Prestige Goods as Markers of Network Relations of the Volga-Don Élites (from the 3rd c. BC to the Mid-3rd c. AD)

Ancient Civilizations from Scythia to Siberia. 2023. Vol. 29. No. 1. P. 38–85.

Мордвинцева В. И.

The article concerns the composition and the origin of prestige markers from burial contexts of the Volga-Don region in four chronological groups (3rd–2nd c. BC, 1st c. BC, 1st – mid-2nd c. AD, mid-2nd–mid-3rd c. AD). There was noticed certain ‘core features’ amoung male and female sets of prestige goods, which did not change with the time, as well as the changing elements in every period. By the origin, the prestige goods are divided in intra-cultural, cross-cultural, and external-cultural ones. The use of prestige goods of different origin at the funerals of the social elite members reflects the inclusion the societies in various contemporary networks. Thus, during the first period, there are noted connections of the elites of the Western Volga-Don subregion with the elites of the Northern Black Sea (mostly Lower Dnieper and Dniester regions) and Eastern Europe, while the elites of the Eastern subregion were focused on communication with nomadic communities of the Eurasian steppe belt (Siberia, Mongolia, Transbaikalia). In the second period, these interactions are generally persisted, while the links with elites of the Iranian world markedly intensified, particularly in the Eastern subregion. In the third period, the Volga-Don elites were predominantly oriented in the direction of Parfian Iran. In the fourth period, the network contacts of the barbarian elites of the region are noted mainly with the Bosporan kingdom.

Ключевые слова: сетевые связи, networks of interaction, нижнее Поволжье, Lower Volga region, Lower Don region, Нижний Дон, barbarian elites, prestige markers, элиты варваров, маркеры престижа