Belts And Buckles

Belts And Buckles

Belts and buckles have been used for clothing since the Bronze Age. Both sexes used them off and on, depending on the current fashion, but it was a rarity in female fashion with the exception of the early Middle Ages. During the 2nd and 3rd century B.C. the Chinese semi nomadic people known as the Xiongnu wore belt buckles over long Tunics. These belt buckles were highly decorated and were worn as a mark of status. Germanic invaders, imported animal motifs characteristic of Scythian-Sarmatian decorative arts for their belt and buckles. This decorative art often represented animals entwined in mortal combat. A fine example of a buckle of a heavy rectangular type decorated with filigree was found in the tomb of Childeric I, king of the Franks, who died in AD 481/482. Several 7th-century gold buckles with interlacing curvilinear patterns and cutaway tongues, now in the British Museum, London, were found in the Sutton Hoo ship burial.

Belts And Buckles