Is this your sword then? It's very interesting. First, it is not a product of industrial processes, so if it was made by a person from an industrial culture it was with very deliberate and somewhat knowledgeable primitiveness. The welded on tang is the proof pudding for that; industrial culture dislikes a welded on tang, especially when it's the whole thing and not just the back end. Then of course, it is a hammer weld. All the decorations are forged in hot, though the flats seem to have been polished by grinding (? or what are those lines?). I do not think there is any writing, just geometric patterns, made up of lines of repeated stamps, perhaps with some traditional meaning, but mostly just decorative. The lion and the human both seem to be one-piece stamps that were hammered into the hot blade.
I'm not sure what nationality I might guess; if European probably made by a "fine art" art-scene artist/a blacksmith shooting for that scene. If traditional, it's like many things I've seen and unlike all of them.....
........My guess is N/E Africa, based mainly on the lion and the looks of the human.......but the short tang; with a big punched hole?.....seems modern?........almost seems like a "primitive" version of "Indo-Persian" work......
I like the looks of it. Any further information on how it was acquired? Any input on temper?
Ever sharp?