Ближний Восток и его соседи

g 207 h Archaeological Evidence for Mamlūk Archery Quivers and bow-cases 107. A leather bow-case from the grave of a high-status warrior in a necropolis at Moschevaya Balka, in the Russian north Caucasus, dating from the 8th-9th century. It is decorated with a rosette-like device which is of leather and, although it came from a relatively short distance beyond what was then the frontier of the Islamic world, it is of a type which pictorial sources show to have been widely used in and beyond the Islamic world. The form remained popular for many centuries, even into the early modern pe- riod, and was designed to carry a composite bow while strung. Earlier forms of narrow, elongated bow-case were intended to carry one or more bows while unstrung. These had also been used by mounted archers in the pre-Islamic Middle East and amongst many steppe peoples, remaining popular for some centuries into the Islamic era. (Her- mitage, St. Petersburg; author’s photograph) 108–109. Many centuries would pass before we find other large leather containers which might have been parts of either bow-cases or quivers. They were among late Mamlūk military material in CD5 of the Citadel of Damascus and none are complete enough to confirm such an identification. However, it seems likely that, whatever their original purpose, they had been kept in an arsenal or workshop so that their leather might serve as a source of small repair patches, spare parts or assorted miscellaneous items. The object seen in these two photographs may originally have been the lower part of a bow-case. (Syrian Department of Antiquities; IFPO photographs).