Pages: 267-280

The new data for the belt sets from the sites with surface cremations (10th — beginning of 11th centuries), located in North-Eastern Rus’ (Shekhovo, Krutik, Minino) allowed to re-examine the thesis of unconditional social, primarily military, status of the owners of decorated belts that had already been a common consent among the specialists. Apparently, the situation was more complicated: along with the actual distribution of belts with plaques among the warriors, we also notice a considerable popularity of these decorations among the ordinary Finno-Ugric and the mixed Slavic-Finnish population. Volga Bulgaria was a major center for the production of belt sets for these consumers. It is necessary to take into account the regional ethno-cultural characteristics of the various territories of the evolving Russian state.

Keywords: Medieval Russia, belt-sets, social status, tradition, alloys composition

Information about author:

Irina Zaytseva (Moscow, Russian Federation). Candidate of Historical Sciences. Institute of Archaeology of the Russian Academy of Sciences. Dmitry Ulyanov St., 19, Moscow, 117036, Russian Federation
E-mail: [email protected]