Armament of the forest-steppe tribes of Eastern Transbaikalia in the Mongol period
https://doi.org/10.21285/2415-8739-2023-1-33-48
Abstract
The forest-steppe part of Eastern Transbaikalia despite its location on the periphery of the nomadic world has always been involved into the complex ethno-cultural processes taking place in the Central Asia region. They did not bypass it in the first half of the II millennium AD, during the period of strengthening of the Mongol tribes and the formation of the Great Mongolian state. The Mongol influence was in all spheres of life, both spiritual and material. The military influence certainly wasn’t exception. Here it becomes interesting to compare the level of development of armament of the population of forest-steppe Transbaikalia and steppe Mongolian tribes, which were the core of the state created by Genghis Khan. Items of weapons in the considered territory are found only in burials. Hence we have tried to cover as much of the studied site as possible, using both previously not previously published data. In total, materials from 87 burial sites of the XII-XIV centuries AD located in the forest-steppe part of Eastern Transbaikalia were analyzed. These burials belong to the Undugun archaeological culture delineated by I. I. Kirillov after studying the burial ground on the Lake Undugun in 1974. At the moment, burials belonging to the Undugun culture have been investigated in the basins of the Ingoda River, the Ivano-Arakhlei lakes, the upper reaches of the Shilka River and, as a result, a large amount of factual material has been accumulated. This work is devoted to the generalization of information on the most numerous categories of funeral equipment - weapons. The classification of weapons is given, and for a better perception of the typology the description of types and groups provided with a graphic drawings are presented.
Keywords
Undugun culture,
Mongol period,
funeral equipment,
burial,
nomads,
armament,
arrowheads,
spearheads,
Eastern Transbaikalia,
quiver,
bow
About the Author
A. A. Nomokonov
Transbaikal Regional Branch of the All-Russian Public Organization “The All-Russian Society for the Protection of the Sites of History and Culture”
Russian Federation
Russian Federation
Alexei A. Nomokonov, Council member
5, Suhaya Pad St., Chita 672038
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