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.