Scythian akinakes from the Solokha tomb 3rd-2nd C. BCE

September 29, 2023

Scythian akinakes from the Solokha tomb 3rd-2nd C. BCE

Fyi, I couldn't find any images of Hephthalite swords besides the old artworks such as Balalyk Tepe, Dilberjin Tepe, the Silver Bowl of Dhenakk, etc.

"As evidenced by an akinakes with two mounts found in the Scythian Solokha mound tomb in Ukraine, nomadic peoples of the northern Eurasian steppe utilised the two-point suspension system as early as the third or second centuries BCE (Fig. 5). The origin of this suspension system should not be assigned to the Hephthalites, but they introduced this type of dagger to the settled people in Central Asia after their immigration from the northern steppe in the second half of the fourth century.

A famous dagger found in the tomb of Gyerim-ro 鶏林路 in Gyeongju 慶州, South Korea, dated to the early sixth century, has also two suspension mounts. Its scabbard is beautifully decorated with cloisonné and has a trapezoidal shape that widens at the end. The same dagger style is found in Kazakhstan, and similar works also appear in paintings from Pendzhikent and Kizil as well as Sogdian funerary reliefs from Anyang. These highly decorated works may be more elaborate versions of the dagger with two suspension mounts produced under Hephthalite influence.

Paintings from Sogdiana and other regions in Central Asia such as Fondukistan (Afghanistan) or Khotan show that the two-point suspension system was later applied to swords. These swords were designed to be attached to a belt, suspended at a slant by two straps of different lengths. The two-point suspension system was applied to swords across a larger area and for a longer time than it was for daggers.

The earliest example of a sword with two fixtures was excavated from the tomb of Li Xian 李賢 (d. 569) in the western suburbs of Guyuan 固原, Ningxia 寧夏. Similar swords are also represented in wall paintings from the tomb of Xu Xianxiu 徐顕秀 (571 CE) and in Sogdian funerary reliefs from Anyang. The sword with two fixtures must have been introduced to China as early as the middle of the sixth century.

Swords with two mounting fixtures are preserved in the Shōsō-in storehouse in Japan (Fig. 6). The presence of this sword type in Japan during the eighth century is likely due to the popularity of such weapons in the Tang Court, China. The two-point suspension system apparently became the standard way to carry a sword in Japan, as evidenced by an image of Prince Shōtoku (572–622) painted in the eighth century.

Several swords with dual suspension mounts are housed in collections in Europe, the United States and Japan, and some were allegedly discovered in northern Iran. They have scabbards in gold or silver decorated with a ‘feather’ pattern. H. Nickel mentions that this pattern and other decorative features appearing on one sword at the Metropolitan Museum of Art are found on scabbard mountings and jewellery from the late Hunnish Period in Hungary, which suggests a Hunnish origin for the sword. Further research will be necessary to know how and when this type of sword with two suspension mounts and a “feather-patterned” scabbard was introduced to Sasanian Iran.

Besides examples of dual mounted swords from Iran, Central Asia and China, it is necessary to mention daggers and swords represented on stone sculptures made by the Turks in North Asia (Altai, Tuva, Mongolia and Xinjiang). In many cases, two semicircular fixtures are clearly shown on scabbards and we can safely assume that the two-point suspension system was the standard way for Turks to carry both daggers and swords. In this context, a sword with dual suspension mounts unearthed from a Turkic burial mound in the KoshAgach region of Altai, Russia is especially noteworthy. The sword has a Sogdian inscription on the back side of its blade and is dated from the seventh to ninth or tenth centuries.

This paper has examined daggers and swords with two suspension mounts depicted in Central Asian art. The examples presented here add supporting evidence of Trousdale’s theory that the two-point suspension system was introduced to Central Asia during the Hephthalite invasion. This evaluation shows that a dagger with two fixtures came into fashion during the Hephthalite period together with a caftan with a unique triangular collar on the right side and a crown with three crescents (Fig. 1: 5)."

-Etsuko Kageyama, Change of suspension systems of daggers and swords in eastern Eurasia: Its relation to the Hephthalite occupation of Central Asia