COSTUMES AND RANK

The sheer quantity of bronze objects from the graves of the Koban culture has enabled some important patterns of female and male costume usage to be determined.These can, in turn, be used to draw inferences about gender roles and the construction of social identity both within and between sites.32 Central Chechnia, in particular the Serzhen-Yurt and Mairtup cemeteries, provide some meaningful insights into pre-Scythian female costumes. More than 100 burials were excavated at Serzhen-Yurt, and collectively they have yielded a rich assemblage of bronze items. In her analysis, Reinhold noted three levels of burial costumes, based primarily on a presence/absence combination of three bronze artefact types: artificial plaits worn around the head, temple-rings, and bracelets.The most visible and symbolic dress had all three pieces, while the next had both temple-rings and bracelets; the third level of visibility had either temple-rings or bracelets.This code of dress has been interpreted as the visible expression of strict social norms, extending more than some 300 years. Essentially, the way a woman was dressed for burial displayed her standing in the community, a rank defined by age, wealth or even perhaps marital status.The nearby site of Mairtup 2 attested similar combinations of costume gear. Further afield, at Tli and Koban, artificial plaits were not used. Instead, in that central mountainous region, most women were buried with leg-rings and bracelets, often in combination with other items. The Kislovodsk region had its own costume, defined by neck rings, pins, and bracelets.

By the later Iron Age, reflected well by the cemetery at Lugovoe, Scythian influence had a noticeable effect on female costume.While the accessories a woman wore were now more varied, some tombs stand out for their richness – large ornamented belt buckles, temple-rings, and, to judge by the numerous beads, elaborately embroidered garments were amongst the finds. Similar patterns of change can be observed at other sites in Chechnia and in the region of Kislovodsk, but not at Koban and Tli, where change is typological rather than a matter of scale.These changes in female costume provide insights into the transformation of community values. During the Late Bronze and Early Iron Age, women were buried in one of three types of costume – differentiated according to status – that displayed little variation within each category.This ‘corporate’ image can be detected across regions in the northern Caucasus, each with its own version of funerary attire. Overall, we are dealing with a conservative period during which there were strict codes of dress. In the Late Iron Age, on the other hand, no regionally specific costume compositions can be detected from the Caspian to the Black seas, but sharp peaks in individual display and wealth are discernible.

32 Reinhold 2003, 2005a, 2005b.

burials were single.35 Although not common, tombs with more than one skeleton, such as Tomb 398, often contained the skeletal remains of a child or two. Graves at Tli were closely packed, and at times overlap, but the lack of a full spatial plan of the necropolis makes it difficult to comprehend the relational situation of the tombs.

Tekhov maintains that at Tli graves were superimposed in three layers, suggesting a chronological evolution.36 Tomb types were mainly earthen pit graves roofed with stone slabs, or stone cist chambers (Figure 9.3(2, 4)).The deceased were placed in foetal position, head pointing north, surrounded by grave furnishings and almost always on their right sides.About 4 per cent of individuals were laid to rest on their left sides in Tekhov’s stage D (Koban Phase B), but this increased markedly to 26 per cent in Koban Phase E.37 Many of the tombs were disturbed in antiquity, not through looting, but as part of the mortuary practice of re-use. Only a few graves remained totally intact.38 A remarkable phenomenon in Tli is the treatment of disturbed graves. It appears that to create space for new burials, the bones of earlier skeletons were collected and carefully positioned in one corner of the tomb.An effort was made to articulate the piles of bones, which were probably wrapped.The grave goods were rich, mostly weapons and jewellery, with a very few ceramic vessels only in the earliest phase.39

Several chronological schemes have been proposed for the Tli cemetery. Tekhov divides the sequence into six phases stretching from 1600 BC to around 600/500 BC. Tekhov’s scheme is anchored on south Caucasian parallels, which themselves are not always secure. Using Tomb 85 as an anchor, Georg Kossack proposed a scheme that placed the beginning of Tli around 1400 BC.40 He also maintained that the earliest Scythian objects appeared earlier in the northern Caucasus than had hitherto been thought.Alexander Pruss first attempted a seriation analysis of artefact types. He questions the notion of continuity at Tli, though he appears to have ignored the nature of the burials and the purpose of the pile of bones.

35In describing the quantity of individuals buried, I follow the terminology set out by Sprague (2005). Cf. Reinhold (2007), who describes tombs with six individuals as collective.

36Unfortunately, no photographs or stratigraphic sections have been published. Tekhov 1977: 63.

37Reinhold 2007: 178.

38Tekhov 1980: pl. 121; 2002: figs 1–6, 9, 21–6, 38–47, 58–65, 77–90.

39Pruss (1993) suggests that the tombs opened in the nineteenth century probably belonged to the earliest phase.

40Kossack’s (1983) scheme is as follows: Tli A (ca. 1400–1100 BC),Tli B (ca. 1100–1000/

950 BC), Tli C, comprising two phases (1000/950–800/750 BC), Tli D, comprising two phases (800/750–600/650 BC). See also Reinhold’s (2007) comprehensive scheme.