COMPOSITE BOWS FROM THE UCH-KURBU MONUMENT IN KYRGYZSTAN*

The article traces the history of studying composite bows from monuments of Central Asian nomads of the Tien Shan and Semirechye. Horn linings from such bows from the Uch-Kurbu burial ground excavated in 2008 - 2009 in the Tosor River valley in the Issyk-Kul basin (Republic of Kyrgyzstan) are described and analyzed. The original design of bows ' tents and the location of horn pads on them have been restored. On the basis of the previously developed method of typological classification of weapons items, we determined that the studied finds belong to the same type of composite bows of the Xiongno-Xianbian period. By the nature of the design of the end plates, two variants of bows of this type are distinguished. An argument is given in favor of the great role of compound bows in the military art of nomadic tribes of the Issyk-Kul basin of the Tien Shan in the Xiongno-Xianbian era. Judging by the analyzed materials from the burials of adult men at the Uch-Kurbu burial ground, this population in the first half of the first millennium AD mastered the most effective remote combat weapon in this period of military history - a composite bow with end, middle side and middle frontal pads.

Keywords: composite bows, horn pads, archaeological sites, nomad cultures, Issyk-Kul basin, Tien-Shan, Kyrgyzstan.

Introduction

The appearance of composite bows was the most important innovation in military affairs in the nomadic world of the Central Asian historical and cultural region at the turn of the Xiongnu era. Increasing the span of the shoulders and the size of the kibiti, made up of several wooden parts, as well as strengthening the middle and ends of the bow with horn pads made it possible to significantly increase the range of this weapon in comparison with complex bows of the Scythian time, as well as the effectiveness of aimed shooting and remote phase within the tactics of equestrian combat in a loose formation. Hun compound bows became the basis for the further development of remote combat weapons among nomadic peoples of the Eurasian steppe belt in subsequent historical periods [Khudyakov, 1986, p. 30].

The effectiveness of such bows led to their widespread use in the Xiongno-Xianbian period on the territory of China.

* The work was carried out under an agreement with RELERO under the project "History of Military affairs of the peoples of Southern Siberia and Central Asia in the Middle Ages" and the research plan X. 100. 2. 2. " The Sayano-Altai mountain country in the Paleometallic era and the Middle Ages. Block 2. The Hunnic Era".

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the entire territory of the Eurasian steppes. This remote-combat weapon has become an important factor of military advantage for those nomadic associations that have mastered it. One of the areas of distribution of composite bows of the Xiongnu appearance in this period was the mountains and valleys of the Tien Shan. The study of this type of weapon, which was common on the southern outskirts of the steppe zone in the Xiongno-Xianbian era, is important for understanding the patterns of its development in the entire Central Asian historical and cultural region.

On the territory of Tien Shan and Semirechye, bone or horn linings from compound bows were repeatedly found in the burials of nomads in the first half of the first millennium AD. The first excavations of burial complexes, later referred to the "Hunnic period", were carried out in the Talas River Valley at the turn of the XIX-XX centuries by an archaeologist from Finland, H. J. Heikel, who was looking for monuments that could be correlated with the runic inscriptions found in this valley. In the mounds excavated at the Kuyan-Tuhai and Chung-tepe burial grounds, he found petiolate three-bladed arrowheads [Heikel, 1918, s. 13, 21; tabl. VI, 3; IX, 3]. Later, these materials were attributed to the Usun culture in the Tien Shan and Semirechye (Voevodsky and Gryaznov, 1938, p. 163). Archaeologists who studied the burial complexes of nomads in the Central Asian region also attributed to this culture some mounds excavated in 1929 at the Karakol burial ground, on the eastern shore of Lake Baikal. Issyk-Kul. As part of the weapons from mound 4 marked " bone plates from the bow... paired, 16 cm long, thin, with beveled pointed ends." Their inner surface is covered with "deep strokes for stronger bonding" to the wooden base of kibiti [Ibid., p. 176, fig. 34]. Thus, the median side pads from a compound bow were characterized. From the above description, it is not entirely clear whether the remains of onions from this mound contained only median or other overlays.

In the subsequent period, from the late 1930s to the early 1950s, the nomad monuments of the first half of the first millennium AD in the Tien Shan and Semirechye were studied by A. N. Bernshtam. The most productive excavations were carried out by him at the Kenkolsky burial ground. The researcher determined that the excavated mounds belonged to the Central Asian Huns, who, in his opinion, migrated from Mongolia to Central Asia in the first century BC - the first century AD (Bernshtam, 1940, pp. 30-31). In subsequent years, A. N. Bernshtam explored the mounds of the "Hunnic period" at the monuments of Alamyshyk in the Naryn River valley, on the pass of Kyzart, and Kyrchin on the shore of Lake Baikal. Issyk-Kul [1952, p. 60]. Among the finds he discovered were the end, middle side and front bow linings [Ibid., Fig. 37, 1 - 7,10, 15, 17]. S. S. Sorokin, having studied the materials of the Kenkol burial ground, determined its belonging to the" indigenous pastoral population " of Central Asia and dated it to the II-IV centuries AD. He also relied on the analysis of weapons items, including arrowheads [Sorokin, 1956a, pp. 10-14]. S. S. Sorokin proposed to distinguish the complexes of the Kenkol culture from the entire array of sub-catacomb monuments of Central Asia [1956b].

In the 1950s, excavations of mounds of the first half of the first millennium AD in the Central Tien Shan and in the Issyk-Kul basin were carried out by employees of the Kirghiz Archaeological and Ethnographic Expedition of the USSR Academy of Sciences L. P. Zyablin [1958, 1959] and A. A. Zyablin. To the Kibirovs [1959]. As part of the accompanying inventory, bone bow linings were found on the Chontobo and Kalmaktyube monuments, including the end side, middle side and frontal ones [Ibid., Figs. 26, 28].

In the mid-1950s and early 1960s, Yu. D. Baruzdin conducted productive excavations of burial mounds with inhumation rites in podboys and catacombs at the Kara-Bulak burial ground, located on the northern slope of the Turkestan ridge in the western Osh region of Kyrgyzstan. He attributed most of the studied underground and catacomb burials to the nomad culture of the II-IV centuries AD (Baruzdin, 1961: 43, 65). As part of the accompanying inventory, parts of several composite bows were found, including the remains of a wooden kibiti. According to the proposed reconstruction, these bows had two pairs of end side bows, a pair of median side bows, and one median frontal lining. The end plates were long, narrow and slightly bent, the median side plates were long, with beveled ends, and the median front one was with extended ends. According to the researcher's calculations, the total length of the bows ranged from 1.40 to 1.65 m. Yu. D. Baruzdin noted that they are similar to bows from the Kenkol burial ground, Xiongnu monuments of Transbaikalia and Sarmatian burials of the Volga region [Ibid., pp. 61-62]. In the 1950s and 1970s, the research of catacomb burial complexes on the Tien Shan was continued by I. A. Shishkin. K. Kozhomberdiev [1960, pp. 74-75]. During the excavations of the burial grounds of Kenkol, Akchiy-Karasu, Tor-ken, Jal-Aryk and other monuments of Kenkol culture, a large number of various weapons were found, including bone linings of composite bows. Initially, I. K. Kozhomberdiev introduced finds from catacomb burials in the Talas Valley into scientific circulation [1963, p. 74]. The results of these studies were used in the preparation of generalizing works on the history of the Kyr-

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Gyzstan [Kozhomberdiev, 1968, p. 86; Zadneprovsky and Kozhomberdiev, 1984, p. 165, 172].I. K. Kozhomberdiev briefly described various types of weapons of the Kenkol culture, including bows with "complete sets of overlays" [1986, p. 15]. Typological analysis of sets of bone bow plates from the Akchiy-Karasu, Jal-Aryk, Torken monuments of this culture in Kyrgyzstan and the Kzyl-Kainar-Tobe burial ground in Kazakhstan allowed us to distinguish two types among them: 1) with end, median side and frontal plates; 2) with end and median side plates [Kozhomberdiev, Khudyakov, 1987, pp. 78-80]. N. G. Gorbunova traced the features of placing bows in the bottom and catacomb burials of Central Asian nomads. According to her observations, they were placed on the Tien Shan to the left of the bodies of the deceased [Gorbunova, 1991, p. 23]. According to the analysis, a complete set of overlays was found in four bows in the burials of the Kara-Bulak burial ground, eight in the Tien Shan, two in Ketmen-tyube, and one in Talas (Gorbunova, 2000, p.42).

Description and analysis of onion pads

During the excavations conducted by the Tosor archaeological team under the leadership of K. S. Tabaldiev in 2008 and 2009 at the Uch-Kurbu burial ground, in the Tosor River valley in the Issyk-Kul basin, as part of the accompanying inventory of inhumation rites under a kind of square or rectangular burial mounds with massive stones vertically installed at the corners, it was discovered a series of horn linings from compound bows. In the 1950s, similar mounds were recorded by L. P. Zyablin in the northern part of the Issyk-Kul basin (Zyablin, 1959: 140, 145, 152-153). As a result of field studies of the Tosor group in recent years, they were found in the southern part of the group, in the localities of Alabash, Tosor, and Darkhan. Similar monuments are found on the northern coast of Lake Baikal. Issyk-Kul, in the vicinity of the settlements of Ornok and Cholpon-Ata. However, the most numerous and compactly located groups of such mounds have been identified to date in the Tosor River valley. Despite the fact that these monuments were looted in ancient times, in the course of their excavations, completely or partially preserved horn pads of bows were found in several burials.

At the Uch-Kurbu burial ground, the first bow was recorded in border 6 of the excavated object No. 1. The burial itself was violated by robbers, the bones of the skeleton were piled up. Only the skull retained its original location. The bow pads were also undisturbed. Judging by their location, the bow was placed along the side of the grave pit with the string lowered. The thread was reinforced with two pairs of end side plates, a pair of median side plates, and one frontal plate (Figs. 1-3). The total length of the kibiti with the bowstring removed was 135 cm. The pads attached to its upper end had a length of 32 to 34 cm, a width of 0.6 - 2.0 and 1.0 - 1.4 cm. The length of the pads on the lower end of the kibiti was 27 cm, width-1.0-1.9 cm. The median side plates had a length of 35 cm, a width of up to 3.5 cm, the front one - 22 and 1.0-1.2 cm, respectively. The end pads are curved, with an arched cutout for attaching bowstring loops. Their outer side is convex, polished, the inner side has oblique cuts for stronger bonding to the wooden base of kibiti. The median side plates are trapezoidal in shape, slightly arched. Their outer side is smooth. On the inner surface and the edge facing the back, oblique cuts are applied. Midline front panel with no noticeable extension at the ends. Its outer side is convex and smooth, the inner side has oblique cuts.

The second bow was located in the paired pogr. 9 of object No. 1. Judging by the location of the pads, it was located on the same side as the first bow.-

Fig. 1. Bony onion linings from the border. 6. Uch-Kurbu, object N 1.

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2. End plates on the upper (a) and lower (b) ends of kibiti. Uch-Kurbu, object N 1, border 6.

Fig. 3. The middle side and front lining of the bow. Uch-Kurbu, object N 1, border 6.

Fig. 4. Bony onion pads from border 9. Uch-Kurbu, object No. 1.

meshchen to the right of the deceased person, with his back to him. The length of the bow with the bowstring removed was 140 cm. It was equipped with two pairs of end plates, a pair of median side plates and one frontal one (Fig. 4-7). The pads on the upper end of the kibiti consisted of two glued parts. As a rule, the pads were made composite when there was no bone or horn blank of the desired size. The length of the parts is 25.0-28.2 and 7.0 - 12.5 cm, the total length is 31.5 cm. The width of the main end plates is 1,0-1,9 and 1,5 - 1,9 cm. The length of the pads on the lower end of the kibiti is from 24.0 to 24.8 cm, the width is from 1.5 to 1.8 cm. The middle side pads are fragmented. The length of the preserved parts is up to 30.5 cm, the width is up to 3 cm. The median front cover is still 23 cm long. Pads on the upper end of the kibiti are slightly bent, with an arched cutout for attaching bowstring loops. From the outside, they are smooth, only the ends intended for gluing components, like the entire inner surface, are covered with oblique cuts. The pads on the lower end of the kibiti are also slightly bent, with arched cutouts for attaching bowstring loops. On the inner side of both there are oblique cuts for strong bonding to the wooden base of kibiti. One of them is fragmented. The other has an arched cutout not only at the upper, but also at the lower end. Probably, at first it was made on one side, and then, for some unknown reason, they decided to redo the pad and decorated the cutout for the loop.-

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tiv at the opposite end. This is a very rare case in the practice of making composite bows. Probably, it, as well as composite overlays, indicates an insufficient supply of local nomads with horn blanks of the required length. The median side plates are massive, trapezoidal in shape. On the inner side and the edge facing the back, oblique cuts are applied. The median front panel is narrow, with slightly extended ends. Its outer side is smooth, the inner side has oblique grooves.

Another difficult-to-install bow was located in border 10 of object No. 1. The pads were found in an undisturbed state. Judging by their location, the bow was placed on the right side of the buried person. The length of kibiti with the bowstring removed was 140 cm. The pads on its upper end were composite, glued together from two parts. The length of the parts is 28.5-31.5 and 8.0 - 9.5 cm, the total length is 33.5-36.5 cm. The width of the main parts is 1 - 2 cm. The pads are slightly curved. One of them has a semicircular cutout for attaching the bowstring loop, the other does not have it. Overlays on the lower end of kibiti are fragmented. The length of the preserved part is 27 cm, width-1,0-1,7 cm. Both have an arched cutout for attaching the bowstring loop. The trapezoid-shaped median side plates are highly fragmented. The front cover plate is long, narrow, with widening ends.

Despite the fact that some overlays in the burials of the Uch-Kurbu burial ground have been preserved in fragments, they can be used for typological analysis based on certain formal features.

Conclusion

According to the shape and location of the linings, all the bows from the Uch-Kurbu monument can be attributed to the same type - with end, middle side and frontal linings (Fig. 8). The design features of the linings on the upper end of the kibiti from burials 9 and 10 allow us to distinguish a variant of this type - with composite end linings. Bows with end, middle side, and frontal linings were widely distributed throughout the Eurasian steppe belt during the first half of the first millennium AD (Khazanov, 1971, p. 30; Khudyakov, 1985, p. 46; Khudyakov, 1986, p.26-30; Kozhomberdiev and Khudyakov, 1987, p. 78). Judging by the size of the end plates, all Tosor bows are asymmetrical. Their upper kibiti shoulder is noticeably longer than the lower one. In some cases, bow manufacturers could not find the right length of horn blank, so they made overlays on the longer upper end composite. Ve-

Fig. 5. Composite end plates on the upper end of kibiti. Uch-Kurbu, object N 1, border 9.

Fig. 6. Middle side (a) and front (b) bow pads. Uch-Kurbu, object N 1, border 9.

Fig. 7. End pads on the lower end of kibiti. Uch-Kurbu, object N 1, border 9.

Fig. 8. Reconstruction of the bow.

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obviously, the restriction on the length of the lower shoulder of kibiti was due to the need for targeted shooting from a horse.

Judging by the considered finds from the burials of adult men at the Uch-Kurbu burial ground, the nomadic population of the Issyk-Kul basin in the first half of the first millennium AD mastered the most effective remote combat weapon in this period of military history - a composite bow with end, middle side and frontal pads. Such bows became an integral part of nomadic warriors not only during combat operations or hunting, but also after death, as evidenced by their presence as part of the accompanying inventory in several male burials of the Uch-Kurbu burial ground.

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The article was submitted to the Editorial Board on 15.03.13, in the final version-on 08.04.13.

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