Broken and damaged bows in the Carpathian Basin find material of the Migration Period and of the 10th–11th centuries

M. Lezsák Gabriella

Hadak útján. A népvándorláskor fiatal kutatóinak XXIV. konferenciája. Esztergom, 2014. november 4–6. Conference of young scholars on the Migration Period. November 4–6, 2014, Esztergom

MŐT Kiadványok 3.2 (2017) 399–411

DOI 10.55722/Arpad.Kiad.2017.3.2_19

A népvándorlás kori és a 10–11. századi Kárpát-medencei temetkezésekben gyakori az íjlelet. Ám ezt a fegyvertípust, eltérően a többi fegyvertől, nemcsak ép állapotban, hanem törötten és rongáltan is sírba tették. A dolgozat ezekről a sérült állapotban sírba tett íjakról kíván áttekintést nyújtani egy konkrét leletanyag, a kunszállás-fülöpjakabi avar kori temető 32. számú férfi sírja kapcsán. Célja, hogy a jelenségre felhívja a figyelmet, és annak egy lehetséges magyarázatát is adja a néprajzi párhuzamok, az írott források és az íjábrázolásos tárgyi kultúra (pl. érmek, edények, sámándobok) alapján.

Kulcsszavak: reflexíj, szándékosan rongált/törött íj, az íj szimbolikus jelentéstartalma

Bows are commonly found in the Carpathian Basin burials of the Migration Period and the 10th–11th centuries. However, this type of weapon, unlike other weapons, was deposited in graves not only in intact but also damaged and broken condition. This paper intends to provide an overview of the bows deposited in damaged condition in the context of the specific find material of the man’s grave No. 32 in the Avar-period cemetery at Kunszállás-Fülöpjakab. It aims to draw attention to this phenomenon and provide a possible explanation based on ethnographic parallels, written sources, and the objects of material culture with bow depictions (e.g. coins, dishes, shaman drums).

Bows reinforced with bone plates and broken in half are detected in Avar-age burials of the Carpathian Basin, but to what extent this practice was common, it is now difficult to determine owing to contemporaneous grave robbings. Due to the currently available technical facilities, the phenomenon can be evinced only in the case of bows reinforced with bone plates; therefore, no data are available whether broken bows were also deposited in the graves of the poorer members of society. Research shows that the Avar-period bows evolved from the bows used in the Hun era. This conclusion is confirmed by the burials with broken bows: it is likely that an element of Hun era burial rites survived in a certain period of the Avar era (in the last third of the 7th century) in an ethnically well-defined (mongoloid, Europo-mongoloid type) group with uniform burial practices. The individuals buried in the examined graves were of almost the same social rank.

In the case of 10th–11th century Carpathian Basin graves with bow deposits, the described reasons (contemporary grave robbings, lack of bone plates, etc.) render the recognition of the phenomenon difficult; however, it is likely that breaking in the string grooves was a way of making bows unusable as it is probably indicated by some of the traces of fractures observed i n the lateral limb plates. For an interpretation of intentional breakage or damage and for the recognition of burials with broken bow deposits, however, further authentic archaeological observations from this period are needed.