Blade slightly curved, unfullered, with a deep patina, maintaining its period dimensions and contour. Together with all of its metal fittings, the components of organic materials long since decomposed. The crossguard, ferrule, and bulbous pommel of bronze, as is the long chape on the scabbard. The small bronze studs at the tip of the finger grooves are present. The suspension bands, supporting stirrup-shaped belt strap mountings, of silver. Size of blade is approximately 27 3/4" L .

Though loose blades of similar type have been excavated at various sites in Southeast Russia and further afield across the Eurasian landmass, examples complete with their fittings are very scarce. The survival of small and fragile components such as the finger-groove fittings and scabbard chape is quite remarkable.

The saber is believed to have originated with the Avars, a nomadic steppe people from Inner Asia, who swept westward as far as the Danube plain during the early Middle Ages, during that unstable period following the fall of the Roman Empire In the West and the Han Dynasty in the East.

The hilt form on the present example is associated with the Khazars, an Asiatic people who, beginning in the 7th cent. AD, built an empire based in the steppes north of the Caucasus mountains, extending from the Volga watershed in the east to the Crimean Peninsula on the west. The next several centuries saw continuous warfare in the area, involving not only Khazaria but also waves of Turks, Hungarians, and others. The Khazar nobility and much of their army eventually converted to Judaism, and the empire counted as its subjects a variety of races and creeds, including Slavic Christians and the Alans, an Asiatic people who spoke a language similar to Persian.

(Southern California Arms & Armour Academics Collection)

As-is condition, mounted and framed. Wear commensurate with age.