314 CHAPTER 6
Trosino and Nocera Umbra,51 and from a sword from southern Italy covered
with silver foils.52 Two representations are also known: one from the wooden
door of the church of Santa Sabina53 and another from the so-called ‘David-
plate’ found in Cyprus.54
P-shaped suspension loops from Avar-age swords are part of a Eurasianwide
process of the spread of a military innovation regarding two point suspension
(map 51). This new way of suspension probably played a significant role in the
spread of single-edged swords. The parallel appearance of Chinese and East-
Central European examples shows how quickly this innovation spread and
questions the justification of research on its origins. We believe that the origin
of these P-shaped suspension loops cannot be solved with our current data.
Among the edged weapons, the single-edged swords covered with gold or
silver foils fitted with P-shaped suspension loops (E.II.A/1.b) and sabres with
star-shaped crossguards (E.III.A–C/2) have strong Eastern European links
(map 51). No close contacts with Inner Asian edged weapons can be detected.
However, some details of suspension, like P-shaped loops (S.4), known from
Sassanian Iran and Sogdian frescoes of ancient Samarkand (Afrasiab) and
Penjikent, and ring-pommel swords (E.I.C/2 and E.II.B/2), popular weapons
in the Far East (China, Korea, Japan), are suitable for comparative analyses.55
Single-edged swords covered with gold or silver foils with P-shaped suspen-
sion loops (E.II.A/1.b) are well known from the burials of the Eastern European
Sivashovka horizon,56 dated in Russian and Ukrainian research to the second
and third quarter of the 7th century,57 though Avar burials from the Carpathian
Basin suggest a slightly earlier date, in the first half of the 7th century.
51 Their manufacture and decoration is different from that of the examples from the
Carpathian Basin and Eastern Europe, both examples being decorated by openwork tech-
nique, the P-shaped suspension loops were not used in pairs but the second loop was a
small semicircular one. Paroli – Ricci 2005, Tav. 3–4. 228–229.
52 Theisen 2008, 390.
53 D’Amato – Sumner 2005, 12.
54 Wander 1973, 92, fig. 5.
55 See chapter IX.1.
56 For the definition of this horizon: Orlov 1985, 105. Only 9 burials belong to this ‘culture’:
Sivashovka 3rd kurgan 2nd burial; Vinogradnoe 5th kurgan 3rd burial, Arcibashevo
Izobil’noe 1st kurgan 4th burial, Portovoe 12th kurgan 5th burial, Epifanov, hutora
Krupskaja 4th kurgan 5th burial, Chapaevskoe 29th kurgan 2nd burial, Üch tepe, Verhne
Pogromnoe 1st kurgan 12th burial (Komar – Kubyshev – Orlov 2006, 280–281). All of the
swords belonging to these burials have the same attributes as type E.II.A/1.b.
57 Oleksij Komar (2006, 238) dated it, on the basis of historical arguments, to between
665 and 685. Orlov dated the horizon to the second half of the 7th century