CIRCA 150-250 A.D.

The blade is of broad, waisted form with a raised midrib; the handle grip has a raised ring along its length, terminating in a crescentic pommel. The scabbard was originally of wood, now lost, edged in iron. On each side of the outer edges are preserved two loops, each supporting a suspension ring. The cut-out panels support embossed sheet bronze ornaments. The upper panel on one side depicts an eagle with a wreath within its beak, standing between military standards, enclosed within a dotted border. The triangular panel below features three registers, the upper with a nude Hercules within a naos, holding a spear in his raised right hand, his club and lionskin in the other. The mid panel shows a combat between a Centaur and a warrior, with a winged Cupid to the left. The lower panel has three figures, with the god Mars standing to the right. On the reverse is a single sheet with a band of palmettes framed on either side by guilloche. The bronze panels were likely re-purposed in antiquity from an older object, perhaps a box (see T. Fischer, op. cit., p. 86).

This type of dagger was known as a pugio, of Künzing type, named after a find of a number of related daggers found at Quintana-Künzing in the Roman province of Raetia (modern Switzerland, southern Bavaria, Tyrolian Austria and northern Lombardy in Italy). For a recent discussion of the type, see M. Gui and H. Pop, “A Newly Discovered Künzing-Type Roman Dagger from the Limes of Dacia Porolissensis,” pp. 137-153 in Acta Mvsei Porolissensis, vol. XLI.