Tomuzlovka Settlement, Grave Field 1: Blunt Weapons

Abstract

The article introduces into scientific circulation some objects (blunt weapons) originating from stone boxes and soil pits, and discovered by local residents in the western vicinity of the village of Aleksandrovskoye north of Tomuzlovka settlement. Matherials and methods. Grave field no. 1 is an extensive burial ground of the pre-Scythian and Scythian periods located north of the settlement on the left bank of the Tomuzlovka. Five samples of blunt iron weapons are introduced into scientific circulation: a hammer, three axes (a two-blade ax and two hammer axes), and a fragment of either a mint or an ax. The comparative typological method is used, based on classification by material, method of processing, shape, as well as on the selection and study of types of metal hammers and iron axes. Results. The chronology of these finds from grave field no. 1 of Tomuzlovka settlement allows us to determine the period during which the local population used these blunt types of weapons ― from between the 8th–7th to 5th centuries BCE. A comparative analysis of the features of the parts of these types of blunt weapons (body shape, blade shape, shape and length of butt, ornamentation features) found in the burial ground, and similar ones found in adjacent and remote territories, allows localizing the area of their distribution at the turn of the 8th–7th to 5th centuries BCE (Ciscaucasia, Transcaucasia, Dnieper, Middle Volga and Prikamye, Eastern Hungary, etc.), and also indicates the main directions of ties inherent to the military culture of the local population.