Archaeology, Ethnology & Anthropology of Eurasia 54 (3) 2026   doi:10.17746/1563-0110.2026.54.3.067-076

Annotation:  The Origin of Anatomically Modern Humans (Homo sapiens) in Africa The Structure of Bioresources Exploited by Paleolithic Humans in the Anui River Basin, Altai An Early Neolithic Burial with a Miniature Fish-Shaped Bait on the Shore of Lake Baikal A Glass Intaglio Depicting Harpocrates (Zeus Kasios) from Markula, Abkhazia Artifacts from the Necropolises of Chersonesos as a Historical and Cultural Source: An Interpretati A Road Station in the Upper Capital of the Eastern Xia State A Mongolian Age Iron Shield from the Khakass-Minusinsk Region From the History of the Late 19th–Early 20th Century Ural Cossacks in the Aral Sea region: Confessio Large Baptismal Crosses (“Cossack Crosses”) as a Source for Reconstructing Migration Routes to Weste Tombstones of the 19th and Early 20th Century at Rural Cemeteries on the Northern Upper Ob Ob Ugrian Sanctuaries on Lake Balbanty Eurasian-American Ethnoastronomic Parallels in the Context of New Data from India The Cúng Yêu Tinh Funerary Rite Among the Bố Y People in Vietnam: Finishing the Unfi nished Cranial Affinities of the Altai Mountains Population During the Xiongnu-Sarmatian Age The Origin of the Modern Populations of Western Siberia, Based on Craniometric Data. Part I: Classif   

A Mongolian Age Iron Shield from the Khakass-Minusinsk Region

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.

Keywords: Khakass-Minusinsk region, Uybat steppe, Middle Ages, Askiz culture, defensive weapon, shield.