Bronze weapon of the early iron age from the collection of findings gathered by Alexander Gustav von Schrenck in the 1840s in the Irtysh region

Purpose. The article introduces single findings of bronze armament objects that were gathered in the course of an expeditionary journey during 1840-1843 on the territory of the Irtysh region (within the limits of southern steppe regions of Western Siberia, Altai Steppes and Eastern Kazakhstan) by a famous Russian scientist, botanist, officer of Saint Petersburg Botanical Gardens Alexander Gustav von Schrenck. Results. The archaeological objects gathered by the explorer are presently stored in the collection of the Peter the Great Museum of Anthropology and Ethnography of RAS in Saint Petersburg. They include various objects of armament and accessories of horse harness. The archaeological objects considered in the article are armament objects of close and hand-to-hand combats of ancient nomads. They are analyzed and classified on formal grounds according to the previously developed scientific methodology. The collection features a bronze spearhead with a bilobated feather and conical plug, a bronze dagger with a guard and a top and two bronze plug chisels with tetrahedral and circular peen and elongated butt ends. We provide some comments on chronology and the territory where similar objects were found in the sites of the Early Iron Age in Eurasian Steppe. Our classification is based on analogues of the objects studied, which were found at several archaeological sites on the contiguous territories of Southern Siberia and Central Asia. We also made certain assumptions on the cultural identity of the findings of the bronze armament objects of close and hand-to-hand combats which we analyzed. Conclusion. Having considered the analogues, we refer the objects of the ancient bronze weapon studied as a part of the museum collection and stored there, which were gathered on the territory of the Irtysh Region in the middle of the 19th century by A. G. von Schrenck, to the complex of battlefield assets of the ancient Eurasian Steppe nomads of Scythian times. The analysis provided and our introduction of these materials expands the range of available sources on armament and military science of the ancient nomadic population gathered by A. G. von Schrenck in several regions of Northern and Central Asia.