Vadim I. Ishaev*, Aleksandr R. Smolyak**
*Institute of Archaeology RAS, Moscow, Russia (vad6172@yandex.ru)
**Razdorskaya Ethnography Museum-reserve, Rostov-on-Don, Russia (smolyakdon@mail.ru)
Keywords: barrow cemetery of Matyukhin Bugor, early Middle Ages, Sivashovo culture, lamellar armour, Avar type of armour plates, Eastern Europe.

The paper deals with the analysis of an armour of the second half of the 6th–the second half of the 7th century AD from Burial 12 in a pit with a loculus of the Matyukhin Bugor barrow in the Rostov Oblast. The burial is attributed as a secondary nomadic interment of the Sivashovo type distinguished among the early medieval nomadic burials of the Northwest Azov Sea area by the following markers: the north-eastern orientation of the burial pit and the interred, a horse skin, remains of the funerary meal and sword belts with heraldic ornaments. The armour under study has survived in a few fragments. The description of its overall design and separate segments, the means of the attachment of plates and stripes made from them is provided. The study is focused on the typological traits of plates showing analogies in other regions, i.e. the Middle Danube and the Altai, which enables us to speak about the Avar type of plates in Eastern Europe. A graphic reconstruction of the armour is presented after the following pattern: the identification of the armour segments’ design and the classification of the plate and joint types.