LOCAL AND INTERREGIONAL TYPES OF BEADS FROM LATE SARMATIAN FEMALE BURIALS IN THE STEPPE OF EASTERN EUROPE

Abstract

The most numerous category of finds among the funeral utensils in the Late Sarmatian female burials are the beads. Despite the mass and standardization, their potential as the dependable markers of date and location is still not developed completely. So one of the promising directions is to identify the zones of geographical distribution of the types of beads, that is, the selection of local and interregional types.
 The data base of the study consisted of 38 Late Sarmatian burials containing more than 7050 beads.
 At the first stage, a series of types of beads were classified according to the informative degree. Thus 39 types (found only in one buried) were considered poor informative. Other 56 types are considered well informative, because they were found in two or more burials.
 In the second stage, among 56 informative types,17 local markers (those found in two or more graves from one geographic region) were identified. All assemblages were dated according the dates of burials where they have been discovered.
 In the third stage, the remaining 39 informative types have been identified as interregional (those found in two or more graves from the territories of two or more regions of the studied range of distribution of the Late Sarmatian culture). They were also dated according the dates of burials. Thus, the result of the study is the selection of local and interregional markers of Late Sarmatian female burials from the territory of the steppe of Eastern Europe.