, and the appearance of the Sarmatian tribes in the Northern Black Sea region in the 2nd-1st centuries BC, the Sarmatian types of bladed weapons spread in the region. This particular shape of akinakes belongs to the nomadic cultures of the Central Asia.