Avar-Age Polearms and Edged Weapons. Classification, Typology, Chronology and Technology

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Origins And Cultural Contacts 337


Avar spearheads by Jozef Zábojník.229 It is important to note that spearheads


from Avar cemeteries attributed as Egling type differ from the examples from


Germany, since their socket is always hexagonal (and not octagonal) and the


blade is not grooved. Although the socket of Egling type spearheads are usually


decorated with a rivet with hemispherical head, no such examples are known


from the Avar-age Carpathian Basin, thus all of the listed spearheads can be


regarded as a local variant of the Egling type.


3.2.1 ‘Hakenlanze’


The hooked spearheads (‘Hakenlanze’, P.IV.A/1.e) with long and narrow tri-


angular blade appeared in the northwestern periphery in the first half of the


8th century characterised by short, closed socket with two short projections of


oval cross section (hooks). The hooked spearheads belong to the greater group


of winged spearheads (‘Flügellanze’ in German), being representative of their


early form. The spearheads with projections on their socket can be divided into


three main groups which are typologically related and which can be arranged


in chronological succession.


Spearheads with socket-mounts (‘Lanzenspitzen mit Schaftbeschlag’ in


German) are characterised by distinct socket-mounts attached to the socket.


The socket-mounts are usually two iron rods, the function of which was to


strengthen the attachment of the spearhead to the shaft. In some cases these


mounts were even soldered or tied on to the socket by copper wire.230


The hooked spearheads (‘Haken-’ or ‘Stollenlanzenspitzen’ in German)231 are


characterised by two projections (hooks) of quadrangular or oval cross section


on the socket, while winged spearheads (‘Flügellanze’) are decorated with two


flat wings on the edge of the socket. This was a characteristic type of the Late


Merovingian and early Carolingian periods, whereas the latter type is dated to


the 9th–10th century.


Research on winged spearheads has a long history, and was first identified at


the end of the 19th century as a weapon of the Carolingian Empire,232 however,


229 Zábojník 1978, 195–196.
230 This spearhead is already known from the Late Roman period (4th century), like the spear
of grave No. 6352 of Krefeld – Gellep (Pirling – Siepen 2006, 400. Taf. 68/1. and Taf. 104/20).
231 This latter term is mainly used in the archaeological literature of Switzerland:
Moosbrugger-Leu 1971, 90–92.
232 Paul Reinecke (1899, 35–38) described the origin, chronology and function of the wings
of winged spearheads. L’ubor Niederle (1894, 208) firstly identified this spear type as a
weapon of the Carolingian Empire, and drew attention to its interethnic character. For
research on these winged spearheads in the 19th century, see: Köhler 1897 and Much 1898.

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