Home – Home – Jornals – Humanitarian sciences in Siberia 2017 number

The article examines findings of flails (fighting weights) representing a sort of hand-held shock weapon, that were in the Kyrgyz warriors weapon of Tian Shan during the Late Middle Ages and Modern period. These objects of armament were studied in the weapon collection of private museum «Rarity», as well as a part of a private collection of archaeological objects in Bishkek city. The article traces the main events of the history of flails studied by specialists of the weapon history in Northern Eurasia. The examined findings of fighting weights from the territory of Tian Shan are classified by formal signs and related to different types of this sort of weapon. The paper provides argumentation to define chronology and cultural affiliation of examined fighting weights. It is supposed that fighting weights were used by the Kyrgyz warriors during their battles with historical adversaries in the nomadic world: West Mongolian, Dzungar or Oirat peoples. The author considers main data on the history of applying fighting weights by the ancient and medieval ethnoses in Europe, Central Asia. According to available archaeological materials this weapon appeared in Eastern Europe in the Late Bronze Age. The most ancient findings of flails were discovered in archaeological monuments of the Koban culture in Northern Caucasus. Flails were used in close combats by the warriors of Khazar Khanate in the era of the early Middle Ages. They were used as strike weapon by the Sogdian warriors in the territory of Central Asia. The Old Turkic and Kimaek warriors utilized fighting weights as strike weapon in regions of Sayan-Altai Mountains and the Irtysh River basin in the early Middle Ages. Similar strike weapons were applied by the warriors of Great Liao and Jurchen State at the territory of Central and Eastern Asia in the developed Middle Ages epoch.