Traditional Costume in the System of Symbolic Representation of Power of Eurasian Nomads in the First Half of the First Millennium
The article is dedicated to the research of the traditional costume in potestary culture of the Eurasian nomads of the Hunnic and post-Hunnic periods; of social and normative value and representative capabilities of the costume specific elements in the system of power symbolics. The purpose of the study is the costume analysis as the codification of power symbols among nomads. Most of the characters were on the suit in the upper part of the human body: on the head, neck, chest, and belt. In this regard, to achieve the goal, authors decided the following tasks: to analyze the hairstyle; key elements of traditional costume (tiaras, colts, earrings, special women's necklaces); the belt. The potestary imagology methods were employed to solve the issue. The period is characterized by migration process activation, which led to an active interaction of various tribes of origin and separation of elite groups, claiming the high inter-tribal and in-tra-tribal status. These processes resulted in formation of the developed potestary symbolics. The records of archeological sites of Hun-nic-Sarmatian and post-Hunnic periods at Oglakhty, Tugozvonovo, Burabay, Morskoy Chulek etc.; fresco paintings recorded in Pen-dzhkent, Afrasiab and 'Maya cave' near Kuchi; texts of Old Turkic runic momuments - Tesin stela, Bugut stela etc.; data of Chinese chronic - Houhanshu, Beishi, Veishu, Suishu resources were used. As the result of the undertaken research the authors came to the following conclusions: at Hunnic and post-Hunnic periods in the nomad environment a costume was extensively used for representation of the authorities. Firstly, researchers have revealed a wide variety of hairstyles among nomads: braids, aydars (man's braid), shaving on the head, the formation of complex hairstyles that combined with the headdress (this was characteristic more for women). Thus, the hairstyle showed the ethnic characteristic, the social and sex-age positions of the individual. Secondly, research materials show that the key elements of the traditional costume in the first Hunnish stage were diadems, colts and earrings. At the second Hunnish stage, the list included special female necklaces. Finally, the authors found that the term "golden belt" includes the semiotic essence of gold (the phenomenon of the natural world) and the belt (the phenomenon of the cultural world). Within the elite culture of the highlighted chronological periods some dynamics is viewed, a distinct geographical referencing is noticed; Eastern European nomads were closely connected with Byzantium; the Central Asian tribes extended the Sogdian and Sasanian links; at the Inner Asia the nomads were oriented to China.