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
quently, the question of " whence-whither" cannot be readily answered. Thus, the dragon-pair swords which may be seen as a transition between Types II and I occur also in Switzerland, Great Britain and in the Carpathian Basin, beside Italy. 167 The appearance of De Navarro's Type I swords in the Carpathian Basin can be dated to the horizon characterised by knob-footed fibulae which in the traditional chronological framework corresponds to the end of the early La Tène period, i.e. to the La Tène B2 phase. In terms of currently used absolute chronology this falls into the first and partly the second quarter of the 3rd century B.C. 168 ' A significant cluster of finds can be noted on the eastern bank of the Danube (Kosd: Cat.no. 29; PL 28; Cat.no. 30; PL 29; Cat.no. 31; PL 31; Cat.no. 34; PI. 36; Szob: Cat.no. 64; PL 67; Cat.no. 65; PL 68). In the middle zone of Transdanubia Type I dragon-pairs are often accompanied by Sword Style ornamentation, 169 which can historically perhaps be taken to imply that the workshops active over the latter territory were preoccupied with creating the Hungarian Sword Style, whilst those of the former area — which was Celticised at the time of the Balkanic migration — followed a different tradition. Very little is known, however, of the nature of these "links" and of whether they belong to the sphere of manufacture or trade. 170 The sword from grave 14 of the Radostyán cemetery (Cat.no. 51; PL 55,1) which became known only recently sheds new light on the connections between Type II and Type I dragon-pairs. On the one hand, the dotted background is in itself an indication of genetic connections according to Bulard, whilst on the other the scabbard type corresponds to the Liter 1 scabbard which has been discussed in the above. 171 Seeing that comparable weapons have come to light in the surroundings of grave 6 of Monte Bibele, 172 it is possible that the scabbards from the Carpathian Basin are slightly later, than the Italian swords since the Radostyán scabbard and its undecorated parallel from Balatongyörök both have La Tène B2 type associations. 173 According to the logics of typological evolution the Münsingen scabbard (grave 138; Fig. 17) which is regarded as a type fossil of Type I by De Navarro 174 should follow the Radostyán sword. However, a closer investigation of the two find assemblages does not support this schema. 175 A poly genetic model could also be hypothetically assumed, but this cannot yet be proven because the diffusion of Type I dragon-pair swords falls within a orically eventful but, at the same time very if period. 176 Fig. 19 Ameglia, iron scabbard with transitional dragon-pair from grave 11 (after Durante [1987J fig. 9.10)
