Armament and Cavalry Warfare in the Avar-Age Carpathian Basin 395
Avar, Byzantine and Western European heavy cavalry,32 while István Bóna
studied its eastern contacts based on the burial at Szegvár–Sápoldal. Bóna
identified the spearhead from the burial as a thrusting weapon (‘Stosslanze’),
which had a significant role from the Sarmatian period onwards. According to
his view this polearm was of eastern origin and its distribution could be traced
back to the northern borders of China.33
Based on the classification of Avar-age spearheads, the P.I and P.II form
groups can be identified as thrusting weapons, since the reed-shaped and coni-
cal blades are only suitable for frontal attacks. All previous interpretations con-
cerning their function as javelins (throwing weapons) cannot be accepted.34
Their function as a lance (‘Stosslanze’, ‘Spiess’, ‘pike’) can be inferred based on
their conical broad socket, broad neck, and rhombic cross section of the blade,
all of which help determine that the weapon was resistant against frontal
effects hindering its breakage.
Reed-shaped spearheads (P.I) are often found in horse burials or burials
with horses to the right of the horse skull, and the Avars probably held it to be
part of the equipment of the horse, the composition of the so-called sacrificial
finds (stirrup, horse bit and spear) suggest this to have been the case. Uta von
Freeden even suggested that these spears were held in a long cylindrical socket
fixed to the saddle,35 and therefore these weapons can be regarded as a typical
mounted weapon.
Unfortunately no reliable representations of these polearms are known
from the archaeology of the Avars but the depiction on the silver plate from
Isola Rizza probably offers a useful indication of the original use of this
weapon: a mounted warrior protected by lamellar armour and banded helmet
(‘Spangenhelm’) holding a long thrusting lance with two hands and piercing it
through two enemy infantrymen.36 The lack of stirrups in the representation
could be a chronological indicator but equally may simply be a consequence
of some artistic tradition.37 The shaft of the spear could be 5–6 m long judging
32 The hoard was probably deposited during the Gothic War of Justinian, and the silver plate
represented a Byzantine cataphract (Werner 1974, 110–111).
33 Bóna 1980, 42–48.
34 Attila Kiss identified reed-shaped spearheads with javelins (Kiss 1962, 93), while in some
other cases javelin could be an erroneous translation of the word ‘kopja = lance’ (as
‘Wurfspiess’: Salamon – Erdélyi 1971, 56–57) and ‘javelin’ (Sós – Salamon 1995, 67).
35 von Freeden 1991, 610, n. 107.
36 Von Hessen 1968, 47. Abb. 3, 68. Taf. 41–43; Werner 1971, 110–111. The hoard is usually dated
to the middle of the 6th century (von Hessen 1968, 68).
37 See the representation of the ‘victorious prince’ on the 2nd jar of the Nagyszentmiklós
hoard without stirrups (Bálint 2004a, 370).