Page 29 - Kavur, Boris. Everything counts (in small amounts) … Koper: University of Primorska Press, 2015.
P. 29
Herald of novelties 29
Grave of the swordbearer
from Srednica
Aspecial role on the Celtic cemetery in Srednica should be ascribed to the only male burial discovered –
to the one of a swordbearer. He could be recognized as the herald of novelties. A crucial material nov-
elty which changed the political map of Europe was his armament, while a ritual novelty reflecting the
changes in believes vas his burial.
Contrary to females around him the deceased was cremated – his body was turned over to fire and violently de-
stroyed. It was a new burial rite which will determine all the future generations across Europe – but it was still
connected to the old ways of placing grave goods into the grave. The later were not damaged but tidily placed
into the center of the grave above the cremated remains.
These grave goods, most important among them the long sword, represent the novelty which enabled that a
small military elite of the Eastern Celts so easily subjugated vast territories of eastern and south-eastern Europe.
These swords were not only technological novelties and reflection of new fighting techniques, but most impor-
tant symbols of a new social class of highly mobile free warriors. They, heading a small number of colonists, in
only few decades conquered and settled the territory from western France to Bohemia and later to Transylva-
nia.
Actually we can recognize the whole Celtic migrations as well as the way of the individual swordbearer on the
form and decoration of his weapons. Long sword with an open chape end and reinforced mouth of the scabbard
can be included in a larger group of swords denominated after the place of first such sword discovered and ex-
actly described. These are typical sword of the end of Early La Tène period – the Hatvan-Boldog group. Their
discoveries are distributed on a territory between southern France and all the way to Transylvania. While the
sword from Srednica could be according to the decoration of the scabbard composed from asymmetrically
Grave of the swordbearer
from Srednica
Aspecial role on the Celtic cemetery in Srednica should be ascribed to the only male burial discovered –
to the one of a swordbearer. He could be recognized as the herald of novelties. A crucial material nov-
elty which changed the political map of Europe was his armament, while a ritual novelty reflecting the
changes in believes vas his burial.
Contrary to females around him the deceased was cremated – his body was turned over to fire and violently de-
stroyed. It was a new burial rite which will determine all the future generations across Europe – but it was still
connected to the old ways of placing grave goods into the grave. The later were not damaged but tidily placed
into the center of the grave above the cremated remains.
These grave goods, most important among them the long sword, represent the novelty which enabled that a
small military elite of the Eastern Celts so easily subjugated vast territories of eastern and south-eastern Europe.
These swords were not only technological novelties and reflection of new fighting techniques, but most impor-
tant symbols of a new social class of highly mobile free warriors. They, heading a small number of colonists, in
only few decades conquered and settled the territory from western France to Bohemia and later to Transylva-
nia.
Actually we can recognize the whole Celtic migrations as well as the way of the individual swordbearer on the
form and decoration of his weapons. Long sword with an open chape end and reinforced mouth of the scabbard
can be included in a larger group of swords denominated after the place of first such sword discovered and ex-
actly described. These are typical sword of the end of Early La Tène period – the Hatvan-Boldog group. Their
discoveries are distributed on a territory between southern France and all the way to Transylvania. While the
sword from Srednica could be according to the decoration of the scabbard composed from asymmetrically
