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 - The post-Waldalgesheim design

Fig. 9 Villeperrot, Type II dragon-pair (bronze) on the iron scabbard from grave W25 (after Bulard [1919] fig. 1.1) Ornamentation with decorative mounts is well known in the western Celtic world. Disregarding now early occurrences, a scabbard from Gournay-sur-Aronde (Fig. 8) definitely needs to be mentioned here because the openwork ornament of the upper part is reminiscent of early La Tène openwork belt clasps.

95 It is thus hardly surprising that the influence of the latter ornamental schema is detected in some symmetric compositions of the Hungarian Sword Style.

96 The scabbard adorned with flowing tendrils of fine iron wire and the occasional coral inlay from grave 26 of the Manching-Steinbichel cemetery is not uninteresting with regard to the Austrian and Transylvanian pieces.

97 An example of openwork plates arranged into a rhythm of their own riveted onto the sheath can be quoted also from Gournay;

98 one good parallel is the scabbard from grave 31 of the Kosd cemetery (Cat.no. 33; PI. 34). Beside the obvious assumption that this technique was imported into the Carpathian Basin from the west, excellent parallels can be quoted from among the dragon-pair swords (to be discussed at greater length in the next chapter). A zoomorphic lyre motif cut from sheet bronze was applied to the iron scabbard of the sword recovered from grave W 25 of Villeperrot.

99 A mount was riveted to just under the upper part of the front plate of the WienGuntramsdorf sheath which, similarly to the applied ornament of the Gournay scabbard,

100 can be interpreted as a fusion of the dragon-pair motif.

101 In contrast, the scabbard from grave 1 of the Sanislau/Szaniszló cemetery features an engraved zoomorphic lyre which is basically identical with the Villeperrot specimen (De Navarro's type II, see Fig. 9) and which is justly regarded as the adoption of a western prototype by most scholars.

102 All in all, the scabbards with applied openwork mount discussed in the above can be regarded as the relics of artistic experimentation which was eventually pushed into the background owing to the widespread popularity of engraved ornamentation in the Carpathian Basin. The post- Waldalgesheim design It has been briefly mentioned in the above that in the Carpathian Basin the Waldalgesheim Style survived into the 3th century B.C.,

103 implying that in this critical period of " eastern" Celtic art the strands of tradition were as strong as the urge to experiment, as reflected by the survival of various Waldalgesheim elements in a context which can, on the whole, be called eclectic. We must here primarily call attention to the simple continuous tendril which was used routinely as a filler motif. Jacobsthal quoted the ornament of the Hatvan-Boldog scabbard (Cat.no. 18; PL 18) and the hilt of the Szendrő dagger (Cat.no. 59; PL 60) sense, and he mentioned the decoration of the neckguard of the Amfreville helmet as a parallel.

104 Considering the chronological and artistic situation mentioned in the foregoing we shall call these secondary tendril patterns of the La Tène B2 and La Tène Cl period postWaldalgesheim ornaments. Fig. 10 Rebour

seaux (Yonne), incised tendrils on the iron spear-head. Interpretation of the motif (side b of the blade) (after Duval, A. [1982] fig. 5) Several examples of this design are known. The Hatvan-Boldog scabbard (Cat.no. 18; PL 18) which has probably perished and its "pair" from Gáva-Katóhalom (Cat.no. 12; Pl. 13) was decorated with such tendril patterns, similarly to the reverse of the sheath from grave 16 of the Kosd cemetery (Cat.no. 31; PI. 31) which has a similar decoration under the chape bridge. It would be unjust to categorise this postWaldalgesheim ornament as a "retardation" restricted to the Carpathian Basin. The