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Weapon and the military of the population of the West Podolian group of the Early Scythian culture in the light of sepulchral sources
(Muzeum Okręgowe w Rzeszowie; Instytut Archeologii UR; Fundacja Rzeszowskiego Ośrodka Archeologicznego; Oficyna Wydawnicza „Zimowit”, 2015) Burghardt, Marcin
The article has discussed the issue of weapon and the military of the population of the West Podolian group of the Early Scythian culture. The image, obtained on the basis of 49 burials with weapon does not differ from other communities of the forest-steppe variant of the Scythian culture. The common element for the entire amount of burials with weapon is their almost exclusive relationship with male graves. The most numerous kind of weapon was a bow with arrows (89.9% of burials with weapon of the West Podolian group of the Early Scythian culture). Regarding the wealthy military burials, the arrows were also accompanied by other categories of offensive weapons – spears (22.4%), blunt weapon (hammeraxes and battle-axes) (16.3%) and cutting weapon (10.2%). The richest warriors, including the members of local elites, apart from a few-item sets of weapon they were equipped with scale armour finished with metal plates at the edge (14%). Moreover, there were the elements of the horse harness in every fifth burial with weapon. This points to a slightly lesser role of cavalry than it was in the case of the other groups of the forest-steppe variant of the Scythian culture. The presence of a few-item sets of offensive weapons and armour in the graves indicates the presence of professional warriors, so-called „troopers” (18% of burials with weapon) in the Middle Dniester group. These warriors were part of military bands (troops), headed by the members of the local upper class (elites) (6%). The remaining military forces were warriors coming from the lower social strata.