Arrow belts of the population from the northern foothills of Altai at the beginning of the early middle ages (following the materials from the gorny-10 necropolis)
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.24852/2587-6112.2026.4.217.229Keywords:
archaeology, Altai, early Middle Ages, arrow belt, military equipment, necropolis, chronology, accompanimentsAbstract
This paper presents analysis and interpretation of the elements of arrow belts discovered during excavations at the Gorny-10 necropolis. At this site, located in the Krasnogorsk district of the Altai Krai, expeditions of the Altai State University and the Scientific and Practical Center "Naslediye" in 2000–2002 studied 75 burials without mounds of the early Middle Ages. The studied set of artifacts includes eleven hook-clasps and seven distributors of belts discovered in eleven male burials. Analysis of the peculiarities of the arrangement of the designated categories of equipment in undisturbed complexes provides grounds for interpreting them as parts of arrow belts, which were placed in graves unfastened, with the quiver and bowcase opened. As a result of morphological classification, five types of quiver hooks and two types of distributors were identified. A comparison of the resulting corpus of finds with material from archaeological sites in individual regions of eastern Eurasia allowed the authors to draw a number of conclusions regarding the dating and possible evolutionary trends of these artifacts. A hypothesis has been formulated suggesting that the military equipment of the population that left the Gorny-10 necropolis was significantly influenced by the material culture of Central Asian nomads.
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