Garam Éva szerk.: Between East and West - History of the peoples living in hungarian lands (Guide to the Archaeological Exhibition of the Hungarian National Museum; Budapest, 2005)

HALL 8 AND CORRIDOR - The Avar period (567/568-804 A.D.) (Éva Garam)

100. Gold mounts of the sword from the princely burial at Kecel. 2nd third of the 7th century 101. Early Avar iron stirrups from Bicske. Early 7th century bows, the saddles with high-backed cantle and pommel allowing the riders to stand and shoot their arrows sideways and backwards, made the Avar light cavalry a formidable force. Many good quality rounded stirrups (Fig. 101), ringed bits and bone buckles used for fastening the girth straps holding the saddles have been uncovered in the graves of the first generation of the Avars settling in the Carpathian Basin. Together with the narrow bladed lances, these were the articles brought here from their former homeland. The Avars preserved their ancestral burial customs for the first few decades after their settlement. The weapons and the horse harness of the deceased were buried separately in a pit beside the grave. Traces of burning from the funeral pyre can sometimes be observed on the good quality bits and stirrups originally made in Central Asia. The distribution of graves reflecting this burial rite outlines the extent of the early Avar settlement territory. The nobleman's grave found at Kunágota in 1858 was a solitary burial, into which the deceased was laid to rest with oriental splendour together with his harnessed horse. The