5th-7th century AD. A double-edged spatha with a parallel-sided iron blade and well preserved pointed tip; battle nicks on both cutting edges; the hilt and the medium length tang extending along the blade through a sleeve. See Lebedinski, I., Armes et guerriers Barbares au temps des grandes invasions IVème au Vième siècle après J.C., Paris, 2001, p.118, similar example from Chapka-Tserkovnyi Kholm (Abkhazia); Kazanski, M., Mastykova, A., Tsibilium II, La nécropole apsile de Tsibilium, l’étude du site, BAR, 2007, see swords on plates 6 n.27 (Chapka-Cerkovnyj Holm), 13 n.14 (Lyhny).598 grams, 89cm (35"). Ex private collection of Mr M.B., Mainz, Germany, since the 1980s. This sword belongs to the group of spathae of late Roman production spread among the Germanic and Abkhazian foederati, and garrison troops of the Northern Black Sea and Caucasus. These swords, disseminated from the end of 5th century AD, could have been the prototypes of the Eastern Roman spathia classified in the Strategikon as Herouliskia (Herulian swords) for their connections with the Germanic mercenaries wearing them inside the Roman army.