Single-edged akinakai of Transylvania and Great Hungarian Plain. Reflection of a Balkan tradition

Abstract

In the Scythian time in the territory of the Middle Danube, Transylvanian and the Southern Carpathian regions, the original group of single-edged akinakai is distributed. By the time the Scythians penetrated Carpathian region, a part of the population of Basarabi culture (bearers of the Illyrian tradition of single-edged weaponry) moved to the north, to the South Carpathians and Transylvania. Perhaps it is the circumstance that can explain the appearance of single-edged akinakai with a T-shaped handle of the Nógrád type in the foothills of the Southern Carpathians and the Apuseni Mountains in the south-west of Transylvania. The basis for the Nógrád akinakai, apparently, was the akinakai of the Shumeyko type (or Piliny type according to A. Vulpe), which spread at the turn of the Early and Middle Scythian periods. This is indicated by the features of Nógrád akinakai, characteristic of the Shumeyko type like a narrow elongated blade (often triangular), a massive kidney-shaped crosshair, a two-part handle and decoration with its transverse notches, a narrow elongated rhombic pommel. Like Shumeyko akinakai, the single-edged swords of the Nógrád type appear at the turn of the 7th – 6th centuries BC and exist until the end of the 6th century. At the same time, the bulk of the complexes with akinakai of the Nógrád type belongs to the second half or even to the late 6th century BC.