Ryazan treasures

The first mention of Ryazan is found on the pages of The Tale of Bygone Years. The abundance of references to Ryazan in the annals and their very nature indicate that this city already in the 11th-12th centuries was a major trading center, Ryazan was also a significant center of culture, art and crafts.

For many centuries the surrounding peasants, opening the Old Ryazan fort, found here various antiquities. Known and rich Ryazan treasures, which, apparently, contains considerable artistic values.

In 1822, one peasant, fearing the edge of the road, came across a treasure, consisting of gold items of exceptional value. Their total weight was 6 pounds 83 spool (2.807 kg). The first specialists describing this treasure, gave him the name "Ryazan barm", but until now the appointment of these items remains controversial. According to some researchers, they were part of the women's clothing, according to others - were part of the prince's attire. Whatever it was, the treasure is a recognized masterpiece of Old Russian jewelry art.

The treasure consists of three small gold medallions with images of Our Lady, St. Irene and St. Barbara; two large coats (Kolt - an ancient Russian ornament of 11-13 centuries in the form of a hollow gold or silver pendant decorated with granules, enamel, scandium) with images of the holy princes Boris and Gleb on one side and jewels on the other; six golden colts, covered with precious stones and scandium; Two chains of gold lace beads with a scape, a grain, pearls and gems.

Of course, the main treasure of this treasure Ryazan are medallions. Particularly remarkable is the medallion with the image "Our Lady of Oranta", certainly of Byzantine work, made in the technique of cloisonne enamel. The face of the Mother of God is filled with such spirituality that involuntarily comes the thought of painting.

The appointment of the colts that make up the treasure is not entirely clear; apparently they were worn on the chest, and in that case the main was the side covered with stones: a large white jabot in the center, surrounded by pearls, with sapphires, rubies, amethysts, topaz around it. The surface between the stones is covered with a relief strip of thick gold plaits. Remarkable and the picture of the scan, and the original, exceptional in perfection technique of its overlay.

Images of saints on the reverse side are made in the technique of cloisonne enamel. After lying in the ground for six hundred years, the enamel somewhat faded and faded, but still retained the brightness of the colors. The figures of Boris and Gleb are surrounded by pearl surroundings and a wide border of scandinavia with precious stones. On the edges on both sides of the colts are surrounded by another pearl formation.

With the excavations of the second half of the 19th century, the finds of new Ryazan treasures, which included remarkable works of jewelry art, are connected. Among them is, in particular, a silver forged bowl with embossing, at the bottom of which a stylized animal is depicted: a capricorn or a deer. An interesting example of Ryazan jewelry art is two silver gilded pendants (13th century), strewn with granules, with nine chains, in which are placed in the middle round blobs, and at the ends - diamond-shaped sinkers decorated with artistically executed scaffold and grain. They are part of a treasure accidentally found in Old Ryazan in 1868 (today it is kept in the State Hermitage). The composition of the same treasure included a silver necklace consisting of stamped plaques depicting the so-called pre-war crosses on them.

To date, the number of treasures of Old Ryazan has reached thirteen. The objects found are distinguished by an unusual variety and richness of decoration. These are necklaces and earrings with a groove, a grain and pearl surroundings, sometimes with small stones; crosses from jasper, marble, serpentine, in silver and gold frame with a grain or with a chisel enamel: green , blue and yellow; seven-beam and eight-beam pendants-colts, abundantly decorated with grains. Their ends usually ended with one or several silver hemispheres, while in the center of the star the hemisphere was surrounded by small patterns of grains and scans.

In 1950, during the excavations of the dwelling of Old Ryazan, which was burned down during the Tatar pogrom, archaeologists discovered a treasure of 26 items wrapped in a decaying cloth in the collapse of an adobe kiln. It consisted of a silver and black medallion with a figurine of Our Lady, a silver chain of hemispherical plaques, three silver eight-rayed colts, four necklaces with silvered ends, a bronze gilt pin in the form of a lily decorated with red and green enamel.

Remarkable samples of jewelry art were found in the hoard in 1966. This treasure of Ryazan, also wrapped in a canvas rag, the archaeologists found on the site of a large wooden structure, destroyed by fire in 1237. It consisted of six items: two silver money bars-hryvnia, two twisted silver bracelet wires and unique in artistic design bracelets-bracers, made of wide silver plate leaflets. They are engraved on a black background birds, griffins and a dancer with two musicians.