Origin of the pugio?

[Folkert van Wijk]

While making a scabbard for my Scythian/Sarmatian akinakes using these pictures:



I can't help but wonder wether the similarities between these akinakes scabbards and the pugio scabbards are al but pure coincidence.



Knowing the fact that the Romans borrowed a lot of the ideas for their military equipment from other cultures and their former enemies. I wouldn't be supriced if the design of their pugio scabbard has his ancestor from the South Russian planes...

I also for a long time wondered were the two lower attachement "rings" were for, could it be, that ones these where used to secure the pugio with an extra tie around the leg?

Is there anyone of you knowledgeable Roman forumites who knows more about this?
Or have I just figured something out that every Roman reenactors already knew for a long time??? :mrgreen: :roll: :?:

[Dan D'Silva]

That's pretty interesting. What's the provenance of those akinakes scabbards? All the ones I've seen before have only one tab.

It's generally held that the pugio and its scabbard suspension system were Iberian (or Celt-Iberian) in origin, like the gladius, which had the same system. So did those old atrophied-antenna swords (espadas de antenas atrofiadas). No idea whether the system originated there though, but this is the first I've seen of something similar used outside of Iberia.

[Folkert van Wijk]

I have one picture from this site:
http://history.novosibdom.ru/?q=node/49
Google translation makes this from it:
http://translate.google.com/translate?hl...Dnode%2F49

So it's 400-500 BC from the Altai mountain region. Thats right on the border of present day Mongolia...

The other drawing (also from the Altai mountains) comes from this site:
http://www.dainst.org/en/project/mongoli...mak?ft=all
(for some reason this URL doesn't work but if you copy-paste the entire above line in to the browser it should work...