Belts with rhombik elements (based on the materials of the Mazunino cemeteries in Udmurt Kama region)

The paper presents a summary of the Mazunino era graves in Udmurt Kama region which contained belt sets decorated by small bronze rhombic plates. Belts, decorated with such plates, come from 28 burials of the Bobya-Uchinsky, Dubrovsky, Pokrovsky, Tarasovsky, Turayevo I, Ust-Sarapulsky, and Chepanihinsky cemeteries. The characteristic elements of funeral rite of those tombs, the demographic structure of the dead, the completeness and quantitative indicators of belts are analyzed. A definite relationship between the functional use of plates and a buried person's gender is found: in men's graves, they were a part of the belt sets, decorated horse harness or were included in sacrificial complex, whereas in women's graves they always decorated belts. Morphological changes of rhombic plates are shown for the period since the middle of the 1 st millennium ВС until the middle of the 1 st millennium AD. The tradition of using rhombic plates (from jewelry headdress and clothing, including belts, to the exclusive use of such a plate as a belt) is presented.