CONSIDERAȚII PRIVIND PREZENȚA SAX-URILOR ÎN MORMINTE AVARE DIN TRANSILVANIA ȘI BANATUL ROMÂNESC.

The objects were discovered one in the cemetery at Șpălnaca/Șugud (Transylvania) and the other at Timișoara-Modoș Bridge (Romanian Banat) (Map 1). Both artefacts have been identified in the professional papers as daggers, when, in fact, they are saxes. Both saxes have been found inside graves of Avar men. The grave from Șpălnaca/Șugud which contained the sax is dated from the end of the Middle Avar period (680-710/720), whereas the other from Timișoara/Modoș Bridge is dated from the second part of the Late Avar period (760-810/830). The two saxes can be recognized as the first (I) Csiki, defined for the finds discovered in the Avar cemeteries from the Carpathian basin. The occurrence of the two saxes in the Avar graves from the Transylvanian plateau and the Romanian Banat widens the geographic area where the saxes are known to have been used by the Avars, including the eastern Carpathian basin. However, they are only a few compared to the total number of Avar graves from Western Romania, thus indicating that the sax wasn't a weapon employed on a large scale by the Avar warriors that entered this area. The saxes from Șpălnaca/Șugud and Timișoara/Modoș Bridge were probably used as weapons. At the same time, it is possible that they were only ceremonial weapons. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]