DECORATED HORSE EQUIPMENT FROM BARROW №4 AT MUSOKHRANOVO-1 SITE, KUZNETSK BASIN
In 2009 Kuznetsk archaeological and ethnographic expedition of the Scientific Centre of theHumanities of Kuzbass State Technical University led by one of the authors of the article discovered Barrow№ 4 at the site Musokhranovo-1. In the course of the excavation work various archaeological material was collected and the results of this work have partially been published. The named site is located in the territory of Leninsk-Kuznetsk, the Kemerovo region (Russia).The article deals with morphological and technical specifics of the sets of decorated horse equipment from the examined Graves 1 and 3. The peculiarities of the shape and décor of the items allow us to date the findings as the 1st half of the tenth century. A set of decorated horse equipment from Grave 1 has direct analogues in the materials of the Srostkinskaya culture of the forest-steppe Altai. As for overlaid decorations from Grave 3 they may refer to «stock-produced» items which consist of «primary» items with a complex pattern and of high quality, and «secondary» items with similar décor but of lower quality. The high production level of most of the examined items suggests that they were produced in specialized craft centres of Semirechye.