CONSERVATION AND TRANSFORMATION OF THE TRADITION OF APPLICATION OF BIRCH BARK IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF SABERS OF EAST POLAND AND NORTH CAUCASUS IN THE 16<sup>th</sup> -18<sup>th</sup> CENTURIES
The use of birch bark in the design of knife sheaths and sabers have become the subject of our research more than once. These theses are no exception. Research carried out in recent years in the Black Sea region, and the study of museum collections, allow us not only to identify new pieces of cold steel weapons of the 17th-18th centuries, with the scabbard made of birch bark, but also to identify common technological traditions with earlier samples of cold weapons from the archaeological sites of medieval nomads in the south of Western Siberia. One of the topical issues in the study of the design features of the sheath of bladed weapons of the 16th -18th centuries. In the North Caucasus and Eastern Poland, there are issues of continuity in the use of birch bark in their design.