Bronze and Iron Bracelets of the Barbashinsky Burial Ground from the Excavation by A.S. Bashkirov in 1921

Abstract

The Barbashinsky burial ground on the territory of Samara is the largest Mordovian burial ground of the Golden Horde period in the Samara Trans-Volga region. In 1921, A.S. Bashkirov studied at least 71 burials at the site, which contained rich grave goods, including bracelets. The article presents the results of a typological analysis of bracelets, excavated by A.S. Bashkirov and kept in the collections of the Samara Museum for History and Regional Studies named after P.V. Alabin, an attempt was made to systematize and consider them in the context of the Golden Horde antiquities of the Samara Trans-Volga region and other regions. A total of 42 bronze and 2 iron bracelets from female burials (40 items), children burials (2 items), paired and unattributed burials (1 item each) were studied. Most of the bracelets are made of cast rod (23 items), among them there are pointed ones, bracelets with flattened spatulate ends and blunt-ended ones, including "snake heads". Plate bracelets (14 items) are richly decorated with a combination of several types of ornaments – small zigzag, pierced ornameпtation, rosettes, relief stripes, inlays. Bronze twisted (5 items) and iron bracelets (2 items) are fewin number. The article also considers some aspects of the technological production of bronze bracelets, the nature of the ornamentation and the features of its application for various types of bracelets in the collection. All bracelets have many analogies with synchronous sites of the Golden Horde and Rus.

Keywords

• archaeology
• middle ages
• golden horde
• the mordvins
• barbashinsky burial ground
• a.s. bashkirov
• bracelets