The collection of the Ulyanovsk Regional Museum of Local Lore includes several bladed weapons (daggers and swords) dating back to the Early Iron Age. The displayed dagger was found at the Pobeda collective farm of the Krasnoyarsk Village Council in the Cherdaklinsky District, Ulyanovsk Region in 1973. It was donated to the museum by A.P. Kuznetsov in 1981.
The antenna pommel of the dagger has only one of the two antennas preserved and is considered by researchers to be zoomorphic, that is, imitating the claws of a bird of prey. This suggestion is also supported by the fact that the end of the claw is sharp, and there is also a stamped line following its curve. The blade has two nearly parallel edges converging in the last third of the length. As a result, the cross-section is rhombic near the hilt and lens-shaped closer to the point. The rectangular grip has a different design on each side. There are two horizontal lines under the pommel and near the guard. On one side, the grip is divided vertically into three parts by two lines. The sides are decorated with vertical zigzags. At the base of the pommel, there is a horizontal zigzag. Another bladed weapon found relatively close to this area is a sword that was discovered at the Sernovodsky state farm in the Samara region. Apart from the similarly shaped pommel and guard, the finds also have a similar grip design.
During the Early Iron Age, people mastered the production of iron, which gradually became the main material for the manufacture of tools and weapons. In the Middle Volga region, the beginning of the Early Iron Age dates back to the 8th century BC. In the 7th–4th centuries BC, the steppe and forest-steppe of the Volga region and the Southern Urals were inhabited by Iranian nomadic tribes known as the Sauromatians. The Volga banks near Ulyanovsk marked the northwestern border of their territory. Swords and daggers of a similar design, with a simple claw-shaped pommel and butterfly-shaped guard, were quite widespread among the early nomads of Eastern Europe. Many similar bladed weapons were found in the Southern Urals. The vast majority of these finds date back to the mid-5th century and the third quarter of the 5th century BC.
