SALTIV CULTURE CEREMONIAL BELT OF THE 9th century (based on materials from the catacomb burial ground near the Verkhniy Saltiv village)

Abstract

The research is based on the materials of the study of the fourth section of Verkhniy Saltiv catacomb burial ground, obtained as a result of the work of the medieval expedition of the V. N. Sumtsov Kharkiv Historical Museum in 1998—2021, where 137 burial assemblages were discovered (115 catacombs, 10 burials in simple pits, 5 burials in the niche graves, 6 dromoses without burial chambers). Metal elements of the belt set were found in 75 burials, where 82 ceremonial belts of varying degrees of survival dating back since the beginning till the third quarter of the 9th century were discovered. For reconstruction of a «typical» ceremonial belt of this Saltiv population, the materials from burials where human skeletons retained their anatomical order or were only slightly destroyed were used, and the belt sets survived their original place (fig. 1—4). These burials show that the «typical» ceremonial belt of an adult male from the Verkhniy Saltiv community, in addition to the buckle and the tip, consisted of plaques of three types: frame-plaques or their stamped imitations, plaques with a ring or loop in the lower part of the shield, and heart-shaped plaques. At the same time, a «typical» ceremonial belt consisted of 3 frame-plaques or their imitations, plaques with a ring or a loop in an amount that is a multiple of 3 (3, 6, 9, 12, 15, etc.). The number of heart-shaped plaques, which were located directly before the tip of the belt, was not regulated and depended only on the property status of the belt owner and his aesthetic views. Among the representatives of the social elite of the Saltiv society, this system of ceremonial belt design did not change, only the number of plaques increased, and the belt was supplemented with such metal details as tubes-«vorvorky», dividers, pendants of so-called bind-reins blocks. The proposed system of a ceremonial belt design is also confirmed by the pit burials of the Saltiv culture. In general, the metal details of the belt and the material of manufacture indicate not the military rank of the owner but his social (property) position in Saltiv society.