Medieval iron tips of arrows from the Issyk Kul hollow and Chuy valley of Kyrgyzstan

Pupose. The article is devoted to the weaponry of ancient and medieval nomadic ethnic groups living on the territory of the Tien-Shan in the Hunno-Xianbei era and the Middle Ages. The authors have already identified and explored a significant number of ancient and medieval weapons, including iron arrowheads stored in various Museum collections and private collections on the territory of the Republic of Kyrgyzstan. This article describes the iron tips of arrows from the location of Djarkumbayevo in Issyk-Kul Hollow and locality of Shamsi in Chuy Valley from the museum collection of Kyrgyz Russian Slavic University and a private collection. The main aim is to identify the periods when certain types of arrowheads were spread in certain cultures of the region. Results. We divided the iron tips of arrows found into several groups according to their types based on their form in compliance with approved methodology. One finding from the monument of Djarkumbayevo is related to the group of arrows with three-bladed tip. Three other types of arrows belong to arrows with a flat tip. Apart from common arrows with a flatted section of the feather of asymmetric rhombic and elongated rhombic forms, prevalent in Kyrgyzstan and all Central Asian region, we singled out a rare type of a bifurcated tip with fork edge. Such arrows did not appear in medieval monuments of the Tien-Shan earlier, though they were commonly used by the Khitan, Mongolian, Yenisei Kyrgyz and Kipchak archers. The collection studied included several groups and types of amour-piercing tips of arrows. We identified trihedral and trihedral three-bladed tips as related to the Kenkol culture of the Xiongnu and Xianbei times. Another type, one with various forms of tetrahedral tips of arrows, can be related to the time of the Kenkol and Old Turkic cultures. Arrows with rectangular tips in section from Kyrgyzstan can be presumably related to the Mongolian times. Conclusion. The iron arrowheads discovered in the Issyk-Kul basin and Chui valley significantly expand our previous ideas about the group and typological diversity of remote combat weapons of ancient and medieval nomadic ethnic groups of the Tien-Shan. Along with the previously known forms of arrowheads, we described some individual types that were not detected earlier.