До проблеми призначення хозарських серпiв

This article analyzes the purpose and functional context of so-called “folding Khazar sickles” — compact, short-bladed, pivoting sickles (ca. 10–19 cm blade length) whose blades fold into the handle and are often equipped with suspension rings and serrated edges. Using archaeological evidence from the Saltovo–Mayaki cultural horizon and adjacent regions, the study surveys the main distribution area (Don region, Upper and Middle Volga, North-Western Caucasus) and a series of rarer finds beyond Khazar territory, including Eastern and Central Europe (notably Poland and the Czech lands) and isolated parallels further west. The paper reviews existing typologies and research traditions (especially the classification frameworks developed by V. K. Mikheyev and Polish scholarship) and correlates the archaeological contexts of finds with burial practices and social attribution. On this basis, the author argues that the folding sickle is unlikely to have been a routine peasant agricultural implement and was more plausibly associated with equestrian warriors and their equipment kits. Competing functional interpretations are evaluated: use as a tool for cutting fodder during campaigns, use as a combat implement, and use within ritual or symbolic practices. To assess the feasibility of a martial function, the article adduces comparative evidence from iconography and cross-cultural analogues of sickle-shaped weapons and knives (including ancient Mediterranean motifs, early modern amputation knives, and documented folk fighting implements in later contexts), while also discussing the problem of modern illicit-find circulation and the resulting loss of archaeological provenance. The study concludes that current evidence does not allow a definitive single-function attribution for the folding Khazar sickle. It frames the object as a multi-context artefact at the intersection of utility and weaponry and calls for further research integrating archaeological documentation, iconographic sources, and the legal customs of the Khazar milieu.