Characteristic Features of Compound Bows from the Ulug-Choltukh Burial Ground of Airydaş Type in the Altai Mountains

Abstract

Purpose. The article explores and analyzes several defining design characteristics of horn plates of compound bows, detected in the course of archaeological excavations of several male burial places at the Ulug-Choltukh burial ground. Located in the valley of the Edigan River in the middle course of the Katun River in the Altai Mountains; these were explored for several field seasons in the 2000s. Results. This article outlines the primary events related to the history of archaeological studies of findings of the compound bows of ancient peoples (Xiongnu-Xianbei time) in the Altai Mountains. The findings of the horn plates of compound bows detected in previous years in the course of excavations of Aidyraş type archaeological objects explored on the territory of the middle course of the Katun River are researched and analyzed. As a result of typological analysis, several types of compound bows are singled out among studied findings of horn plates, detected in the course of excavations of male interments at the archaeological funerary burial grounds Aidyraş I and Ulug-Choltukh. The conclusion sums up the several results of carried out explorations. Identification of horn plate findings of compound bows found during excavations of the Aidyraş burial ground, and studied in the Chemalsky District in the Altai Republic, has made it possible to relate them to long-range combat armament objects that were available to the natives who inhabited the valleys of the Katun and Edigan Rivers during the historical period of the 2nd quarter of the 1st millennium AD. The carried out typological research significantly supplements the previously known history of development of long-range combat weapons of the Altai Mountains in the course of the studied Xiongnu-Xianbei chronological period, right before the Early Middle Ages. Conclusion. The resulting typological classification of compound bows as part of a collection of horn plates findings detected in the course of excavations of the Ulug-Choltukh burial ground, clarifies the specificities and quantity of types of this long-range combat weapon kind among the Aidyraş weapons complex.