310 CHAPTER 6
their blade is shorter than the socket and no connecting chap can be observed,
and they are different from the so-called ‘Szentendre type’ (P.I.A). Inner Asian
spearheads are mainly important for understanding the spread of heavy cav-
alry in the region.
Reed-shaped spearheads had already appeared during the Xiongnu period
in Inner Asia but their number and significance was not considerable. This
type was mainly characteristic of the Kokel’ culture of Tuva from the 1st to
the 3rd centuries AD. Their main attribute was the long socket and the short
reed-shaped blade of lenticular or rhombic cross section.25 Representations of
mounted and armoured warriors with lances are known from the petroglyphs
of the Tashtyk culture (3rd–5th centuries AD).26
Spearheads were extremely rare during the Turkic period, their socket being
long and open, while their blade is short, deltoid or reed-shaped, and the
socket was usually reinforced by a ring. Although the spearheads from Katanda
were cited as weapons of the 5th–6th centuries, Hudjakov dated them to the
7th century.27 Representations of spears with flags are known from the Turkic
period, the mounted warriors usually holding the spear with one hand, while
they use their other hand to hold the reins.28 The Inner Asian reed-shaped
spearheads only provide an analogy for a specific type of Avar spearhead, and
no exact correspondence can be observed.
The reed-shaped spearheads with long blade of the Middle phase (P.I.B/1,
like the example from Iváncsa)29 has a good analogy in the find from Glodosy
which is dated to the second half of the 7th century.30 This contact is not sur-
prising, since analogies for the crossguards of the Middle phase also come from
the same region.
The Late phase was characterised by narrower blades of spearheads. A
similar process was also observed in Eastern Europe, in the northern part of
the Caucasus and in the Saltovo culture.31 Conical spearheads are well known
weapons in the burials of the Saltovo culture.32 The pierced blade of spear-
heads known from grave No. 48 at Košice–Šebastovce is a widely spread feature
25 Khudiakov 1986, 81–83.
26 Khudiakov 1986, 106–107.
27 Khudiakov 1986, 156–157.
28 Khudiakov 1986, 163.
29 Bóna 1970, 244, 8. kép 20.
30 Smilenko 1965, 36.
31 For the Northern Caucasus, see: Kochkarov 2008, 60; for the forest-steppe variant of the
Saltovo culture at Severskii-Donets river, see: Aksenov – Mikheev 2006, 111. Ris. 19. Ris. 63.
32 It was already observed by Éva Garam (1995, 350).