Riders of Astana

The article devoted to representation and preliminary investigation of recent collection of wooden and terracotta figurines that was excavated from Astana medieval cemetery (in the Turpan County) and exposed now in the Museum of Xinjiang-Uyghur autonomous region (at Urumqi). This grave-yard was connected with ancient city Gaochang - the capital of the local state with the same name in the period of 498-640 AD. This collection consists mostly from the statuettes of horses and riders that can be treated as reflection of the great role of horsemanship in the life of Western Region’s states. In its turn, the most part of “Astana’s riders” was cavalry, mounted with many different types of armour. All the finds from Astana belong to the same historical stage, namely to the transitional period from Early Medieval to Classical Medieval Epoch. It corresponds to Eastern Jin and Sui-Tang Dynasties of China (about IV-VIII centuries AD). At that time the Great Silk Road was restored and developed very intensively, and many states vied with each other in order to control at least some part of it. So, military hardware and military art as well were in a good progress. The craftsmen of Astana worked on this burial plastic art very carefully, tried to fix exact features of faces and many details of garments and armament. Because of that we know that the people of Astana (or some part of them) were Caucasoid by race. As for their ethno-cultural characteristics, there were determined about 70 years before by prominent Russian scholar L. N. Gumilev who treated them as Turks (probably Orkhon Turks). But if the idea for developing of heavy cavalry was concerned, the Turks could lend it from the neighboring Iranian peoples. But the process of formation of the new combat branch had not been finished yet at that time because no one plate of horse armour was found as well as no one pair of stirrups together with saddle. But the situation was changed in the nearest future, and many figurines of horsemen using the stirrups were excavated in the Late Tang burials within the same cemetery Astana. It was the time when the great revolution in medieval soldering began. That were Avars (Ruran tribes) who become known about stirrups during the wars with Turks and who brought this knowledge to Europe. But this problem is quiet complicate and will need a special investigation.