On Technology of Manufacturing Medieval Ritual Silverware (Based on Materials from the Museum of the History and Culture of the Peoples of Siberia and the Far East, IAE SB RAS)

Abstract

Purpose. The collection of the Museum of history and culture of peoples of Siberia and Far East at the Institute of Archaeology and Ethnography SB RAS has a unique section of ritual objects produced by the Ob Ugrians during Middle Ages. The collection features unique objects made of silver, which allows us to make a conclusion that silver had a sacral meaning for the Khanty and Mansi, and the material itself was closely connected with a complex of cosmological and mythological conceptions. Results. We conducted XRF analysis for a series of silver objects of cult and identified three objects made with the use of a special laborious technology by means of cold hammering from three sheets of silver. Conclusion. The article gives a full description of the objects and describes the semantics of the images presented. We provide the results of element composition of the metal and identify a circle of analogues. The artifacts considered included a metal plate with a solar sign made with gilding, with an engraving around it on the surface of metalwork, a stylized profile of attenuated heads of elks facing each other (the drawing was created later); the second item being a metal plate with a central part in the form of a medallion depicting a horseman who strikes a man lying at the horse’s legs with a spear (it was made by means of engraving on a ready form); and the third item being a platter with the images of an eagle owl standing on the back of a deer and a duck flying up. The plots of the silver items evidently have a cult significance and correspond to some mythological constructs. The unique technology of their three-layer composition is accounted for by mythological conceptions and enhances a sacral significance of the items.