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

II. DRAGON-PAIR SWORDS

Fig. 15 Ameglia, scabbard with Type II dragon-pair from grave 22 (after Durante [1987J fig. 10.1) the similar Etruscan bronze mounts or the ornaments of Samnite belts.

133 It is rather difficult to pin-point the exact date when Type II dragon-pairs (or zoomorphic lyres) first appear in the Carpathian Basin since the find context and association of the Liter 1 scabbard (Cat.no. 39; Pis 43, 44) can no longer be reconstructed. It would nonetheless appear that the Liter scabbard can be no earlier than the beginning of the La Tène B2 phase,

134 a dating also supported by the scabbard from grave 31 of the Kosd cemetery (Cat.no. 33; Pis 34, 35) which is ornamented by a variant closely allied to the Liter zoomorphic lyre; the knobfooted fibula recovered from the burial dates the grave to the La Tène B2 phase, i. e. it shows its date to be no earlier than the first quarter of the 3rd century B.C.

135 The increase of relevant finds has brought the recognition that a direct connection can be assumed between Type II dragon-pair swords from Gallia, Italy and the Carpathian Basin.

136 Scholarly interest has mainly focused on the Italian material since their find context and associations offer valuable clues for a more precise dating. The Italian basis is provided by the graves uncovered in Monte Bibele and Ameglia,

137 whose finds tend to confirm the relative chronological priority of De Navarro's Type II over Type I.

138 However, the appearance of scabbards bearing zoomorphic lyres (Type II) in Italy cannot be dated earlier than the period between 320/310-290 B.C. on the basis of grave assemblages with imported Etruscan pottery. This chronology has been established through the analysis of the finds recovered from grave 6 of Monte Bibele (Fig. 14) with which the sequence proposed by Vitali begins, and the same is true for grave 22 from Ameglia (Fig. 15).

139 It is also quite evident that burials dated by the vases of the "atelier des petites estampilles" (e.g. Ameglia, grave 3) are later than the former — or, at the most, quasi contemporaneous — since according to J. P. Morel this particular class of import wares can be dated to 285 +/- 20.

140 Disregarding now the sword from St. JeansurTourbe mentioned in the above which is undoubtedly earlier than the former in spite of various uncertainties concerning its exact chronological position,

141 we can confidently state that the variant of Type II dragon-pairs, considered to be the "earliest" by Megaw, appear in virtually identical form in Italy (Monte Bibele, grave 6: see Fig. 14; Ameglia, grave 22: see Fig. 15), in France (MontignyLencoup: see Fig. 16) and in the Carpathian