УДК902/904

EDN BJAWNV

 

Original article

 

Age Features of Wearing Jewelry by Mordovian Women during the Golden Horde Period (A Case Study of the Barbashinsky Grave Field)

 

Kozlov D. A.

 

Abstract

Introduction. Modern archaeological science has a large set of methodological and theoretical tools that allow us to examine the obtained material from different angles. One of these synthetic areas is social archeology. The study of archaeological excavation materials from a sociological point of view makes it possible to detect certain phenomena within the communities that left the cemetery. The consideration of Mordovian funerary monuments of the Golden Horde time is relevant due to the lack of works on this topic and the great prospects for such research.

Materials and methods. Based on the methodology of social archeology and statistical data based on the excavations of the Barbashinsky grave field in 1935 and 2011 — 2013, with the involvement of data on the Staroselsky grave field, the phenomena of the age distribution of various categories of ornaments of Mordovian women in the era of the Golden Horde are considered. To study the presence of such a phenomenon in the recent past, the data of ethnography, linguistics and folklore were used. When studying the most characteristic examples, the comparative method and the method of analogies were used.

Results and discussion. Consideration of statistical data made it possible to establish the regularities of the age distribution of jewelry among Mordovian women, to determine its existence both in the Golden Horde and ethnographic times in Mordovian society, and to identify the characteristic categories of jewelry for a certain age among Mordovian women throughout their lives. There is evidence of the existence of this in Mordovian folklore.

Conclusion. The revealed patterns make it possible to significantly clarify the time of existence of many categories of women’s jewelry of the XIII — XIV centuries, lay the foundation for studying the evolution of material culture, the development of Mordovian society at that time. The facts obtained in the study need to be clarified on a broader factual and ethnic basis.

Keywords: social archeology, Mordovians, Golden Horde, jewelry, Barbashinsky grave field, Staroselsky grave field

Financing: This study was supported by grant from the Russian Science Foundation, agreement No. 22-28-20314 “Ethnogenesis of the Peoples of the Western Volga Region in the Middle Ages”.

Acknowledgments: the author expresses his gratitude to E. V. Chetvertakov for the opportunity to use the excavation results of the Staroselsky grave field, as well as D. A. Stashenkov and A. F. Kochkina for help and assistance in the work on the material collection from the excavations of the Barbashinsky grave field in 1935.

For citation: Kozlov DA. Age Features of Wearing Jewelry by Mordovian Women during the Golden Horde Period (A Case Study of the Barbashinsky Grave Field). Bulletin of the Research Institute of the Humanities by the Government of the Republic of Mordovia. 2024;16;(2):142—160. EDN BJAWNV

 

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The article was submitted 31.08.2023; approved after reviewing 22.11.2023; accepted for publication 29.11.2023.

 

Information about the author:

Dmitry A. Kozlov, Postgraduate Student of the Department of Archaeology of the Scientific Research Institute of the Humanities by the Government of the Republic of Mordovia (3 L. Tolstogo Str., Saransk 430005, Russia), demetriy87@gmail.com

 

Conflict of interest: the author declares no conflict of interest.

 

The author has read and approved the final version of the manuscript.