Although these items should perhaps be seen less as jewellery than as decorated functional items of clothing, they clearly served as part of the display of personal adornment and are justifiably included in this chapter. In the Hallstatt period most of the belts themselves were of leather, with hooks and sometimes decorative plates attached. The hooks on male belts were frequently in Iron, with minimal or no decoration, but bronze hooks often have geometric designs engraved on them. Perhaps the most spectacular belt decorations of this earlier Iron Age phase are the bronze belt-plates attached to broad leather belts, found mainly In female graves, with their rows of highly decorative stamped patterns, mostly geometric but some incorporating bird and flower motifs. These can reach widths of 20 cm, and though they are generally limited to the front part of the belt, and a length of up to 60 cm, there are examples which are much longer - one from Hallstatt itself Is over a metre long including the hook. In the late Hallstatt period there are also belts decorated with rows of bronze studs.
In La Tene I the most common belt ornament is a highly decorative, usually bronze, belt-hook, frequently openwork with a vegetal or animal design, such as the opposed animals at Somme-Bionne (Marne). Among belt-hooks from some of the rich graves in the middle Rhine there are also some extraordinarily ornate pieces with plastic, openwork and/or engraved designs and sometimes coral inlay, such as that from Weiskirchen. There also develops a series of belt-chains formed of bars with loops at either end, joined by link-rings, and less frequently plain chains.
In La Tene II and III the decorated belt-chain becomes much more widespread, and is worn by females from the Marne to Hungary. Though in some cases the chain is just a series of linked rings, in many there are decorated elements which involve the use of red enamel in patterned cut-out areas.
World History
