Stone Pendant with the Series of Tamgas from Zuevy Klyuchi I Hillfort
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.24852/2587-6112.2026.2.342.349Keywords:
archaeology, tamgas, stone pendants with tamga series, Middle Sarmatian culture, trading partners or allies in the forest and forest-steppe zones, Pyany Bor culture, contact zones of nomads and farmers, the role of 1-2 influential clans, I–II centuriesAbstract
The paper analyzes a semi-oval pendant made of сretaceous limestone which was discovered in 1971 in the destroyed layer attributed to the Piany Bor culture. The artifact bears at least nine tamgas of Sarmatian types. Identifiable signs are associated with early Alanic groups of the Lower Don and Northern Azov regions dating to the turn of the I–II centuries AD. An analogy to this artifact is a pendant from a I century dwelling near Syrskoe hillfort near Lipetsk. Another object of this group is a jet pendant on the wrist of the leader of the Sarmatian military group in Chertovitskoe I necropolis, where almost all tamgas belong to the Sarmatians of the Upper Don. A large, main tamga is known on the eastern periphery of the Bosporus on the pendants made of soft limestone. They were the phenomenon of the culture of the borderland of the Middle Sarmatian culture nomads and the sedentary tribes of the forest–steppe and the forest zones of the middle I – middle II centiries, distinctive marker of agreements reflecting alliances of the local Sarmatian groups or (Zuevy Klyuchi I) those related to the lucrative fur trade. The author comes to the conclusion that these were amulets or memorial items demonstrating the role of one or two clans within a broader collective agreement.
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