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

V. SWORDS WITH STAMP MARKS - Zoomorphic stamps

covered from burials were deposited beside warriors, as shown by the accompanying grave goods clearly indicates the social layer which wielded these weapons. This is underscored by the depictions of these stamps, generally symbols of combat and victory (boar, mask or severed head) and their position on the blade (mostly facing the swordsman, suggesting an apotropaic purpose)

. The choice of stamp perhaps reflected the taste of the warrior, but it could equally well have indicated his military rank or the status of his trible. Individual workshops probably used several different stamps which they occasionally combined (compound marks).

443 The question of origins is still unresolved. De Navarro considered stamped swords to be a Swiss product (FelsőtöbörzsÖk, Rives cemetery, Heiligenstein) 444 Stamped swords are indeed often accompanied by scabbards ornamented in the Swiss Sword Style (Veliko Mraáevo: Cat.no. 140; PL 126; one of the swords from the Odáaci/Hódság chariot burial: Cat.no. 131; PL 121,1; Magenta) and frequently feature laddering, another explicitly Swiss trait. However, more caution is called for in considering stamped swords to be exclusively Swiss products, even if a definitive answer can only be excepted from a detailed survey of the relevant finds. Further discoveries of new material and the careful conservation of old finds may — similarly to dragon-pair swords — reveal a pan Celtic, though perhaps less widespread phenomenon, rather than the products of a single area.