The article illustrates a study of cheek-pieces with zoomorphic images used by the nomads of the Samara-Ural region at the end of the VI–IV centuries BC. A review of 79 cheek-pieces is presented, as well as their characteristics. As a result of the excavations, two chronological groups of such horse gear are identified. The date of the early group refers to the second half of the VI–V centuries BC. It is characterized by rod-like straight and arcuate curved bronze, iron, bimetallic double-hole bit shank with zoomorphic ends. The most common endings are decorated with realistic sculptural images of the heads of birds of prey / griffins, wolves and horses. Combinations of the heads of a predatory animal and a bird of prey, a predatory animal and a horse, a camel and a horse, as well as the head of a bird of prey and a hoof are rare images. The late group refers to the period of the end of the V–IV centuries BC. This group is characterized by the following cheek-pieces: S-shaped with endings shaped as horse hooves; L-shaped with curved endings shaped as a horse’s hoof or an open-work plate, which is a stylized image of a bird’s paw, the claws of which are transformed into the heads of birds or animals. A significant difference between these two groups is stated and based on their composition, motives (plots) of images and their stylistics. The mapping of the findings allowed to record the concentration of the most numerous groups of cheek-pieces (straight lines with endings in the form of the heads of birds of prey / griffins, wolves, horses, and S-shaped bit shanks with endings in the form of horse hooves) on the territory of the steppes, adjoining the western slopes of the Ural Mountains. These are mainly steppes in the basin of the middle and lower reaches of the river Ilek.

This article deals with equestrian ammunition items found near the burial mound of the 21 Filipovka I burial ground in the Orenburg region in order to establish the time of construction of this burial mound. The burial mound Filippovka I was a necropolis of the social elite of nomads who inhabited the steppes of the Southern Urals in the middle of the 1st millennium BC. The richness of the funerary inventory and the complexity of the ritual actions performed during the erection of the burial mounds make it possible to study many aspects of the history and culture of these tribes. This determines the importance of a comprehensive study of the materials of this burial ground. Equipping a horse includes four bronze objects: two bridle plaques, check-piece and headband decoration bridle were found around the barrow 21 Filippovka I burial ground. Some of these items have close analogies among the details of equine ammunition from the Scythian monuments of the Black Sea North Littoral, dated by import items. The analogies that exist among the Scythian antiquities allow us to date the burial mound of the burial ground of Filippovka I during the time of the 4th century BC. The presence of such things as a headband in the form of a griffin head and a bridle plaque in the form of a wolf's head fixes the existence of the cultural interaction of nomads who left the burial ground of Filippovka I with the western Scythian world of the Northern Black Sea Coast

Introduction. This is a report on the results of archaeological excavations at Maksimovka I, the subterranean burial ground located in the forest-steppe Volga region. The site is unique because it contains burial complexes of different epochs. The purpose of the paper is to introduce the materials found during the 2018 excavations for the attention of the academic community. In particular, the paper focuses on the description and characterization of the archaeological complexes under investigation, and, also, on their cultural-chronological attribution. Data. The cultural layer was not particularly rich but contained fragments of Neolithic, Eneolithic, and Bronze Age ceramics, stone tools, and waste left after stone processing. Three burials were examined in the excavation area. The first burial comprised the skeleton of a deceased person in a supine position; the head oriented to the north-northeast; the grave goods included iron items (a fragment of a boiler and of a bit, rod-shaped items, and a firesteel), grindstones, and flints. The second buried person was found in the seated position, leg bones bent at the knee joint, head oriented to northeast; the finds included a nonferrous metal ring, a bone pendant, a silicon wafer, and tubular beads. The third buried person was also in a seated position, head oriented to the northeast; no grave goods were found in the third burial. Also, two other burial constructions recovered on the site were partially examined. Results. The first burial was attributed to the Golden Horde period in the Middle Ages (the second half of the 13th or the 14th c.). The second burial has a number of parallels to burial complexes of mid-late Eneolithic era of the forest-steppe Volga region. The third burial was left unidentified in terms of its cultural-chronological attribution, granted the non-standard position of the skeletal remains in the grave and the absence of goods. Conclusions. The examination of the subterranean burial ground Maksimovka I has allowed to introduce the archaeological material of different periods, such as Neolithic, Eneolithic, Bronze, and Middle Ages.

The article is devoted to characterizing bridle plaques with zoomorphic and anthropomorphic images, which were used by the nomads of the Southern Urals in the 6 th -4 th centuries BC. The paper presents a summary of these horse ammunition items, which includes about 80 finds. The author proposes a typology of these subjects. Types of bridle plaques are distinguished by a combination of features that characterize the plot, composition and style of images. The items are represented by various types of plaques in the form of predatory and hoofed animals, birds, several species of animals or their parts, fish, and a rider on a horse. All the plaques are divided into four chronological groups in accordance with currently accepted dates of the monuments, where they were found: the late 6 th -the early 5 th century BC, the late 6 th -the 5 th century BC, the late 5 th -the 4 th century BC, the late 6 th -the 4 th century BC. Thus, nomads used plaques with zoomorphic images throughout the period under consideration. The distribution of types of plaques with zoomorphic images on chronological groups demonstrates both continuity in the nomads' culture development throughout the 6 th -4 th centuries BC and cultural transformations that occurred during this period. The transformations are reflected in changing nomenclature in the category of horse ammunition, style of zoomorphic images (including due to the appearance of plaques indicating links with the Don region, the North Caucasus, and the North Pontic region), and emergence of a tradition to use plaques with anthropomorphic images.Самарский государственный социально-педагогический университет, г. Самара, Российская Федерация Аннотация. Статья посвящена характеристике уздечных бляшек с зооморфными и антропоморфными изображениями, которые использовались кочевниками Южного Приуралья в VI-IV вв. до н.э. Представлена сводка этих деталей конской амуниции, которая включает в себя около 80 находок. Предложена типология этих предметов. Типы уздечных бляшек выделены по сочетанию признаков, характеризующих сюжет, композицию и стилистику изображений. Рассматриваемые предметы представлены различными типами бляшек в виде хищных и копытных животных, птиц, нескольких видов животных или их частей, рыб, всадника на коне. Все бляшки в соответствии с принятыми в настоящее время датами памятников, в которых они обнаружены, разделены на четыре хронологические группы: конца VI -начала V в. до н.э., конца VI -V в. до н.э., конца V -IV в. до н.э., конца VI -IV в. до н.э. Таким образом, бляшки с зооморфными изображениями использовались кочевниками на протяжении всего рассматриваемого периода. Распределение типов бляшек с зооморфными изобра-58 V.N. Myshkin.

This paper is devoted to the publication of materials obtained during the study of the burial of the early Middle Ages in the burial mound Maslennikovo I. This necropolis is located in the steppe southwestern part of the Samara Trans-Volga region. The excavated mound 1 was built in the Bronze Age in the process of making eight burials of this time. Burial 2, admitted into the floor of the embankment in its southern part, dates back to the Middle Ages. The burial was made in a grave pit in the shape of an elongated oval and oriented with its long axis along the NW-SE line. The buried man lay stretched out on his back with his head to the northwest. The bone of a horses leg lay at his head. Gold foil fragments, which may have been the remains of a symbolic death mask, and earrings were also found in the area of the head. The remains of a wooden object with silver plates at the edges, probably of a quiver on the chest of a deceased burial were found. The remains of a scabbard, which also had silver plates there were in the region of the pelvis and between the thigh bones. Seven silver sewn-on plaques with embossed ornaments and several poorly preserved iron objects were found in the grave. The peculiarities of the funeral rite and accompanying implements make it possible to include this complex in the number of burials attributed by researchers as Magyar (proto-Magyar, Hungarian) and to consider it as the burial of an individual integrated into the ethnocultural environment of the Hungarians of the Middle Volga region of the 9th-10th centuries.