Threadings of rare species from the burials of the early medieval Alans of Kharkov Region

Abstract

The work introduces into the scientific circulation, bronze threadings found in the catacombs No. 5 of Staro-Saltov and No. 145, 153 of the fourth section of the Verkhny Saltov necropolis. Embossed plates were found in the catacombs No. 5 and No. 145, which, in our opinion, are components of bottle-shaped threadings. In their form and manufacturing technique, they are close to the so-called bottle-shaped threadings of type 3 from the monuments of the Perm Pre-Ural, which date from the first half of the 10th century, Saltov complexes with bottle-shaped threadings belong to the end of the VIII - beginning of the IX centuries (catacomb No. 5) and the first half of the IX century (catacomb No. 145). And if the population of Prikamie and Pre-Ural used bottle-shaped threadings as squares, in the Saltov monuments they probably played the role of a certain magical amulet, they are the ends of leather laces attached to “horned” buckles. In the catacomb No. 153, a bronze threading was found, which has the shape of a slotted cylinder with expansion in the middle part. In size and shape, this product is vaguely reminiscent of a threading with one swelling from the Nevolin antiquities of the VIII - early IX centuries (type 5, subtype a, variants 2, 3, 4). According to materials discovered in catacomb No. 153, this threading dates from the end of VIII - the first quarter of the IX century. For carriers of Nevolin, Lomovatov, Polom, Bakhmut, Turbaslyn cultures, similar bulging threadings decorated cords hanging from the waist belt, and this threading probably belonged to the teenage girl’s necklace in the Alanian population of Verkhny Saltov.