Han tomb relief depicting wars between Han soldiers and Xiongnu horse archers 2nd C. BCE - 1st C. CE
"Some petroglyphs with incised figures of warriors were related to the Xiongnu/Hunno-Sarmatian time. Gorbunov (2002, pp. 62-78) offered his own version of reconstruction for armoured gear of Mountain Altair warriors at that time.
In the early 1st millennium AD, both external factors contributed to the formation of distict features of the martial practice of the Mountain Altair nomads. The most important factor that caused changes in armament and martial gear was the conquest by the Xiongnu/Huns. Their most effective offensive weapon was used in distant combat: composite, long-range reflex bows and arrows with three-blade iron heads that played the key role in battles against other nomadic peoples. The Xiongnu/Hunnic bow with its composite wooden structure, reinforced with bone and horn overlays, outranged the shooting distance of the Scythian bow approximately one and a half times. In the late 1st millennium AD and thereafter, the Xiongnu/Hunnic type of bow was universally accepted in the nomadic world owing to its high effectiveness (Khudjakov 1986a, p. 39; 1990, pp. 44-60). The nomadic tribes, politically and militarily subjected to the Xiongnu/Huns, took over not only the bows of complex composite structure from their lords, but also some other types of three-blade iron arrowheads equipped with bone ball whistles and those with cleaved attachment parts as well. Although bone arrowheads with this type of attachment part did not show particular efficiency, they were borrowed as a characteristic cultural element of the dominating Xiongnu/Hun ethnic group (Khudjakov 1986a, pp. 36-37; 1995, p. 10).
The Europoid nomadic tribes of the Mountain Altai conquered by the Xiongnu/Huns in the late 1st century AD adopted so many innovations from their overlords and also from other nomads that their own Pazyryk culture had undergone significant transformation and, as a result, another culture called Bulan-Koba came about as a mutation of the former one. In the munition set of the Bulan-Koba nomads, distant combat weapons (bows and arrows) dominate."
-Armaments of Nomads of the Altai Mountains (First Half of the 1st Millenium AD). Julij S. Khudjakov. Acta Orientalia Academiae Scientiarum Hungaricae Vol. 58, No. 2, Proceedings of the First International Conference on the Mediaeval History of the Eurasian Steppe: Szeged, Hungary May 11—16, 2004: Part II (2005), pp. 117-133.
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| Han tomb relief depicting wars between Han soldiers and Xiongnu horse archers. Han soldiers are distinguished by their dotted scale armor surcoat while the Xiongnu are marked by their distinctive conical cap and recurved bow. Note the Xiongnu using the so-called "Parthian shot" tactic of shooting backward while being chased during feigned retreats. |
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| Note the large eyes and facial features of the Xiongnu. |
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