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

III. THE HUNGARIAN SWORD STYLE - The classification of the material

Fig. 23 CernonsurCoole (Marne), incised decoration on the reverse side of the iron scabbard (after Duval-Kruta [1986] fig. 20) classification of the material is beset with more serious obstacles. Most of the difficulties in chronology stem from the fact that the majority of pieces are stray finds, and that the definition of their chronological position on the basis of typological and morphological traits is more than problematic.

238 In other words, there are but few diagnostic graves which offer secure chronological starting points around which the material could be confidently grouped. A classification based on stylistic analysis is an even more precarious undertaking. Our present knowledge can rightly be compered to the tip of an iceberg: owing to the strongly corroded state of the iron only so much can generally be ascertained that the scabbard had originally been decorated, whilst the correct reading or interpretation of the design is, for the time being,

239 an impossible task. It must also be added that even well-preserved scabbard sometimes lack an adequate documentation which can be relied on when personal autopsy is not possible.

240 A further impediment, aptly pointed out and illustrated with excellent examples by P.-M. Duval, is that personal bias invariably influences the closely linked phases of analysis, reproduction and interpretation because owing to the corrosion of iron even the most expertly trained eye can falter, leading to arbitrary readings.

241 One further source of difficulty as regards pieces analysed on the basis of their publication only are the shortcomings of published illustrations which often fail to distinguish between details made using different techniques in the reproduction of the overall ornament.

242 It must also be emphasized that a neglect of technical features and the chronological position renders purely stylistic analyses boundless. The greatest danger in this approach is that instead of reconstructing the one-time historical reality we are, more often than not, presented with the outlines of a logical system "introjected" by scholarly bias. It is obvious that even the assumption of a schema of stylistic development in La Tène art comparable to that of Greek art is a wholly arbitrary and thoroughly mistaken suggestion. In the light of the above the "preliminary report" nature of the present study is more understandable since it was written in the knowledge that the known material cannot be classified in its entirety.

243 Let us take as a starting point that most famous of French finds, the scabbard from Cernonsur-Coole (Marne) which is undoubtedly one of the masterpieces of Celtic engraved ornament (Fig. 23). Even though this sword is one of the most oft-analysed and most thoroughly discussed decorated weapons, a publication meeting the strictest of criteria only came out in