The use of armour in the burial practice of the population of Western Siberia in the Middle Ages

The article analyzes the materials of 40 burial mounds and six burial grounds containing finds of iron armour. These monuments are located on the territory of Western Siberia and date from the IV/V to the XVII centuries AD. In total, the remains of 115 armors, six helmets and one shield were found there. These means of protection were recorded at 117 objects, of which 89 are graves, and 28 are embankments of mounds. The presented sample does not claim to cover the full range of available materials, but it is representative enough for the research procedure. The main goal of the work is to find out the purpose of armour in the funeral ritual and to reveal the patterns of such a practice in the medieval population of Western Siberia. Armour was mainly used as an accompanying inventory during the burial of a person, but it could also act as an offering at his commemoration. Among the graves with armour there are burials by the way of cremation (51) and inhumation (38). In the early Middle Ages, armour is more often found in burials with cremation. In the developed Middle Ages there are more of them in burials with inhumation, and in the late Middle Ages, these are only burials with inhumation. The age and sex definitions and the composition of the inventory show that the armour almost always accompanied the burials of men and only in three cases of children. It follows from this that during burial, the armour continued to perform its direct function, serving as a means of protecting a male warrior, and it also marked a warrior armored. In the graves and embankments, only two relatively intact armors and two helmets were found, and five more armors were supposedly complete. The rest of the armour is highly fragmented and represented only a symbol - a substitute for whole things, not suitable for further use. Their location in burials according to the inhumation rite could correspond to the place where they were worn on a person, but in burials according to the cremation rite, such a connection is not traced. In two graves, the remains of armour were found next to the accompanying burials of horses and could belong to horse armour. Most often, in burial monuments lamellar armor were placed, which dominated in the early and developed Middle Ages. Other types of armour are rare. In general, the small number of burial objects with armour indicates the selectivity of their use. It can be concluded that the most active use of armour in the burial practice of the population of Western Siberia is observed in the early Middle Ages, and then this tradition is declining, gradually disappearing in the late Middle Ages. Most of the armour was found in the burial grounds of the Kuznetsk Depression, which may be associated with military operations here in the VIII-IX centuries AD.

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