Differentiation of the Clothing Inventory by Sex and Age Based on Materials from Funerary Sites Found in the Upper Obi Region Dated by the Second Half of the First Millennium BC.

Abstract

The author addresses the features of differentiation by sex and age of the clothing inventory based on the materials from funerary sites found in the Upper Ob’ Region and dated by the Early Iron Age. The paper is mainly based on the materials from the sites of the Bolsherechenskaya cultural and historical community of the 8th (7th)—3rd (2nd) centuries BC. The author studies the clothing inventory from 136 burials. The analysis reveals a rather motley picture of sex and age differentiation of jewelry worn by the Upper Ob’ Region population in the Early Iron Age, indicating absence of uniformity in the design of funerary costume. It was not possible to trace any standard sets of jewelry for individual age and sex groups of the population of the Upper Ob’ basin in the Early Iron Age. Absence of any canon in the design of the funerary costume contributed to its individualization. Changes in the quantitative and qualitative composition of the clothing inventory of the Upper Ob’ basin population in the second half of the 1st millennium BC is explained, in our opinion, by a change in the vital statuses of individuals. Conventionally, we can distinguish three periods of changes in the ensemble of the costume: child’s to juvenile, juvenile to adult, and then adult to senile one. This process was individual, depending on the life history of a particular person.