346 CHAPTER 6
seaxes only appeared during the first half of the 8th century in the Carpathian
Basin, and are not yet known from the Middle phase.299 The contradiction
between the western chronology for long seaxes and the beginning of the Late
phase was noted by Falko Daim in his analysis of the Leobersdorf cemetery. He
proposed two dates for the beginning of the Late phase: 710 based on weapons
of western origin and 730 following the general Avar chronology.300
The existence of long seaxes in Avar burials provides an important basis
for establishing the beginning of the Late phase. According to current under-
standing there is a chronological difference of 20–30 years between the begin-
ning of the Late phase and the western appearence of long seaxes. There are
three possible explanations for this chronological gap:
1) Weapons of western origin appear in the Avar settlement area with a
delay of 20–30 years, though this assumption can be proved only by their
association with other artefacts dated usually to earlier periods.
2) The beginning of the Late phase is too late, and should be corrected to
the last third of the 7th century. The main problem with this is that there
is also a similar disparity between the chronology of the Carpathian
dated group ‘A’ between 680 and 710/720, group ‘B’ between 710/20 and 750, and group ‘C’
between 750 and 800. The transitional group ‘A/B’ was based on the co-existence of two
different spatha types. Group ‘A’ is characterised by long seaxes of type ‘LS 1’, while group
‘B’ is characterised by long seaxes of type ‘LS 2’ and 3. Stein’s chronology was reviewed by
Wolfgang Hübener (1971, 445) and Hermann Ament (1976, 321). Hübener disagreed with
the late dating of the belt-sets of honeycomb-decoration (‘wabenplattierte’ in German)
(Hübener 1971, 445), while Ament proposed the term ‘jungmerowingisch III’ (Late
Merovingian III: 670/80–720) for Stein’s weapon combination ‘A’, drawing attention to
the fact that this period unified two different chronological phases (Ament 1976, 335).
Jörg Kleemann (2002, 107–109) dated the long seaxes with symmetrical blade (1st type) to
his first two phases (680–710), and assymetrical blades to his IInd–IVth phase (710–810)
(Kleemann 2002, 294). Jo Wernard (1998, 778) dated the light variant of broad seaxes to
the 2b phase (600/610–630/640) and the appearance of the heavy variant to 3b phase
(630/40–660/670), though this variant only became dominant in following 3c transi-
tional phase (660/670–680), and the first long seaxes only appeared during the 4th phase
(c. 680–720/730) (Wernard 1998, 779–780).
299 Falko Daim (1987, 159) dated the beginning of the Late phase to 710/720s, while Jozef
Zábojník (1991, 248) proposed an earlier date (c. 700).
300 Daim 1987, 159. According to the chronology of artefacts of western origin, even the date
around 710 seems to be too late.