Sergey V. Shpolyanskiy
State Historical Museum, Moscow (shpol@yandex.ru)
Keywords: Suzdal Opolye, weaponry, riding equipment, horse harness, medieval settlements.
Medieval sites of the Suzdal Opolye have yielded numerous collections of artefacts over the last 15 years. Thus, the weapons of the 10th – first half of the 12th century encountered so far amount to almost a hundred items from 43 sites. Among them a small group of weapons dated to the 10th – early 11th century and containing articles of the Northern European types including an openwork bouterolle featuring a mask stands out. The materials submitted enable us to trace the tendencies of weaponry evolution in the region in the 11th – first half of the 12th century and imply a considerable role of hunting in the economic activity of a part of the Opolye population.
