"Recovering the saber proved a challenging task because it had become brittle over the centuries, and could easily have been damaged in the attempt. The museum's volunteers solved the problem by creating a bespoke wooden cradle to lift the saber in a soil block, keeping it safely intact for transport to the conservation lab where it could be excavated in controlled conditions. Once fully liberated from the soil block, the saber's quality leapt to the fore."
"The head, chest and abdomen of the buried warrior had been mutilated during the Avar period, with only the arms and lower body bones remaining in anatomical order. However, the perpetrators of the Avar period disturbance were not interested in the saber, the arrowheads that were probably once in a quiver, the long knife that was perhaps also used as a weapon,"
A tomb near Szekesfehervar in central Hungary yielded a rare luxury Avar saber with an intact blade and hilt and a suite of rich grave goods. The burial dates to around 670-690 A.D. and showed an Avar-period disturbance in which the head, chest and abdomen of the warrior were mutilated while weapons and jewelry were largely left in place. A team from the Szent Istvan Kiraly Museum recovered the brittle saber by lifting it in a soil block using a bespoke wooden cradle, enabling controlled conservation. The saber's elegant curved blade and decorated ornamentation, alongside gilded silver jewelry, indicate high status.
Read at www.thehistoryblog.com
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