The tomb of an Avar warrior containing a rare luxury saber with an intact blade and hilt has been discovered near Székesfehérvár in central Hungary. The burial dates to around 670-690 A.D., and was damaged in antiquity, but in a break from the norm, only the human remains were targeted, not the valuable grave goods.
The head, chest and abdomen of the buried warrior had been mutilated during the Avar period, with only the arms and lower body bones remaining in anatomical order. However, the “perpetrators” of the Avar period disturbance were not interested in the saber, the arrowheads that were probably once in a quiver, the long knife that was perhaps also used as a weapon, or the man’s silver belt fittings, gilded braid ties and glass bead earrings; they left all of these in the grave, some of them untouched and without moving them.
A team of archaeologists from the Szent István Király Museum excavated the grave in late August. Recovering the saber proved a challenging task because it had become brittle over the centuries, and could easily have been damaged in the attempt. The museum’s volunteers solved the problem by creating a bespoke wooden cradle to lift the saber in a soil block, keeping it safely intact for transport to the conservation lab where it could be excavated in controlled conditions.
Once fully liberated from the soil block, the saber’s quality leapt to the fore. It is long, with an elegant sweeping curve and traces of decoration on the blade. Its design and ornamentation make it one of the rarest examples of Avar swords ever discovered. The elaborate decoration of the gilded and silver jewelry and belt ornaments confirm the wealth and status of the deceased.
The Pannonian Avars appeared in what is now Hungary in the middle of the 6th century. By the beginning of the 7th, they had settled the Danube basin and established the Avar Khaganate from what is today Austria to the Pontic steppe. The burial dates to the Middle Avar period, when the khaganate was at its zenith. The grave and its contents attest to the exceptional metalworking skill available to the elite in the Avar kingdom of the late 7th century.
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