Парадный кинжал с надписью из княжеского сарматского погребения у с. Косика в Нижнем Поволжье

Аристей. Aristeas: Вестник классической филологии и античной истории. 2018. Т. 18. С. 92–128.

Belousov A., Трейстер М. Ю.

The paper is devoted to the cross-guard of the fragmentary dagger found in 1984 in the princely nomad burial near the village of Kosika in the Lower Volga area, belonging to the type of gala daggers which were wide spread in Eurasia in the 1st century BC – 1st century AD and became one of the insignia of power as testified by the finds in the princely nomadic burials and their depictions on the royal figures on the stelae from Commagene. The dated (year 238) dotted inscription revealed on the gold overlay of the cross-guard by one of the authors in 2015 and completely cleaned from the iron oxides in 2017 contains an indication of the craftsmen and the weight of gold, confirmed by the eclogist, which means estimated on the highest state level. The inscription allows to suggest with high degree of probability that the dagger may have been manufactured either as a tax payment of the corporation to the state or rather by the decree of the royal person as a gift to an equal person. Moreover, the analysis of the inscription suggests that the object could have made in Asia Minor, perhaps in Commagene, in 74 BC (that means the date belongs to the Seleucid era), rather than in 59 BC, because the existence of the eclogists in the Pontic Kingdom has not been confirmed by any documents. This dating corresponds well to the archaeological dating of the burial in Kosika to the early third quarter of the 1st century BC and the already published hypothesis, that the deceased could have been a participant of the Asia Minor campaign of the Bosporan King Pharnakes in 49–47 BC. 

Keywords: Greek epigraphy, греческая эпиграфика, Sarmatians, сарматы, Lower Volga area, Commagene, нижнее Поволжье, Коммагена, селевкидская эра