Rare Avar-era saber found in Hungary

Archaeologists have unearthed a rare Avar-era saber near Székesfehérvár, central Hungary. It was discovered in the grave of an adult male and is the first one of its kind found in the region in 46 years.

The grave was discovered as part of the “Cemeteries from Space” program that uses satellite imagery to detect previously unknown graves by scrutinizing crop marks. Areas where the ground was previously churned up, as it is when a grave is dug, grow grain that is brighter green and more dense because the looser soil retains and then drains water more effectively. The roots grow deeper as well. This technology is most effective with graves dug more than a meter (3.2 feet) deep, and Migration Era tombs are particularly recognizable because they were dug more than six feet deep.

Archaeologists led by the Hungarian National Museum and the King Stephen Museum excavated the sites pinpointed in the satellite photography. One site, a privately-owned field on the border of Székesfehérvár, showed indicators of a large cemetery with at least 400 graves, plus a smaller cemetery nearby. Two graves in the large cemetery have now been unearthed. They both date to the Avar period (7th-8th century A.D.).

One of them contained the saber, an extremely rare find in Avar graves exclusive to individuals of the highest rank. When Avar graves contain weapons they are typically spears and bows. Confirming his high social rank are gilded bronze hair ornaments and a pressed bronze belt fitting found in his grave.

The saber was thickly encrusted with corrosion materials. The agricultural work done in the field involved chemical treatments to the crops and soil, which added to the corroded condition and posed an ongoing threat to the artifacts and remains. The team engaged a carpenter to create a custom wood frame to remove the saber and the soil around it so it can be micro-excavated in laboratory conditions, conserved and stabilized. In addition to the fragile corroded saber, there is at least one more significant preserved element in need of consolidation: a piece of leather still attached to the belt buckle.

Modern-day Székesfehérvár was founded in 972 by Prince Geza, father of the future Stephen I, first king of Hungary, but the area was inhabited going back to the Neolithic. There were a Celtic settlement there in the Iron Age, and the nearby city of Gorsium rose to great importance as a military, administrative and commercial center. The Huns invaded the Roman province of Pannonia in the 4th century and Roman rule collapsed. It became part of the Avar Empire in the 6th century.

The discovery of the large cemetery with Avar burials in Székesfehérvár indicates this area and wider Fejér County had a significant Avar population 1,400 years ago.

* This article was originally published here