Married woman’s belt (Jakičar), Herzegovina

Belt for a married woman ('Jakičar'), made of a stiff broad triple layer of hide, ornamented at the front with three rows of carnelians, 41 in all, in beaded brass settings, the back ornamented with pierced brass plaques attached with large round-headed brass rivets with a triple row of smaller white metal rivets above and below. The end piece is a plain single layer of leather. At the right side a pendant openwork brass disc set with a further round carnelian and rosettes round the edge (one missing); at the left side the clasp in the form of a further openwork brass disc with square carnelian attaching to a short length of chain formed of two double loops. One of two similar belts, see also Eu1914,0619.4b.

A label with the two belts in a later hand but clearly information from donor reads: 'Herzegovian belt. Bought in Raguse - 1903. 28/ These belts formed part of a married woman's wedding outfit. They were worn in the Herzegovina, the Krivoshia, and in the Herzegovian side of Montenegro till about 25 or 30 years ago. People remember seeing their grandmothers wear them. The last place where they were worn was I believe Kraka-a-slay [?] 'island' near Scutari Albania where - for feast days - they have only just died out.'
Edith Durham described the elaborate rituals of a Montenegrin wedding in 'Tribal Origins, Laws and Customs of the Balkans, London 1928, p. 207: 'Svatori (men who come to fetch the bride) go to the bride's home and join in a feast. After the feast the two Djervi (bride-leaders, usually uncle or brother of the bridegroom) went into the room where the bride was and gave her a new pair of sandals which she put on. The women of the house veiled her face and put a woman's belt on her (leather, set with cornelians or silver filigree. Her hair was plaited in two long tails). The djervi then escort the bride to the bridegroom's home usually at some distance (the Balkan tribes being exogamous), and the marriage ceremony takes place there.' Durham stresses the antiquity of of these cermonies, noting that many have their origins in the classical Rome.
For a similar belt in the Ethnographic Museum, Belgrade, inv. 2813, described as from Bosnia-Herzegovina, see Jelena Tesic, 'Bridal Jewellery among Serbs in the XIX and first half of the XX Century', exhibition catalogue, Belgrade 2003, p. 81. A similar belt is displayed in the same museum on a 19th century costume from Lijeva, Rijeka, Montenegro. For another example described as from Crna Gora, Montenegro, see 'Narodna Umetnost Jugoslavije', Belgrade 1980, pl. 26. See also N. Pantelić, 'Traditional Arts and Crafts in Yugoslavia', Belgrade 1984, fig. 38, p. 38, for a belt of this type described as a 'Jakičar', worn in the 18th and 19th centuries in the mountainous part of Montenegro and the neighbouring areas of Serbia and Herzegovina. According to Pantelić the type derives from ancient Illyrian culture. See also N.M. Kalashnikova, 'The collection of Belts in the Russian Museum of Ethnography', St Petersburg 2014, p. 257, for a 19th century example from Monternegro.
See also Rupert Bruce-Mitford 's account of the discovery of the Hamworthy 'helmet' in 'Aspects of Anglo-Saxon Archaeology', London 1974, pp. 246-9. This discovery made in Dorset in 1932 consisted of fragments of leather strengthened with metal bands and studded with carnelians. Initially, they were cautiously accepted as fragments of a late Roman/early medieval helmet. Some years later, T.D. Kendrick, then Keeper of British and Medieval Antiquities, saw this belt on a trolley and realised at once that the Hamworthy 'helmet' fragments were part of a Montenegrin wedding belt. Bruce-Mitford found this fascinating because he saw the same illustration of survival since Roman times in Balkan traditional ornament, as could be seen in the modern traditional arts of Scandinavia and medieval ornament of the Viking period. Bruce-Mitford also gives an informative description of the belt:
'It is made of leather , consisting of one extremely long strip of hide folded and doubled back along itself. It is ornamented with forty-two large cornelians and fourteen pierced openwork plates. The fold where this long strip of hide is bent back on itself forms one end of the belt. Extra thickness is obtained by filling in with a number of shorter lengths of leather between the two portions of the main length. The end of these filling-up lengths are sliced away obliquely and made to overlap with the next pieces. At such an overlap the section of the belt shows four separate thicknesses of leather. These leather lengths are riveted together at the edges by innumerable small iron shanks with round slightly convex sequin-like heads.' He goes on to note that there are two layers of metal: the outer bronze plates and 'an inner iron band which runs the whole length of the belt between the borders of small rivets. It is visible through the pierced openings of the bronze plates, as well as through the openings of the bronze strip of different character that lies behind the cornelians. The bronze strip on which the cornelians are mounted is ornamented more or less uniformly with vertical lines of holes separated by a band of lightly impressed vertical herring bone. The belt widens at the front where it bears a triple row of cornelians, the biggest stone of all occupying the central position at the front. . . . When worn this massive, heavy object goes almost twice round the wearer.' (J. Rudoe)