Social context of weaponry assemblage in the burial rite of the early medieval Turks of Central Asia

The paper discusses investigations of social meaning of the pieces of weaponry discovered in the burial associations of the Early Medieval Turks in Central Asia. Over 330 complexes have been excavated, which let to determine specific features in distribution of all categories of weapons in male, female, and children's burials and reveal its differentiation according to the age of the dead. Taking into account other kinds of sources, such as stone statues, enclosures, remains of funeral feasts, rock carvings and written sources, it became possible to single out socially significant categories of weapons. The revealed regularities in distribution of weaponry in nomadic graves help to shape a more clear idea on the nomadic elite, strongly marked with military character.