Chronology—continuity And Discontinuity 301
fig. 61) were also used. Double-edged swords with crossguards can be regarded
as an early type (E.I.B/2.a, fig. 62) since it correlates with cast Martynovka type
(or masque type) belt-mounts.7 The spatha suspension decorated by animal
heads (S.1) from grave No. 97 at Környe8 is dated to this period but pyramid
spatha buttons (S.2) had also already appeared during this phase (fig. 104).
2 The Turn of the 6th–7th Century
The turn of the 6th–7th century is not a generally recognised chronological
turning point, despite significant changes happening during that time, includ-
ing the appearance of several new types during this phase. The late variant
of reed-shaped spearheads with connecting chap (P.I.A/3.d, fig. 18) and the
first conical spearheads (P.II.A/3, fig. 33) appeared during this time. The use of
broad lenticular spearheads (P.III.A, fig. 41–42) continued, but its late variant
with narrower blade and of small size (P.III.B/1.d, fig. 45–47) appeared and
remained in use until the end of the Early phase. The spearheads with central
ribs (Dorfmerking type, P.III.D, fig. 50) and openwork spearheads (P.III.E/1.e,
fig. 51/1) appeared during this phase in cemeteries as a consequence of strong
Merovingian influences from eastern Transdanubia.
Significant changes also occurred in the types of edged weapons at the
end of the 6th and beginning of the 7th century. Single-edged swords without
crossguards (E.II/1, fig. 68) appeared and begun to spread at about this time.
The use of double-edged blades continued, but became rarer and had disap-
peared entirely by the end of the Early phase. Double-edged swords of lenticu-
lar cross section (E.I.B/2.b) and crossguard cast of copper alloy (CG.4.a, fig. 62)
are also dated to this period and can be regarded as Byzantine imports.
The formation of two-point sword suspension (and thus P-shaped suspen-
sion loops [S.4]) could have already started during the last decades of the 6th
century, but they only became popular during the beginning of the 7th century
(figs. 100–102). The first variant of P-shaped suspension loops could have been
the loops with short, curved projections (S.4.a, fig. 100) known from the last
quarter of the 6th century but the later variant with long, straight projection
(S.4.c, fig. 102) followed it not much later, around the early decades of the 7th
century.9
7 Somogyi 1987, 121–122.
8 Salamon – Erdélyi 1971, 23, Taf. 15/31–32.
9 See the Phocas solidus from grave No. 2 at Kiszombor O cemetery (Garam 1992, 142; Somogyi
1997, 53).