Jewellery of Pastyrske Circle among Materials of Saltiv Culture: Data Analysis

Abstract

In the paper, jewellery from sites and assemblages of the Saltiv culture, which do not chronologically fit within the boundaries of its existence, are considered. In the article the jewellery characteristic of the Pastyrske hillfort is analysed (group II, subgroup 2). It is represented by two burial complexes and two hoards. Sukha Homilsha cemetery 1 was investigated by V. K. Mikhiev. Burial no. 29 (fig. 1) contained a medallion pendant similar to finds from Pastyrske hoard of 1949 and a number of other assemblages from the second half of the 7th to the first half of the 8th centuries. Burial date: late 8th — early 9th centuries. Staryi Saltiv cemetery was investigated by V. H. Borodulin and V. K. Mikheev. In catacomb no. 21 (fig. 3) in a female burial was found anthropozoomorphic fibula — type VI-D according to O. M. Prykhodniuk or type II.1 according to V. Rodinkova. The date of the burial is debatable: V. S. Aksionov dates it within the boundaries of 750—770, while O. V. Komar believes that it belongs to the Middle Saltiv horizon II, that is, from 790s. Varvarivka hoard discovered in 2017. The complex includes: tools associated with metalworking, handicraft products for general purposes and for the processing of organic raw materials, household items. Bronze items are divided into three groups: armour details (?), raw materials and jewellery. A fibula, similar to the find from catacomb no. 21 of the Staryi Saltiv cemetery, belongs to the items of the Pastyrske circle. Khorosheve hoard discovered in 2021. The asssemblage includes: implement for working with metal, raw materials and weapons. The rest of the items are bronze jewellery, most of which belong to the Pastyrske circle: one earring and three fibulae. All the considered monuments of the Saltiv culture with finds of jewellery from Pastyrske hillfort are concentrated in the Siverskyi Donets basin. The main stage of their existence is defined within the chronological boundaries of the Pastyrske hillfort existence — the middle of the 7th — the middle of the 8th centuries. Two hoards of the Pastyrske circle are known in this region — Zaitsiv and Korobovi Khutory. Archaeological finds of fibulae and an earring of this circle were also revealed in this region. These data indicate that the Slavic population with significant cultural and trade ties with Pastyrske hillfort lived in the Siverskyi Donets basin during the second half of the 7th — the first half of the 8th centuries. The chronology of burial no. 29 of the Sukha Homilsha cemetery differs from the chronology of the existence of the round pendant by at least half a century (table 1). The chronology of the hoards from Varvarivka and Khorosheve is embedded in the general boundaries of the Saltiv culture existence: from 740—750 — the first decades of the 10th century. The chronology of the female burial from catacomb no. 21 of the Staryi Saltiv cemetery is debatable: 750—770 or from the 790s. An analysis of items belonging to the Pastyrske circle from the sites and assemblages of the Saltiv culture indicates that these adornments could have been reused. They do not necessarily indicate the contacts of the Slavic population with the inhabitants of the Khazar Khaganate.