Обкованите с метал колани като мода и/или инсигния в Първото българско царство
Belts with metal mounts: a fashion and/or isignia in the First Bulgarian kingdom

Summary/Abstract: The article summarises research works on the old Bulgarian belts (7th–11th centuries) issued within more than a century and presenting a relatively authentic classification in four groups, based on their metal fittings.The first group consists of belts with vertical hanging straps. Their fittings consist of a buckle, a strapend and mounts on the front of the leather belt. Characteristic are the vertical, relatively short and narrow straps hanging in front, again with metal strapends. Representatives of the group are the Second belt set from Madara, made of gold (Figs. 1, 1–2) and the mount from Vetren (Figs. 1, 3), which are dated to the 7th–8th centuries.The second group comprises the multi-part belts, consisting of a buckle, strapend and mounts-appliqués. These are insignia of rank in the pagan 8th-to-9th-century society, represented by the sets found in graves near Kabiyuk, Shumen region (Fig. 2), in the residential quarter of Divdyadovo in Shumen, (Fig. 3) and in Gledachevo, Radnevo region (Fig. 4). ). Made of silver, some with gilding, they are associated with the sets from the gold treasures found at Vrap and Erseke in Albania.The third group is represented by two-part belts with a buckle and a strapend, two mounts-appliqués for the sword belts. Representatives of these belts are grave finds from gold – the First belt set from Madara dating from the 9th century (Figs. 6, 1–3) and the set from the stone sarcophagus at the Great Basilica in Pliska from the 10th century (Figs. 6, 5–6). This is a belt model known in early Byzantium in the 6th–7th centuries.The fourth group consists of belts with a buckle and strapend and a dense row of appliqués mounted along the entire length of the strap. They are made of various copper alloys, often with a tin coating and ornamental decoration in the so-called post-Sassanian style (Figs. 8–10). Among the completely preserved sets we will note the belt discovered in the old Bulgarian settlement near the village of Krivina, Ruse region (Fig. 7). Several other partially preserved sets found in an archaeological context are known. Centres for the production of belt fittings have also been studied, all within the area of Veliki Preslav. These belts are similar to the belts of the medieval Hungarians from the time of the conquest of the Fatherland. However, they were no longer insignia, but a fashion that had penetrated and was very widespread in the old Bulgarian society from the end of the 9th – the beginning of the 10th to the beginning of the 11th century.

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