Plate bracers kaharabchi of 14th – mid 15th centuries from the Shushensky district of Krasnoyarsk region

Abstract

The article deals with pieces of protective armor, originating from occasional findings from the territory of the Shushensky district of the Krasnoyarsk Region. The research led us to understand that these findings are a fragment of a body armor with a lamellar[1]riveted armor structure and segmented lamellar bracer-sleeves (Mong. kharabchi). The sleeves consist of two large forged pauldrons and two segments assembled of six plates each. When assembled, the sleeves covered the warrior's arm from shoulder to elbow. Part of the plates of the body armor and sleeves have the holes for sewing. Later, the armor was reassembled, and the sewn-on fastening system was replaced with riveted system which is much more technologically advanced. Judging by the location of the rivets, the sleeves were attached to three longitudinal leather straps that ran from the pauldron to the last plate of the laminar segment. The features of the construction and design allow to date this protective armor from the Shushensky district of the Krasnoyarsk Region to the 14th – the middle of the 14th centuries. The earliest plates of the set could have been made as early as the 13th century. The owner of the armor was probably a wealthy warrior from among the Mongols, Oirats or Yenisei Kyrgyz. The findings have the high scientific value due to the fact that they are the earliest known examples of Central Asian kharabchi sleeves known to date. In the last third of the 14th – 17th centuries this type of sleeves became widespread in the Muslim East, in the Chinese Ming empire, the state of Later Jin, the Chinese Qing Empire, Mongolia, Oiratia and South Siberia.