---
title: "Shepherd’s Find in Siberia Is a Rare Mongol-Era Shield From the Near East"
description: "Researchers say its owner may have fought in a Yuan army that conquered the Yenisei Kyrgyz in 1293, but its findspot can’t be traced."
author: "rews desk"
published: 2026-10-07T22:34:40Z
modified: 2026-10-08T06:03:32Z
url: https://rews.cc/a/shepherd-s-find-in-siberia-is-a-rare-mongol-era-shield-from--f3f4c3
language: en
tags: ["archaeology", "mongol", "history", "siberia", "military", "world"]
publisher: "Rews (https://rews.cc)"
---

# Shepherd’s Find in Siberia Is a Rare Mongol-Era Shield From the Near East

*Researchers say its owner may have fought in a Yuan army that conquered the Yenisei Kyrgyz in 1293, but its findspot can’t be traced.*

By rews desk · October 7, 2026 · https://rews.cc/a/shepherd-s-find-in-siberia-is-a-rare-mongol-era-shield-from--f3f4c3

## In brief

- A shepherd found a medieval iron shield in a ravine on the Uybat steppe in southern Siberia in 2019
- Researchers say it was probably made in a Near Eastern workshop, and only one exact parallel is known
- The shield is about 65 centimeters wide, made of 14 riveted plates, and once weighed more than four kilograms
- Its one close match came from Beshtam-Kala, a town Mongol forces destroyed in the early 13th century
- Its owner may have served in a Yuan army that conquered the Yenisei Kyrgyz in 1293, the authors suggest

An iron shield that a shepherd pulled from a ravine on the Uybat steppe in southern Siberia in 2019 was probably made in a Near Eastern workshop and carried during the Mongol era, two Russian archaeologists said in a study reported on Wednesday.

Alexander Poselyanin of Katanov Khakass State University and Oleg Mitko of Novosibirsk State University described the shield in the journal Archaeology, Ethnology and Anthropology of Eurasia. They know of only one exact parallel tied to the Mongol conquests, [Arkeonews reported](https://arkeonews.net/shepherd-discovers-an-extremely-rare-mongol-era-shield/). A shield like it turning up in the Khakass-Minusinsk basin, they argue, means weapons or craftsmen moved thousands of kilometers across medieval Eurasia.

The shepherd spotted the object after heavy rain had washed it out of the side of the ravine. Pulling it free, he damaged the outer edging and probably lost some fragments. The shield went to the Khakass National Museum of Local Lore, but nobody can now say exactly where it lay or what was buried with it.

It is flat and round, about 65 centimeters across, and built from 14 identical segment-shaped iron plates, each more than a millimeter thick, riveted together. About 2.8 kilograms of it survives. Complete, it would have weighed more than four kilograms, the researchers estimate.

An iron band with fine serrations runs around the rim. The center holds a two-piece iron boss about 20 centimeters in diameter, cut with rectangular openings and openwork crescents with small projections, and fitted on the inside with a narrow mount for a strap. From those parts the authors reconstructed both faces of the shield and worked out how a fighter might have held it in battle and carried it on the march.

Mongol warriors didn’t usually carry iron shields built this way. That is why the authors trace it to the Near East. [The Russian science outlet N+1](https://nplus1.ru/news/2026/10/07/mongolian-iron-shield), which reported the study on Wednesday, said the idea fits accounts that the Mongols took up large iron shields in the Muslim East, some more than 70 centimeters wide, riveted from several sectors with scalloped edging and a rosette-shaped boss.

The one close match was dug up nearly 70 years ago at Beshtam-Kala, a medieval settlement on the Zhana-Darya River in the Aral Sea region. Mongol forces destroyed the town in the early 13th century as they conquered the northeastern edge of Khorezm. That shield lay near the town’s defensive wall, apparently where fighting had taken place.

Without a known findspot, the Uybat shield can’t be linked to any particular battle. The authors date it to the wars among Genghis Khan’s successors, which pulled the peoples of the Sayan-Altai region into bigger fights. They suggest its owner may have been a Kyrgyz or a Mongol fighter in the army of Tutuha, the Yuan general whose troops conquered the “Five Tribes” of the Yenisei Kyrgyz in 1293, under Kublai Khan. That connection is plausible, they say, but can’t be proved.

The shield isn’t new to local researchers. N+1 reported that a student at the Khakass university, Danil Pastukhov, studied it in 2022 under Dr. Poselyanin, who said then that it was of “extraordinary scientific interest” because only two shields dating to the Middle Ages had been found in Central Asia.

For Dr. Poselyanin and Dr. Mitko, the shield is evidence of the political and economic ties between Central Asia and southern Siberia in the Mongol period. [Their paper](https://doi.org/10.17746/1563-0102.2026.54.3.067-076) appears on pages 67 to 76 of the journal’s 54th volume, third issue.