The question of weapons of Mongolian nomads and adjacent regions of China in VII-VI centuries bc

The article deals with bronze weapons of nomads (presumably from Mongolia) that were found at the Yuhuangmiao burial ground near Beijing. In the 1980-1990s, 400 tombs were excavated there, containing 18 thousand bronze objects including 86 daggers, 137 knives, 305 bronze and 481 bone arrowheads, 4 dagger-axes ( ge ), 38 celts and 31 "chisels". The Yuhuangmiao culture was formed with the participation of the “Xiajiadian upper layer” neighboring culture, as well as tribes from Mongolia and Transbaikalia. There was also a constant influence by the Yan state population. Among the weapons and military equipment there are some items alien to northern Chinese cultures which have obvious analogies at the VII-VI centuries BC sites in Mongolia, Tuva and Transbaikalia. The "northern" arrowheads, daggers with opposite facing bird heads on pommels and guards, specific knives, as well as belt clips and buckles-clasps that have analogies in Tuva and Transbaikalia were encountered in Yuhuangmiao only in the first three stages of the burial ground, mostly in the graves of the highest nobility (M18, M250) and in high rank military burials. During all this time (from the second part of VII to the first third of the VI century BC) representatives of the military elite maintained ties with northern tribes and traditionally used "northern" arrowheads and other items. As a result, a complex of dated weapons and military equipment brought by nomads from the territory of Mongolia and even more remote areas was accumulated at Yuihuangmiao burial ground over the span of 50-70 years. The mountain-steppe and steppe territory of Mongolia favorable for cattle breeding is rich in Bronze Age and Early Iron Age burial grounds and sacrificial sites. In the second half of the II millennium BC it was one of the nomadic culture centers with hereksurs, stag stones (deer stones) and slab-grave burials, that had acquired a Scythian-style appearance by the IX-VIII centuries BC. Undoubtedly, local tribes that were the link between the cattle-breeding cultures of North China and the Minusinsk Basin possessed a variety of weapons and ornaments. However, due to the funeral rite peculiarities in Mongolia of the XII-VI centuries BC there are almost no burials with rich inventory. Hence, archaeologists are forced to reconstruct Mongolian Late Bronze Age weaponry with the help of stag stones images, stray finds and materials from neighboring territories. The question of weapons of Mongolian nomads of the VII-VI centuries BC has not even been raised, since it was mainly represented by a few bronze arrowheads found in slab-grave burials with uncertain dating.