Metal Mirrors of the Scythian Era from the Collection of the Biysk Museum of Local Lore

The article presents the cultural and chronological interpretation of two metal mirrors from the collection of the Biysk Local History Museum named after V.V. Bianky. The study of the documentation of this institution made it possible to determine the time and circumstances of the receipt of the finds, as well as the area from which they originated. The morphological characteristics of objects are presented. It has been established that both products belong to the same type of disc-shaped mirrors without a side, with a central loop handle. Judging by the preservation of the objects, with a high degree of probability they do not come from burials, but are random finds or materials from settlement complexes. An analysis of the distribution features of such metal mirrors became the basis for the conclusion that their dating, taking into account the lack of a clear context of discovery, is determined within the broad framework of the 7th — 5th centuries B.C. The discovery of such items in the northern foothills of Altai and in the Upper Ob region may be associated both with the advance of nomads into the territory of the spread of the Bolsherechenskaya culture at the end of the Early Scythian period, and with the population of the early stage of communities of the Scythian-Saka period (Staroaleiskaya and Bystryanskaya cultures).