Szabó Miklós, Petres F. Éva: Decorated weapons on the La Tene Iron Age in the Carpathian Basin. (Inventaria Praehistorica Hungariae 5; Budapest, 1992)
I. EXPERIMENTATION - Iron scabbards with stamped decoration
A simple wave tendril decorates the horizontal ribbon mounts of the Epiais-Rhus (Val d'Oise) scabbard and the two vertical border friezes of the Saint-Germainmont specimen. 68 This brief survey would suggest that scabbards ornamented with a Waldalgesheim pattern were distributed in Italy and the northern and north-eastern territories of France during the 4th century B.C., and on the testimony of the Standlake (Oxfordshire) scabbard they also made their appearance across the Channel. The weapons mentioned above are also related as regards their technical execution: the decorated bronze plaques were all applied onto the iron scabbard. It has recently been suggested on the basis of stylistic analyses that the northern scabbards can be derived from Italo-Celtic weapons. 69 A similarly related piece, in terms of technical execution, is the scabbard from JeniSuv-Ujezd (Bohemia) whose bronze front plate is ornamented with a stamped pattern: a palmette frieze decomposed into a row of two versions of the double-S. 70 In the light of the above the engraved decoration of the Liter scabbard reflects the translation of the continuous wave tendril — which was ultimately inspired by Italo-Celtic models — from bronze into iron. Similarly to the Budapest spearhead this is also a stray find (or, to be more precise, a find whose associations can no longer be reconstructed); there is no forthcoming answer yet to these problems. The difficulties in defining the exact source of influence i.e. the pin-pointing of the possibly direct Italo-Celtic source of the "Waldalgesheim" tendril are illustrated by the fact that the presently known best parallel to the designs of the Liter scabbard has been reported from the Marne region. 71 We shall return to the dragon-pair adorning the front plate of the Liter scabbard and to the chronological position of this piece and of related finds in Chapter II. In any case, there are no sound arguments for a date prior to 300 B.C. 72 It would appear that same is valid for the iron helmet from Siliva§/01áhszilvás (Fig. 5). P. Jacobsthal was justified in describing the pattern ornamenting its neck guard as careless. Even though this geometricised tendril can be easily fitted into the development of the Waldalgesheim type design, there are no grounds for claiming — as in the case of other La Tène ornamented metalwork — the congenial transformation of floral patterns derived from the south. 73 It must here be noted that certain doubts have been voiced as to the authenticity of the provenience of the Silvias, find which, however, appear to be wholly unfounded. 74 In other words, the association can be regarded a sound basis for dating. It is an entirely different matter that this La Tène B2 chieftain burial from Transylvania provides no clues whatsoever as to the possible location of the workshop manufacturing iron helmets with riveted neckguards. 75 Fig. 5 Silvias. /Oláhszilvás neck-guard of the iron helmet (after Schaaf [1974] fiç- 21) Iron scabbards with stamped decoration The few specimens which can be assigned to this category can, in terms of their ornamental motifs, be linked to the problem of the Waldalgesheim Style and, at the same time, they illustrate the connections and divergences between the La Tène art of Italy, western and central Europe. It has been noted in the foregoing that while the two former regions can be characterised by the use of bronze scabbard mounts ornamented with punched or stamped patterns in the 4th century B.C., 76 this technique was translated into iron probably in the east. 77 The details of the technique are still strongly debated, and it has been suggested that the patterns on the scabbard were not punched but made with a matrix. 78
