Reconstruction of Dress of the Alanian women in Accordance with the Ar- cheological Materials of the Early Middle-ages catacombal cemetery in Verkhnii saltov Village

Abstract

This paper proposes reconstruction of dress of women, who lived in the territory of forest-steppe version of the Saltovo-Mayaki culture and belonged to the Alanian ethnos. For the purposes of reconstruction, there were involved materials of four the most representa- tional among the findings and in a good state of preservation burial complexes of the IVth catacombal cemetery in Verkhnii Saltov Village (catacombs number 30, 52, 111, 119). To make the results of the reconstruction of dress of women from Vekhnii Saltov more authen- tic, the materials regarding the cloths and headdresses were engaged, obtained from the cemetery of the VIII—XI centuries from the Northern Caucasia, where pieces of clothing because of the natural environment withstood the ravages of time (Moshchevayay Balka, Nizhnii Arkhyz). There is a great number of personal accessories in the decoration of the dress for women of the childbearing age from the catacombs VSM-IV. Some of the acces- sories were designed to protect the owner against the influence of malign/ supernatural forces. The others, being symbols of positive force, associated with the idea of fertility, welfare, and richness, were focused on the preservation and augmentation of reproductive performance of young women. The decoration of the dress, being reconstructed, of every woman from the catacombs VSM-IV, along with similarity, has individual peculiarities, that is, belike, due to different age, social and material position, parental status.