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 - Connections with the Swiss Sword Style
Middle La Tène swords from the Carpathian Basin can typologically and even technically be linked to Swiss series. One good example of the latter is the sword from grave 2 of Dobova. 387 These often include scabbards decorated with vegetal derived patterns on the scabbard mouths, and have a clearly defined concentration in Southeast Austria and the neighbouring Yugoslavian zone, as well as in southeast Transdanubia (Hart: Cat.no. 77, PL 80; Dobova, graves 10 and 23: Cat.no. 116, PL 114; Cat.no. 115, PL 110,2; Veliko Mrasevo, grave 1: Cat.no. 140, PL 126; Osijek-Eszék, grave 33: Cat.no. 134, PL 120,3; OdzaciHódság: Cat.no. 131, Pl. 121,1; as well as Perkáta: Cat.no. 49, PL 53,3; Kölesd and Regöly: Cat.no. 54, PL 56). 388 The dragonpair sword from Bonyhádvarasd (Cat.no. 4; PL 6) which has been defined as having been made in Switzerland also belongs to the latter zone, 389 and there can be no doubt that the fusion of Type III dragon-pairs and the Sword Style ornaments is a distinctive hallmark of the scabbards from Yugoslavia. 390 This would suggest the influence and distribution of swords and scabbards manufactured by Swiss armourers in the Carpathian Basin. The possible route of transmission can be located to the southwestern zone of the region. Finds indicating a "Swiss" connection have recently been published from Slovakia: a scabbard ornamented with a Type III dragon-pair from grave 25 of Iákovce/Iskelva (Cat.no. 93; PL 93,1) and the Kecovo/Kecső scabbard (Cat.no. 94; PL 93,2) both of which, however, could well be imports. 391 Neither should the possibility of local imitations be rejected as shown by a scabbard from Kosd (Cat.no. 32; PL 33), as well as by the weapons from grave 15 of Radostyán (Cat.no. 52; PL 55,2) and the stray sheath fragment from Nógrádmarcal (Cat.no. 46; PL 45,2) 392 These finds again suggest that the Sword Styles document a period of general mobility within the Celtic world.
