Issue 4 (53)
| IMPORT OF BLADE WEAPONS AND ARMOR FROM THE СENTRAL ASIA TO WESTERN AND SOUTHERN SIBERIA IN THE MIDDLE AGES | |||
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| Year | 2016 | Number | 4 (53) |
| Pages | 93-98 | Type | scientific article |
| UDC | 903.22(574575+571.1/5)"65" | BBK | 63.444(5 Каз + 253.3+253.7) |
| Authors | Khudjakov Yulij S. |
Topic | ARCHAEOLOGICAL MOSAIC |
| Summary | The article presents a study of the Middle Age blade weapon and armor finds manufactured by the Central Asian artisans discovered by the archaeologists in the Middle Age archaeological sites, as well as some random finds from the territory of Western and Southern Siberia. The author studied the historical data on trade and cultural contacts because of which these objects could be imported from the Central Asia by the Siberian, Turkic, Ugric and Samoyed ethnic groups. Traffic from Zhetysu, one of the Silk Road routes to the western and southern regions of Siberia has been traced. During the Early Middle Ages mostly the Sogdian merchants conducted trade with the Turkic nomadic population. In later periods, during the High Middle Ages, the Central Asian "Bukhara" merchants brought the handicraft products into Northern Asia. They sold silk, decorations, silver tableware, bronze mirrors, blade weapons and protective armor to the representatives of nomadic aristocracy, and bought furs, wood and ivory. Some blades discovered in the archаeological sites of the Old Turkic and Yenisei Kyrgyz people were covered with ornamentation as well as Sogdian and Arabic inscriptions. The study of a Sogdian inscription on an iron broadsword blade from the Turkic warrior’s grave excavated in the Altai Mountains suggested that the weapon could have been custom made by Sogdian artisans on special order for a particular person. Blade weapon items with Arabic inscriptions were found in the process of excavations of the Middle Age burial mounds of Kyrgyz warriors in the territory of Tuva and northwestern Mongolia. Whereas archаeological sites belonging to the medieval Ugric and Samoyed tribes in Western Siberia contained some protective armor made in the Central Asia. | ||
| Keywords | Western and Southern Siberia, Central Asia, trade contacts, blade weapon, armour, era of the Middle Ages | ||
| References |
Крюков М. В., Малявин В. В., Сафронов М. В. Китайский этнос в средние века (VII–XIII вв.). М., 1984. |
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