Sagaris

In The Histories, Herodotus attributes the sagaris to the Sacae Scythians in the army-list of Xerxes the Great.

Examples have been collected from Eurasian steppe archeological excavations, and are depicted on the Achaemenid cylinders and ancient Greek pottery and other surviving iconographic material.

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

[3] 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.

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.