Weapon Complex of Ananyino Period from Tanaika Forest

The paper features an analysis of a set of bronze items of weapons discovered in 2018 by a local resident in Tanaika forest near Elabuga. The set includes the following items of substantial scientific interest: a spearhead, a celt, a dagger with a cruciform handle, and a buterol. During an examination of the place of discovery, it was identified that it corresponds to the location of the Gremiachii Kliuch site, and human bones were discovered on the river bank. Due to this, it was concluded that the set of items represents the remains of a burial inventory from a destroyed burial or sacrificial complex. The celt and the spearhead are characteristic of male burials of the Ananyino cultural and historical area of the Early Iron Age. The Ananyino set of items in the complex of artifacts under study also was supplemented by a dagger with a cruciform handle, which has analogies discovered in the North Caucasus. The cumulative dating of the items has made it possible to determine the burial period of the set of items within stage I-2 of the early period of Ananyino cultural and historical area (mid- 8th – first quarter/first half of 7th century BC). All items were examined by means of emission spectral analysis, which allowed to establish that the metal of the studied findings belongs to the antimony-arsenic alloys of tin bronze and represents the Volga-Kama metallurgical group. The identified differences at the microelement level in the metal composition of the Tanaika dagger in comparison with North Caucasian analogies allow the authors to suggest its local manufacture.