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Elite Military Belts of the 8th – 9th Centuries from the Stavropol State Museum Reserve Funds

Introduction. The article is devoted to the typological and chronological analysis of the details of three prestigious belt sets stored in the funds of the G.N. Prozritelev and G.K. Prave Stavropol State History, Culture and Natural Landscape Reserve Museum.

Methods and materials. The comparative typological method is used as a working one. It is based on the classification by material, processing method, shape, ornament, as well as on the selection and study of the types of buckles and waist plaques. The comparative analysis of the decor of belt parts from the Stavropol Museum and the like found in the Don region, Prikamye and on the territory of Hungary allows us to characterize the technology for producing a belt headset in the region in the 8th – 9th centuries.

Analysis. The composition of the belt headset of the first belt found in a rich burial in Sadovoye, Arzgirsky District, Stavropol Krai, includes an iron buckle with an oval-triangular frame and a rectangular shield with a zavovanny edge, a belt tip, a clip, and a buckle. Every item is inlaid with thin gold plates. On the flap buckle and clip they are laid out in the form of a spiral. On every detail of the girdle, the gold foil is decorated with floral ornaments: five-beam rosettes, heraldic lilies (they even adorn the buckle frame), shoots with buds and leaves. Belt no. 2 found in 1969 in the rich burial 2 of Eshkakon burial ground no. 3, most likely, consisted of a belt and harness belts. The girdle set includes 10 heart-shaped patches (plaques), 4 elongated pads with rectangular slots, 9 round-triangular plaques with suspended movable rings (three rings are missing) and an oval-triangular buckle (rectangular shield is lost). Every listed item is made of white metal (silver). A floral ornament consisting of shamrocks (lotuses) is applied on the front side of all the buckles. Belt no. 3, which is also found in one of the Eshkakon burial grounds, consists of a buckle with a triangular frame and a pentagonal shield and 10 plaques of rounded triangular shape with suspended movable rings. Every item is made of bronze.

Results. The rich funerary inventory of the burials in which the belts were found and their comparison with complexes that include a similar belt headset from other regions, indicate that all three belts from the Stavropol State Museum-Reserve are attributes of the military aristocracy of the second half of the 8th – 9th centuries. Chronologically, belt no. 1 is the earliest. Belt no. 2 should be considered close in time. The latest is belt no. 3.