Iron single-blade arrowheads of the medieval population of the Kuznetsk Hollow

In the article the results of a research of iron single-blade arrowheads in the culture of the medieval population of the Kuznetsk Hollow are described. The general information on the place of finds of the studied artifacts and dating of the monuments at which they were found is provided. The source study search allowed establishing that information about 109 studied arrowheads which were found at 26 archaeological monuments dated by different intervals within the 8th-14th centuries is published at present. The bulk of finds was made at 22 funeral monuments and single finds - at three settlements and a site of an ancient town. The studied artifacts were subjected to the primary analysis by typological classification. As a result of this work a group of iron single-blade tips of the arrows, 109 artifacts united by the criteria of the feather form, existence or lack of a neck, was divided into 22 types. For each type of the studied arrowheads the period of their existing is allocated for territories of the Kuznetsk Hollow by dating of the archaeological monuments and complexes in which they were found. The statistical analysis of the results of classification allowed establishing that three types of single-blade arrowheads - asymmetric and rhombic, trapezoid tomar and warhead, elongated and quadrangular with a long neck - are most numerous. Among the archaeological monuments the greatest typological variety of single-blade arrowheads is presented at Saratovka burial grounds (8 types), Poryvayka (5 types) and at Konevo (5 types). 13 archaeological monuments have only one type of single-blade arrowheads. The periods of existing of the allocated types of arrowheads are various - from one (type 7) to five (types 2, 3, 15) centuries. The greatest number of types of the studied arrowheads is dated within 2-3 centuries. There is a steady regularity that the more the period of existing of the type is observed, the more the number of its finds is. Statistical data of the results of classification and definition of the periods of different types of single-blade iron arrowheads allowed investigating the dynamics of their development in the territory of the Kuznetsk Hollow in the 8th-14th centuries. During this research a chart was constructed. Its analysis testifies that the dynamics of the studied artifacts represents one cycle with its development peak in the 11th century. The emergence fact, various phases and rates of the development of single-blade arrowheads in the 8th-14th centuries in the territory of the the Kuznetsk Hollow correspond to the events and processes taking place in the ethnocultural history of the region. Emergence in the 8th century of single-blade arrowheads in the Kuznetsk Hollow is interpreted as result of interethnic communication of natives with Turkic eth-noses of Central Asia or migration of the Turgesh. The sharp increase and peak of the typological variety in the 11th century when numerous new forms appear coincides with mass migration of Turkic-speaking nomads on the territory of the Kuznetsk Hollow. The steady high rate of the typological variety of the studied arrowheads in the 12th-13th centuries is explained by the process of ethnic integration of natives and alien groups of the population. It led to the uniform demanded forms of these products and a sharp reduction of the types of iron single-blade arrowheads in use in the 14th century.

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