Vekerzug culture and new finds of Scythian akinakai in Moravia

Abstract

In 2016 authors of this paper obtained information about three Scythian daggers from the territory of Moravia. They were found by unknown persons with the help of metal detectors in the vicinity of Brno, near Horákovský hrad. The dagger no. 2 is the earliest one and due to its features like triangular blade, massive kidney-like hilt and narrow elongated pommel could be attributed to the of Vettersfelde type of the second half – end of 6th century BC. Daggers №1 and №3 are characterized by small segment-like hilts which could date back these items to mid 6th – mid 5th centuries BC. Scythian swords and daggers were totally unknown on the territory of Czech Republic, thus the finds from Horákovský hrad greatly expand the geography of Middle Scythian akinakai. Moreover, this discovery in Moravia allows to connect Lusatian and Vekerzug areas of distribution of Scythian weaponry and could outline the pathways of bladed weapons far to the west of the main territory of the Scythians

Keywords

• Iron age
• akinakes
• dagger
• Scythian culture
• Vekerzug culture
• Lusatian culture
• Middle Scythian period