The sagaris () is an ancient shafted weapon used by the horse-riding ancient

Saka The Saka, Old Chinese, old , Pinyin, mod. , ), Shaka (Sanskrit (Brāhmī): , , ; Sanskrit (Devanāgarī): , ), or Sacae (Ancient Greek: ; Latin: were a group of nomadic Iranian peoples, Eastern Iranian peoples who lived in the Eurasian ...

and

Scythian The Scythians ( or ) or Scyths (, but note Scytho- () in composition) and sometimes also referred to as the Pontic Scythians, were an ancient Eastern Iranian equestrian nomadic people who had migrated during the 9th to 8th centuries BC fr ...

peoples of the great

Eurasian steppe The Eurasian Steppe, also called the Great Steppe or The Steppes, is the vast steppe ecoregion of Eurasia in the temperate grasslands, savannas and shrublands biome. It stretches through Manchuria, Mongolia, Xinjiang, Kazakhstan, Siberia, Europea ...

. It was used also by Western and Central Asian peoples: the

Medes The Medes were an Iron Age Iranian peoples, Iranian people who spoke the Median language and who inhabited an area known as Media (region), Media between western Iran, western and northern Iran. Around the 11th century BC, they occupied the m ...

Persians Persians ( ), or the Persian people (), are an Iranian ethnic group from West Asia that came from an earlier group called the Proto-Iranians, which likely split from the Indo-Iranians in 1800 BCE from either Afghanistan or Central Asia. They ...

, Parthians, Indo-Saka, Kushans, Mossynoeci, and others living within the milieu of Iranian peoples. Sagaris is also the etymological origin of the Slavic word for "axe". According to

Aristarchus of Samothrace Aristarchus of Samothrace ( ''Aristarchos o Samothrax''; BC) was an ancient Greek grammarian, noted as the most influential of all scholars of Homeric poetry. He was the head librarian of the Library of Alexandria and seems to have succeeded hi ...

, the legendary

Amazons The Amazons (Ancient Greek: ', singular '; in Latin ', ') were a people in Greek mythology, portrayed in a number of ancient epic poems and legends, such as the Labours of Hercules, Labours of Heracles, the ''Argonautica'' and the ''Iliad''. ...

used the ''sagaris'', as well. In ''The Histories'', Herodotus attributes the sagaris to the Sacae Scythians in the army-list of Xerxes the Great. The ''sagaris'' was a kind of battle-axe, or sometimes

war hammer A war hammer (French: ''martel-de-fer'', "iron hammer") is a weapon that was used by both infantry, foot soldiers and cavalry. It is a very old weapon and gave its name, owing to its constant use, to Judas Maccabeus, Judah Maccabee, a 2nd-century ...

. Examples have been collected from Eurasian steppe archeological excavations, and are depicted on the

Achaemenid The Achaemenid Empire or Achaemenian Empire, also known as the Persian Empire or First Persian Empire (; , , ), was an Iranian empire founded by Cyrus the Great of the Achaemenid dynasty in 550 BC. Based in modern-day Iran, it was the large ...

cylinder A cylinder () has traditionally been a three-dimensional solid, one of the most basic of curvilinear geometric shapes. In elementary geometry, it is considered a prism with a circle as its base. A cylinder may also be defined as an infinite ...

s and ancient Greek

pottery Pottery is the process and the products of forming vessels and other objects with clay and other raw materials, which are fired at high temperatures to give them a hard and durable form. The place where such wares are made by a ''potter'' is al ...

and other surviving iconographic material. It is a long-shafted weapon with a metal head, with an either sharp (axe-like) or

blunt Blunt may refer to: * Blunt (surname), a surname (and list of people with the name) * Blunt (cigar), a term used in the cigar industry to designate blunt-tipped, usually factory-rolled cigars * Blunt (cannabis), a slang term used in cannabis cult ...

(hammer-like) edge on one side and a sharp (straight or curving) 'ice-pick'-like point on the other. It may have been the ''sagaris'' that led medieval and Renaissance authors (such as Johannes Aventinus) to attribute the invention of the battle-axe weapon to the Amazons, and to the modern association of the Amazons with the

labrys ''Labrys'' () is, according to Plutarch (''Quaestiones Graecae'' 2.302a), the Lydian language, Lydian word for the Axe#Components, double-bitted axe. In Greek it was called (''pélekys''). The plural of ''labrys'' is ''labryes'' (). Etymology ...

. A shorter form, as depicted in the hand of Spalirises on his coins, was labelled '' klevets'' by Russian archaeologist and ancient

military historian Military history is the study of armed conflict in the history of humanity, and its impact on the societies, cultures and economies thereof, as well as the resulting changes to local and international relationships. Professional historians ...

V.P. Nikonorov. The skulls of buried Scythian horses of older age are often found with damage that suggests they were killed by a blow to the mid forehead with the pointed part of the sagaris, possibly as a form of

euthanasia Euthanasia (from : + ) is the practice of intentionally ending life to eliminate pain and suffering. Different countries have different Legality of euthanasia, euthanasia laws. The British House of Lords Select committee (United Kingdom), se ...

. It is possible that this method of execution may have held some sort of cultural importance considering the great significance of horses in Scythian life.

References

Axes Hammers Ancient weapons {{AncientNearEast-stub