336 CHAPTER 6
3.2 Middle and Late Phase
Contemporary with the northwestern extension of the Avar settlement area,
the intensity of western influences on Middle Avar close combat weaponry
declined and was limited to the broad seaxes (E.IV.C). The distribution of these
weapons largely covers the northwestern part of the Carpathian Basin with
an emphasis on the Vienna Basin and the Devín’s Gate, which overlapped
with the western extension of Avar material culture and also had contact with
western, Germanic and Late Merovingian material culture.
The Late phase is characterised by an even greater extension towards the
northwest, with the border of the Avar Qaganate reaching the Fischa river, and
thus becoming the neighbour of the local Bavarian population. This change
led to the vitalisation of these western relations, with new weapon types of
western origin appearing amongst both the polearms and edged-weapons.
One of the most significant developments was the appearance of spear-
heads of Egling (P.III.C/3.e) and Pfullingen type (P.III.C/2.e) in the northwest-
ern periphery of the Carpathian Basin. The existence of the Pfullingen type
amongst the weaponry of the Avar was first suggested by Frauke Stein222 and
Jozef Zábojník,223 however none of the listed examples share characteristics of
Pfullingen type such as the quadrangular cross section of the socket and the
rivets with hemispherical head. The spearheads of Pfullingen type are distrib-
uted only in southwestern Germany and Bavaria.224
The main characteristic of Egling type is the narrow lenticular blade, the
cross section of the socket is octagonal, and the blade is often decorated by
long parallel grooves.225 The Egling type was first defined by F. Garscha based
on burials from South Baden (Germany).226 The type is dated to the end of the
7th–beginning of the 8th century,227 and is characteristic for both the north-
ern and southern group of Frauke Stein.228 It was first identified among the
222 Stein 1968, 233–242.
223 Zábojník 1978, 196.
224 Stein 1967, 17.
225 Stein 1967, 16.
226 Garscha 1970, Typ 10. b–c.
227 Joachim Werner dated this type to the end of the 7th century (Werner 1955, 10), accord-
ing to Frauke Stein the type was still in use at the beginning of the 8th century, since it
was often found together with swords of Schlingen type (Stein 1967, 17) The Saxonian
examples were classified as belonging to the 1st combination group of Jörg Kleemann
(Kleemann 2002, 117), which is parallel to the group A of Stein and dated between 680 and
710 (Kleemann 2002, 294).
228 For the geographical distribution of this type: Stein 1967, Taf. 103.