TY - JOUR

T1 - Early medieval armor from Southern Siberia

AU - Hudiakov, Y. S.

AU - Filippovich, Y. A.

PY - 2017/1/1

Y1 - 2017/1/1

N2 - This article describes iron armor plates, weapons, and a horse harness from a randomly discovered site at the village of Filimonovo in the Kan Valley, southern Siberia. The reconstructed lamellar armor consists of several horizontal rows of vertically arranged and joined narrow iron plates. Parallels suggest a date and cultural attribution. The group of fi nds includes three-bladed arrowheads, stirrups, bipartite bits, buckles, twisted loops, and bronze plaques. These items of horse harness are typical of the Old Turkic culture from the middle of the fi rst millennium AD. The armor, the decorated stirrups, and horse harness from Filimonovo apparently date to the late 500s, when the Yenisei Kyrgyz were forced into vassalage to rulers of the First Turkic Khaganate. We suggest that the Filimonovo assemblage is a cache. The tradition of caching weapons and armor was practiced by various peoples of southern and western Siberia during the Xiongnu-Xianbei age and in the Early Middle Ages. Based on the analysis of various types of plates, a reconstruction of the late fi rst millennium AD Old Turkic armor is proposed.

AB - This article describes iron armor plates, weapons, and a horse harness from a randomly discovered site at the village of Filimonovo in the Kan Valley, southern Siberia. The reconstructed lamellar armor consists of several horizontal rows of vertically arranged and joined narrow iron plates. Parallels suggest a date and cultural attribution. The group of fi nds includes three-bladed arrowheads, stirrups, bipartite bits, buckles, twisted loops, and bronze plaques. These items of horse harness are typical of the Old Turkic culture from the middle of the fi rst millennium AD. The armor, the decorated stirrups, and horse harness from Filimonovo apparently date to the late 500s, when the Yenisei Kyrgyz were forced into vassalage to rulers of the First Turkic Khaganate. We suggest that the Filimonovo assemblage is a cache. The tradition of caching weapons and armor was practiced by various peoples of southern and western Siberia during the Xiongnu-Xianbei age and in the Early Middle Ages. Based on the analysis of various types of plates, a reconstruction of the late fi rst millennium AD Old Turkic armor is proposed.

KW - Early Middle Ages

KW - Lamellar armor

KW - Old Turks

KW - Protective armor

KW - Southern Siberia

KW - Weapon cache

KW - Yenisei Kyrgyz

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85036503525&partnerID=8YFLogxK

UR - https://elibrary.ru/item.asp?id=35477371

U2 - 10.17746/1563-0110.2017.45.1.104-111

DO - 10.17746/1563-0110.2017.45.1.104-111

M3 - Article

AN - SCOPUS:85036503525

VL - 45

SP - 104

EP - 111

JO - Archaeology, Ethnology and Anthropology of Eurasia

JF - Archaeology, Ethnology and Anthropology of Eurasia

SN - 1563-0110

IS - 1

M1 - 9

ER -