Compound Bows in Graves of Early Mediaeval Catacomb Burial Ground near Verkhniy Saltiv Village

Abstract

In 2015, at the fourth area of a Saltiv-Mayaky culture catacomb burial ground near the village of Verkhniy Saltiv (ВСМ-IV) in Vovchansk Region of Kharkiv Oblast, in catacomb 127, two side end plates from a bow were found. Metal plated binding plates, an iron crampon, and a frame type hook, all from a quiver, as well as four triangular barbed arrowheads were found with them. Side end covers for a bow found in chamber evidence that a part of a deliberately broken compound bow was put there. The bow represented the first line of development of «the Early Khazar» bows, according to Ye.V. Kruhlov. Fragments of four bone plates from a same type bow were found in the funeral chamber of catacomb 65 in ВСМ-I(excavated by V.H. Borodulin in 1990). Plates for bow were found in catacomb 65 together with iron plated quiver covers, two quiver loops, a quiver hook of plated type, seven barbed arrowheads, and a bronze loop from a bow case. In the chamber, two fragmented end side covers, a fragment of a shoulder cover, and a fragmented side middle cover for a bow were found. The elements of belt suite in the catacombs allow dating these burial assemblages by the middle and the second half of the 9th century. The remains of compound bows found in the catacombs evidence that the Alans at Verkhniy Saltiv used compound bows with side end covers, while found at other Alans’ sites of Saltiv-Mayaky culture of the Siverskyi Donets River basin (Dmytrivka, Mayaky, Staryi-Saltiv burial grounds, graves from Mayaky settlement territory) are the remains of bows with frontal end plates-shuttles represented the very «Saltiv» type of compound bows (the second line of development of the «Early Khazar» bows). The fact of the presence of various types of compound bow in the Alans’ assemblages of the region needs to be explained.