Headdresses as symbols of high social status (based on Near Eastern materials of the early metals period)

The article is focused on the archaeological finds of headdress details made of metals. The diadems in the shape of long narrow bands appeared in the Near East in the second half of the 4th millennium BC. In the 3rd millennium BC other types of head ornaments were introduced, among them oval and rhomboidal frontlets and elaborate constructions with additional details. The corresponding finds are considered as markers of high social position related with the process of formation of elite groups in pre-state and early state societies in Mesopotamia and Anatolia.