Edged Weapons 233
on the midline. Most of the hilts of Avar edged weapons are positioned on the
midline of the blade.
The hilts of Avar sabres were usually straight, the only exception being that
found in grave No. 3 at Cicău-Szelistye, the hilt of which forms an angle of 15
degrees with the midline of the blade.243 The straight hilt is the main differ-
ence between Avar and early Hungarian sabres, since the hilts of sabres from
the 10th-11th centuries were usually curved towards the edge of the blade.
Sword hilts could be decorated in various ways, and mostly ended in a pom-
mel or oval covering. Hilts were decorated with special rivets, among them
ring-pendants. The hilt could be covered with gold, silver or copper alloy sheet:
this decoration will be described in order from the end of hilt to the blade.
2.1.1 Ring-pommel (‘Ringknauf ’ in German)
Ring-pommel swords were weapons characteristic only of the Early phase, with
no examples known from the Middle or Late phases. Ring-pommel swords are
characterised by a ring at the end of the hilt, and are in German terminology
referred to as ‘Ringknaufschwert’.244 Although ring-pommel swords of the Avar
Age can be single- or double-edged, their form, decoration and suspension is
uniform (fig. 85).
Archaeological research on the Avars in the Carpathian Basin had already
begun to investigate these weapons as early as the first half of the 20th cen-
tury. Dezső Csallány attempted to create an inner division of the Early phase
using these ring-pommel swords (known as the Csengele type): he regarded
ring-pommel swords as later than swords with P-shaped suspension loops.245
The first of these ring-pommel swords was found in Kunágota, although the
function of the gold sheets, and therefore the form of the sword itself was
only reconstructed by Gyula László relatively late (almost 100 years after its
excavation).246 Ring-pommel swords played a significant role in the research
of Avar society: the swords from Bócsa (fig. 85/5) and Kecel decorated with
gold sheets are regarded as the qagan’s gift and status symbol.247
243 Winkler – Takács – Păiuş 1977, 270–271. fig. 4/1.
244 Voß 2003, 19–22.
245 Csallány 1939, 139–140.
246 The reconstruction of the gold-foils on the Kunágota find became possible by the dis-
covery of the ring-pommel swords of Bócsa and Kecel in 1935. Gyula László first studied
the iconography of the Byzantine box-fittings (László 1938), and reconstructed the sword
based on the form of the Csengele-sword (László 1950).
247 László 1955, 231–232. 235.