A Nyíregyházi Jósa András Múzeum évkönyve 44. (Nyíregyháza, 2002)

Régészet - Igor Gavritukhin: On the study of double-plate fibulas of the first subgroup

On the study of double-plate fibulas of the first subgroup indicator N 9, GEI-BAZHAN 1997. chronological indicator N 21 - with further references). The nearest analogies to the second fibula (fig. 8: 32) are known in the region of Thessaloniki, where this object could have been brought, according to Kazanski, during the migrations of Goths at the end of the 4

th c (KAZANSKI 1991. 14, 25), and in the archaeological sites and burials of Maslom^cz Group, situated near the Upper Western Bug, where such objects are dated in the framework "of the final stage of Late Roman Period and the beginning of the Migration Period" (KOKOWSKI 1991. 129, 141, 143). Fibulas with such wide (up to 10 mm) plane bows are typical for the sites of the final stage of Cherniakhov culture; they close the evolutionary line of Cherniakhov two-piece fibulas with inverted foot (GOROKHOVSKI 1988A. characteristic N 50; GAVRITUKHIN-OBLOMSKI in print). The copious engraving, which is not characteristic for P-shaped fibulas with inverted foot of the final phase of the Late Roman Period, also speaks in favour of dating them to the Hun Age. In grave 4, a large double-plate fibula was found (fig. 8: 31), and proof of its attribution as an object of the Hun Age will be given below. Thus the assemblage of graves in burial chamber 421 in Skalistoe, based on the dates of the graves situated near the walls and connected with the beginning of the existence of the burial chamber, is dated to the Hun Age. This is supported by the general consideration according to which cemeteries Skalistoe and Luchistoe were founded in the Hun Age by the same population that earlier had buried their dead at the cemeteries Druzhnoe and Neusatz (KHRAPUNOV-MULD 1997., AIBABIN-HAIREDINOVA 1998. 309). Fibulas of Gródek series are not found in the dated assemblages, but their stylistic affinity with Crimean fibulas, (taking into account the connections of these regions, which are proved, for example, by the fibulas with inverted foot and with a knob on the head), allows us to synchronise these variations. The assemblage in Skalistoe, in all probability, defines the upper chronological border of existence of the objects in question, and the affinity of their shape to archaic variants of Gavrilovka series, variant Petresti and variations Odobescu, allows us to put the lower chronological border of existence of these objects in the middle of the 4

th c. The majority of Crimean (or in wider sense: the North Pontic) double-plate fibulas are represented by the objects with lengthened foot. It is possible to mark as their prototypes the fibulas of the North Pontic region with rather narrow foot, which are close to the "archaic" variants described above (fig. 9: 17, 8: 36 - cf. fig. 1: 1, 6: 30 etc., map 2: 6). The lack of materials prevents us from understanding completely the interrelations of these fibula series, but it is possible to speak about the specific lines of evolution of the objects of this circle. The most expressive and numerous are the double-spring fibulas of the North Pontic region. Among the finds for which the necessary information is accessible, the Kerch-Ranzhevoe series, with a non-wide and non-short foot and a post for the spring, designed for two springs and upper string, is represented on a mass scale. Such objects are found (map 5:7 + 3) in Kerch (fig. 9: 9, 15, 11: 10-11), Southwest Crimea (fig. 10: 18), and also in the zone from the Black Sea Coast up to southern edge of the forest-steppe of the Dnieper Basin region and to the region of the Southern Bug (fig. 10: 29, 31-32, 11: 8-9, 15-16). The Crimean fibulas are most various from a stylistic point of view and form a typological line: from the objects which imitate the shape of the fibulas of the "archaic" horizon (fig. 9: 15) up to the ones which are characterised by a foot designed in the shape of an extended rhombus (the length of this rhombus notably exceeds the half of fibula's length), and by a short bow (fig. 10: 18). The variants that are more northern are more standard in their design and style: the finds which were made