Openwork Composite Belt from a Partial Burial of the First Turkic Khaganate in Northern Altai
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.24852/2587-6112.2026.5.14.24Keywords:
archaeology, Altai, early Middle Ages, composite belt, First Turkic Khaganate, necropolis, chronology, burial riteAbstract
The article deals with the introduction into scientific discourse, analysis, and interpretation of an original composite belt discovered during the excavations of burial 52 at the Gorny-10 necropolis. At this site, located in the Krasnogorsk district of the Altai Krai, expeditions of the Altai State University and the Scientific Production Center "Nasledie" (Heritage) investigated 75 burials without mound dating to the beginning of the Early Middle Ages between 2000 and 2002. The Scientific Production Center "Heritage" in 2000–2002 studied 75 burials without mounds of the early Middle Ages. A study of the undisturbed grave revealed an extraordinary rite: the burial of an adult human head, while observing all established burial traditions (a standard burial pit, a set of grave goods, placement of objects, etc.). Analysis of the artifacts allows for dating this object to the second half of the 6th to the mid-7th centuries AD and classify it as one of the relatively few assemblages from the era of the First Turkic Khaganate. This chronological interpretation is based on the results of an analysis of an original composite belt, which included 13 openwork belt buckles with pins. The presence of this belt in the material culture of the population that left the Gorny-10 necropolis indirectly indicates their interaction with the early Turkic tribes in the mid – 1st millennium AD.
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