“And I saw that the Lamb had removed the first of the seven seals, and I heard one of the four animals, saying, as it were in a thunderous voice: go and see. I looked, and, behold, a white horse, and on him a rider with a bow, and a crown was given to him; and he came out victorious, and to conquer"
(Revelation of John the Evangelist 6: 1-2)
It has always been and will be so that there is special literature on some subject, which requires study and certain knowledge that allows this study to be carried out properly, and popular science literature, the content of which on the same subject is adapted for a mass audience. Of course, the broader the topic is, the more extensive its historiography is. However, sooner or later, the so-called "generalizing works" appear, in which information scattered in various sources is brought together and a very interesting work is obtained, a kind of tip of the iceberg of all the information that precedes it. For example, on the topic of arming the Mongol-Tatar warriors, such a work is the book of M. V. Gorelik. “The armies of the Mongol-Tatars of the X-XIV centuries. Military art, equipment, weapons. " (Moscow: LLC "Vostochny Horizon", 2002. - 84 p. - (Uniforms of the armies of the world). - 3000 copies - ISBN 5-93848-002-7), which is quite academic and at the same time written in a simple and understandable language and it is also beautifully illustrated.
Turkic warriors of the 6th-7th centuries Rice. Angus McBride.
However, until that time, Central Asia was by no means empty. Their peoples lived there, powerful empires and developed civilizations existed, the military affairs of which had a significant impact on their neighbors. In particular, such a people were the Western Turks, whose armament was the subject of a scientific article by A. Yu. Borisenko, Yu. S. Khudyakova, K. Sh. Tabaldieva, and O. A. Soltobaeva "WEAPONS OF WESTERN TURKS", prepared under the program of the Presidium of the Russian Academy of Sciences "Adaptation of peoples and cultures to changes in the natural environment, social and technogenic transformations." Project No. 21.2.
It is with her that it is necessary to get acquainted properly in order to imagine the military affairs of the nomads in general, and the later heirs of the ancient Turks in particular. Since this work itself is large enough and contains a large amount of rather specific iconographic material (graphic drawings), we will try to present it in a somewhat more popularized format with illustrations from available modern Internet sources.
Ancient Turkic statue. IX-X centuries. Chuy valley, Kyrgyzstan. Hermitage (St. Petersburg).
So what do the authors of this work tell us? It turns out that already in the middle of the 1st millennium AD. NS. the ancient Turks, led by the ruling clan of Ashina, managed to conquer the tribes of nomads who lived in the steppe belt of Eurasia and create a powerful military state, which was named the First Turkic Kaganate. In the course of almost continuous wars, they subjugated numerous nomadic tribes, different in culture and ethnicity, who lived in the Eurasian steppes all the way from the Yellow Sea to the Black Sea, and, accordingly, from the Siberian taiga to the borders with Iran and China. It was then, under the influence of their culture, among the Eurasian nomads the characteristic types of weapons, clothes of warriors and war horses became widespread, the tactics of equestrian combat took shape, and, of course, military traditions. At the same time, the main goal of the rulers of the kaganate was to control the routes of the Great Silk Road that turned out to be in their zone of influence. They levied tribute from silk merchants and sought to impose unequal treaties on China, Iran and other sedentary agricultural states to pay them taxes. That is, they formed a certain type of regional culture, which was subsequently inherited by those representatives of the nomadic world who inherited them.
One of the very interesting monographs on this topic. Its only and main drawback is poor printing and the lack of color photographs and illustrations. Here, most of our historical publications of the Soviet period before the Ospreyev editions were, alas, like earthlings before Mars.
The success of the Turks in the early Middle Ages would have been unthinkable if they had not possessed means of distance and close combat that were sufficiently perfect for that time, as well as armor for warriors and their war horses. Researchers note a significant typological diversity of the weapons of the ancient Turks, that is, their high military culture. Among the innovations were the technologies for the manufacture of bows and arrows, bladed weapons, various personal protective equipment, as well as equipment for riders and their riding horses.
Saddles with a rigid base and stirrups became ubiquitous, thanks to which the landing of warriors was significantly strengthened, which expanded their ability to conduct horse battle. In the army of the ancient Turks, and of a number of neighboring nomadic peoples, it was then that the units of armored cavalry appeared, which from that time became an independent branch of the troops among the nomads of the Central Asian region. Accordingly, in addition to the "Scythian tactics" of remote shooting of the enemy from bows, they also had such a technique as a frontal attack by forces of heavily armed horsemen.
Of great interest in terms of the study of weapons, military affairs and military art is the culture of the Western Turks who lived in the mountains and steppe regions of Semirechye, in the Eastern and Western Tien Shan, as well as in Central Asia in the 6th-8th centuries. It is important to note that the states created there also included a large part of the sedentary trade and craft population who lived in cities and agricultural oases in East Turkestan and Central Asia. Such a close mixing of the nomads of the Turks with the sedentary Iranians could not but cause the interpenetration of their cultures, and this, in turn, affected the armament and military art of both Western Turkic and Turgesh warriors. The constant wars of the Western Turks with the Sassanian Iran also had a great influence on both those and others, which ultimately affected the improvement of military affairs on the territory of the nomadic world of the entire steppe Eurasia.
Distribution map of the Turkic peoples.
What is the source study basis for all these judgments about the nature of the military affairs of the Turks in the 6th-8th centuries? First of all, these are the finds of various items of weapons during excavations of burials of the ancient Turkic culture, as well as images of Turkic warriors made on frescoes, stone statues, petroglyphs, as well as descriptions of wars, battles and military organization of Western Turks and Turgeshes made by ancient authors (Turgeshes also Turkic people who lived on the territory of Western Dzungaria and Semirechye, and were part of the Western Turkic Kaganate. Later they created their own Türgesh Kaganate, and at the end of the 7th century stood at the head of local tribes in the fight against the invasion of Arabs and Chinese. They were defeated by the commander of the East Turkic Kaganate Kul-Tegin, then in the middle of the 8th century the Uyghurs conquered the Dzungarian Turgeshes, and the Karluks conquered the Semirechye.) on the Tien Shan. It is noted that a number of works have been published recently, in which numerous finds of weapons and means of protection belonging to the Western Turkic and Turgesh warriors were attributed and introduced into scientific circulation, so that the specialists have sufficient material for conclusions.
What conclusions did the authors of this study come to? In their opinion, archaeological finds and information from ancient written sources allow us to believe that the most important type of weapon among the Western Turks and Turgesh were bows and arrows,with which they fought ranged combat. Their bows were of various types, which differed in the number and location of bone or horn pads on them. The shoulder span of the kibiti on the bows of the ancient Turkic era was somewhat inferior to the bows of the Hunno-Sarmatian time (they were even larger!), But at the same time they were more convenient to use in equestrian combat and faster of fire.
Hunnic bow (reconstruction). Exhibition of Attila and the Huns 2012 at the Museum in Mainz.
What bone linings were used and how were they positioned? The discovered burials in the Tien Shan and Semirechye contained various bone linings: end side linings, which served to strengthen the ends on the kibiti, and middle ones, which strengthened its middle part.
Thus, in the ancient Turkic burial Besh-Tash-Koroo II in the Kochkor valley in the Tien Shan, a bow with a kibiti length of about 125 cm, cut from a solid wood blank, was found. Its middle part and ends were somewhat narrowed and oriented with their ends in the direction of firing, while the shoulders, on the contrary, were widened and slightly flattened. On both sides of its median part, there were median overlays glued on the sides. The overlays had an oblique cut for a more durable connection with the wooden base, and then the bow was also braided with tendons in some places.
Similar bows were found in other places, in particular, in Tuva and the Minusinsk Basin.
Some onlays are not only functional, but also a work of art. So, on the surface of one such lining from the burial in Tash-Tyube, a hunting scene was engraved, which depicted an archer who shoots running deer from his knee from such a complex bow.
Fragments of both end and side median and frontal onlays belonging to composite bows were found in the Ala-Myshik burial in the valley of the r. Naryn in the Tien Shan. Their end plates were narrow, long and slightly curved, while the middle frontal plate, on the other hand, was short and narrow. The inner side of these overlays was covered with a mesh thread for a more durable adhesion to the wooden base of the kibiti.
There were also found longer bows with a kibiti length of about 130 cm, common among the nomads of Central Asia during the Xiongnu period. That is, many nomadic peoples used them even in the early Middle Ages. But for the Eastern Turks, such bows were not typical, but the Western ones used them in the 6th-7th centuries.
Bows and archers of the Mongolian time. The Fall of Baghdad. Illustration for Jami 'at-tavarih Rashid ad-din. In the foreground are Mongol warriors in heavy weapons. Left - Mongolian siege weapon.
The Turks also used "Kushan-Sassanid" bows with a short middle part, sharply curved shoulders and straight ends, located at an angle to the shoulders. They were probably the result of borrowing that took place in all wars and at all times.
The main thing that the researchers emphasize is that the bows belonging to the Western Turks and Turgeshes, in their structure, were oriented towards firing at an enemy who had good protection, since they were used in wars with the armies of the sedentary agricultural states of Central Asia and Iran.
At the disposal of the ancient Türkic archers was a large selection of arrows for various purposes with two-, three- and even four-bladed tips, with flat, triangular, tetrahedral and round feathers in cross-section, and a petiole nozzle. For the second half of the 1st millennium AD. NS. the most widespread in use were arrows with three stabilizing blades, which could rotate in flight. Bone whistles were often worn on the shafts behind the arrowheads, which whistled piercingly in flight. It is believed that it was precisely the three-bladed arrows that were the most advanced in aeroballistic respect and were widely used already in the Xiongnu period and later until the late Middle Ages.
Turkic arrowheads.
Three-lobed tips found in Turkic burials, on average, had a length of 5 cm, with a feather width of 3, and a petiole 11 cm long. Tips with three-lobed feathers of an elongated hexagonal type also had feathers 5 cm long, with a feather 3, 3 wide, petiole length 9 cm. At the same time, rounded holes can be seen on the blades, and on the petioles - bone whistle balls having three holes. In addition to three-bladed arrows, Western Turks sometimes used arrows with flat iron tips.
Armor-piercing three-blade tip of the Turkic type.
Such arrowheads appeared in the Xiongnu era, but were rarely used then. But they became widespread later, when Mongol nomadic tribes began to dominate in Central Asia. Arrows with such tips are somewhat inferior to those in which they have three-bladed, but they are easier for mass production and have a higher speed at short distances.
Hollow point with an emphasis: Yenisei Kyrgyz, 1 millennium AD The era of the early Middle Ages.
The Eastern Turks have ten types of three-bladed, seven types of flat, two types of two-bladed and one type of tips with four blades - that is, a whole developed system. Western Turks and Turgeshes had six types of three-bladed and one type of flat tips. Apparently, they didn't need more.
Iron spike-shaped tips with a warhead rounded in cross-section also belong to a rare type. Perhaps they were used specifically to push the rings of chain mail. One such arrowhead was found in a Turkic burial on the territory of Eastern Kazakhstan.
Impressive arrowheads of the Yenisei Kyrgyz: two armor-piercing and two for shooting at the enemy without armor and at horses.
The fact that there is a significant group and typological variety of armor-piercing arrowheads among the Western Turks and Turgeshes indicates an increase in the role of shooting at an enemy dressed in protective armor. The only difference is that four types of four-sided arrowheads were found in the Eastern Turks, while in the Western ones there was only one.
Bone arrowheads belonging to the Turks are also found, although rarely. They have a triangular feather shape, 3 cm long, 1 cm wide, 3 cm long petiole. The tips have an acute-angled point and sloping shoulders. The Eastern Turks have bone arrowheads of three types.
The arrows of the Turkic warriors were kept in birch bark or wooden quivers. Western Turks had quivers with a wooden frame and bottom, and were covered with birch bark. Pure wooden quivers were also found in ancient Turkic burials with horses in the Tien Shan. In the burial Besh-Tash-Koroo I in mound 15, a birch bark quiver with a receiver was found, which then expands to the bottom. It is about 80 cm long, but in Besh-Tash-Koroo II in mound 3, a quiver was also found with a wooden successor about 1 m long, the bottom of which was decorated with a carved ornament.
Asian onion and its accessories:
1 - arrowheads: a - cast bronze socketed type of the Scythian time, b - iron petioles with whistles, c - the way of fixing the petiole in the arrow shaft; 2 - an Asian bow with a lowered bowstring (a), with a stretched bowstring (b) and at the time of the shot and maximum tension (c), bamboo bows (d); 3 - compound bow and its structure: a - wooden parts, b - horn parts, c - thread braid, d - birch bark (bast) for wrapping, e - tendons for winding the most stressed parts, e - parts of a bow in section: the horn is shown in black, wood is in gray, and leather or bast coverings are shown in white; 4 - arrows: a - a feathered arrow with a straight shaft, b - a shaft of the "barley grain" type, c - a conical shaft, d - a string of sinews; 5 - protective rings of archers: a - bronze with an inscription in Farsi, b - bronze for the thumb of the right hand, c - silver, decorated with engraving; 6 - techniques of bowstring tension: a - with a ring on the thumb of the left hand, b - technique with one finger, c - with two, d - with three, e - "Mediterranean" way of stretching the bowstring, f - Mongolian; 7 - birch bark quiver with decorative bone trims for arrows stored with their tips up.
Why did the quivers expand downward? Yes, because the arrows in such quivers were placed with their tips up, and the plumage was at the bottom. Quiver accessories such as belt buckles and quiver hooks were also found in the ancient Türkic monuments of the Tien Shan.
That is, the conclusion made by the authors of the named study is as follows: the soldiers of the Turkic Kaganate were warriors-archers, and they fired at the enemy directly from a horse. At the same time, they had a highly developed "culture of bows and arrows", bows that were perfect in their design and various, carefully crafted arrowheads, including those that, along with the plumage, allowed them to rotate in flight. The tips were both armor-piercing, designed to defeat soldiers in chain mail, and wide-bladed, to defeat the enemy's horses. A wide wound made with such a tip caused severe blood loss and weakened the animal.
