Mária T. Biró: The Bone Objects of the Roman Collection. (Catalogi Musei Nationalis Hungarici. Seria Archeologica 2; Budapest, 1994)

I. BONE CARVINGS DECORATING WEAPONS AND MILITARY EQUIPMENT - 5. Scabbard chapes

Fig. S. Reconstruction of the attachement and function of scabbard slides The third type is nearer to the first type. In this case, too, the two ends of the slide are fixed to the scabbard, except that here the bone is not perforated; only the two lengthened ends of the strap are fixed more tightly on the sheath. (Fig. 1. and 3.) The scabbard slide preserved in the Fleissig Collection of the Hungarian National Museum belongs to the first type. (No. 18.) One end of the loop is rounded while the other is decorated with a simplified floral motif. This schematic pattern is the indication of the leaf-flower motif still well discernible on the slides from Siscia and Virunum.

37 In Chapman's opinion the dating of this type is to be connected with the appearance of the Barbaric troops alongside the limes from the end of the 2nd century (Vilmosé, Novae, South Shild, Dunapentele are the sites of this type known at present). Chapman, too, traces back bone scabbard slides to the Asian "cavalry sword". It was in Syria where they first appeared within the Empire. Further, we may suppose that the appearance of bone decorations on weapons spread in the Empire as a result of the contacts with the Sarmatians and Parthians.

38 The scabbard slide from Szőny is to be ranged with the third type, being similarly a type of Eastern origins. (No. 19.) From the Empire there is but one parallel known for it, the Vimose find from Denmark.

39 This shape well-known in the East and probably originating from Central Asia, from Turkestan

40 was mostly made in European provinces of metal.

41 5. Scabbard chapes Metal scabbard chapes were cast in one piece. Those made of bone consist mostly of two parts and the front and back parts slide into one another. The front piece has always more decoration; there are central grooves besides the wind-channels and it is decorated with pierced or incised trailer or carved pelta motives within an elliptic framework. From the camp of Szőny two scabbard chapes are to be found in the Collection: one complete (with front and back plate) and one incomplete (only back part). (Nos. 20-21.) The front plate of the complete one is identical with Oldenstein's carving published from the site Osterburken.

42 In the elliptical field with the central stripe there are two pierced pelta-motives to be seen. The top end of the plate is decorated by two double grooves deepened into a triangle. The back plate is without decoration and of smaller size in order to be fitted into the rail of the front plate. This type was preferred in the borderlandarea throughout the 2nd-3rd centuries. The scabbard chape of which only the back part survived, was smaller than the above mentioned specimen. It differs from the type referred to in Oldenstein's catalogue in so far as it has symmetrically incised triangle-shaped incisions at the two shorter sides.

43 It is one of the few objects the exact find place of which is known: it has come to light as a result of the excavations lead by A. Radnóti in 1942 in the area of the Castrum in Szőny. There are also scabbard chapes carved from one piece in the Collection. No analogies are known as to the simpler form. (No. 22.) The size and shape of this flat, case-like bone carving