The paper generalizes and analyzes information on a collection of archeological finds of fighting axes in medieval antiquities of the Kuznetsk hollow. The fact of use of fighting axes by local military aristocracy is established, and this conclusion allows us to attribute this kind of the near fight weapon to elite category. The author classifies material and investigates problems on appearance and evolution of this weapon in northern periphery of the Sayano-Altai during an epoch of the Middle Ages. A small typological variety and slack change of forms of products in time is marked. The hypothesis about borrowing of this near fight weapon during the early Middle Ages by local population from western Turkic is confirmed.