The Avar grave will be the key to unraveling the heavy cavalry of the 7th century

Newsweek: Avar warrior’s grave will be the key to 7th-century heavy cavalry

As he writes Newsweek, an intact burial of a 1,300-year-old Avar warrior has been discovered in eastern Hungary, including the remains of a horse, weapons and armor. The Avars were nomads who settled the Carpathian Basin region in the mid-sixth century AD and gradually settled into settlements until their collapse in the ninth century.

Archaeologist Tamara Haga from the Deri Museum said the warrior was placed in a relatively shallow grave. The warrior was wearing what is believed to be a full suit of lamellar armor, consisting of hundreds of small iron plates. A quiver of arrows, a bow and a sword were placed on the armor, and then the horse was crowned.

“Although burial in armor was not a common practice during the Avar period, it is also known from several graves of men, women and children,” Haga said. “However, in most cases, only a few plates or fragments of armor are discovered from graves…,” she explained.

The discovery of this burial will allow researchers to create a highly accurate reconstruction of Avar lamellar armor. “The excavation of the burial in the workshop is still ongoing, so we do not yet know what other finds are under the armor,” Haga added.