322 CHAPTER 6
of the kurgan from Sivashovka, dated to the first half of the 7th century.113
The ring-pommel sword from Malaia Pereshchepina also has a false edge, as
observed by conservators at the Hermitage Museum, the find being dated to
the middle of the 7th century.114 As a consequence, it is clear that straight
single-edged swords with false edge were generally known in Eastern Europe
during the 7th century, though the main attribute of the sabre, the curved
blade, did not appear at this time.
1.4.1.2 Curved Blade
After the 7th-century curved sabres from the Carpathian Basin and Afrasiab,115
similar edged weapons with curved blades first appeared during the first half
of the 8th century in the Northern Caucasus and along the river Volga. The ear-
liest example is known from a burial chamber at Galiat: the blade of this sabre
is slightly curved, its false edge is long and well emphasised, its crossguard is
long and straight, like the crossguard of the early Saltovo culture.116 The east-
ern end of the Caucasus, around the region of Dagestan, also has important
early Khazar sites for the understanding of the early evolution of sabres: a bone
carving representing a mounted warrior with a sabre with curved blade was
found in kurgan No. 17 at Chiriurt.117 Sabres with curved blades were found at
the site of Agachkala118 and Tarkov, and fragments of curved blade were found
in the cemetery at Verkhne-Chiriurt which dates to the end of the 7th and first
half of the 8th century.119
Sabres with curved blades were found in early Volga Bulgarian cemeteries
which date to the early 8th century. A sabre with curved blade and false edge
equipped with a long, straight rod-like crossguard, was found in the 3rd burial
of the 14th kurgan in the 2nd cemetery at Novinki, near the city of Samara.120
113 Orlov (1985, 101–105) dated it to the end of the 6th and first half of the 7th century. The
false edge of the sword was cited by Bálint (1992, 340) as well.
114 Werner 1984, 26.
115 Arzhantseva 1987, 127–128.
116 This find is a transition towards the Saltovo culture, the cemetery dated by coins of
Heraclius and ’Abd al-Malik (701) (Krupnov 1938, 113–121; Erdélyi 1982, 55–58. 31–42. képek;
Bálint 1989, 26–27; Komar 2006, 88), while Gavritukhin (2005, 411) dated it to the first half
of the 8th century.
117 Magomedov 1983, 77. ris. 23; Komar – Sukhobokov 2000. http://archaeology.kiev.ua/
journal/020300/komar_sukhobokov.htm
118 Smirnov 1951, 113.
119 Magomedov 1977, 41–42; Magomedov 1983, 75–77. 93.
120 Matveeva 1997, 63–64. 171. Ris. 73 (end of the 7th-first half of the 8th century (Matveeva
1997, 88).