4th century BC. An iron akinakes sword of Central Asian typology, strong hilt, narrow ogival guard incorporated in the blade, tipped hilt, triangular tapering blade. See Gorelik, M., Weapons of Ancient East, IV millennium BC-IV century BC, Saint Petersburg, 2003, pl.XIV, n.21,49, for the typology.538 grams, 80cm (31 (1/2)"). Ex private collection of Mr M.B., Mainz, Germany, since the 1980s. The akinakes was a characteristic type of Scythian swords, which these Nomads used throughout their history (7th-3rd centuries BC"). With the departure of the Scythians from the steppe in the III century BC and the appearance in the Northern Black Sea region of the Sarmatian tribes 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. This iron blade originally had a wooden handle with bone and bronze plates, like the very similar one from mound 17, Russian Trostyanka burial ground, on the middle Don, dated at the 4th century BC.