29 Tyragetia, s.n., vol. IX [XXIV], nr. 1, 2015, 29-50. THE USE OF BRONZE IN MAKING THE EARLY SCYTHIAN AKINAKAI Instead of bronze I will bring you gold, and silver in place of iron. Isaiah, 60: 17 The problem of genesis of Scythian akinakai is closely linked to the problem of origin of the Scythian material culture and has been extensive- ly debated for a long time. Without any doubts, the initial typological and chronological obser- vations appeared simultaneously with the first publications of finds, while still searching for par- allels to them, and studying their most striking features. In this way, Adolf Furtwängler argued on similarities and differences of the Persian and Scythian akinakai (Furtwaengler 1883, 35-37), and Eduard Lenz brought attention to the resem- blance between Scythian antennae pommels and swords of the Bronze Age (dzȍȕȞ 1905, 62-63). Evgenij Pridik analyzed a sword from the Litoy (Melgunov) kurgan and concluded its Assyrian origin, and furthermore suggested that Persians borrowed the idea of akinakes from Scythians (ǷȘȐȌȐȒ 1911, 20-21). Ellis Minns dedicated a small part of his famous monography “Scyth- ians and Greeks” to Scythian swords and daggers (Minns 1913, 68-72). Besides that, his book con- tains the analysis of particular burial complexes with armament found in the kurgans of Chertom- lyk, Litoy, Shumeyko , Kul-Oba, Karagodeuashkh, Vettersfelde et al. (Minns 1913, 149-240). Alexander Lappo-Danilevsky was one of the first researchers who turned to the problem of the origin of the Scythian akinakes. However, he believed that Scythian weaponry was mostly of Greek origin, while meant apparently, famous findings of classical antiquity such as Kul-Oba or Chertomlyk (dzȈȗȗȖ-ǬȈȕȐȓȍȊșȒȐȑ 1887, 379). Therefore, in his opinion the Scythian armament saved “traces of Greek art” and preserved features closed to “Finnish, partly Caucasian and Ger- man weapons” (dzȈȗȗȖ-ǬȈȕȐȓȍȊșȒȐȑ 1887, 511). Mikhail Rostovtsev publishing items from the Voronezh kurgans identified the series of swords with typical design (and therefore contemporary) like Chertomlyk, Kul-Oba and Kekuvatsky kur- gan (ǸȖșȚȖȊȞȍȊ 1914, 89-90). Later, analyzing swords and daggers from the Urals, he developed the idea of the evolution of the Scythian sheaths, their relation to the Persian sheath and blade weapons of a later period (ǸȖșȚȖȊȞȍȊ 1918, 50- 54). The opinion of Rostovtsev on the genesis of Orenburg and West-Siberian swords seems to be quite original. He did not consider that objects found in South Russia could be a prototype for the West Siberian akinakai, but assumed that the Orenburg (and Minusinsk) swords and daggers appeared as a result of “clash between the Hall- statt culture and morphology of Scythian-Persian akinakes” (ǸȖșȚȖȊȞȍȊ 1918, 61). Nevertheless, Rostovtsev was more reasonable when he wrote about the antennae pommel (volute head by M. Rostovtsev): according to his idea, it appeared as a result of “combination of western (the Hall- stattian one?) and eastern animal morphology” (ǸȖșȚȖȊȞȍȊ 1918, 60). The monography of Waldemar Ginters “Das Schwert der Skythen und Sarmaten in Südruss- land” (The Sword of Scythians and Sarmatians in Southern Russia) became a logical completion of the initial accumulation of archaeological re- cords (Ginters 1928). In this work Ginters gath- ered almost all available at that time information of the Scythian and Sarmatian bladed weapons, not only from the territory of southern Rus- sia, but also from Central Europe. Nevertheless, Ginters left the question on the akinakes’ origin open, and this could be explained by the state of archaeological records at his time (dzȐȚȊȐȕșȒȐȑ 2001, 49). Indeed, the search of the prototype could hardly be bound to succeed in the 1 st half of the 20 th century. So, Ginters concluded that “aki- nakes comes finally formed to southern Russia” Denis Topal