Ближний Восток и его соседи

g 173 h Archaeological Evidence for Mamlūk Archery 26–27. Changes in burial practices in Central Asia as local populations converted to Islam mean that grave-goods were almost never interred with the dead. As a result, mili- tary equipment, including that associated with archery, is rarely found after the 8th and 9th centuries. Five of the six small pieces of much corroded iron shown in these photo- graphs are clearly arrowheads. They were found during archaeological excavations in the medieval town of Kuva, in the Farghana valley of what is now Uzbekistan. This was a strategically and economically important Islamic frontier zone during the 10th to 12th centuries, from which these arrowheads date. They vary in size, but all have tangs rather than sockets to attach them to arrow shafts. The sixth piece of iron (photo 26 [upper right]) might be a more substantial socketed arrowhead to be shot from a siege weapon, or it might have been the iron foot (butt) of a spear — or something else entirely. What can be said with some certainty is that these rare survivals show that the style and form of arrowheads in Central Asia did not change with the coming of Islam. (Regional His- torical Museum store, Kuva, Uzbekistan; author’s photographs).