Female Ornaments of the Xiongnu-xianbei Age from Ulug-choltukh, the Edigan River Valley, Gorny Altai1

ARCHAEOLOGY,

ETHNOLOGY

& ANTHROPOLOGY

OF EURASIA

Archaeology Ethnology & Anthropology of Eurasia 42/1 (2014) 107–114

E-mail: [email protected]

© 2014, Siberian Branch of Russian Academy of Sciences, Institute of Archaeology and Ethnography of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.aeae.2014.10.010

107

Introduction

In traditional cultures ornaments constitute an essential part of the female attire. They were quite common in ancient and medieval nomadic societies of the Eurasian steppes, marking ethnicity, social status, and age. Apart from their artistic and semantic value, ornaments played a magical (apotropaic) role being protective with regard to childbirth. Some metal items (for instance those made of silver) have bactericidal properties, and therefore were broadly used as amulets in traditional cultures of ancient and medieval populations (Hudiakov, 1996: 27; Hudiakov, Borisenko, 2003: 103–104). Decorations used in headgear and hairdos as well as worn at the ears and neck constitute a special group of adornments (Mikhailova, 2005: 75–90).

*This study represents part of the project X.100.2.2, “The Altai-Sayan Highland from the Bronze Age Through the Middle Ages. Section 2: The Xiongnu Age.”

Y.S. Hudiakov1Institute of Archaeology and Ethnography,

Siberian Branch, Russian Academy of Sciences,Pr. Akademika Lavrentieva 17, Novosibirsk, 630090, Russia

E-mail: [email protected]

FEMALE ORNAMENTS OF THE XIONGNU-XIANBEI AGE FROM ULUG-CHOLTUKH, THE EDIGAN RIVER VALLEY,

GORNY ALTAI*

Head and neck ornaments from mid-1st millennium AD nomadic (Airydash type) female burials at Ulug-Choltukh on the Edigan River (right tributary of the Katun) in Gorny Altai are described. Certain women were buried with a rich set of head ornaments, which included bronze and iron plates, pendants, beads, and plaques of various sizes. The decoration of shawls, plaits, ear-rings, and necklaces is reconstructed based on the analysis of these artifacts. Different types of ornament sets may have been worn by women of various ages.

Keywords: Female ornaments, headgear, hairdo, necklace, Xiongnu-Xianbei period, Edigan River, Gorny Altai.

Researchers who studied the ornamentation in the female headgear of certain Turkic peoples of Eurasia pointed out that they retain original patterns normally not encountered in the ornamentation used in other garments. It is generally accepted that headgear played an especially important semantic role in the wedding rituals of the Eurasian nomads. In certain Turkic societies, a richly decorated headgear symbolized marriage and was thought to secure healthy offspring (Davletshina, 2006: 37). In ancient and medieval times, the nomads of the Altai-Sayan and the entire Central Asian historical-cultural region used various types of female adornments to decorate the head and neck.

Archaeologists and ethnologists have repeatedly addressed the question of female headgear, the remains of which have been discovered in burial sites of Siberia (Okladnikova, 1995: 171, 174, 176). Head adornments (bands, plates, crowns, plait decorations, ear-rings, and temple pendants) of many indigenous peoples of North Asia including the Sayan-Altai have been analyzed

THE METAL AGES AND MEDIEVAL PERIOD

108 Y.S. Hudiakov / Archaeology, Ethnology and Anthropology of Eurasia 42/1 (2014) 107–114

(Mikhailova, 2005: 64–73) and in some cases, female headgear was reconstructed.

Forehead decorations consisting of metal plates and pendants were found at the late medieval Selkup burial site of Migalka in the Middle Ob. Based on these nds, the Selkup (the Samoyed people living in the taiga regions of the Middle Ob in the Middle Ages) set of female headgear adornments was reconstructed (Chindina, 1995: 180–183).

Description of the ornaments

Burials of female nomads of the Xiongnu-Xianbei age at Ulug-Choltukh on the Yedigan, the right tributary of the middle Katun, Gorny Altai, was found to contain diverse fasteners for headgear, coiffure, and necklaces. Previously, researchers from the Institute of Archaeology and Ethnography SB RAS (Novosibirsk) excavated several female burials at the same site that contained metal and stone decorations. Most were located near the skull

and cervical vertebrae of the buried women (Hudiakov, 2003, 2005, 2007, 2009; Borisenko, Hudiakov, 2008).

The burials were overlaid with at oval slabs made of rock debris. These oval mounds measure from 2 m by 1 m to 3 m by 2 m; height, 0.1 m. The bodies of the deceased were placed in rectangular graves 0.8–1.1 m deep with their long axis running E–W. In most graves, stone slabs were placed along the walls, forming open cists. Some graves contained the remains of decayed wooden frames and ceilings. Skeletons of adult women and girls of various ages lay on the oor of the graves. Normally, just one female corpse was placed in a grave. Only in rare cases was a female skeleton found in the same grave with a male or child’s remains. Judging by the position of the bones in the graves, women were placed on the oor of the grave in a stretched supine position with the head facing east or less often, turned to the west. Sometimes the faces of the deceased were intentionally turned toward the north, arms were exed, and one or both legs were slightly bent. In most burials, bronze and iron plates, plaques, hoops, pendants, and beads were located near the skull and cervical vertebrae. In some cases, pendants and buckles were found lying among chest and pelvic bones.

Based on the character of over-grave structures, the shape of burial pits, stone cists, wooden constructions, burial rite, and the composition and appearance of grave goods, the burials excavated at Ulug-Choltukh can be attributed to the Airydash type common to the Middle Katun area in the second half of the 1st millennium AD (Xiongnu-Xianbei period). A.S. Surazakov identi ed this type of site in the early 1990s on the basis of ndings from the Airydash burial ground located in the vicinity of Kuyus village in the Katun valley (1992: 96–97). Some researchers attribute such sites to the Kok-Pash type or the Kok-Pash group of sites (Elin, 1990; Bobrov, Vasyutin A.S., Vasyutin S.A., 2003: 33–34, 42–43). Other archaeologists associate all sites of the Xiongnu-Xianbei period in the Altai with the Bulan-Koba culture (Tishkin, Gorbunov, 2003: 137).

Artifacts recovered from several single female burials at Ulug-Choltukh (kurgans 15, 29, 38, 44 and 46 (Fig. 1–3)) make it possible to reconstruct the female head and neck sets of decorations.

Kurgan 15 contained a female burial with a set of head and neck ornaments. A curved bronze forehead plate was found near the frontal part of the skull. Both its ends have openings for the purpose of attaching the plate to a cloth base. A twisted hoop made from a bronze plate with holes at both ends and two bronze semispherical round plaques with apertures were discovered near the occiput and the cervical vertebrae. Two bronze cylindrical beads lay below them. A stone spherical disk with a round hole at the center was found on the left arm bones at the bend of the elbow (Fig. 4).

Fig. 1. Plans of female burials 38 and 44 at Ulug-Choltukh.

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Y.S. Hudiakov / Archaeology, Ethnology and Anthropology of Eurasia 42/1 (2014) 107–114 109

Fig. 2. Burial 38 at Ulug-Choltukh. Fig. 3. Burial 44 at Ulug-Choltukh.

Fig. 4. Ornament set from female burial, kurgan 15 at Ulug-Choltukh.

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Kurgan 29 contained a female burial with various head ornaments. Bronze plates with holes at the ends were found lying around the frontal and parietal parts of a heavily damaged skull. A curved rectangular plate – a forehead adornment with holes at both ends decorated with three lines of punched nodes – was located on the frontal bone. Long, narrow plates with holes at both ends lay under the skull. The end of one

of these plates was broken. Fragments of an iron curved plate with rounded ends were found behind the parietal part of the skull. A bronze ame-shaped plate with two holes and incisions over the external edge and a stone pendant with a hole and thin strap put through lay near the occiput. Musk deer canines with fastening holes and a heavily damaged horn comb decorated in a herringbone design were found over and under the




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facial bones. An iron hoop and a bronze pendant in the shape of a small, two-partite ball lled with leather lay near the skull (Fig. 5).

Kurgan 38 contained a burial of a young woman. A bronze curved forehead plate with holes running along the entire perimeter and the central part wound with leather was found on the skull. Bronze semispherical and double spherical plaques, cone-shaped bronze tubes with two-partite balls lled with leather, and a stone lobular pendant contoured the skull (Fig. 6).

In kurgan 44, an iron forehead plate, bronze plates, and semispherical plaques were found near the skull. Behind the parietal part, ten bronze hoops formed a line (Fig. 1, 3).

A large set of ornaments was discovered in association with a female burial in kurgan 46. The following bronze artifacts lay around the skull: hoops with holes, semispherical sewn-on plaques with holes, small tube-shaped pendants ended with two-partite balls lled with leather, curved plate, wire ring with a spiral-shaped end, and stone beads. A large bronze plaque with a spherical bulb in the center and a horn plate with protrusions at the ends and circular design on the external surface were discovered below the mandible and at the chest area. Several pendants and plaques lay close to the bones of the pelvis and the left leg (Fig. 7).

Several single female burials excavated in kurgans 39, 47 and 48 contained isolated female head ornaments, bronze and iron forehead plates, bronze pendants, plaques with a spherical bulb in the center, small plaques, and hoops. These artifacts are typologically similar to the head and neck ornaments found in other single female graves. The ornament sets differ only in detail. Unique artifacts were rarely found in female burials. In graves where women were buried together with men or children, ornaments are few or absent.

Kurgan 1 comprised a double burial of a man and a woman. The female skeleton was placed along the southern wall of the grave south of the male burial. A stone bead was found in the woman’s chest area; an iron ring lay under the pelvis, and an iron awl and bone tubes were located between the thigh bones.

In kurgan 23, a female skeleton was found in the center of the grave pit. Grave goods were absent. A complete child’s skeleton was located north of the woman, along the northern wall. Adornments and a belt buckle were discovered among the bones of the child skeleton. Near the left leg bones, the limb bones of another child were found.

Kurgan 37 contained skeletons of two men and one woman consequently buried one above another in a single grave. The woman’s body was placed in a supine position above the limb bones of the rst male, and her hands were clasped under the chin, as if in a gesture of adoration. Bronze and iron plaques and small rods likely

Fig. 8. Reconstruction of female head and neck ornamentation sets from Ulug-Choltukh.

1 – kurgan 15; 2 – kurgan 29; 3 – kurgan 38; 4 – kurgan 46.


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representing details of the headgear lay around the female skull. Another man was buried above.

Similar details enable us to reconstruct several sets of ornaments used to decorate the coiffure and neck area. Apparently, these served as markers of social status among the Xiangnu-Xiangbei nomads associated with Airydash-type sites.

The presence of a bone comb in one burial and open bronze hoops in most female burials suggests that women combed their long hair and plated it into one braid or made a knot on the back of the head that was fastened with bronze and sometimes iron hoops. From one to ten such hoops were used to x the hair. The woman from kurgan 15 wore one hoop in her hair (Fig. 8, 1). The woman from kurgan 29 had a plait decorated with a hoop, a ame-shaped pendant, and a bronze two-partite ball attached to the plait’s end (Fig. 8, 2). The plait of the woman from kurgan 38 was xed with two bronze hoops (Fig. 8, 3). Six hoops decorated the plait of the woman buried in kurgan 46 (Fig. 8, 4). The plait of the woman from kurgan 44 was xed with ten hoops – the largest number of such decorations in the cemetery. In all de nable cases, the hoop xed one plait or hair knot.

It is possible that women covered their combed and plaited hair with a textile shawl with a bronze or iron arch-shaped plate that served as a decoration and fastened the shawl to the head. In works describing the head ornaments of Selkup women a similar plate is called ochelie (Chindina, 1995: 181). The presence of holes on the plate suggests that this forehead decoration was xed or sewn to the frontal part of the shawl. Kurgan 29 contained two such artifacts: a bronze plate decorated with punched nodes, and an iron plate. Both plates were found lying on the skull of the buried woman. It is possible that the plates were adjusted to the shawl one after another and did not overlap. The ornamentation set of most shawls included bronze semispherical plaques. It can be hypothesized that these plaques decorated the shawl edges at both sides of the forehead plate. The shawl ornamentation set from kurgan 29 contained three long bronze plates with holes at the ends. It is hardly possible to reconstruct how these plates were attached to the shawl. Possibly, they were sewn-on the edges of the shawl hanging at the sides and back (Fig. 8, 1, 3, 4).

Such semispherical plaques are known as wide-spread sewn-on ornaments attached to silk shawls worn by women of the Bulan-Koba culture of Gorny Altai in the preceding historical period. Similar golden plaques were reported from the headgear of the mummi ed woman from the Ust-Edigan burial ground located in the same archaeological region as Ulug-Choltukh (Hudiakov, 1991: 63, 64; Khudjakov, 1995: Fig. 9, 10).

The forehead part of some shawls was additionally decorated with various pendants. The headgear of the woman from kurgan 29 was decorated with canines

supposedly belonging to musk deer. The set includes four such pendants with oval fastening holes. The position of the pendant suggests that they were attached to the shawl below the forehead plate (Fig. 8, 2). The female ornamentation sets from kurgans 38 and 46 include bronze pendants consisting of small tubes and two-partite balls hanging on leather straps (Fig. 8, 3, 4).The headgear ornamentation sets from kurgans 38, 39, 46 and 47 include from two to ten such pendants. The pendants were supposedly attached to the lower border of the forehead plate and hung down to the brows or even to the eyelashes.

Most female graves contain no ear-rings. Wire rings including one broken and one spiral-shaped ring from the female burial of kurgan 46 (Fig. 8, 4) might have been used as ear decorations.

Several large plaques, pendants, cylindrical and round beads were found near the head, neck, and chest of the buried women. These artifacts might have represented elements of jewelry worn at the neck. Two bronze cylindrical beads and a stone spherical disc with a round hole at the center (Fig. 8, 1) from the female burial of kurgan 15 can be interpreted as such. The female ornamentation set from kurgan 29 includes a stone pendant with two holes, one of which retained the remains of a leather strap. It is possible that the woman wore this strap with the pendant at her neck. In kurgan 38, a large stone bead with a ribbed surface most likely representing a neck pendant lay near the woman’s clavicle (Fig. 8, 3). A large bronze plaque with a spherical bulb at the center, two stone beads, and a horn plate with lateral protrusions and circular design (Fig. 8, 4) lay under the mandible of a woman found in kurgan 46. A similar bronze plaque with a spherical bulb and a hole at the center was found in a female burial of kurgan 47. In two graves, a stone spherical disc and a bronze plaque with a hole at the center lay on the left arm bones at the elbow area.

Discussion

Female ornaments from Ulug-Choltukh provide information about the ways in which the Airydash women decorated their heads. From the composition of female ornament sets from most excavated graves it may be inferred that the female nomads inhabiting the Edigan valley in the second quarter of the 1st millennium BC paid special attention to the decoration of their heads and hair. Women combed their hair and plaited it or made a knot at the back. The hair was then xed in place with one or several hoops. In some cases, the plait ends were decorated with pendants. The ornamented comb found under the skull of one of the buried women was likely used not only in combing the hair but also to x the hairdo


in place. The Airydash women covered their heads with shawls decorated with the forehead sewn-on plates and plaques of various types. Bronze pendants and animal canines were attached to the frontal part of the shawl. Women of the Airydash nomadic population rarely used ear ornaments. Only three artifacts made from twisted wire represent ear-rings. The set of female neck ornaments included large, round bronze and stone plaques, pendants, and beads of various types.

Ethnographic parallels suggest that Airydash females might have associated hair with fertility. The reconstructed sets of ornaments are typical of single burials of adult and young women of fertile age. Differences between ornament sets might indicate differences in age groups. In the traditional cultures of peoples inhabiting southern Siberia, the adornments worn by young girls differed from those of the adult married women (Mikhailova, 2005: 101). The “richest” sets might have belonged to young women who had passed away without marrying, their power of fertility being transmitted to other living tribeswomen.

The assumption that the revealed ornament set was only placed in the graves of young girls is supported by ethnographical materials. According to the data of the post-funeral rites of some indigenous peoples of northern Siberia, the ornaments intended for the wedding apparel were included in the set of grave goods (Ibid.: 26).

It is less clear why ornaments are few or absent in graves where females were buried together with males or children. Could these be married women whose children had repeatedly died? Was the absence of adornments supposed to put an end to the inherited unhealthy pattern? In the traditional cultures of some Turkic peoples of southern Siberia, the ornament set of senior women who were no longer able to give birth to healthy children was very poor. For instance, the ornament set of senior women in the Tuvinian culture consists of the minimal number of items similarly to that of the juveniles (Ibid.: 102). It is possible that the absence or scarcity of adornments testi es to the advanced age of the women buried at Ulug-Choltykh.

Conclusions

The ornament sets of many nomadic peoples of Siberia and Central Asia serve as indicators of wealth and social status, and the same may apply to the nomads who inhabited Gorny Altai during the Xiangnu-Xianbei age. However, unlike their predecessors, the Bulan-Koba people, the Airydash women appear not to have worn elite ornaments made of precious metals. In addition, at Ulug-Choltukh, in contrast to the situation at Ust-Edigan, which represents the Bulan-Koba culture, no large mounds or other markers of the elite were found.

Consequently, there is reason to believe that the observed variation across the ornament sets found at Ulug-Choltukh should indicate age differentiation rather than social or economic strati cation.

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Received October 9, 2013.Received in revised form November 27, 2013.

Documents

Female Ornaments of the Xiongnu-xianbei Age from Ulug-choltukh, the Edigan River Valley, Gorny Altai1