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

with a pioneering study on their chronological problems.

334 He has convincingly demonstrated that the scabbards current in this area from the early Middle La Tène period include pieces which represent the above-described later tendency of the Sword Style. The beginnings are best illustrated by the scabbard from grave 2 of the Breáice cemetery (Cat.no. 104; PL 101): the upper part of the front plate suspension-loop of the sheaths is covered with a network pattern — totally alienated from all vegetal prototypes —, that was created with a profusion of drop, circle and oval pattern in the "champ-levé" technique set within the framing lines. Good parallels to this arrangement can be quoted from this area: a similar design adorns the Simanovci scabbard (Cat.no. 138; PI. 124), as well as the more elaborate dragon-pair sword from Brestovik (Cat.no. 103; PL 100), even though the motifs are engraved and not deepened on the latter two. The symmetric composition with tendril shoots and drops as filler motifs on the front plate and the suspension loop of a Magyarszerdahely scabbard (Cat.no. 44; PL 51) that was recovered in a La Tène Cl association, is particularly close to the Breáice sword; and together with the tendril pattern of the scabbard mouths this would suggest that this ornament was inspired by vegetal Sword Style decoration.

335 On the basis of a grave find from Dürrnberg which has been dated to the turn of La Tène B2-C1 it would be rather tempting to derive this type of ornament from this transitional period. However, owing to the condition of the scabbard, the published reading of the design must be regarded as strongly hypothetical and it would be a grave mistake to draw far-reaching conclusions from it.

336 The sword scabbards from securely dated grave groups of the first phase of the Middle La Tène period illustrate the growing popularity of decoration based on a simple skeleton tendril pattern. The chape of the Ruma-Borkovac sword (Cat.no. 137; PL 123,1) is of a clearly early La Tène type and its ornamentation is arranged symmetrically: a motif reminiscent of a pending leaf falls from two circles. The "bodiless" nature of the ornamentation and the absence of filler motifs is striking.

337 A sheath from Kupinovo (Cat.no. 124; PL 118,1) and the sword scabbard from grave 6 of Brezlce (Cat.no. 105; Pis 102,2, 103, 104) recovered from a La Tène Cl context

338 are closely allied to the former. The scabbard from grave 11 of the Szabadi-Szabadihegy cemetery which has been dated to the La Tène Cl period shows, together with the above-quoted Magyarszerdahely specimen, that the weapons from southern Transdanubia have many links with the Yugoslavian material.

339 The uncontested masterpiece of this stylistic trend is the scabbard from grave 1 of Dobova (Cat.no. 109; Pis 106, 107) whose sophisticated diagonal composition is filled with spiral shoots and drop motifs. This piece which came to light in an association reflecting the La Tène ClC2 transition

340 is presently only known from drawings which faithfully reproduce the basis structure of the ornament, but which fail to distinguish the deepened surfaces, and thus the exciting play of contrasting effects is reproduced as a simple skeleton tendril pattern.

341 A similar problem besets the accessible documentation of several other Slovenian finds and it would be crucial to make an adequate publication of these pieces accessible as quickly as possible. Two spearheads from Dobova (Cat.no. 113; PL 113; Cat.no. 110; PL 108) with engraved design must also be quoted in this context: the base of their socket bears a highly simplified pattern which can ultimately be derived from the lyre-palmette and whose exciting contrasts are based on the "champ-levé" technique which, unfortunately, is not illustrated on their drawings.

342 Beside the above pieces and their parallels whose number will undoubtedly increase,

343 another style of scabbard decoration from the Pannonian zone of Yugoslavia can now be illustrated with a growing number of finds. The key feature of this ornament is the fusion of the dragon-pair motif and the design characterising the later phase of the Hungarian Sword Style. The pattern of the latter are used as ancillary motifs in the open space demarcated by the jaw, body and in the circular bodies on Type III dragons, or at the junction of the rumps and the tails, recalling the transformation of the zoomorphic lyre executed in a similar spirit.

344 De Navarro's transitional Type I/III dragonpair appears on a scabbard from grave 6 of the Dobova cemetery (Cat.no. 112; PL 113): a triskeles fills the arc of the circular animal body and drop motifs are arranged into groups of threes and fours in other spaces.

345 Examples of its antecedents among Type I dragon-pairs have been quoted in the previous chapter.

346 The link with, the Sword Style is particularly well illustrated by the remodelling of De Navarro's Type III dragon-pair motif. The filler motifs of the Transdanubian and northern Hungarian relics of the later phase begin to play a more emphatic role in the "complementation" of the dragon-pair. Most of these finds were recovered from a La Tène Cl context, some can perhaps be dated slightly later.

347