Andrey G. Shpilev

The Kursk Oblast State Museum of Archaeology (kgoma@mail.ru)

Keywords: funerary rites of early medieval nomads, Turcs in Eastern Europe, Khazar chaganate.

This paper deals with the Zhilishche hoard – a complex of iron artefacts found in the Kursk oblast. The complex consists of a sword, two cheekpieces, a hoe and a sickle probably related to early medieval antiquities of the nomad and semi-nomad population of Eurasia. An analysis of the artefacts enables us to surmise that the ‘hoard’ is a part of a burial of funerary complex of the late 7th – first half of the 8th century AD built by the population culturally and, possibly, ethnically related to the Turcs or other tribes of the West Turc chaganate partially absorbed by the Khazar chaganate.