Review of the Monograph: Likhacheva O.S. Weaponry and warfare of the population of the Forest-Steppe Altai in the Early Iron Age (8th–1st centuries B.C.). Barnaul: Publ. IP I. A. Kolmogorov, 2020. 320 p. ISBN 978-5-91556-710-7

Abstract

The paper presents a review on a monograph by O.S. Likhacheva, concerned with the analysis of different types of weapons and reconstruction of some aspects of the warfare of the tribes of the Forest-Steppe Altai in the 8th–1st centuries B.C., which contains a representative album of illustrations, including photographs and drawings of artifacts, artistic interpretations of weapons and images of warriors, made by the author. O.S. Likhacheva carried out a meticulous analysis of numerous categories of weapons and their fragments. However, in the opinion of the author of this review, for a considerable part of the presented inventory there is a lack of context description of the finds in the ceremonial burial complexes. This leads to the description of the votive weapons as combative, ceremonially broken items as intact, and fragmentary separate armor-clad plates as a complete armor suit. Certain selectivity of the author in writing the historiography section narrows the attention of the researcher on only one region under consideration, thus ignoring the trans-cultural nature of some types of the weapons of short-range and long-range combat among the nomads of the Central Asia in the 8th–1st centuries B.C., as well as the body of the material from the monuments of the Novosibirsk Ob region which fit in the topic area of the research. The author recommends the book of O.S. Likhacheva to all interested in the history and archaeology of Altai Krai and Upper Ob region.