Unique Gold Jewelry from Destroyed Scythian Barrow in Stanitsa Krymskaya: Comprehensive Research and Attribution
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.24852/2587-6112.2025.6.71.113Keywords:
archaeology, Nikolay I. Veselovsky, stanitsa Krymskaya, jewelry, the State Hermitage collection, research and reconstruction of archaeological itemsAbstract
The paper is dedicated to a comprehensive analysis and attribution of the unique jewelry acquired by N.I. Veselovsky in 1895 in the Kuban region at stanitsa Krymskaya for the Imperial Archaeological Commission. Reconstruction of their appearance and attribution became possible only after a comprehensive study of the design features of all components using non-destructive instrumental analysis methods, as well as a full range of conservation and restoration work. It has been established that they are parts of complex jewelry (Fig. 30). The style and color scheme, as well as the sophisticated manufacturing technique, indicate that they were made in a specialized jewelry workshop. Similarity with materials from Nimrud tombs allows them to be attributed to a close chronological horizon – 9th–8th centuries BC. However, it is impossible to assert that they were crafted in Assyria. It is known that precious metals, stones, luxury goods, technologies and craftsmen traveled across considerable distances as a result of trade, dynastic contacts, military campaigns, deportations and tributary relations. The jewelry could have entered the burial later, in the 7th century BC, and, obviously, only as trophies of the nomadic nobility. The presence of nomads in the territories to the south and southeast of Lake Urmia, in the territories of Mannaean tribes and Media, makes it possible to link jewelry production with this region.
References
Alekseev, A. Yu. 2003. Khronografiia Evropeiskoi Skifii (Chronography of European Scythia). Saint Petersburg: The State Hermitage Museum (in Russian).
Burshneva, S. G., Osin, Yu. N., Ryabkova, T. V. 2024. In Kashuba, M. T., Medvedeva, M. V., Stoyanov, E. O. (eds.). Drevnosti Severnogo Prichernomoria, Kavkasa i Sredney Asii: ot otkritiy N.I. Veselovskogo k sovremennoy nauke (Antiquities of the Northern Black Sea Region, the Caucasus And Central Asia: from Nikolay I. Veselovsky’s discoveries to current studies). Saint Peterburg: Institute for the History of Material Culture, Russian Academy of Sciences, 198–203 (in Russian).
Vokhmentsev, A. Ya., Ostroumov, M. N., Marinin, Yu. B., Platonov, A. N., Popov, V. A., Tarashchan, A. N., Shmakin, B. M. 1989. Amazonit (Amazonite). Moscow: “Nedra” Publ. (in Russian).
Kisel, V. A. 2003. Shedevry yuvelirov Drevnego Vostoka iz skithskih kurganov (Masterpieces by jewelers of the Ancient East from Scythian mounds). Saint Petersburg: “Peterburgskoe vostokovedenie” Publ. (in Russian).
Lappo-Danilevskii, A. S., Malmberg, V. K. 1894. Drevnosti Yuzhnoi Rossii. Kurgan Karagodeuashk (Antiquities of Southern Russia. Kurgan Karagodeuashkh). Series: Materialy po arkheologii Rossii (Proceedings for the Archaeology of Russia) 13. Saint Petersburg: Imperial Archaeological Commission (in Russian)
Mantsevich, A. P. 1961. In Piotrovsky, B. B. (ed.). Arkheologicheskii sbornik Gosudarstvennogo Ermitazha (Archaeological Bulletin of the State Hermitage Museum) 2. Leningrad: The State Hermitage Museum, 154–162 (in Russian).
Minasian, R. S. 2014. Metalloobrabotka v drevnosty i v srednevekovie (Metalworking in ancient and medieval times). Saint Petersburg: The State Hermitage Museum (in Russian).
Otchety Imperatorskoi arkheologicheskoi komissii za 1895 g. (Reports of the Imperial Archaeological Commission for 1895). 1897. Saint Petersburg: “Tipografiia Glavnogo Upravleniia Udelov” Publ. (in Russian).
Rostovtsev, M. I. 1925. Skifiya i Bosfor. Kriticheskoe obozrenie pamyatnikov literaturnykh i arkheologicheskikh (Scythia and the Bosporus. Critical review of literary and archaeological monuments). Leningrad: Russian Academy of the History of Material Culture (in Russian).
Ryabkova, T. V. 2023. In Poskacheva, I. V., Kidzhi, V. V., Tsarev, N. V. (comp.). Iuvelirnoe iskusstvo i material'naia kul'tura (Jewellery Art and Material Culture) 7. Saint Petersburg: The State Hermitage Museum, 45–54 (in Russian).
Chugunova, K. S. 2023. In Poskacheva, I. V., Kidzhi, V. V., Tsarev, N. V. (comp.). Iuvelirnoe iskusstvo i material'naia kul'tura (Jewellery Art and Material Culture) 7. Saint Petersburg: The State Hermitage Museum, 55–61 (in Russian).
Ryabkova, T. V. (comp.).2024. Epokhi, kurgany, nakhodki. K 175-lletiyu so dnya rozhdeniya N. I. Veselovskogo: katalog vystavki (Epochs, burial mounds, findings: honouring the 175th anniversary of Nikolay Vesevosvsky. Exhibition catalogue). Saint Petersburg: The State Hermitage Museum (in Russian).
Aldred Cyril. 1971. Jewels of the Pharaohs: Egyptian Jewellery of the Dynastie Period. London: Thames & Hudson.
Bernardino N. lia D’E., Izumi, C.M.S., de Faria, D.L.A. 2016. In Journal of Forensic Science International (262), 196–200.
Car`o, F., Schorsch, D., Smieska, L., Santarelli, B. 2021. In Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports 36 (2021) 102893, 1–14 Available at: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jasrep.2021.102893 (accessed 09.04.2024).
Collon, D. 2008. In New Light On Nimrud. Proceedings of the Nimrud Conference 11th–13th March 2002. London: British Institute for the Study of Iraq in association with The British Museum, 105–118.
Colombini, M.P., Modugno, F., Ribechini, E. 2005. In J Mass Spectrom (40), 675–687 (in Russian).
Colombini, M. P., Modugno, F. (eds.). 2009. Organic Mass Spectrometry in Art and Archaeology. Wiley, Chichester (UK).
Darque-Ceretti1, E., Felder, E., Aucouturier, M. 2013. In Surface Engineering (29), 146–152.
Gaillard, Y., Chesnaux, L., Girard, M., Burr, A., Darque-Ceretti, E., Felder, E. Mazuy, A., Regert, M. 2016. In Archaeometry. 53 (3), 465–483/
Gansell, A. R. 2018. In American Journal of Archaeology. Vol. 122, No. 1 (January 2018), 65–100.
Gunter, A. C. 2014. In Aruz, J. (ed.). Assyria to Iberia at the Dawn of the Classical Age. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art publ., 248–255.
Hafemann, I. 1985. In Journal of Altorientalische Forschungen Vol. 12, no 2, 179–215.
Harper Prudence O., Evelyn Klengel-Brandt, Joan Aruz, and Kim Benzel. 1995. Assyrian Origins: Discoveries at Ashur on the Tigris: Antiquities in the Vorderasiatisches Museum, Berlin. New-York.
Hussein, M. 2014. In Aruz, J. (ed.). Assyria to Iberia at the Dawn of the Classical Age. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art publ., 125–131.
Hussein, M., Altaweel, M., Gibson, McG. 2016. Nimrud. The Queens’ Tombs. Baghdad; Chicago.
Kozowyk, P. R. B., van Gijn, A. L. Langejans, G. H. J. 2020. In Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences (12), 1–17 (in English).
Langejans, G., Aleo, A., Fajardo, S., Kozowyk, P. 2022. In Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Anthropology. DOI:10.1093/acrefore/9780190854584.013.198
Li, W. T., Jiang, S. Y., Zhang, H., Cui, P.L. 2024. In Journal of American Mineralogist. (109), 103–121.
Maxwell-Hyslop, K. R. 1971. Western-Asiatic Jewellery c. 3000-612 B.C. London.
Thoresen, L., Harrell, J. A. 2010. In Proceedings of the Eighth Annual Sinkankas Symposium – Gem Feldspars (April 17, 2010)ю 58-62. Fallbrook: Pala International. Available at: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/265667378_Archaeogemology_of_Amazonite (accessed 10.04.2024).
Tracing the evolution of the jhumka Available at: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/265667378_Archaeogemology_of_Amazonite (accessed 10.04.2024) (in English).
Yang, J., Z. Zhou, T. Lu, L. 2022. In Applied Sciences (12), 1–23.
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2025 S.G. Burshneva, Yu. N. Osin, K. S. Chugunova, T. V. Ryabkova, Ya R. Urazaeva
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
