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CHAPTER 9
General Conclusions
Edged weapons and polearms comprised a significant part of Avar-age close
combat weapons: such weapons were found as part of 1187 burial assemblages,
which represents only a small proportion of all the known burials but which
is nonetheless the largest series of such artefacts from the region. Tivadar Vida
estimated the number of Avar burials to be 60,000, which means that 2 % of
all the graves and 6 % of all the male burials were furnished with close combat
weapons.1 The chronological and geographical distribution of these weapons
is not even, which is a consequence of mainly on the burial rite of the com-
munity differing by region: some regions are devoid of weapons in spite of the
great number of excavated Avar cemeteries,2 while others are well represented
by just one weapon type.3 The geographical distribution of some weapon
types shows significant differences, like for example in the case of Early Avar
Transdanubia.4
The chronological distribution of these close combat weapons demon-
strates a decreasing importance through their deposition in burials. While
the earliest burials of the cemeteries from the Middle and Late phase are fur-
nished with edged weapons, the latest graves are usually without any fighting
equipment.5
The classification of weapons and the reconstruction of typological devel-
opments can help in the determination of their function, and the early medi-
eval close combat weapons of the Carpathian Basin can then be compared
with the international results of similar weapon research and even their chro-
nology might be determined more exactly.
1 Vida 2003, 304.
2 See the Christian Late Antique population of the Keszthely culture, while the similar popula-
tion in county Baranya around Pécs used the weapon burial rite.
3 The lack of some weapon type is mainly characteristic for polearms: no spears are known
from the Southern part of Small Hungarian Plain, Ipoly valley (Želovce) and some Middle
phase cemeteries.
4 See the distribution of spearheads of type P.III/1 mainly in Transdanubia.
5 This observation is supported by the cemetery at Hajdúböszörmény–Csíkos tanya and
Berettyóújfalu, where only the earliest burials were furnished with weapons, while in some
cemeteries of the northern periphery the weapon burial rite lasted until the end of the Avar
Age. (Zábojník 1995).