340 CHAPTER 6
suggested a continuous development from the Late Roman examples until the
end of the 7th century, but emphasised the rarity of these weapons during the
5th century.256 The hooked spearheads are usually dated before the appear-
ance of winged spearheads.
The date of appearance of these winged spearheads (‘Flügellanze’) is still
under debate. Frauke Stein classified them to his combination group ‘B’ which
she dated to 710/720,257 though Hermann Ament258 and Ursula Koch259 back
dated the combination group ‘A’ and ‘B’ by one generation (c. 30 years) and
therefore the group ‘B’ spearheads would have begun around 700. This chro-
nology was also accepted by Jörg Kleemann who dated the winged spearheads
to his phase III (between 730/740 and 760/770).260
There is a considerable difference between the usual dating of hooked
spearheads (‘Haken-’ or ‘Stollenlanze’) in Western and Central Europe, and
the chronology of the burial (8th century) as situated within Avar archaeo-
logical culture. This chronological gap is as a result of the earlier cessation of
the use of ‘Reihengräberfelder’ in early medieval Merovingian and Carolingian
kingdoms than by the Avars. The dating of this spearhead also implies a typo-
logical argument: Ursula Koch mentioned that the blade of all of the known
hooked spearheads was shorter than the socket.261 According to the typology
of Steinacker the blade length of winged spearheads was continuously grow-
ing at the expense of the socket length, eventually resulting in the blade length
being two times longer than that of the socket. All of the cited examples from
the early 8th century have a short blade and long socket.262 The example from
Devínska Nová Ves contradicts this dating on accout of its overall proportions,
and therefore we can expect similar developments amongst the hooked spear-
heads. This would mean that contemporary with the winged spearheads, the
hooked spearheads were still in use, which could solve the chronological gap
between the German and Avar chronologies.
The possibility of local production were considered in the case of Egling
and Pfullingen type spearheads, as well as seaxes, though it does not seem very
likely for these spearsheads since their size and form are unique in the Avar-age
256 Koch 1982, 40. In fact the spear from Vermand is of socket-mount, see Peter Paulsen 1967b;
Paulsen 1969, 295.
257 Stein 1967, 104–110.
258 Ament 1976, 336; Ament 1977.
259 Koch 1982, 24.
260 Kleemann 2002, 293–295.
261 Koch 1982, 41. footnote No. 9.
262 Steinacker 1998, 22.