Warrior Belts from the Volga-Urals Area at the Turn of Era

Abstract

The author considers emergence of warrior plated belts in the explored archaeological sites in the Volga-Urals area at the final stage of the Early Iron Age. These sites include early burials of the Andreevka (burials 25/1-3, 50) and Staroye Ardatovo (burial 1) mounds which are currently correlated with the sites of the Piseraly-Andreevka type, and burial 43 of the Kipchakovo I mound-subsoil burial ground of the Pyanobor culture. These complexes are reliably dated to the 1st century A.D. The plated belts from five early burials of the Andreevka and Staroye Ardatovo barrows are indicative of the established tradition to decorate warrior belts with metal plates and pendants. In the context of V.V. Stavitsky's assumption that the warriors who left the sites of the Piseraly-Andreevka type participated in the military events in the middle of the 1st century AD, the author concludes concerning the emergence of this tradition. Familiarity with the Roman warrior belts decorated with metal plates is likely to have converted to a specific element of warrior subculture. At the same time, it was not merely adoption of belt decoration. The elements of belt decoration gained original semantic content expressed by the figures of predator fangs or conical buckle and diamond-shaped plates traditional for the sedentary population of the forest-steppe and forest areas.

Keywords

• archaeology
• the volga-urals area
• early iron age
• warrior belts
• warrior subculture
• belt plates and pendants