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 influence of the Hungarian Sword Style — Connections with the Irish Scabbard Style
The most simple variant is the appearance of the triskeles motif in the middle of the circular animal body — solution inherited from Type I — as on the sword scabbard from the Dobova burial 10 (Cat.no. 114; PL 109,2). 348 The scabbard from Sremski Karlovci (Cat.no. 139; PL 125,1) shows the further enrichment of this design a backward extended antithetic triskeles-pair substituted for the upper part of the animal heads. The Magyarszerdahely sheath (Cat.no. 42; PL 48) has much in common with this ornamental concept: the filler motifs include fans and tendril shoots. Most exciting is the scabbard from grave 47 of Breáice (Cat.no. 106; PL 102,1): the diagonal pattern starting from under the feet of the animal pair is reminiscent of the decoration of a Szob scabbard (Cat.no. 63). 349 In contrast, a combination of drop motif dominates on the Brestovik scabbard (Cat.no. 103; Pl. 100). 350 Also to be mentioned are the Karaburma find (grave 29: Cat.no. 122; PL 116) and a sword from Ritopek (Cat.no. 135; PL 123,2) which, however, are only known from drawings which appear to misinterpret the ornament. 351 The chronological evaluation of the material surveyed in the above suggests that the floruit of the later phase of the Hungarian Sword Style can be put into the La Tène Cl period. O.-H. Frey has suggested that this stylistic trend probably survived into the La Tène C2 period. 352 A scabbard from Halmajugra (Cat.no. 17; PL 17) can also be assigned here on the basis of its morphological traits (an upper reinforce of double S-shape), 353 which at the same time represents succinctly the late Sword Style with its spiral-ornamented fish-bladder pair. 354 Finally, the scabbard from Zemun-Gardoä (Cat.no. 142; PL 125,3) which on the basis of the still visible traces of its ornament can best be linked to the "embellished" schema of Type III dragon pairs, reflects the sporadic survival of the Hungarian Sword Style tradition into the late La Tène period. The chronology of the material suggests that this style began to lose its popularity around the mid-La Tène C period, which can be correlated with the second quarter of the 2nd century B. C. in terms of absolute chronology. 356 This by no means implies — in the sense of the above — the cessation of manufacture, and future finds may well have some surprises in store. On the basis of the presently known material we can distinguish two main tendencies in terms of stylistic history, the basic difference between them being their relation to the Waldalgesheim style. These two directions obviously flourished side by side, but their commencement and their decline did not coincide: the artistic current developed from the Waldalgesheim Style was earlier and can be defined as the earlier phase of the Sword style, whilst the concept breaking away from the Waldalgesheim tradition i.e. the later phase first appeared somewhat later and remained popular for a longer period of time. The distribution of various groups suggests the activity of different workshops. However, the location of these workshops would require careful technical analyses, and even after these investigations are carried out it will still be difficult to establish whether the appearance of specific weapon type reflects the activity of a workshop and its trade contacts, the wanderings of an itinerant craftsman, or a larger migration. And we have by no means exhausted all possible interpretations with this short list. 356 It is nonetheless quite certain that the southward and eastward distribution of the Hungarian Sword Style and its appearance in the western Celtic zone can be linked to the Balkanic invasions, as well as to its historical consequences. 357 The influence of the Hungarian Sword Style Connections with Irish Scabbard Style It follows from the genesis of the Hungarian Sword Style, i.e. its derivation from the Waldalgesheim Style, that on the continent this Style can be linked to the mainstream of La Tène Celtic art. On the other hand, it emerged in a historical situation when the factor of divergence came to play an increasingly important role in La Tène culture owing to various invasions and migrations. 368 In the artistic realm this is reflected by the appearance of related, but the nonetheless distinct sword styles 369 and, as will be shown in the next chapter, also by the emergence of a wholly different style. 360 The relics of the Hungarian Sword Style are distributed to the Marne and Saône region in the west, 361 as far as Cracow in the north, 362 and to Bulgaria in the southeast, 363 reflecting there by the links within the Celtic world, as well as historic Celtic migrations. This picture will undoubtedly be modified by new finds, but independently of future discoveries, scholarly research must decidedly focus also on the wider interrelations of Celtic ornament in the 3rd-2nd centuries B. C, and look beyond the realm of sword scabbards.
