A Mongolian Age Iron Shield from the Khakass-Minusinsk Region
A Mongolian Age Iron Shield from the Khakass-Minusinsk Region
doi:10.17746/1563-0110.2026.54.3.067-076
A.I. Poselyanin1 and O.A. Mitko2 1Katanov Khakass State University, Pr. Lenina 90, Abakan, 655000, Russia 2Novosibirsk State University, Pirogova 2, Novosibirsk, 630090, Russia
We describe a partially preserved iron shield discovered in the Uybat steppe, Republic of Khakassia, in 2019. Measuring 65 cm in diameter and weighing over 4 kg, it is flat, rounded, and riveted from 14 identical segmentshaped iron plates. The edge is decorated with a pattern of fine serrations. In the central part, the plates are joined by a two-piece boss with a narrow belt-clip located on the inside of the shield. The perimeter of the boss on the front side is decorated with rectangular cutouts and openwork crescents with protrusions. Graphic reconstructions of the outer and inner surfaces of the shield are presented. Variants of its use in combat and marching positions are discussed. The shield was made at one of the Near Eastern workshops. An exact parallel is an iron shield excavated from a medieval settlement of Beshtam-Kala on the Zhana-Darya River, the Aral region, which had been destroyed during the Mongol conquest of northeastern Khorezm in the early 1200s. We propose that the Uybat specimen was used during the feud between Genghis Khan’s ancestors, in which peoples of the Altai-Sayan belonging to the Great Khan’s ulus were embroiled. Its owner could have been a Kyrgyz or Mongolian warrior fighting in Tutuha’s army, which in 1293 conquered all the “Five Tribes” of the Yenisei Kyrgyz. The find evidences political and socio-economic ties between major regions of Central Asia and southern Siberia during the High Middle Ages.
