382 CHAPTER 7
rejected by István Bóna, who instead suggested that people with swords on
their right side were simply left-handed, and that is the explanation for the
great majority of the edged weapons placed on the left side.16
Most of the edged weapons were found unbuckled from the belt and not in
their original wearing position, and therefore their positions in the burial can-
not tell us anything about the left- or right-handedness of the deceased nor its
relationship to beliefs about the inverse hereafter. However, in some cemeter-
ies, such as that at Želovce, edged weapons were frequently placed on the right
side of the deceased.
The seaxes play a special role in the study of depositional rules, since these
artefacts were usually worn on the right side. Only 24 % of all seaxes can be
examined in this respect. Long seaxes were usually placed to the left side of the
body but with the tip towards the head.17 The position of these weapons is sim-
ilar to that of western depositional practices.18 Another characteristic position
of these seaxes is along the right leg,19 a similar feature having been observed
in some Early Carolingian cemeteries of Austria.20 Differences between those
western customs and the Avar rites were observed only in the case of burials
with horses.
4 Weapons and Age Groups of the Deceased
The examination of weapon depositions by age at death of the deceased is
a relatively new field of research. In Avar archaeology László Simon was the
first to use this perspective, his starting point being the sword from Nagykőrös
with gold coverings which suggested that the small size of the artefact could
be interpreted as an attribute of a child’s sword. He listed the children’s graves
with weapons from the Avar Age, and concluded that the edged weapons
from children’s graves21 are no shorter than the average sword length. He drew
16 István Bóna (1979, 28) ten graves with edged weapons on the left side of the deceased.
17 Bernolákovo–Sakoň grave No. 53 (Kraskovská 1962, 436–437); Zalakomár grave No. 144
(Szőke 1982–83, 70–72; Szőke 2000, 494, Taf. 12).
18 Similar observations were made by Ursula Koch (1977, 105).
19 Wien XXIII Zwölfaxing I. grave No. 3 (Lippert 1966, 116–117); Münchendorf grave No. 38
(Mitscha-Märheim 1941, 32, Taf. 17/10).
20 Gusen (Tovornik 1985, 199), Auhof bei Perg (Tovornik 1986, 419).
21 Želovce grave No. 490 (Čilinská 1973, 124, Taf. LXXXIII/17); Bóly grave No. 20 (Papp 1962,
174–175. XXVIII. t. 3).