Archaeologists have identified a little-known group of knives showing that Xiongnu-era blacksmithing traditions survived along Siberia’s Yenisei River for more than a millennium, from antiquity into the Middle Ages.
New research reveals that communities living in the Yenisei taiga maintained metalworking practices rooted in the time of the Xiongnu nomads long after these techniques disappeared elsewhere in Eurasia. The findings highlight the cultural resilience of northern forest societies and show how steppe technologies continued to shape local life well beyond the collapse of ancient nomadic powers.
The study was conducted by researchers from Siberian Federal University, who re-examined a rare but largely overlooked collection of iron artifacts held by the Yeniseisk Museum-Reserve named after A. I. Kytmanov. Many of the objects entered the museum in the late 19th century but had never been systematically documented or analyzed using modern archaeological methods.
Knives that endured for centuries
Central to the research is a set of 17 iron knives recovered from sites across the Yenisei region. Several feature a distinctive ring- or loop-shaped pommel, a form widely recognized as characteristic of metalworking traditions associated with the Xiongnu period, roughly from the 2nd century BC to the 2nd century AD.
In most parts of Eurasia, knives with ring pommels disappear after the decline of Xiongnu political power. In the Yenisei taiga, however, this design persisted. The researchers conclude that such knives continued to be produced and used locally until as late as the 11th to 14th centuries—an unusually long survival not seen in neighboring regions of Siberia or Central Asia.
The knives vary in size and shape, suggesting they were practical everyday tools rather than ceremonial objects. Many show signs of fire damage, including oxidation and surface scaling, indicating that they likely came from burial contexts that were later disturbed or destroyed rather than from intact settlement layers.
Rediscovering the past in museum archives
The key breakthrough came not from new field excavations, but from careful work in museum storerooms. As Polina Sentorusova, a senior researcher at the Laboratory of Archaeology of Yenisei Siberia, explained, important archaeological discoveries do not always require expeditions into remote landscapes.
“Archaeological expeditions are not always journeys into the taiga, mountains, or swamps,” she said. “Sometimes the most valuable material is found by visiting small regional museums and re-examining old collections.”
Through this archival approach, the team was able to catalogue, analyze, and publish the group of 17 iron knives that had remained largely unstudied since their acquisition more than a century ago. The evidence preserved on these modest tools now offers rare insight into the long continuity of Xiongnu-inspired metalworking traditions along the Yenisei River.
