Issues of social interpretation of the burialswith samland belts of the roman period from the Dollkeim-Kovrovo culture region

The paper discusses the issues related to interpretation of female openworkSamland belt sets (fig. 3, 1) of the Dollkeim-Kovrovo/Sambian-Natangian culture of theearly Roman period as a marker of social status. The group of the burials with such beltsdiffers from similar burials in the quantity and quality of burial offering sets (tab. 1); thesize and structure of the burials (fig. 1-2, diagram 1). The openwork decoration of thebelt sets is associated with a metalworking technique known as opus interrasile, it findsanalogies among artifacts coming from the Roman provinces and Central Europe (fig. 3, 1).The set with Samland belts includes mass-produced Roman imported goods, imitations ofprestige items typical for elites of the Central and Western European cultures (fig. 3, 2-5).The concentration of finds of the openwork belt sets coincides with the groups of sitesin the Kaliningrad Peninsula, which are located in the places where amber was collectedand extracted (fig. 4). The Samland belts can be viewed as one of local symbols of groupidentity and attribution to social groups, which administered the functions of distributionand exchange in the amber trade system.