To the question about the opportunity of militant use of the checans of the saragashen stage of the Tagar culture

Abstract

The present work is devoted to the identification of militant properties of the checans of the saragashen stage of the tagar culture. Throughout its length the checans were one of the type of melee weapon. They were intended for infliction of the stab wounds. On the territory of the Khakass-Minusinsk basin the checans are known as early as the late Bronze Age, but they were widely used among the population of the tagar culture. They are an exclusively male subject. In the archaeological literature there was an opinion about non-militant purpose of the checans at the saragashen stage and they are interpreted as «votive» (exclusively intended for ritual use as an accompanying inventory of the deceased). The tagar petroglyphs demonstrate two types of the checans: big and small. Products’ analysis and their images allows to talk about the militant use of both reduced and full sized checans. One can assume that the decrease of sizes is related to a change in combat tactics.