However meetings between specialists, which is specifically dedicated to analysis of particular issues arising from intense commercial and cultural exchanges in Central and Southeast Europe have been and are still very few. Because of these conflict s the interest in terms of ethnic composition in the Balkan territories increased significantly, which is visible in publications that are out of print in recent years. The importance of interethnic relations topic in different periods of the Central European area history is not a recent interest in historiography, but maybe in the last 15 years, this topic has become extremely debated in the context of regional conflicts that took on ethnic form. Considering their morphological resemblance to Type N, O-Type pommels may be interpreted as their slightly younger derivative. Based on their typological properties, the swords with Type O pommels have been dated to the second half of the 13th and early 14th centuries, which is suggested also by sculpted depiction in Freiburg cathedral from about 1300. The dating of N-Type swords to the first half of the 13th century is confirmed by the typological characteristics of their blades and cross-guards, and this date has been suggested by most scholars. The only artistic depiction of a sword with N-Type pommel occurs on a statue in Naumburg cathedral (central Germany) from about 1255. A rare exception is the N-Type pommel discovered in a Transylvanian hoard buried in 1241. Most finds of N-Type swords come from Transylvania, central Romania (5 examples), and Bavaria (three N-b examples, three B/N and one O), and almost all were chance finds. Some examples are close to Type N swords (guards of Type 1, blades of Type Xa), and some differ (guards of Type 2, blades of Type XVI). So far, only three swords with Type O pommels are known. All guards of Type N swords are straight and slender, belong to Oakeshott Type 1 and are very long (22.5-27.7 cm). Most of the blades are of medium dimensions and show transitional characteristics between Oakeshott’s types Xa and XIII, those with predominant features of the former type being more frequent. All swords have hand-and-a-half hilts, whose dimensions are very similar in most cases. The pommels, blades and guards of all Type N swords are similar both in type and in size. Two subtypes of N-Type pommels have been identified, N-a (9 specimens) and N-b (5 specimens), which correspond to Geibig Combination Type 16 II, as well as swords with pommels of related shapes (Types O, B/N and A1). The other sword parts have also been analyzed: cross-guards ( Oakeskott Type 1) and blades (Oakeskott Types Xa and XIII). The paper makes a record of the swords with pommels denoted as Type N (Oakeshott) or XV (Ruttkay) or B2 (Głosek) or 16 II (Geibig). Piet Puype, Waffen- und Kostümkunde 2012, Heft 1, 126-128. Lech Marek, Acta Archaeologica Carpathica, Vol.Sanchiz Alvarez de Toledo, Gladius 29, Madrid 2009, 207-208. Milosavljević, Vesnik Vojnog muzeja 34, Beograd 2008. Illustrative part of the book contains drawings and color photos of swords, their visual representations as well as geographical and historical maps. In addition to archaeological findings, in book have been used other medieval source material, such as historical written sources as well as artistic representations of swords. Certain typological and other properties of swords are mapped in order to explore their spatial distribution. Considering that swords from southeastern Europe include also some characteristic finds, Oakeshott`s typology is supplemented by some new types of pommels, blades and cross-guards. In addition to this division, the existing shapes were compared with the typologies of other researchers (Alexander Ruttkay, Marian Głosek, Anatolij Kirpichnikov, Alfred Geibig, Karl-Zeno Pinter and others). Division of the shapes and forms of the basic parts of swords is based on the typology made by Ewart Oakeshott. The Catalogue contains data on 412 swords that come from this area, from the Alps to Istanbul, including all states of the former Yugoslavia (Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, Montenegro and Macedonia), Bulgaria, Greece and Albania and from Slovakia via Hungary, Romania and Moldova to the Black Sea. The book includes medieval swords from the Balkans and the Carpathian Basin (Pannonian Plain).
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