28 CHAPTER 1
absence of weapons made from organic materials in depositions,155 as some
inorganic elements of armament can be absent either as a result of burial rite,
grave robbery or the social status of the deceased.
The study of Anglo-Saxon weapon burials by Heinrich Härke reformed
the Continental approach combining English and American anthropological
methods with his Continental (German) archaeological education that tra-
ditionally focussed on typochronology and cemetery analyses. He compared
weapon combinations found in burials with physical anthropological features
(like age, physique, disease and injuries) of the deceased in order to reveal
the real nature of weapon deposition in graves.156 In conclusion, Härke also
emphasised the symbolic nature and ideological power of weapon depositions
in burials.157
A different approach examined the social aspects of the location of
burials: great cemetery, church [Kirchengrab] or separate small cemetery
[Separatfriedhof ] for distinguishing elite burials, showing a process of the
formation of nobility (noblemen) in medieval Germany.158 The relationship
of the weapons and belt-costume including its social role was also studied by
Hubert Fehr.159
The above-mentioned works all serve as a methodological basis for research
on the social aspects of weapon depositions in burials. It is important to
emphasise that our knowledge of Avar social structure is very limited as a con-
sequence of the scarcity of written sources, and therefore all such examina-
tions can only provide new information on the funerals of elite individuals and
not on their role in life as it must have been within society.
3 Methods Applied in this Study
3.1 Terminology and the Methods of Classification
A standardised terminology and method is crucial for further examination of
Avar-age close-combat weapons. My intention is therefore to suggest a solu-
tion to the chaotic phrasing and misphrasing of weapons and their parts in
Avar archaeology and to present the specific methods and attributes of my
classification as they have been applied.
155 Capelle 1982, 265–288.
156 Härke 1992.
157 Härke 1997, 119–127.
158 Burzler 2000.
159 Fehr 1999, 105–111.