Csiky Gergely. Avar-Age Polearms and Edged Weapons. Classification, Typology, Chronology and Technology

Leiden – Boston: Brill, 2015. — 529 p. — (East Central and Eastern Europe in the Middle Ages, 450–1450 (32)). — ISBN 978-90-04-22661-6; 978-90-04-30454-3.In Avar-Age Polearms and Edged Weapons, Gergely Csiky offers a presentation of close combat weapons of a nomadic population that migrated from Inner Asia to East-Central Europe. During the late 6th – early 7th centuries, the Avars led successful military campaigns against the Balkan realms of the Byzantine Empire, facilitated by their cavalry’s use of stirrups for the first time in Europe.
Besides the classification, manufacturing techniques, fittings, suspension, distribution, and chronology of polearms and edged weapons known from Avar-age burials, a special emphasis is laid on the origins and cultural contacts of these weapons, among them the first edged weapons with curved blades: the sabres. The social significance and, function of these artefacts is discussed in order to place them in nomadic warfare.Acknowledgements.
List of Figures, Maps and Diagrams.
Abbreviations.
Abbreviation of Museums.
Introduction.
Objectives.
History of Research.
Antiquarian Perspective and Cataloguing Artefacts.
Classification and Typology.
Ethnic Interpretations and Questions of Origin.
Social Reconstruction.
Methods Applied in this Study.
Terminology and the Methods of Classification.
Technology.
Chronology and Distribution.
Armament and Society.
Methods of Data Collection.
Polearms.
Classification of Polearms.
Reed-shaped Spearheads (P.I).
Conical Spearheads (P.II).
Lenticular (Leaf-shaped) Spearheads (P.III).
Triangular Spearheads (P.IV).
Javelins (P.V).
Ferrules.
Shafts.
Representations of Polearms.
Conclusions.
Edged Weapons.
Classification of Edged Weapons.
Double-edged Swords (E.I).
Single-edged Swords (E.II).
Sabres (E.III).
Seaxes (E.IV).
The Fittings of Edged Weapons.
The Hilt.
The Crossguard.
Decoration of the Scabbard.
The Chape.
Suspension.
One-point Suspension.
Two-point Suspension.
Conclusions.
Technology—Manufacturing Techniques.
Chronology—Continuity and Discontinuity.
Early Avar I. (568–620s).
The Turn of the 6th–7th Century.
Early Avar II. (610–650).
Middle Phase (650–700).
Late Avar I. (700–750).
Late Avar II. (750–820?).
General Types Characteristic of Longer Timespans.
Origins and Cultural Contacts.
The East and the Steppe Lands.
Polearms.
P-shaped Suspension Loops.
Ring-pommel Swords.
Sabres.
Southern Mediterranean Region.
Crossguards Cast of Copper Alloy.
P-shaped Suspension Loops.
Western Germanic Area.
Early Phase.
Middle and Late Phase.
Questions in the Research on Seaxes.
Chronological Problems of Seaxes and the Difficulties of Chronological Synchronisation.
Armament and Society.
Deposition of Weapons in Burials—Cemeteries and Regional Differences.
The Deposition of Polearms and Edged Weapons in Burials—Chronology and Combinations.
The Position of Polearms and Edged Weapons in Burials.
Polearms.
Edged Weapons.
Weapons and Age Groups of the Deceased.
Conclusions.
Armament and Cavalry Warfare in the Aver-age Carpathian Basin.
General Conclusions.Maps.