Pages: 402-417 | DOI: https://doi.org/10.55086/sp235402417 

The article deals with the discovery of an iron helmet from the second half of the 12th — mid-13th centuries. from a rich Cuman burial, accidentally discovered and explored in the Northern Azov region in 1968. Of the entire complex of clothing finds, only a helmet has been identified so far. The product was damaged upon discovery, according to the typology of A. N. Kirpichnikov belongs to type II B and dates back to the 12th—13th centuries. Consideration of the closest analogies and clarification of the dating of the helmet marked the debatable problem of periodization of this type of protective armament. A number of researchers attribute the time of existence of such helmets to the Golden Horde time of the 2nd half of the 13th—14th centuries. A careful study of the argumentation and a critical analysis of the sources suggests that there is no reason to date such helmets to the Golden Horde time. Available clear chronological benchmarks of similar finds among the helmets included in the complexes of Taganch, Khavala-IV 2, find of a helmet in a dwelling of the 1st half of the 13th century. in Dorogobuzh and the finds of a pommel with an “apple” from the settlement Knyazha Gora in Kanev allow us to date the helmet from Gruzsky to the end of the 12th — 1st half of the 13th centuries, and to attribute the discovered site to the burial of a representative of the Cumans aristocracy, made before the Great Western campaign of the Mongols.

Keywords: Northern Azov Sea region, Mayak settlement, Gruzskoy, type II B helmet, Cumans of the 12th —13th centuries

Information about authors:

Maksym Kvitnytskyi (Kyiv, Ukraine).
E-mail: [email protected]
ORCID: 0000-0002-2701-4838
Vladimir Grib (Donetsk). Donetsk State University. Universitetskaya St., 24, Donetsk, Donetsk region, 283001
E-mail: [email protected]
ORCID: 0000-0002-4294-5200