Polearms 145
The wooden material of the spear shaft was determined by its physical prop-
erties and function. Hard and flexible wood (like beech or oak) were used
for thrusting weapons, while for javelins lighter and flexible wood (birch or
pine) was more suitable, such as in the case of the spearheads from grave No.
30 and 132 from Komárno–Shipyard which were probably used as throwing
weapons.
Husár utilised recent landcover maps of Slovakia to suggest that except for
oak all of the wooden material had to be imported to the Danube from the
northern mountains. This would certainly have been true for silver fir and pine
species. The silver fir only lives in mountainous regions, its European distribu-
tion covering the Alps and Carpathians, though this species is present in some
lower locations like the Kőszeg-hills and Őrség regions of Hungary (together
with beech),262 the Carpathians and the Austrian Alps.
The situation is less clear in the case of beech, since it grows in the elevation
between 600 and 1000 m, and even submontane beech forests are known to
have been mixed with oak. These species are known amongst the upland areas
of Hungary, like the Northern and Transdanubian Mountains, Mecsek and
Őrség regions.263 Besides the northern Slovakian mountains, a possible place
of origin for beech could be the Gerecse Mountains (40 km from Komárno).
Apple and oak are typical of the plains and thus could have been of local
origin.
The length of the shaft is only known in 15 cases, based on observations of
wooden remains, and in the case of the Štúrovo cemetery on the basis of the
position of the ferrules.
This information should mostly indicate minimal values, since the spear
shaft could have been broken during the funeral, and such observations could
also have been affected by various factors during the course of excavation. As
a rule, the length of spear shafts found in burials with horses is usually longer,
while those spearheads associated with ferrules have usually short shafts. The
average length of spear shafts from burials with horses is around 2 m, and they
were probably used as thrusting weapons.
262 Kevey 2006, 49.
263 Kevey 2006, 40–55.