Pages: 417-431 | DOI: https://doi.org/10.55086/sp254417431
The article considers a belt set from burial 228A of the Kobyakov mound necropolis (excavated in 2007) on the Lower Don. The bronze buckles and the belt tip caught our attention. They make up a complete belt set. The appearance of the buckle and the suspension of the belt tip evoke stable associations with well-known stylistic groups of belt sets in the Northern Black Sea region. The article contains materials that are close to different elements of this belt set.
Wide belts with massive buckles with rectangular frames and flaps, and belt tips are characteristic of the German Barbarium. However, the one-part design of the buckle frames and the two-part design of the belt tips are characteristic of the North Pontic belt set tradition. Finally, the molded lace details of the belt sets are characteristic of the provincial Roman tradition.
All three traditions coexisted in the region from the second half of the 2nd to the first half of the 3rd century AD, and their individual elements were interchangeable. They could be combined not only as part of one set, but even as one product.
Archaeological arguments indicate a broad dating of the complex in the second half of the 2nd—first half of the 3rd century AD, with the possibility of narrowing this dating to the end of the 2nd—beginning of the 3rd centuries AD. Indirect data allow us to make a cautious assumption that the buried in the complex 228A belonged to the veterans who served in the Bosporus army.
Keywords: Bosporan kingdom, Kobyakovo hillfort, Maeotae, warriors, Barbaricum, Sarmatia, royal tamga-signs, buckle, belt tip, buckle tongue, Roman times
Information about authors:
Alexandr Vasil’yev (Moscow, Russian Federation). Candidate of Historical Sciences. Independent researcher.
E-mail: [email protected]
Evgeny Vdovchenkov (Moscow, Russian Federation). Doctor of Historical Sciences. Institute of Oriental Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences. Rozhdestvenka St., 12, Moscow, 107031, Russian Federation
E-mail: [email protected]
ORCID: 0000-0003-0160-8520