Armament And Society 389
5 Conclusions
The definition of the so-called ‘armed stratum’ in the social hierarchy was one
of the main questions of Avar archaeology from its very beginning.31 The social
analysis of weapon combinations and their identification with social groups
has been widespread in Merovingian archaeology,32 where several factors (the
great number of burials in cemeteries, the considerable number of well pub-
lished cemetery excavations, the availability of anthropological data, highly
developed relative chronology, written sources [‘Volksrechte’ = Merovingian
legal sources], and complex social models) have facilitated this approach.
However, in light of a number of overviews of Merovingian social archaeol-
ogy a more sceptical approach can be observed with respects to the possibility
for reconstructing these ancient social systems.33 A new approach for social
reconstruction in Merovingian archaeology has instead focussed on the iden-
tification of a nobility which is attested from 8th-9th century written sources,
whereas unfortunately searching for the roots of nobility can be regarded as
somewhat anachronistic for the 6th-7th century, when this social category did
not apparently exist.34
Unfortunately, Avar social history is so poorly understood that we do not
even have such data for later social structures. All such knowledge of the Avars
is limited to the social systems of contemporary and later steppe nomadic soci-
eties, used as the basis of analogy, and some limited social titles attested by
written sources, but with little understanding of their meaning and function.35
Even if social categories can be distinguished on the basis of burial assem-
blages, these categories cannot be compared or identified with historically
documented social groups.
These archaeological sources present other problems, for whilst the analy-
sis of burials can offer abundant information on burial rites and depositional
rules they offer little in respect of broader understandings of the armament
of the deceased, for we cannot even reconstruct fully functional weapon
31 See Szentpéteri 1993; Szentpéteri 1994.
32 Werner 1968.
33 Steuer 1982; Steuer 1987; Härke 1992; Härke 1997.
34 The change in methodology is also indicated by the choice of titles, for while Frauke Stein
(1967) still used the term noblemen’s graves (‘Adelsgräber’) for the 8th century, Anke Burzler
(2000) already used the process of a formation of a nobility (‘Nobilifizierungsprozeß’) for
the same period.
35 For the society of the Avar Qaganate, see: Pohl 2002, 163–188, 292–308). However, Pohl had
to use analogies from later Nomadic societies because of a lack of sources.