Szabó Miklós, Petres F. Éva: Decorated weapons on the La Tene Iron Age in the Carpathian Basin. (Inventaria Praehistorica Hungariae 5; Budapest, 1992)

Introduction

monographic publication of the swords from the site of La Tène also entailed a fresh study of the decorated weapons from the Carpathian Basin.

28 B. Raftery's synthesis of the " Irish Scabbard Style" was written in a similar spirit and takes into consideration the material from the Middle Danube region.

29 The study of ornamented Celtic weapons in Hungary at the beginning of the 1970s was personally inspired by P.-M. Duval who at that time spent quite a lot of his time in various Hungarian museums and who played an important role in the organisation of the Celtic conference held in Székesfehérvár in 1974.

30 The exhibition mounted on this occasion provided a unique opportunity for collecting and drawing the relevant material.

31 Meanwhile, the everincreasing difficulties also became apparent: in the lack of adequately equipped laboratories the preparation of a final and comprehensive documentation seemed ever more elusive. It is rather symptomatic that P.-M. Duval chose the illustrations of a Hungarian find, the Bodroghalom scabbard (Cat.no. 3), prepared by different drawers to illustrate the pitfalls of the analysis, reproduction and interpretation of sword designs.

32 In the meantime a number of studies were published

33 and, simultaneously, the issue itself received considerably more international attention as shown by P.-M. Duval's and V. Kruta's studies,

34 a series of excellent works by A. Bulard,

35 and the practically sole representative of the conservator-archaeologist combined, A. Rapin.

36 Neither should we forget the studies published by O.-H. Frey, J. V. S. Megaw, F. Schwappach and J. Stead.

37 L. Zachar and M. Guátin must definitely be mentioned in this respect who have greatly contributed to the better understanding of the problem.

38 It must finally be emphasized that the present study could not aim at completeness as regards Hungarian finds (and finds housed in Hungarian museums). There are two basic reasons for this. Firstly, and there is hardly any need to dwell on this at greater length, following the Second World War La Tène research in the Middle Danube region was practically restricted to individual countries. It sadly follows from this that a repertory of finds similar to I. Hunyady's remains illusory for the time being. (This enforced relapse can be illustrated with a number of examples. Suffice it here to quote the fact that instead of republishing the CIL III volume a new series, the Römische Inschriften Ungarns, had to be launched.) Secondly, as has been briefly mentioned in the above, the analysis of sword designs is greatly hindered by the often poor state of preservation of iron artefacts recovered in the course of archaeological excavations, and the delicate procedures involved in their restoration. One practical consequence is that access to, and the usefulness of, the relevant find material is greatly dependent on the activity of the scholar researching the period who urges their restoration, collects the unpublished finds (which are often strongly damaged), and either personally draws them or supervises this process. Suffice it here to mention two positive and one negative example in this respect. While the number of finds from Yugoslavia and Slovakia that are now accessible to scholars has multiplied as a result of M. Guátin's and L. Zachar's activities and their source value has also grown owing to the publication of their documentation,

39 very little is known about the Transylvanian material

40 and a comprehensive study on the already published material which would be suitable for other purposes — such as this corpus — is still sorely lacking.

41 Neither should it be forgotten that no consensus has been reached as regards the drawn reproduction of engraved decoration. It is again P.-M. Duval who encouraged progress in this direction. He first approached the problem of classifying finds in his paper prepared for the Székesfehérvár conference in 1974,

42 and later, in 1978, in a paper read at the congress held in the College de France he dealt with the problems of the analysis and reproduction of Celtic art forms. On the basis of various reproductions of ornamented swords from the Carpathian Basin he drew the conclusion that all reproductions are coloured by subjective judgements on the one hand, and that all too often these illustrations lack a precise registration of technical details and only reproduce the schema of the ornamentation on the other.

43 This calls for drawings based on examinations with a binocular microscope which are controlled several times, as well as for distinguishing between decorative elements executed with different techniques or with different tools ( such as simple or double lines, the depth of the engraved line, grooving, "relief lines"

, etc.). The new publication of the Cernonsur-Coole scabbard by P.-M. Duval and V. Kruta can be regarded paradigmatic.

44 The present corpus of finds undeniably reflects a "work in progress" situation. This can definitely be attributed to the fact that the relevant new finds were virtually still unpublished when this project was begun.