Bronze plaques and pendants from women's burials of the Staroaley culture

The largest series of bronze looped belt plaques and pendants for the Upper Ob region was found in the monuments of the Staroaley culture. In male graves, looped plaques were usually part of belt sets. In female burials, they were found separately and in compact clusters. A study of women's burials showed that single looped plaques were decorations for headdresses and other parts of the costume. Complexes of plaques and plates in women's graves served as pendants for costumes or bags. They could act as "noisy" pendants. In the costume of women of the Staroaley culture, looped plaques are used for purposes other than their original purpose. This indicates a transformation of traditions associated with the use of prestigious status items characteristic of Scythian cultures. In the system of traditions of the Staroaley population, a number of cultural features characteristic of the Scythian-Saka groups are of a peripheral - derivative nature. When studying the accumulations of bronze plaques and pendants, two main directions of connections are distinguished: northern and southern. The Staroaley culture is the southernmost enclave of cultural formations that combine the features of the southern taiga complex of cultures and traditions of the Scythian-Saka area. The southern direction of contacts is associated with the population of Tuva of the Scythian-Saka period. The question of the origin of looped belt plaques remains debatable. Numerous finds of such items are known, as well as a stable tradition of their use in belt sets of a special type in the provinces of Gansu, Inner Mongolia and adjacent territories. This gives good reason to consider these regions within the zone where the main area of existence of looped plaques-onlays was formed.

Bronze · Bronze Age · Inner mongolia · Population · Ancient and Medieval Archaeology Studies · Eurasian Exchange Networks · Mineralogy and Gemology Studies