Avar-Age Polearms and Edged Weapons. Classification, Typology, Chronology and Technology

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Origins And Cultural Contacts 307


became part of the Eastern Bloc which also led to a greater emphasis on Slavic


archaeology, there were much enhanced opportunities for research in the


Soviet Union, particularly in Central and Inner Asia: some students studied


archaeology in Moscow and Leningrad (today Saint Petersburg), such as István


Erdélyi, whose thesis addressed the eastern contacts of Avar material culture


and was supervised by a leading Soviet scholar, Professor Mikhail Illarionovich


Artamonov.6 A similar study was also carried out by Csanád Bálint, applying a


different methodology and approach, and which resulted in a German mono-


graph on the archaeology of the Eastern European Steppes.7


The eastern origin of some weapon types has often been discussed, like


in the case of reed-shaped spearheads,8 sabres,9 lamellar armour and ring-


pommel swords.10 Recently, however, Csanád Bálint has drawn attention to the


dangers of the so-called ‘Orient-preferent’ approach, according to which such


eastern artefacts are considered to be the earliest and these are supposed to


be the origins of artefacts found in the Carpathian Basin.11 In respect of such


artefacts, it is therefore important to also cite other eastern analogies and their


original chronological and cultural context, and to take account of other pos-


sibilities than just migration for their transmission, such as trade, exchange,


gifts, and diffusion.


The archaeological heritage of the Steppes and its specific depositional rules


favoured the preservation of weapons, and consequently there are numerous


weapon finds from this area which offer good analogies for research in the


Carpathian Basin. The difficulties of such research, however, include the huge


geographical distances, the uneven state of research, the chronological gaps, as


well as unelaborated chronology, and more recently the difficulties in acquir-


ing relevant literature. These eastern contacts for polearms and edged weap-


ons will be presented in the chapter below.


1.1 Polearms


Inner Asian analogies have played a significant role in research on the ori-


gins of reed-shaped spearheads with connecting chap (P.I.A), since this type


was traditionally held to be the earliest weapon type of the Avars that arrived


6 Erdélyi 1982.
7 Bálint 1989.
8 Ilona Kovrig supposed the Inner Asian origin of this type (P.I.1.a–b) because of their good
‘quality’ (Kovrig 1955a; Kovrig 1955b).
9 Garam 1979, 63–64; Garam 1991a.
10 Bóna 1980, 42–52; Mesterházy 1987, 219–245.
11 Bálint 2004a, 246–252; Bálint 2007, 545–562.

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