Old Russian jewelry - their meaning. Ancient pottery and jewelry
While some only dream of finding valuable artifacts, others, armed with tools, go to excavations. The discovery of ancient treasures is always an exciting event. It is difficult to count how many treasures have been found in Russia today, but it is worth highlighting the five most famous.
The largest treasures in Russia
Scythian Gold
The vast space between the Danube and Don is strewn with many mounds left after the disappearance of the Scythian tribes. Raids on burial mounds began in the Middle Ages, and today’s collection of the Hermitage and other museums is replete with a huge number of gold items from Scythian burials.Vladimir Golden Gate
According to legend, oak doors were covered with copper sheets with a thick layer of gilding. They disappeared in 1238, during the offensive of the Tatar-Mongol troops. Legend says that at the moment they rest at the bottom of the river. Klyazma.
Kolchak's Gold
Over 1600 tons of gold. Kolchak used some of the gold to buy weapons. The second part was found by Red Army soldiers after his arrest. And there are conflicting rumors about the third part of the gold reserves, but all traces lead to Tyumen.
Napoleonic treasure
The looted wealth of Moscow was placed on two hundred carts. With the onset of winter, Napoleon's troops returned to France, but the difficulties of movement forced them to get rid of some of the booty along the way. Along the route from Moscow towards Smolensk, it was possible to discover many valuables, but the fate of the main part is unknown to this day.
Treasure hidden by Sonya Zolotoy Ruchka on Khitrovka
Having a weakness for jewelry, the cheat skillfully appropriated them for herself. It is believed that in the center of Moscow, she hid a huge diamond. The exact location is not known. According to legend, the fraudster hid it in a samovar buried next to the Khitrov market.
Top most famous treasures of world history
But not only in Russia, hidden treasures can be found all over the world. There are legends about them, movies are made, books are written. Every year, thousands of people from all over the world try their luck in search of sunken ships, pirate hiding places, caves, grottoes, and carry out excavations in various parts of the globe. Here is a list of just some of them:Treasure on the island of Java (Indonesia)
Just recently, an amazing find was discovered consisting of 14,000 pearls, 4,000 rubies, 400 dark red sapphires, and 2,200 garnets. They were discovered on a ship that sank more than 1000 years ago. Treasure hunters also found small flasks for perfumes, jars made of baked clay, dishes, vases from the Fatimid dynasty, which once ruled Ancient Egypt. Such 10th-century finds from sunken ships are extremely rare, and this will fill a large gap in knowledge about those times.
Treasures of Tillya-Tepe in Afghanistan
In northern Afghanistan, near Shibargan, in 1979 (a year before the entry of Soviet troops), archaeological excavations were carried out under the leadership of V. Sarianidi. A treasure consisting of approximately 20,000 gold ornaments was discovered in six graves. The find consisted of coins, belts, necklaces encrusted with precious stones, medallions and a crown.Treasure discovered in Staffordshire
In 2009, archaeologist Terry Herbert discovered a treasure dating from the Anglo-Saxon era. The treasure weighed 10 kg and consisted of gold, precious stones, and silver. Among the items were armor, swords, dishes, and religious objects.Pirate's Treasure - Florida Beach
In 1984, treasure hunter Barry Clifford discovered a treasure that once belonged to pirates on the Florida coast. About five tons of various valuables were recovered from the shipwreck. The treasure was valued at $15,000.
Treasure of Tutankhamun (Egypt)
In 1922, Howard Carter discovered a golden coffin, made in an unsurpassed manner, in the tomb of Tutankhamun, as well as a throne, masks and many other treasures. The tomb was the first that had not been looted before. The find was hailed as a huge discovery.
Pereshchepinskoe treasure (Bulgaria)
The treasure was discovered by accident in 1912 in the village. Maloye Pereshchepino in Ukraine, 13 km from Poltava. The shepherd boy literally fell into the Kuvrat tomb, which belonged to the founder of Great Bulgaria, father Asparukh. More than 800 items, weighing gold items - 25 kg, silver items - 50 kg. Amphoras, dishes, cups, 12 gold and 11 silver bowls, stirrups, a blade in a gold sheath, a saddle, etc. were found.The largest treasure found
History contains many legends about treasures and the lucky people who managed to find them. But there are treasures the sight of which will take the breath away of the most notorious skeptics. In the dungeons located in the Sri Padmanabhaswamy Temple (India), researchers were able to discover countless treasures that amazed the whole world.
Five hidden vaults were uncovered in the Sri Padmanabhaswamy Cathedral, built in honor of the god Vishnu. According to experts, their price is 25 billion dollars, and this gives grounds to consider it the largest treasure to date.
To date, research continues in 2 more secret chambers and, perhaps, new hiding places will be discovered.
The largest treasure in the world included gold coins, bars weighing about 2 tons, a diamond necklace 5.5 m long, and several bags of diamonds. And the most outstanding find is considered to be a statue of the god Vishu, made of gold, 1.2 m high.
Very often problems arise with the right to own the discovered treasure. For example, the treasures found by the American company Odyssey near Portugal from a sunken Spanish military frigate. 500,000 coins, jewelry and jewelry were brought to the surface. The fate of these artifacts has not yet been determined. The Spanish government has put forward its right, but the company is defending its rights, since the treasure was discovered on neutral territory.
The frigate Nuestra Señora las Mercedes was transporting coins from the Spanish colony to Peru in 1804, and was sunk by the British near Cape St. Mary. About 200 sailors of the frigate were killed in the explosion.
Treasures often contain not only jewelry, but also money. .
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Wormwood, dusty and feather grass, the top hidden in the fog
He stands above the steppe, omnipotent, Gray-haired, like my great-grandfather, the mound.
And my great-grandfather from the top of this looked carefully into the space
And, barely noticing the enemy hordes, he immediately lit a fire...
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“January 29 this year. The peasants of the village of Nizhny-Serogoz, including 33 people, on their own initiative, began excavating a mound near the village. Nizhny-Serogoz, called “Aguzki”. This mound was dug by a member of the Archaeological Commission, Veselovsky, in 1893, who completed the excavations. At the present time, the above-mentioned peasants have opened a completely new tunnel and several objects have been found during excavations, which I have selected from them and presented to Your Honor.
...The old salt-carrying Chumatsky road, going from Nikopol to the south, to Perekop, stretches across the endless steppes of Tavria. And everywhere, right up to Melitopol and beyond, scattered across the steppe are high, visible from afar “graves” - mounds left by unknown ancient peoples and, according to legend, hiding untold treasures.
What kind of people left these
mounds in the steppe? Experienced people told all sorts of things. Oxen slowly trudge along the dusty road, a bucket of tar hanging from the back of a cart creaks to lubricate the wheels, a story about bygone times slowly flows...
...About two thousand years ago, about twenty versts from present-day Nikopol, the Scythian king was buried. According to custom, they buried his wife, slaves, horses and property with him, and a high mound was built over the grave, which centuries later received the name Chertomlytsky. Soon after the funeral, robbers entered the mound through an underground passage.
As soon as they approached the royal treasures, the ground collapsed, and the robbers were forced to flee, leaving one of their comrades under the rubble. And in 1863, archaeologist and historian I.E. Zabelin, while excavating the Chertomlytsky Kurgan, came across traces of this ancient tragedy. He discovered traces of predatory diggings, skeletons of the king, queen and servants. Under a pile of collapsed earth stood a bucket with gold jewelry collected by the robbers, and next to it lay the skeleton of an unlucky robber who had lain at the crime scene for twenty centuries.
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Scythians. Relief on an amphora from the Chertomlytsky burial mound. Silver. 4th century BC e. Hermitage Museum.
Over the course of two millennia, many peoples have changed in the Black Sea steppes, leaving behind high mounds with stone idols on the tops. And for two millennia, treasure hunters rummaged through these mounds, tempted by the “free” gold of the dead...
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Silver amphora from the Chertomlytsky mound near Nikopol. 4th century BC uh.. Hermitage.
The first historical information about “walking diggers” robbing barrow gold appeared back in the Middle Ages. One of the documents of the 16th century says: “People walk through the forts and villages, digging up graves, looking for rites and rings there.” And by the end of the 19th century, in the Kherson province alone, more than half of the “steppe pyramids” had already been dug up and plundered.
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Reconstruction of a women's headdress - kalaf - based on gold plates and fabric remains found in the Ryzhanovsky Kurgan
Nevertheless, there is something left there for archaeologists. The large Ryzhanovsky mound in Zvenigorod district (near Kiev) was excavated in 1884 by archaeologist Yu. Grintsevich. Three years after his excavations, in a trench washed away by rain, a local peasant found an amphora and a lot of gold jewelry, which he secretly dug up over several days. And after this peasant, another archaeologist, G. Ossovsky, found another 446 gold objects!
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Fragments of fabric from a male burial in the Bolshoy Ryzhanovsky Kurgan
Round-bottomed silver cup found in the Bolshoy Ryzhanovsky Kurgan. It was certainly made by an outstanding Greek master.
The relief depicts the struggle of mythical monsters - griffins with a bull and a deer
Bedspread with gold plaques. Ryzhanovsky mound
The head of the Gorgon Medusa is depicted on the plaques of the bedspread from the Ryzhanovsky mound.
When opening ancient burials, treasure hunters, of course, did not particularly make it difficult for themselves to determine the meaning of the treasures they found. According to them, these golden “triangles”, “plates” and “rings” are treasures buried by the Turks, Tatars, Cossacks, Haidamaks or robbers. Therefore, legends about robbers or Cossacks who buried gold in the next “grave” were confidently considered a reliable indicator of the path to treasures...
In the steppe behind Mariupol, near the villages of Amvrosievka, Golodayevka and Savurovsky farms, there is the Savur-Mogila mound. The majestic mound was visible 40-60 miles away. Once on the “grave” there was a Polovtsian stone woman - “stone man”, but by the middle of the 19th century she was no longer there.
In the old days, large roads ran past the Savur and Bear mounds - the Chumatsky Way and the Great (Postal) Way. The Chumaks had a proverb: “Savur-mogyla, Teplynsky fox - de bere chumakiv bis.” This place was considered a cursed place - somewhere near the grave an enchanted treasure was buried (“a lot of pennies were hidden”). This treasure, according to legend, was buried by the legendary robber Savva, who lived “with goods” in the old days at Savur-grave. For a long time, traces of the presence of robbers remained in deep holes - the remains of dugouts. One of the holes, marked by an elderberry bush, was the remains of Savva's dugout.
Hiding in dungeons during the day, the robbers went out at night to loot and collect tribute from all the convoys traveling along the Great Road. In one of their dungeons there lived an old man of great years, who from time to time looked at a book and from it determined whether it was still possible for these robbers to live in a given place or whether it was time to quickly leave and move to another. Moving to another place, the robbers took only a small part of the wealth they looted, and buried the rest of the treasures in nearby places with spells in the ground.
About five versts from the city of Kupyansk, on the road to the settlement of Manochinovka, stood a large mound known as the Sharp Grave. The mound was probably the remains of an ancient settlement. For a long time it served as a place of pilgrimage for local treasure hunters, and treasure hunters came from as far away as the Voronezh province to look for treasure in the Sharp Grave.
Traces of excavations were visible everywhere. They said that one of the treasure hunters managed to get to the door, locked with a large padlock. But as soon as he touched the lock, he heard a voice from behind the door: “Don’t touch it, you’ll be lost!” But first, dig up the key on the 80-fathom chain, then you will open all the doors with it and everything will be yours.” The door was suddenly covered by a landslide, and the treasure hunter himself barely alive crawled out of the passage he had dug in the mound and refused further work.
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The death of the treasure hunter ended the search for the treasures of the legendary robber Savva Samodriga in the mounds near the village of Shamovka, Kherson province. After breaking through an underground passage into the mound, treasure hunters entered the crypt one night, where they discovered a charred skeleton. The night, the stuffy dungeon, thoughts about the “fears” awaiting the treasure hunter, the sudden sight of human remains - all this influenced the treasure hunters so much that one of them died of fear, and the other forever swore off climbing into “graves” at night.
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In fairness, it must be said that sometimes the game with death was still worth the candle and the discovery of barrow gold many times exceeded all the inconveniences, risks and costs associated with treasure hunting. But more often than not, mound robbers, after several days or even weeks of persistent excavation, ended up with worthless junk. Instead of the desired money, treasure hunters received whole carts of human bones, broken pottery, rusty iron, and coals.
In 1876, in the vicinity of the village of Andrusovka, treasure hunters excavated several mounds. The only worthwhile things found in them were an ancient Greek black-glazed vase and a silver wire bracelet - and even then they were taken from the treasure hunters by the district police officer and taken to the Kherson Archaeological Museum. The rest of the finds were a copper pot, bronze arrowheads and clay pots, which the treasure hunters destroyed out of frustration. The search for treasure ended even more sadly in the village of Vershatc, where during the winter of 1898/99 several mounds were excavated by local peasants. Not only did they contain nothing but broken shards, but the treasure hunters were also arrested by the district police and ten of them were brought to trial.
About seven versts east of the village of Zaselya near Kherson there are still traces of a settlement surrounded by a small rampart, covered with traces of treasure-hunting pits. They call it the Sharman settlement. The surrounding residents were convinced that in that settlement there was a basement, and in it 12 barrels of gold hidden by the Cossacks. For 18 years, about fifty local peasants, led by treasure hunter Diya Kholodulkin, tore up the settlement. All autumn until the big frosts, treasure hunters lived in the steppe in hastily made dugouts, hired workers for excavations and dug tirelessly themselves.
They reached a stone chamber, probably a burial chamber, from which underground passages ran in different directions; At the top, the chamber was lined with thick logs, and two holes were made in them. A whole army of all kinds of sorcerers, sorcerers and whispering women assured that they, the sorcerers, “see”, encouraged treasure hunters to continue excavations, and they annually, spending a lot of money on boards, logs and “tools”, with the onset of the autumn time free from agricultural work began excavations. Rumors about this enterprise reached Kherson, and by order of the governor, the police stopped excavations.
Secrets of the Five Brothers
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The Five Brothers group of mounds towered on the banks of the Don, in its delta, near the Koluzaevo farm. With their size - their height reached 7-12 m, and their diameter 60-70 m - these mounds stood out among the many smaller mounds surrounding them, giving a unique flavor to the flat plain stretching around them. Floating along the wide, winding Don for many kilometers, at every turn of the river, these huge mounds opened up from different sides, constantly changing perspective and invariably causing admiration for their harsh beauty.
The Five Brothers have long attracted the attention of travelers and researchers. A variety of, sometimes fantastic, opinions were expressed about them. The English traveler Clark, who saw these mounds at the beginning of the 19th century, believed that they were altars of Alexander the Great, built by the great commander of antiquity for sacrifices. Interest in the Five Brothers increased in the second half of the 19th century in connection with the search for the ancient city of Tanais in the lower reaches of the Don. Some scientists believed that these mounds belonged to the necropolis of Tanais.
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In 1871, an employee of the Archaeological Commission, P.I. Khitsunov, who already had experience in excavating burial mounds in the Crimea and the Taman Peninsula, began excavating the Pyatibratny burial mounds. He chose two large mounds in the group and four small ones as his goal. At a depth of 4.5 fathoms (9.6 m) from the surface of the mound, Khitsunov managed to discover an extensive stone tomb, built from wild stone without the use of a fastening solution. It was partially destroyed, and inside there was nothing but sand and clay mixed with decayed wood and reeds. Deciding that the tomb had been plundered a long time ago, Khitsunov stopped excavations.
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In 1954, an expedition of the Leningrad branch of the Institute of Archeology of the USSR Academy of Sciences and the Rostov Regional Museum of Local Lore, led by archaeologist V.P. Shilov, began working in the Don delta. In the first season, Shilov’s expedition excavated seven small mounds in the Pyatibratny group, without touching the large ones for now
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These included four mounds that were once excavated by P.I. Khitsunov. At the same time, Shilov was struck by an extremely important circumstance: all the mounds that Khitsunov was digging contained a significant number of finds - crushed wine amphorae, iron and bronze arrowheads, fragments of copper cauldrons, etc. It became obvious that Khitsunov in no case brought the research of the mounds he excavated to the end - they all required further investigation.
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Having carefully examined the large mounds and comparing what he saw with archival data, V.P. Shilov was able to identify the two that Khitsunov began to dig. His particular attention was drawn to the mound in which Khitsunov discovered a stone tomb. In the fall of 1959, Shilov began excavations.
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When the chamber was cleared, archaeologists found only fragments of the skeleton of an elderly man. The entire southern part of the crypt was completely robbed. However, the robbers operated in the crypt after the log ceiling had collapsed inside the chamber, and this saved it from complete robbery.
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After completely clearing the burial chamber, it turned out that in its northern part there was a second, completely undisturbed burial: here lay the remains of a young warrior in luxurious royal decoration. Numerous gold sewn-on plaques have been preserved from his ceremonial clothes - in the headdress alone there were 78 of them. On the neck of the buried man sparkled a massive gold hryvnia, decorated at the ends with figurines of lying leopards, and, in addition, a gold necklace; there are gold rings on the fingers.
![](https://i0.wp.com/s019.radikal.ru/i609/1205/c1/030767685e6b.jpg)
Near the buried person lay his weapon: at the left thigh - a gold lining and an iron sword in a wooden scabbard, lined with gold leaf; The hilt of the sword was also decorated. The entire surface of the golden lining of the scabbard was covered with relief images of scenes of the battle between the Scythians and the Greeks.
![](https://i0.wp.com/s019.radikal.ru/i602/1205/2c/b9d9226f57f5.jpg)
The next group depicts a fight between two Greeks and a Scythian. A beardless Greek lies on the ground. He is still alive, supported by a bearded comrade, who is trying to fend off the blow of a Scythian with a spear, trying to finish off the wounded young man with a spear...
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The third scene shows a fight between a Greek on foot and two Scythians - an infantryman and a horseman. The Scythian youth on foot was wounded and fell to his knees. The Greek warrior is trying to finish him off, and the wounded man is preparing to repel the blow with his battle axe. A Scythian on horseback with a long spear in his hand hurries to his aid, but his horse stumbled and fell on its front legs. The rider pulled on the reins, trying to raise his horse, but to no avail. The young Scythian is apparently doomed...
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In the fourth scene, two Greeks are depicted, one of whom is wounded and reclining with his elbows, the other, bending over him, is trying to pull out a pierced arrow from the wounded man’s knee with his teeth.
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Finally, the last scene depicts a horse racing at full speed, dragging a wounded young Scythian, who holds the reins tightly in his hand. A Greek helmet lies on the ground in front of the horse...
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All images on the scabbard are very realistic. The features of Scythian and Greek weapons, clothing, etc. are conveyed in detail
.
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Precious silver vessels were also placed in the grave: a vase similar in shape to the famous vase from Kul-Oba and a kylix. Near the entrance to the chamber, on a small space on the floor, a whole bunch of precious objects lay in disarray: gold plates and plaques with various relief images, various beads, etc., with a total of 1273 gold objects. According to V.P. Shilov, there was a wooden casket in which ceremonial clothes, hats and jewelry were placed.
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Reconstruction of the "king's" costume. Five-brother mound No. 8
As in other Scythian mounds, supplies of food and wine were placed in the grave. The wine was brought from the southern Black Sea cities of Heraclea and Sinope. Most amphorae bear marks from the workshops in which they were made, allowing one to fairly accurately determine the date of burial: it took place in the last third of the 4th century BC. e. It is obvious that in this case we are dealing with the burial of the highest representatives of the Scythian aristocracy, who, following Herodotus, are usually called kings. Therefore, the Pyatibratny Kurgan is rightfully ranked among the Scythian royal burial mounds, but it belongs to the king of a different tribe or association of tribes than Chertomlyk and Solokha.
Tanais (Greek Τάναϊς) is an ancient city (III century BC - V century AD) at the mouth of the river. Don. In the first centuries A.D. e. belonged to the Bosporan kingdom. Located approximately 30 km west of Rostov-on-Don, near the Nedvigovka farm.
The Tanais Nature Reserve is one of the largest archaeological museum-reserves in Russia. The territory of the Tanais reserve covers more than 3 thousand hectares and unites an ensemble of historical and cultural monuments of different times and peoples from the Paleolithic era to monuments of residential and religious architecture of the 19th century. This is the northernmost point of ancient Greek civilization.
![](https://i0.wp.com/retrobazar.com/newsimage/674_6452big.jpg)
Tanais was discovered as an archaeological site in 1823 by a corresponding member of the Paris Academy, Colonel I. A. Stempkovsky. On the personal instructions of Nicholas I, who was interested primarily in the treasures of the burial mounds, excavations in Tanais were subsequently carried out by P. M. Leontyev, a professor at Moscow University in the department of Roman literature and antiquity, and from 1867 by V. G. Tizengauzen. The study of the Nedvigov settlement was carried out under the control of the Imperial Archaeological Commission.
At the end of the 1860s. During the construction of a section of the Rostov-Taganrog railway, workers who were engaged in breaking stone in the Nedvigovka area, but knew nothing about the archaeological excavations of Tanais, “discovered” it again. The Chairman of the Archaeological Commission, Count S. G. Stroganov, had correspondence on this matter with the ataman of the Don Army, M. I. Chertkov. Chertkov, in turn, sent the director of the Novocherkassk gymnasium Robush and the artist Oznobishin to Nedvigovka for inspection.
From 1870 until the very post-revolutionary period, when all ancient monuments were declared national property, protected by Soviet law, for 50 years local residents took away the settlement for their own needs.
In 1955, the USSR Academy of Sciences formed the Lower Don Archaeological Expedition, which, together with Rostov University and the Rostov Museum of Local History under the leadership of D. B. Shelov, began the scientific study of the Nedvigov settlement. Four years later, the excavated site and burial ground were declared a protected area. And in 1961, one of the first archaeological museum-reserves in Russia was opened here, with an area of more than 3 thousand hectares. From 1973 to 2002, the permanent director of the museum-reserve was V. F. Chesnok. Then the director for a short time was the former Deputy Minister of Culture of the Rostov Region V. Kasyanov. In 2005, V. Perevozchikov was appointed director.
Gaiman's grave
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Scythian king Idantirs (Idanfirs).
In the 1960s, in connection with the beginning of the construction of giant reclamation systems in the south of Ukraine, archaeologists were faced with the task of protective excavations in areas of future flooding. Among the archaeological monuments that were to go under water were hundreds of Scythian burial mounds. Some of them, judging by their size, could have been “royal”.
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Bowl depicting scenes from the life of the Scythian nobility.
IV century BC e. Silver, gilding, embossing, chasing. 10.5 X 9.2 cm.
From the Gaimanova burial mound near the village. Beams of Vasilievsky district, Zaporozhye region (1969)
. For these works, the Institute of Archeology of the Academy of Sciences of Ukraine created several expeditions, bringing together specialists from various fields. One of these expeditions was the North Rogachik expedition. She was entrusted with the study of burial mounds in the Zaporozhye region. Here, near the village of Balki, there were about 20 mound groups. Particular attention was drawn to one, which consisted of 46 small mounds, among which an eight-meter giant with the mysterious name Gaiman’s Grave stood alone.
By the summer of 1969, an expedition led by Kiev archaeologist V.I. Bidzilya excavated 22 small mounds. All of them were robbed. This did not inspire much hope in relation to the Gaimanova Grave: experience showed that the main bait for robbers was always large mounds. Well, here, where even small mounds were not ignored by them, there was no point in hoping that the giant standing nearby would be untouched. True, until the mound is completely excavated, any conclusions would be premature...
![](https://i2.wp.com/myslenedrevo.com.ua/files/MDr/sci/hist/kupola/03/15-4.jpg)
On the golden upholstery of the fire from the same mound, the name of the Greek master Pornach is extruded, which is a unique case
Having reasoned in this way, V.I. Bidzilya began to study Gaiman’s grave. The mound was a huge mound more than 8 m high; its diameter exceeded 70 m. Layer by layer, bulldozers removed the earth from the huge cap of the mound. At a depth of 4 m from the top, a ring wall opened from huge limestone slabs dug vertically into the ground, built to prevent the embankment from sliding. Below, at the surface level, traces of a funeral funeral were found: horse and ram bones, crushed amphorae, remains of bridle sets, arrowheads...
A robber's hole was also discovered - it led straight into the burial chamber. It was located at a depth of 8 m from the level of the mainland, and, as one would expect, it was completely cleared in ancient times. Only a few dozen scattered small gold jewelry and a gold ring, dropped in a hurry by the robbers, testified to the enormous wealth that had once been in the cell. Apparently four nobles were buried here, most likely two men and two women. It was impossible to say anything more definite.
It seemed that the work was completed. But just before leaving, the archaeologists were in for a surprise. One of the expedition employees, Boris Mozolevsky, was clearing the earthen wall of the chamber, when suddenly the clay under his knife unexpectedly, easily gave way. "There's something here!" - exclaimed Mozolevsky. A cache with absolutely untouched precious contents was discovered in the wall...
The treasures lay in horizontal rows: at the top - a wooden bowl with gold trim, below - a silver kylix and cup, below them - two more wooden bowls, lined with gold plates, under the bowls - a silver rhyton with a gold bell and a tip in the form of a ram's head.
The most valuable things lay at the bottom of the cache: a large silver rhyton with a wide gold ornamented bell and a gold tip, a silver ritual bowl in which a silver goblet was placed, and, finally, the most remarkable find that glorified the Gaiman grave: a silver and gilded ritual bowl , decorated with a wide frieze with relief images of six Scythian figures.
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The basis of the composition is made up of paired scenes (single figures obviously play a supporting role in the plot). On one side of the bowl there are depicted two seated bearded Scythian warriors engaged in a peaceful conversation.
Luxurious clothing, ceremonial weapons, attributes of higher power - a whip in the hand of one of them and a mace in the hand of another - everything indicates that before us are representatives of higher power, Scythian “kings”. The figures, made in high relief technique, are gilded; Only the faces and hands are left in silver.
Thick grave
Kiev archaeologist B. N. Mozolevsky, who found the famous cup from the Gaimanova grave, soon became the author of another outstanding discovery.
Back in 1964, while excavating mounds near Nikopol, 10 km from the famous Chertomlyk, his attention was attracted by a huge mound, 9 m high and 70 m in diameter, called by the locals Tolstoy Mogila (Chertomlytsky Mound was once known under the same name ).
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The weight of the pectoral is 1150 g. The diameter is 30.6 cm. Three semicircular friezes forming the pectoral are filled with floral patterns and numerous images of people and animals cast in gold.
He was very interested in Mozolevsky, but for a long time he was not able to deal with him, other things were distracting him. There were also doubts: is this a Scythian mound? Indeed, back in 1964, archaeologist A.I. Terenozhkin, who used the method of manually drilling mounds to determine their age, drilled two wells at Tolstoy Mogila. There were no traces of clay in them - a sure sign of a Scythian grave.
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Finally, Mozolevsky decided to try his luck. In February 1971, he drilled two repeat wells at Tolstoy Mogila. The result is the same as seven years ago: there was no clay. But, as Mozolevsky himself later recalled, “contrary to all common sense, despite the backbreaking fatigue,” he decided to drill another well - the last one. And clay appeared at a depth of 7 m! Repeated drilling finally confirmed that Tolstaya Mogila is a Scythian mound.
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Mozolevsky began preparing the expedition. The initial stage of the excavations was incredibly intense - the bulk of the mound consisted of 15 thousand cubic meters of earth. When the mound was removed, it turned out that underneath there were two tombs in the form of deep catacombs: a central one and a side one.
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The mound was surrounded by a wide ditch, in which, after partial clearing, traces of a grand funeral funeral feast were discovered: many animal bones - horses, wild pigs, deer, dozens of broken wine amphorae. From these remains, it was possible to establish that the total weight of the meat eaten at the funeral was about 6,500 kg, and if we accept the very probable assumption that the bones of approximately the same number of animals were thrown into the unexcavated part of the ditch as into the examined part, then as much as 13 tons. This amount of meat should have been enough for about 3 thousand people. Perhaps the wake at Tolstoy Grave lasted more than one day.
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In the crypt there was a completely undisturbed burial of a young Scythian “queen”. Her outfit was the richest of all ever discovered in the Scythian burial mounds. Everything here glittered with gold: the headdress was embroidered with large gold plates, gold plaques decorated all her clothes and shoes.
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The decorations were no less rich: on the neck was a massive gold hryvnia weighing 478 g, decorated at the ends with seven figures of lions stalking a young deer. At the temples there are large gold pendants with the image of a goddess sitting with her hands raised; on her hands are three wide gold bracelets. Each finger of the “queen’s” hands was decorated with a gold ring, and there were even two of them on one finger.
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A child was buried next to the “queen”, who was hardly more than two years old at the time of death. Apparently, this was the young heir to the throne. He died and was buried later than his mother, for which a second entrance was dug into the tomb. The prince was buried in a wooden sarcophagus trimmed with alabaster.
At the head were three precious miniature silver vessels for drinking wine: a kylix, a rhyton and a goblet. Clutched in the child’s hand was a large gold bracelet - a symbol of power. A belt embroidered with gold buttons was also placed in the sarcophagus, also symbolizing the nobility of the buried person. There is a gold hryvnia on the neck, gold earrings in the ears, and a small gold ring on the ring finger of the right hand. The entire skeleton of the young prince was strewn with gold plaques that decorated his clothes.
Together with the queen and prince, their murdered servants were buried: a girl-servant, a “cook,” a warrior-“guard” and a “charioteer” (as they were named after the attributes that accompanied them). The picture of their position in the grave is terrible: their arms are unnaturally twisted, as if twisted, their legs are unnaturally spread out. The warrior’s hand is especially shocking: his fingers are convulsively clenched and dug into the ground - obviously, he was still alive when he was thrown into the grave, and the agony continued in the already filled-up dungeon.
When the study of the side tomb was completed, archaeologists began to uncover the central burial, where, apparently, the king was buried. The fact that robbers had already visited it was clear from the very beginning: a hole 22 m long led there. The robbers accurately calculated the direction and came out right at the corner of the burial chamber. But by that time, the vault of the chamber and the dromos corridor leading into it had already partially collapsed, and the robbers had to pick out treasures from under the crumbling earth.
Woman's headdress (reconstruction). Gold. IV century BC.
The burial chamber was in complete ruin. Although there were still a lot of gold sewn-on plaques and buttons from the king’s ceremonial clothes, all the most valuable things - ceremonial utensils, jewelry, weapons, etc. - were taken away by the robbers. And yet, the most sensational discoveries that brought Tolstoy’s grave worldwide fame were made here, in the central tomb! (Looking ahead, let's say that the Tolstaya Grave turned out to be the richest of all currently known Scythian royal burial mounds. The weight of gold items found in it - 4.5 kg - far exceeds the weight of gold found in Kul-Oba, which was previously considered the most rich mound.)
The vault of the chamber and the dromos corridor leading into it had already partially collapsed by that time. The robbers dug up the collapsed earth in the burial chamber, but did not stir up the earth in the dromos - according to funeral regulations, valuables should not be there. But they were wrong!
In the dromos, very close to the entrance to the burial chamber, 30 cm from it, lay a sword with a hilt covered with gold, in a scabbard also covered with gold lining with relief decorations. The sheath of the sword is decorated with images in the Scythian “animal style”: scenes of animal fights.
Under the crosshairs of the sword, fighting roosters stand in a heraldic pose - a completely new and unusual subject in Scythian-ancient art. Below is a fantastic griffin tearing apart a deer, a horse attacked from behind by a lion, and in front of a griffin, even lower - a leopard attacking a deer, and finally, a duel between a lion and a leopard... On the ledge for hanging a sword from a sword belt there is a fantastic horned lion-headed griffin, tail which ends in a snake's head. The images of animals are very realistic, full of dynamics, they are very clear: the smallest details are worked out.
Even closer to the camera, at the very entrance, B. N. Mozolevsky found an unheard of treasure: a golden pectoral - a royal ceremonial breast decoration. The robbers didn't get to the bottom of it by just ten centimeters! This truly brilliant creation of ancient toreutics has now gained worldwide fame.
The weight of the pectoral is 1150 g, the diameter is 30.6 cm. It consists of four rope-like tubes, fastened at the ends with clips, to which graceful braids are attached using pins, also tucked into ornamented clips with tips in the form of lion heads. The tubes divide the pectoral into three semicircular tiers. The middle one is filled with floral patterns, the lower and upper ones are filled with numerous sculptural images.
Mounds of Maeotis
The sphere of cultural influence of the Scythians also included their closest neighbors - the Maeotian tribes, who belonged to the Ibero-Caucasian language family. In the 1st millennium BC. e. they lived in the Kuban and Eastern Azov regions. Ancient authors first mention this people in the 6th century BC. e.
The remains of the extensive Scythian-Maeotian heritage are today numerous mounds scattered throughout the North Caucasus. Their excavations provided archaeologists with a wealth of material. Many outstanding works of art were found here, now stored in the State Hermitage and other Russian museums.
In the depths of the huge - more than ten meters high - Maikop mound, archaeologists discovered a rich burial from the end of the 3rd - beginning of the 2nd millennium BC. e. This burial contained many artistic works, including beads made of carnelian and turquoise, originating from Western Asia.
A canopy (now kept in the Hermitage) was erected over the ashes of the deceased, decorated with sewn-on plaques in the form of lions and bulls, the panel of which was supported by silver columns with figurines of bulls cast in gold. These amazingly realistic figures were probably made by a talented local craftsman and indicate the high artistic level of the Scythian-Meotian culture. At the same time, the sewn-on plaques were clearly made either in Mesopotamia itself, or under the influence of Mesopotamian art.
One of the most famous masterpieces found on the land of ancient Meotida is a small (35.1 x 22.5 cm) golden figure of a deer from a mound near the village of Kostroma (6th century BC). This relief plate once decorated a round iron shield found in the burial of a leader. The image of a deer was associated among the Scythians with the idea of the sun, light
Another famous find is a golden panther from a mound near the village of Kelermesskaya. Like its “contemporary”, the deer from the Kostroma mound, this panther served as a decoration for a shield. The figure of the animal is stylized, and the convention goes so far that the tail and paws, in turn, are decorated with figures of curled up predators. And, however, the expressiveness of the animal image is such that this plaque should be recognized as a work of not only decorative, but also fine art.
Very interesting finds were made near the Adyghe village of Ulyap, where an archaeological expedition led by A. M. Leskov explored a complex of Meotian mounds and sanctuaries of the 4th century BC. e.
One of the sanctuaries turned out to be especially rich: in addition to numerous bones, bronze cauldrons, antique amphorae, tools, parts of horse harnesses, weapons, and various gold jewelry were found here.
Among the latter, two large gold plates depicting walking deer stand out. Ulyap deer are one of the best examples of the Scythian-Meotian animal style. The head, proudly set on a powerful neck, is crowned with branched horns, the surprisingly proportional body of the animal on long slender legs seems to be directed forward. A realistic interpretation of animal figures is combined with conventionally rendered horns in the form of stylized griffin heads.
The most significant finds from this sanctuary were two sculpted finials, which probably once topped the shafts of standards or horsetails. One of them depicts a lying boar with its snout extended forward. The figure is made of two massive stamped silver plates, connected by silver nails with gold caps.
Plates with images of a boar are not uncommon in Scythian art, but pommels in the shape of a boar were not previously known. In the same way, until now archaeologists have not encountered a round Scythian sculpture, moreover, created using different materials and technical techniques - stamping, engraving, soldering. Therefore, the find in Ulyap should be considered unique.
The second pommel depicts a deer - the already well-known Scythian symbol of the sun. The deer's head, set on a slender long neck, is crowned with massive branched antlers. This sculpture, created without any convention or stylization, is distinguished by rare expressiveness and represents one of the best examples of Scythian-Meotian art.
At the ritual site, located on the top of one of the Ulyap mounds, a whole complex of finds was discovered: three bronze antique vessels, a silver bowl, gold hryvnia and plaques, two richly decorated rhytons - gold and silver. The golden rhyton, the base of which is decorated with a sculptural image of a panther’s head, judging by a number of details, was brought from Iran or Asia Minor.
The second rhyton, silver, is crowned by the winged horse Pegasus. His wings, mane, head straps and a number of other details are generously gilded, his eyes were once inlaid with amber. The middle part of the vessel is surrounded by a gilded frieze, on which an unknown artist depicted scenes from the ancient Greek myth about the struggle between gods and giants using the relief technique. Among the opposing characters, Zeus the Thunderer, Hermes with a caduceus in his left hand, and the blacksmith god Hephaestus are easily recognizable.
For the soul - Scythian jewelry
The ancient jewelry of Sumer was revealed to the world by archaeologist Leonard Woolley, who conducted excavations on the territory of the Sumerian city of Ur in the 1920s. He discovered the tomb of Queen Pu-Abi (Shubad), which is 4.5 thousand years old. Treasures from the tomb of Pu-Abi, which, like the tomb of Tutankhamun, was not damaged by robbers, are kept in the University Museum of Pennsylvania and the British Museum. Unfortunately, the part that remained in the Baghdad Museum was lost because the museum was looted during the war in 2003. The ancient Sumerian city of Ur was located on the territory of modernIraq, between Baghdad and the Persian Gulf, closer to the Gulf.
Reconstruction of Pu-Abi's costume. Jewelry weighs 14 pounds (approximately 6.5 kg)
University of Pennsylvania Museum
There is still a debate going on - who wouldis this noble woman buried with such honor? She is often called a queen who may have ruled Ur on her own. According to another version, she was a priestess of Inanna. In ancient Sumer there was a practice of electing a king and his main task was to participate in the ritual during which he became the husband of the goddess Inanna. In this way, the king acquired divine nature and immortality, not only for himself, but also for his people. Pu-Abi was the incarnation of Inanna, the main female deity in Sumer. The ritual took place during the New Year celebration (in spring) and lasted several days. Inanna would later reincarnate as the goddess Ishtar in Ancient Babylon, the cult of Ishtar would spread throughout the East: Ashtaret, Astarte, Tanit are also her names. Ishtar is identified with the Egyptian Isis; in ancient times, Venus and Aphrodite would take her place.
One of the Sumerian myths, “Inanna's Descent into the Underworld,” says that the goddess was supposed to descend to the kingdom of her sister Ereshkigal, the goddess of the dead. Inanna had to go through 7 gates, each time removing parts of her royal robe and jewelry. Having passed the last, 7th gate, she found herself completely naked and helpless, like an ordinary mortal, and Ereshkigal turns her into a corpse. When Inanna died, life stopped on earth, birth stopped, love ceased, and the gods began to take measures to bring Inanna back. On the way back, having returned her jewels, Inanna regains her power. This fragment of the myth shows that there is much more meaning and meaning hidden in the jewelry of the Sumerian priestess Pu-Abi than we used to think.
An entire retinue of 26 people was buried with Pu-Abi. Guards, maids, musicians, courtiers yes we and the entire funeral procession with oxen, grooms and drivers. She was found covered with precious jewelry -gold, silver, lapis lazuli, carnelian, agate and chalcedony beads,with large gold earrings and a headdress of gold flowers inlaid with Indian carnelian and Afghan lapis lazuli. In the photo in the lower right corner there is a garter, in the lower right there is a bracelet or cuff.
Fish amulets
At her right shoulder laythree long gold pins with lapis lazuli heads and amulets: lapis lazuli and two gold in the form of fish, the 4th - gold in the form of two sitting gazelles.
Amulet in the form of two sitting gazelles (antelopes)
Amulets in the form of a golden sitting bull and calf were present in Pu-abi's headdress. The size of this bull is 1.5 x 1.5 cm, just a prototype of the trollebeads type set decorations.
Gold clasp
Pu-abi wore a very elaborate headdress that was placed over some sort of large base, possibly a wig.
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Items made of lapis lazuli combined with gold were most abundant in the Puabi tomb. And, as you know, lapis lazuli is a stone that was not mined in Sumer; it could only be brought from one place -
the still famous Badakhshan field in Afghanistan. It is now one of the poorest places in the world with the highest maternal mortality rate. From the former Soviet side, now from the Tajik side in the Gorno-Badakhshan region, lapis lazuli is also mined, but it does not have such a bright and rich color as Badakhshan from Afghanistan. However - the Pamirs are both here and there - it probably happens differently. The Badashkhan deposit was located at a considerable distance from Ur, and the very fact of the presence of jewelry and other items made of lapis lazuli in the ancient Sumerian city of Ur speaks volumes: on the one hand, about military, trade and other connections between these geographical regions, that lapis lazuli stone is very was highly regarded in Sumer and even about Sumerian artistic taste and aesthetics.Let me digress a little to the Ishtar Gate from Babylon, from a later historical period
(VII century BC) . This gate is now kept in the Pergamon Museum in Berlin. Apparently, the main colors of the Sumerian-Babylonian goddess of love and war were blue and gold. This color combination truly looks divine. Perhaps the blue lapis lazuli stones were a distinctive feature of the priestesses of Inanna or the Sumerian nobility. After all, the stone was brought from afar and was probably expensive. It is interesting that lapis lazuli jewelry is found in the tombs of Egyptian pharaohs, in Scythian burial mounds, and even among Schliemann’s finds in ancient Troy.Also noteworthy is the large number of carnelian beads. According to one version, lapis lazuli was considered a male stone in Mesopotamia, and carnelian was a female stone, so it is quite logical that they form the basis of the Pu-Abi costume. The costume of the priestess of the most ancient female deity certainly has a hidden sacred meaning and contains a lot of symbolism that is not fully understood. The myths and rituals of the Sumerians have much in common with the Egyptian ones: the death of a god and his rebirth thanks to the goddess - in Mesopotamia it is Inanna, and then Ishtar, in Egypt it is Isis. The roots of these myths go back to even more ancient times. Judging by the wealth of the burial, the role of the female deity was in great authority; as is known, the position of women in Sumerian society was equal. Cuneiform tablets have been preserved that contain something like proposals to prohibit women from having more than one husband.
Huge gold earrings in the shape of a crescent were either earrings themselves or part of a headdress. Since the tissues have decayed, it is difficult to establish absolutely precisely. But many researchers, as well as Woolley himself, were sure that the headdress was a wig, and earrings are always put into the ears of mannequins during reconstructions.
This is one of the most ancient finds of earrings of this shape - it will be widespread for thousands of years and is found even in ancient Russian headdresses in the form of temple rings, this shape was called “lunnitsa”, sometimes aromatic oil was dripped into them.
The ancient jewelry found in the tomb amazes with its beauty, originality and special style. The jewelry of all the court ladies of Pu-Abi was very rich, almost the same as that of the priestess herself. In the photo - jewelry of one of the girls buried with Pu-abi - a headdress and necklaces made of the same “imported” precious stones - carnelian from India and lapis lazuli (lapis lazuli) from Afghanistan. British museum. In total, during excavations at Ur, Leonard Woolley found 20 headdresses of this type.
These are Pu-Abi rings. When she was found, she had 10 rings on her fingers.
Three such gold pins with carnelian were found near Pu-Abi. With their help, her cylindrical seals (again made of lapis lazuli) were attached to her clothes.
3 personal cylinder seals of Pu-Abi are very important finds, since they brought her name to our time. The first print depicts a banquet - the servants are depicted as smaller in size than the royals. The name Pu-Abi in the upper left corner, other signs presumably meannin/eresh - "lady" or "queen". The banquet on the second seal includes images of a man and a woman. They drink beer through long straws to avoid getting foam or cloudy sediment into their mouths (vessels and long straws were also found in the tomb). On the third seal there is again a banquet scene, but with the participation of only women. Below right is a woman playing a harp.
This necklace of lapis lazuli with gold is from another excavation, but it also very clearly demonstrates the characteristics of ancient blue-gold Sumerian jewelry.
A forensic examination of Puabi's remains by the Natural History Museum in London revealed that she was approximately 40 years old when she died. Height is about 5 feet (about 1 m 50 cm). Her name and title are known from cuneiform inscriptions on seals.
The skeleton of Pu-Abi was strewn with a large number of gold jewelry and beads, and the researchers, in general, quite easily recreated the headdress and outfit of the priestess, including a lapis lazuli diadem with gold figurines. But initially, the images of a flowering and fruiting palm tree strengthened the opposite. Much later it was determined that these were pendants and not bushes. Moreover, perhaps these pendants contain a love meaning, since the palm branches are depicted in male and female manifestations. This symbolism is fully consistent with the idea of the goddess of love.
The first photo is a flowering branch of a gold date palm (male), the second photo is a palm branch from the Arizona State University Arboretum. For a long time it was considered a bush or ear of wheat or oats and was attached to decorations during reconstruction with the ear facing up.
A golden fruiting branch of a date palm with carnelian, and on the right is a fruiting palm from the same arboretum.
Article "Date Sex in Mesopotamia!" about the date palm found on the website University of Pennsylvania Museum
Pu-Abi cosmetic bag made of lapis lazuli. The lid depicts a lion, Inanna's sacred animal, attacking a ram.
Gold shell for shadows. When it was found, it contained remnants of pigment. Many women buried with Pu-Abi had such shells. Most common green color pigment that was used as eye shadow.
Harp from the tomb of Pu-Abi. As you can see, the main materials are again lapis lazuli and gold
The oldest board game was found in the tomb of Pu-Abi. It is considered the prototype of the game of backgammon. A box made of wood, hollow inside for storing chips. Inserts made of mother-of-pearl, red limestone and lapis lazuli. 2 players played. Squares with a flower rosette meant "lucky". This motif is very common in Sumerian art - it probably had a special symbolic meaning.
This seal from Ur depicts Inanna, the goddess of love and war, with a lion next to her. This image especially illustrates Inanna's dual nature. On the one hand, Inanna is depicted here as the goddess of love, which is emphasized by her pose with a coquettishly but powerfully extended leg, “trampling” on the lion. On the other hand, the lion, the weapon behind her back indicates that she is also the goddess of war. The 8-pointed star (Venus) is another symbol of Inanna (reflected in a mirror on the print). Although Inanna is considered the goddess of love, she is not associated with such ideas as marriage and childbirth. She personifies carnal desire and always gets what she wants. Symbolizes violence, uncontrollability of human passions. And therefore the fury of a mortal battle and the destruction of war. In peacetime, she is not so formidable, but, as can be seen from the myths that have survived to our time in records (the first written language), Inanna is quite insidious, vindictive and vindictive. But self-confident, proud and beautiful, besides, as the Sumerians believed, they owed their goddess Inanna eternal life and rebirth after death.
Well, in conclusion, about one interesting piece of jewelry related to the theme of Sumerian jewelry. This is a relatively modern piece of jewelry, commissioned by British explorer Henry Layard. from cylinder seals of Mesopotamia 2200 - 355 BC. for his wife Lady Enid Layard. At one time it caused a lot of noise.
Moscow and the Moscow region, having been a center of attraction for various interests since ancient times, are today considered one of the most interesting and promising objects for searching for treasures.
The capital, surrounded by ancient cities, connected with them by a rich and turbulent history, constantly opens new pages in the annals of treasure hunting, which has been developed thanks to technical progress in the production of household metal detectors. And since the interest in the history of Russia is now enormous, we can expect an increase in cases of discovery of treasures hidden in ancient times in the Moscow region.
This article will focus specifically on treasures in the Moscow region, which are often discovered by accident, during agricultural or construction work, as well as during special searches conducted not only by professional archaeologists, but also by amateur archaeologists or search engines. Armed with ground metal detectors, they are trying to identify the places where hundreds of years ago people buried their savings in the ground.
Indeed, since ancient times people have trusted the earth with their savings. This happened everywhere and to everyone: the burying of money and other valuables (for example, weapons) was not isolated, but widespread, since there were no banks and other savings systems with sufficient reliability at that time, and the situation forced one to take care of one’s own money and dictated strict conditions under which it was impossible to remain inactive. People were afraid of losing even insignificant funds, so many small treasures that are now located in the territories of ancient villages, on land and waterways cannot be called treasures.
These are, rather, wallets, secret places that people access constantly, sometimes several times a day. In an era when there were no castles, and all sorts of outrages were happening all around, thieves were roaming, small and large wars were fought, the need to protect what had been accumulated was very urgent! That is why people regularly and methodically buried all the most valuable things, and especially money, in the ground! Let us add here other factors that influenced this process and which ultimately “helped” our contemporaries, armed with metal detectors, to periodically detect treasures. Wars, fires, epidemics, persecutions - at such moments people lost their bearings on their buried wealth, and storeroom notes describing the signs where their savings lay disappeared. And if you consider that each person could have several small caches, it becomes clear why Russia is considered one of the most promising countries in terms of finding buried treasures!
The treasures discovered in the Moscow region belong to different time periods and differ in their composition. However, treasures from the pre-Petrine period predominate, and this is understandable: it was in those times that there was a complete absence of any stability in Russia, forcing everyone to take care of their property.
map of discovered treasures in the Moscow region
Where to look for treasure in the Moscow region?
If you try to make a map of the places where treasures were discovered in the Moscow region, it will clearly point to places where human activity was especially active over the centuries. First of all, attention is drawn to the cities, which have always been centers of attraction for people, capital, and trade.
The ancient Russian cities of Kolomna, Volokolamsk, Serpukhov, Dmitrov, which survived numerous wars, fires and other disasters, are today the custodians of many treasures. Their surroundings, in which ancient rural settlements were located and are still located, are also included in the list of places where one can potentially find both treasure-wallets and full-fledged large treasures, consisting not only of coins, but also jewelry, household items, antiques. weapons. Actually, such cases happen quite often.
So, near the village of Bely Omut on the territory of an ancient settlement, right on the banks of the Oka River, two treasures were discovered: one of jewelry and Samanid dirhams, the other contained oriental coins totaling 110 pieces. The discovery of these treasures is very significant, since here, on the banks of the river, they can be found in abundance!
After all, rivers served as trade routes in ancient times, and one of the main ones. If during the spring and autumn thaw the roads turned into an impassable mess, then the rivers became the only way for the reliable movement of people, goods and goods. And it’s no wonder that traders, embarking on long and risky journeys, buried money in order to retrieve it on the way back. Many of these treasures of the Moscow region remained lying in the ground, waiting for new owners, which can be absolutely anyone with search skills and, of course, luck.
Treasures were constantly hidden on the banks of rivers, but now they are more difficult to detect, since the riverbeds changed directions, the banks lost their outlines, silted up, eroded and crumbled. It is difficult now to restore their previous flows, but sometimes it is possible. It happens that treasures themselves are revealed to the lucky ones, when part of the shore collapses and exposes an ancient cache...
But the surrounding areas of the land routes along their entire length were exploited by people as temporary storage facilities for money and valuables. If a merchant went with goods to several cities, then he did not want to risk his money and hid it in a conspicuous place until he returned. Large trees, boulders, beams, hills - all these places could be used for temporary caches.
Thus, it turns out that settlement sites and the vicinity of the main trade routes of the Moscow region still contain many large and small treasures that have yet to be found.
On the banks of the Osetr River, near the village of Zheleznitsy, a treasure of 227 dirhams dating back to the 11th century was found. And this is not surprising, because this is where the ancient trade route passed! But it was in the 11th century that the “eastern silver crisis” occurred, after which silver began to be imported through other routes, through Zvenigorod, Dmitrov, Mozhaisk, that is, from the north and the west.
Treasures of the Moscow region - scales from the time of Ivan IV. “Scaly” treasures are also very often found in the Moscow region. This small coin was the main one in the monetary circulation of pre-Petrine Rus'. And to collect a decent amount, you needed a lot of them! Therefore, even a small treasure of silver kopecks, or copper pools, will contain a large number of these perfectly preserved coins! It is not uncommon for treasure hunters to discover such treasures near existing villages, in the field; often they are plowed up and scattered by plow across the field... There is nothing surprising here. It’s just that the villages of the Moscow region “floated” for centuries, moving small distances from their original place. This happened mainly after wars and fires, when people, not wanting to change their place, simply built a new house near the ashes or ruins.
For example, in the village of Mikulino-Gorodishche three treasures were found: a small jar with 1,200 perfectly preserved coins of Ivan IV, the second treasure consisted of 350 coins dated 1533-1538, and on the Volokolamsk tract, very close to the ancient settlement, a small clay pot with coins of Vasily III and Ivan IV.
Kashira The Kashira fortress existed in ancient times and was an important strategic and trade center. In the vicinity of an ancient settlement near Kashira, a treasure of oriental coins with a total weight of about 1.5 kg was discovered. It also contained unique oriental decorations.
Kolomna is another very promising region in the Moscow region in terms of treasure hunting. Located on busy “highways”, having previously been a border city of the Moscow Principality, opening the way to the south, to Ryazan, it still keeps many secrets hidden in the ground. Here in the 16th century the courts of the kings were located, and the settlements of the nobility and rich people were concentrated around them. Both archaeological excavations and random finds indicate that the storage potential of these places is far from exhausted!
Another city in which life was also vibrant is Dmitrov. One of the oldest cities, founded by Yuri Dolgoruky in 1154 and being the center of an appanage principality, it was located on one of the busiest trade routes. Treasures and egg capsules were found both in the city itself and in the immediate vicinity. For example, under the roots of a stump left from an old tree, a local resident found a small jar with coins from the time of Ivan IV! Near one of the temples, in the city itself, ministers unearthed another treasure containing 2,000 coins from the same period.
Many towns and villages near Moscow stand where several centuries ago people buried their treasures, wanting to save them for themselves. But not all, far from all, earthen “contributions” were in demand by the owners or their descendants. A great many caches have not been discovered, although they are located in such places that they are quite accessible to ordinary treasure hunters.
Moscow, being the center of attraction of various interests, and all the access roads to it, along which merchants, troops, and ordinary citizens moved, concentrated the treasures of the Moscow region! Just imagine that for 1000 years, huge masses of people with money, goods, and weapons moved along the same roads, through the same settlements. What could they do if they wanted to get to the right place without losing their money? And for ten centuries money, jewelry, and utensils were deposited and accumulated in the ground! Cities, towns and villages, roads and rivers, all these objects are of extremely great interest not only for archaeologists, but also for amateur treasure hunters. Those discoveries that have already been made speak volumes, but most importantly, they open up a broad perspective for searching for treasures, almost promising that the search may end in the discovery of another cache, unclaimed by its first owner.
And it is quite likely that some convenient bend in the bank of a river that is now drying up in the Moscow region can present a series of bright discoveries related to the history of Russia, hiding for the time being treasures and caches of different time periods, different eras. After all, no one knows where exactly the treasures lie. One can only guess about this, or build hypotheses based on historical events, archive data, or one’s own observations.
Treasures of the Moscow region, one of the richest regions for centuries, will still be found. And we will definitely find out about it!
ANCIENT TREASURES OF MOSCOW PROVINCE
41. Bogoroditsky u. A peasant from the village of Mshchineva 1 found a pot with small silver coins from the time of Ivan III. A significant portion of the coins were distributed among different hands. IAC, paragraph 2 approx., 31.
42. Vereisky u. In the village of Simbukhovo, a clay jar with 336 coins of Tsars Ivan III and Ivan IV, weighing 32 gold, was found. 72 d. DAK, 1898 n° 218. - OAK, 1898, 73 and 183.
43. Volokolamsk district In the village of Lvov in 1892, a treasure was found consisting of Tver and Goroden silver coins from Ivan Mikhailovich to Mikhail Borisovich. About a thousand entered the Historical Museum in Moscow, and 300 were distributed among collectors.
Oreshnikov, Russian coins before 1547, 22.
44. Kolomensky u. In the village In Bykov 2 in 1851, 500 silver coins of Tsars Ivan III and Ivan IV were found on the banks of the Azarovka River. ZRO, I, 16.
45. Kolomensky u. In the village 446 silver Russian coins of the late 14th century, weighing 95 gold, were found in the settlement. 48 d., and two fragments of a silver bracelet. The treasure entered the Hermitage. 3 DAK, 1896, n° 135. - KLA, 1896, 127 and 241.
1 According to the list of populated places in the Moscow province on the river. Vore village Michinova.
2 In Kolomenskoye u. in the list of populated places in the Moscow province. With. Bykovo is not listed, but the village of Bokovo near the river is listed. Azarova.
3 An interesting treasure, unfortunately, not described; It is not possible to determine from the Hermitage collection which coins belong to this treasure.
46. Moscow. When the river floods Forty-two ancient Russian coins were found in the Yauza sand. Between them is a Novgorod pool, a Tver pool, a Moscow pool and eight coins of Alexei Mikhailovich.
Bulletin of Europe, 1820, III, n° 12, 318.
47. Moscow. In June 1840, while digging the bank of the Moscow River, opposite the Kremlin, a copper pool was found, representing an exact copy of the images and inscriptions on the money of Dark 1, persons. Art. rider with falcon, inscription around, vol. Art. Samson with a lion, circular inscription.
Chertkov, Description, III, 15.
48. Moscow. On Myasnitskaya Street in 1888, a treasure of 915 copper bullets was found, most of them from the era of Ivan III (Tver, Novgorod, Moscow), among them there were also bullets with the Tatar inscription of Mikhail Tevirdzhi. Antiquities, XVI, prot. 104-105. — Korzinkin, 14-32.
49. Moscow. A rich treasure was found near the Novodevichy Convent, consisting of three rusty copper vessels filled with silver coins from the time of Ivan III. IAC, v. 5, approx. 44.
50. Moscow u. On the land of the appanage department, near the Chesme Pond, a treasure of 388 Russian silver coins of the 15th - 16th centuries was found. 2
51. Moscow u. In the village of Pechatniki, thirty-four Russian silver coins of the 15th-16th centuries were found in 1895. Ivan III, 3 Boris Fedorovich, Dmitry Ivanovich, Fedor Ivanovich, Vasily Ivanovich.
DAK, 1895, n° 96. - OAK, 1895, 69 and 191.
5 1 a. Moskovsky u. Along the Moscow-Ryazan railway. d. in the village In the Kosino cemetery, while digging a grave about five or six years ago, a treasure of grand ducal coins from the late 14th and early 15th centuries was found. (40 coins). The treasure was delivered to the Historical Museum in Moscow.
Message by A. V. Oreshnikov.
1 Along with this pool, several copper coins of Alexei Mikhailovich were also found.
2 In file no. 96 it is noted that the treasure was identified by Yu. B. Iversen and that it contains coins of Ivan III.
3 From the case it is clear that the treasure was identified by Yu. B. Iversen, who considered the coins issued by A. V. Oreshnikov under numbers 693-695 to belong to Ivan Vasilyevich III, while now their ownership of Ivan Vasilyevich IV is firmly established before the adoption of the royal title .
OCR - Portal \"Archaeology of Russia\"
52. Ruza. In 1887, an interesting treasure was found. The coins included in this treasure are among the rarest. Unfortunately, it still did not become known in its entirety, since immediately after its discovery it went into the hands of local residents and was already acquired from them in parts by different persons. Part of it got
to the meeting in book Georgy Mikhailovich (now in the Russian Museum), part to the Uvarova collection, part to the Tolstoy collection (now in the Hermitage) and, finally, a relatively small amount, through the local authorities, to the Archaeological Commission. Tolstoy, who described this treasure, says that he has reason to assert that only a small part of the coins found in the treasure remained undiscovered. The treasure contained coins:
V. book Vasily Dmitrievich (1389-1425), c. book Vasily Vasilievich
Dark (1425-4462);
allies of Vasily Vasilyevich Dark
a) with Yuri
Dmitrievich Galitsky,
b) with Andrei Dmitrievich Mozhaisky,
c) with Semyon
Vlavimirovich Borovsky,
d) with Alexander Fedorovich Yaroslavsky,
e) with Peter Dmitrievich Dmitrovsky, and coins of princes: Yuri Dmitrievich Galitsky (1389-1434), Andrei Dmitrievich Mozhaisky (1389-1432), Vladimir Andreevich the Brave of Serpukhov (1358-1410), Semyon Vladimirovich Borovsky (1410-1426), Peter Dmitry Trievich Dmitrovsky (1389-1428), Andrei Fedorovich of Rostov (1331-1409) and a number of unidentified coins. The coins of the described treasure fit into a time period spanning the last quarter of the 14th century and slightly more than the first quarter of the 15th century.
DAK, 1887, n° 46. - OAK, 1887, p. CCI. - ZRAO, n. p., XIV, 30-49.
53. Ruzsky u. In the village of Drozdovo, Oreshkovo volost, near the river. In Ozerna in May 1915, a treasure of Russian grand ducal money was found in a large mound, in the forest near the Astafievskaya mill. It contained 243 coins,
of which 240 were Russian and 3 were non-epigraphic (probably Lithuanian, from the time of Vytautas).
The distribution of the treasure among the principalities is presented as follows:
Moscow. V. book. Vasily Dimitrievich (1 3 8 9 - 1 4 2 5). . . . . . full 50 copies.
V. book. Vasily Dimitrievich. half money 10 copies
Galich. V. book. Yuri Dimitrievich (1 3 8 9 - 1 4 3 9). . . . . . . . . . full 4 copies.
Serpukhov. Book Vladimir Andreevich the Brave (1358-1410).... full-fledged 4 copies.
Mozhaisk Book Andrey Dimitrievich (1 3 8 9 - 1 4 3 2) . . . . . . . . . . full 6 copies.
Book Andrey Dimitrievich half-money 5 copies.
Dmitrov. Book Peter Dimitrievich (1 3 8 9 - 1 4 2 8) . . . . . . . . . full 4 copies.
Rostov. Princes Andrei Fedorovich (1331-1409) and Constantine
Vladimirovich (d. 1415). . . . . . full-fledged 1 copy.
With illegible legends of full 10 copies.
Suzdal. V. Book Dmitry Konstantinovich (1365-1383) full 3 copies.
Book and c. book Vasily Kirdyapa (1 3 6 6 - 1 3 9 1) . . . . . full 4 copies.
OCR - Portal \"Archaeology of Russia\"
Suzdal. Book Daniil full 6 copies.
Unidentified full 3 copies.
Unidentified pure Tatar type, 21 full-fledged specimens.
Unidentified Russian-Tatar type.. full-fledged 72 copies.
Uncertain Russian-Tatar type... half-money 6 copies.
Left without any definition due to unsatisfactory
minting or preservation. . . . full-fledged 31 copies.
TNK, III, Chizhov, Drozdovsky treasure.
TREASURE IN MOSCOW ZARYADYE
A precious treasure with silver coins from the times of Ivan the Terrible and Tsar Mikhail Fedorovich was discovered by archaeologists from the Capital Archaeological Bureau during excavations in Moscow’s Zaryadye Park, the 360° Moscow Region TV channel reports.
The ancient money was hidden in three vessels: a jug, a flask and a small jar, in total - about 40-43 thousand, their total weight is more than 20 kilograms.
Among them there are coins of all rulers from Ivan the Terrible (from 1533) to the beginning of the reign of Mikhail Romanov (from 1613). Since the latest kopecks date back to 1614-1615, the concealment of the treasure should be attributed to this time, archaeologists conclude.
“The treasure represented a very significant savings at the time of its concealment. For example, the total amount of savings included in the deposit (350-380 rubles) is the salary of a rifle colonel for 12-15 years.
In general, this amount is the cost of several local villages at the beginning of the seventeenth century,” said representatives of the Moscow City Heritage. This find was the largest ever Lately.
TREASURE AT VDNH
Right in the ground at a depth of about 1.5 m, many small change silver coins of the beginning of the last century (1921-1924) were discovered in denominations of 15, 20 and 50 kopecks, folded in columns.
A total of 329 coins worth 79.9 rubles were found. It has not yet been possible to determine who owned the cache; it is only known that in those years these lands belonged to the collective farm named after V.I. Lenin.
Numismatic experts valued the find at approximately 10 thousand modern rubles. In the future, the coins will remain on the territory of VDNH and will be transferred to the museum.
TREASURE IN KADASHEVSKAYA SLOBODA
A treasure from the reign of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich was discovered during archaeological excavations in Kadashevskaya Sloboda, the Moscow City Heritage Agency reported.
“During excavations, at a depth of 150 cm from the modern day surface, a treasure of the 17th century was found - 1087 coins from the reign of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich. The main component of the treasure is hand-minted copper pennies,” the department told TASS.
As archaeologists note, despite the fact that the coins need restoration, the quality of some of them is very high. These coins were minted from 1654 to 1663.
In 1663, the Copper Riot took place, the cause of which was, among other things, depreciated copper coins: silver coins began to be issued in their place; after the riot, the minting of copper coins ceased.
“The find is undoubtedly of scientific interest,” the Moscow City Heritage Department emphasized.
In addition, during security archaeological work, the remains of an industrial complex associated with the processing of non-ferrous metal were uncovered, which indicates the existence of a Mint near this territory.
In addition to coins, archaeologists discovered household items from the 17th-18th centuries. Among them are stove tiles and ceramics, fragments of relief-polychrome and mural tiles, red relief tiles of the 17th century. depicting battle scenes and animals (lion, unicorn, birds of paradise). In addition, a fragment (cut) of a copper icon with the image of St. Nikita of the 15th-16th centuries, a white stone millstone, and fragments of copper foundry crucibles were discovered.
Archaeological excavations on the territory of the Kadashevskaya Sloboda archaeological heritage site (the territory of the cultural layer of the 17th century) will continue until September of this year.
FIELD OF MIRACLES IN THE MOSCOW REGION
Field of Miracles is what amateur archaeologists call a popular place in the Moscow region for searching for historical treasures. According to Muscovite Sergei Kalinsky, rarely does anyone leave here empty-handed. In the 18th century, there was a large fair on the territory of the village of Rogachevo. For 10 years now, fans of antiquity have been finding silver rubles, gold jewelry and peasant household items here. In a couple of hours, in the presence of a RIA Novosti film crew, Kalinsky found an old horseshoe and a coin from 1731 from the era of Anna Ioannovna in a field near Moscow.
In search of treasures, the "digger" traveled all over the Moscow region, visited the Tver region, and the Ryazan region. He has been interested in alternative archeology for more than three years, during which time the Muscovite’s apartment has turned into a “historical museum.” “A gold peasant wedding ring, coins - from the era of Ivan the Terrible to Soviet times, a pre-Mongol cross - I found all this in a field \" - the treasure hunter told RIA Novosti. Kalinsky is an experienced \"digger\", he finds places to search himself. Conducting research on the territory of archaeological monuments is prohibited by law, so burial grounds, fortresses and mounds are avoided by search engines. But the villages that have disappeared from the face of the earth are a treasure trove of historical values, accessible to everyone.\"
I compare old maps found in archives with modern ones, then go to the site. If there is a dark spot on the field, it means that there was once a settlement there,” explains Kalinsky. The digger goes out hunting, armed with a shovel and a metal detector. The treasure hunter’s special equipment is capable of “feeling” a silver coin at a depth of up to forty centimeters.\" If the metal detector beeps continuously, it means there is silver underground. If it’s torn, it means it’s iron. But sometimes “Katina” nickels - coins from the time of Catherine the Great - can sound like this,” Kalinsky told RIA Novosti.
Single finds are considered “lost” things that you can keep for yourself, says Sergei. If several coins are found at once, this is already a treasure that, by law, must be given to the state. Seekers of historical treasures also have their own set of rules.\"A self-respecting treasure hunter will not trample crops - we do not dig in sown fields. In addition, you must definitely bury the excavation behind you,\" Kalinsky explained. Everything that\"diggers \" are found in the field, they are taken home, the finds are washed and, if necessary, restored. Treasure hunters call themselves amateur archaeologists and are against the title "black diggers." According to seekers of historical treasures, the places where they are looking for treasure are not archaeological monuments, and, therefore, no damage is caused to science.
TREASURE OF THE CITY OF TALDOM
This summer, second-grader Lena Solovyova from the village of Nushpoly, while playing near her home, found several antique coins- heavy copper coins, green with age. As it turned out later, they were scattered during excavation work and represented part of a treasure with fragments of a vessel.
Six-year-old Kolya Belyaev, Yulya Chuvikova, Zhenya and Vasya Kunitsa, and Seryozha Konovalov took an active part in the search for the remaining coins. The luckiest of all was seventh grader Andrei Chernyshev - he found thirty-two coins, and fifth grader Sasha Belov - as many as fifty!
A total of 158 copper coins were found, dating from 1758 to 1804. They mainly belong to the times of Empresses Elizabeth and Catherine II. One coin, a two-kopek coin, was issued under Paul I and one, a nickel, was issued under Alexander I.
The coin is a very interesting and meaningful historical monument. All the more interesting is the treasure, which is like a snapshot of ancient monetary circulation, helping to learn more about the history of coinage and commodity production, about the trade routes of antiquity.
So, in our treasure there are coins minted in various places in Russia: in Moscow and Yekaterinburg (now Sverdlovsk), at the Anninsky (now Perm region) and Kolyvanovsky (Novosibirsk region) mints.
On most coins, on the obverse side (on the obverse) the state emblem of Russia is depicted - a double-headed eagle and the designation of the denomination (monetary denomination), on the reverse side of the coin (on the reverse) - inside the wreath is the monogram of the Empress (Elizabeth or Catherine II) and the date. Some researchers believe that the expression “heads” or “tails” owes its origin to Elizabeth’s coins of this type: the complex symmetrical monogram of the Empress on these coins was popularly called the “sieve.” The average weight of such a copper coin is 51 grams.
Among the coins found, two are of greatest numismatic interest. This is not an ordinary coin from 1760, which indicates the place of minting - the Moscow Mint. Another coin from 1789 is the only one of the entire treasure minted at the Kolyvanovsky Mint, and it can be classified as a “remake” - test coins or minted at the request of collectors. The treasure also contains coins that were re-minted.
In our country, many dozens of finds of treasures of ancient coins become known every year. In the old days, hiding “extra” money in the ground or in a cache was as common as for us storing it in a savings bank. A person who suddenly died, was killed or driven into captivity took the secret of the treasure with him. This apparently happened with the treasure found in Nushpoly.
On behalf of the Taldom Local History Museum, we would like to thank all the guys who helped in the search and donated coins from the treasure to the museum.
Now the entire “Nushpol” treasure is exhibited in the numismatics department of our museum.
T. KHLEBYANKINA,
ml. researcher at the Taldom Museum of Local Lore.
SEMKIN TREASURE IN MOSCOW
Professional treasure hunters do not advertise themselves and usually categorically refuse to meet with journalists. Gosha, who has twenty years of search experience, after much persuasion, agreed to tell us something about himself.
“My grandfather was a miner who built sewers in the center of Moscow. I often brought coins from work that I found, mostly silver, the size of a child’s fingernail, “scales.” He kept some for his collection, the rest he took to the “bugs” resellers hanging around the numismatic departments.
At the age of 14, when my father and mother died in an accident, I began to live with my grandfather and grandmother. To avoid falling into bad company, my grandfather decided to encourage me to look for treasures. I bought various books, took me to museums, talked about my coins, when and how they were minted; fantasized, trying to imagine when, by whom and why this or that treasure was hidden.
A hundred years ago, treasure hunters sold their finds on the famous Sukharevka...
For ten years, my grandfather and I climbed through the attics of houses where wealthy people lived before the revolution. They found everything there - books, documents, photographs, dishes, musical instruments, samovars, tiles... They carried this stuff home in the evenings, with precautions so that God forbid someone would spot it. Then the finds were washed and cleaned, after which the grandfather took them to Uncle Vasya, who was selling at the flea market. With the “junk” money I bought myself a bicycle, my first jeans, and a portable tape recorder.
The grandmother swore: “The apartment has been turned into a trash heap!” She changed her anger to mercy when they brought her a Chinese porcelain vase painted with red dragons from the attic. Grandma admired it for a long time, but was afraid to put it in the sideboard, so she hid it on the mezzanine.
Valuable finds are very rare. And where do they come from? During arrests, the Cheka - NKVD - MGB carried out thorough searches; in the KGB, a whole department dealt with treasures. Everything was raked out. True, we once discovered under a pile of rubbish a silver teapot, a sugar bowl, a set of forks, spoons and knives; another time - two inexpensive silver cigarette cases, a Swiss watch, two pairs of gold earrings and a broken chain packed in a leather box. Only the grandmother started making noise and didn’t want to keep these things at home. My grandfather had to sell them through a collector he knew.”
One of the attic trips allowed Gosha to significantly expand the family numismatic collection. The collection hidden by someone consisted of ancient and medieval (Russian, Polish, Swedish) gold and silver coins. There were about fifteen denarii of Alexander the Great alone, and all of them were in excellent condition.
But that's not all. Gosha collected an excellent collection of bladed weapons in the attics - swords, sabers, broadswords, daggers and dirks. Some of them could decorate the windows of the Historical Museum. Twice treasure hunters found old revolvers, but, out of harm’s way, my grandfather again hid them in the attic.
“Since the beginning of the 1990s, it has become difficult to work in the capital,” Gosha said. - Many young seekers have appeared. The attics were ransacked by homeless people who had settled there. “New Russians” began to take over buildings in the center of Moscow; The restoration had not yet begun, and they were already setting up security. And the local police officers went wild. He held me hostage alone until my grandfather brought him two hundred dollars.
But I couldn’t give up on this anymore. “Addicted” to treasure hunting, like heroin. By this time my grandfather had retired. I quit my job (after graduating from the institute, Gosha served in one of the capital’s museums. - T.B.). We started driving our old Niva around the regions - Moscow, Tver, Vladimir, Tula. Grandfather has at least seventh grade water in jelly everywhere, and relatives. From them they learned about abandoned villages, about landowners' houses, who, where and what kind of treasures were looking for in their areas.
It’s a pleasure to work in remote corners: you can explore houses without haste, and walk around with a metal detector calmly. There was a case when they found St. Nicholas the Saint of the 18th century in a silver frame and two old printed books; and in one hut in the attic, the roof above which miraculously did not leak, they found a gramophone wrapped in sackcloth. The usual “catch” is copper and silver coins, cast iron irons, spinning wheels, wooden utensils, gramophones, kerosene lamps, chests, candlesticks, lamps, cast iron.”
From a distant relative who worked in a rural school all her life, we learned about “Semka’s treasure.”
In a village forgotten by God and people, where the road was overgrown with bushes, there once lived a family - an old mother and son Semka. They were so poor that even the poor girls did not agree to marry the guy. Before the First World War, he went to work in Moscow, from there he moved to St. Petersburg. For a long time there was neither a rumor nor a ghost about him. Semka returned to the village when the Bolsheviks came to power. He was dressed richly, with a gold cross on his neck and rings on his fingers. He brought his mother a velvet skirt, a silk shawl and earrings with large stones.
In honor of his return, Semka prepared a treat for the men. And when he got drunk, he began to boast that he now had as much gold as mud. He spent two months partying, generously lending money, and then the district police came to the village. They tied the seed and began to look for gold. It turned out that he, together with his anarchist friends, was engaged in robberies in St. Petersburg. During the search, the old mother died from grief or fear. And Semka, who tried to escape while he was being taken through the forest, was shot by the police.
The men searched for Semkin’s “burial place” for a long time, and the chairman of the village council even destroyed his house to the ground, but the treasure was never given to them.
“I worked like hell for two weeks at the site of that village,” Gosha recalled. - When I dug up the leather bag, I couldn’t believe my eyes. Grandfather had to be soldered with valerian... Eh, it’s just a pity that the branded boxes were spoiled...”
The successful treasure hunter flatly refused to talk about the contents of the bag. But since before the revolution, products by Bohlen, Faberge and other famous jewelers were sold in branded boxes, we can assume that it was there.
It is no coincidence that after selling several things, Gosha inserted gorgeous snow-white teeth into himself, bought a metal detector for $3,000 and a used SUV. And he slowly sells “small things” through intermediaries at the Izmailovsky vernissage. And I went to Izmailovo.
After a long search, I found something suitable on one of the counters - in elegant boxes covered with half-decayed faded pink satin, there were two small gold crown brooches; one is decorated with small rosette diamonds, the other with brand new turquoise. Such trinkets were made for the 300th anniversary of the House of Romanov. I can’t say whether this is Goshin’s product, but the jewelry was clearly not stored in grandma’s wardrobe for a long time. They asked for these crowns for 300 and 250 dollars, but bargaining was appropriate.
Walking through the antique aisles, I asked the price of some items. Set of silver cutlery - $1000; Swiss watch “Moser” - $120; image of St. Nicholas the Saint in a silver frame - $400; gramophone - $400; denarius of Alexander the Great - $150; a flake coin, depending on the condition - 50-100 rubles (Goshi has a whole bucket of them). In general, Gosha and his grandfather earn money from milk and a sweet bun.
It remains to add that Gosha considers himself a law-abiding treasure hunter, since he does not look for treasures in ancient settlements, not in burial mounds, that is, not in places protected by the state.
...today they are bringing “treasures” to the Izmailovsky Vernissage
TREASURES OF THE TRADE ROUTES OF POCHYA
The word “treasure” (from the verb “to put”) appeared in Rus' only in the 17th century. But the chronicles testify: the concept of “lodge” or “treasure” (later “treasure”) was known to the Slavs already in ancient times. For example, the “Pechersk Patericon” (an ancient collection of stories of hermit monks) tells about the monk Fyodor, who unearthed a huge amount of Latin gold and silver in the Varangian cave, and then Prince Mstislav Svyatopolkovich died on the rack, wanting to take possession of the jewelry...
First of all, let's try to answer the question: who hid the treasures and why? Pirates of distant seas, hiding loot before the next sea voyage, feudal lords burying treasury in a besieged castle, successful conquerors who carried away rich booty from a captured city? Yes, of course, that’s how it was in the West, but here in Rus' the situation is much simpler: everyone hid treasures! Hiding treasures has been a national tradition for many centuries: treasures were buried not only during the days of invasions, uprisings, political reforms and other historical cataclysms, but also on peaceful everyday life.
Of course, wealthy citizens, princes and boyars, hid their carefully guarded treasury only in emergency cases (for example, during raids or major fires), but commoners, having accumulated a thousand or two silver kopecks in a jar, hurried to bury it in the garden or in another secluded place. place, fearing the greedy. Plans indicating the burial places of family wealth were passed from father to son, from grandfather to grandson: and if the younger generation saved more than it spent, it also added its “treasures” to those already in the family. Naturally, during fires and raids, the maps were lost, their owners died - and the family wealth remained in the ground forever...
True, these “wealths” are very relative - after all, unlike America and Europe, the concept of “bank” or something similar did not exist in Rus' in principle: therefore, treasures replaced our ancestors with a current bank account! How convenient - I dug up a little jar of silver in the garden, took out 10 kopecks - bought a cow... Therefore, at the genetic level, many Russians still prefer their own sock, a dresser drawer, the far shelf of a linen closet to bank deposits... So, it is in vain to search in Moscow and Moscow region treasures gold and precious stones: most likely, your find will be a pile of silver money and copper pools (you won't find anything smaller than that!).
Most often, treasures worth from 20 to 100 rubles in silver kopecks are found - such amounts constituted the daily turnover of a small trader or the funds necessary for an artisan and peasant to pay all taxes and taxes. Just imagine: whole year a person worked in an artel, traded or raised crops and livestock, earned and saved money. The toll collectors came - he paid taxes for himself and his family, and remained a free man, an honest citizen or peasant. I didn’t save the pennies I earned: I instantly became a slave, a slave, and fell into the yoke! That’s why everyone buried treasures, both poor and rich: if you put it further away, you’ll take it closer. Who wants to lose freedom and property because of thieving adversaries, fires and raids?
Experts divide the treasures found in the capital and surrounding cities and villages into church, noble, merchant, peasant and even “children’s” - zealous owners taught the youth to be thrifty from a young age. In a word, there was no class that would not make its “contribution” to the secret business of enriching the bowels of the Moscow state.
Silver "louses"
Due to the cheapness of goods (especially food), almost the only monetary unit in Rus' until the 17th century was the silver penny: a small piece of money minted or cut from flattened silver wire, weighing less than a gram. “Russian kopecks are unpleasant to handle: they are small, slippery and tend to slip out of your fingers,” visiting foreigners spoke contemptuously of this money. By that time, Europeans had long ago developed a developed monetary system, led by the thaler - a large silver coin weighing 28 g. Silver rubles, half kopecks and gold coins were minted at the Moscow monetary court especially for settlements with foreigners, but they were not widely used. Peter I, who admired Western customs, called the silver pennies of his predecessors on the throne “lice”...
HELLO FROM TRADE PEOPLE
Now let's talk about the areas of distribution of treasures. First, let's look at the more interesting and “full-fledged” ancient treasures of the 8th-13th centuries. In 780-790 from the Nativity of Christ, ships sailed along the Volga, heading to the Baltic Sea and further to the shores of Iceland and Northern Europe. Slavic tribes also willingly traded with Arab merchants, and the object of trade was very often... money! Rus' at that time did not have its own silver mines, and the precious metal for monetary payments was exported from the East: according to contemporaries, at least a third of eastern silver dirhams ended up in the territory Ancient Rus'. At first, foreign coins in Ancient Rus' were used everywhere to pay for goods, later they began to be melted down and Moscow money was minted from them (however, some princes limited themselves to marking foreign money with their own mark).
The trade road from East to West passed along the waterways of the Moskvorechye and Priokya rivers - large and small rivers were carried by sailing ships and entire caravans, the route of traders was marked by treasures that had already been discovered and still remain undiscovered in the coastal zone. In the “Oka treasures” (as scientists call them), there are massive silver pendants, earrings, plaques, neck hryvnias of indescribable beauty, rare coins of enormous historical and numismatic value. To find them, you need to explore those coastal lands that used to be shores. You should use a metal detector especially carefully where there are ancient settlements, fortresses and monasteries on the shore (I’ll tell you a secret that the land near the ancient fences of fortresses and monasteries is a favorite place for hiding treasures).
Fifteen treasures with Arabic silver dirhams were discovered in the Moscow region near the coast and in the Oka basin. I will name only the most significant of them. In the village of Gruchin on the banks of the Bolshaya Smedva, the right tributary of the Oka, a treasure of Abassid, Tahirid and Samarkand coins was found. In the villages of Ostrogi and Rostavets, clay jugs of the 10th century with Caliphic and Tahirid coins were found. The treasure, found in the village of Khitrovka, contained Byzantine and Oriental coins of the 8th-9th centuries with a total weight of more than 2 kg. Near the village of Bely Omut, on the territory of an ancient settlement on the left bank of the Oka River, two treasures were found: one of jewelry and Samanid dirhams, the other of various oriental coins totaling 110 pieces. A treasure was found in the village of Ozeritsy: more than a hundred different oriental coins. On the bank of the Nara, the left tributary of the Oka, 12 km from the Sharapova Okhota station, a treasure was found - 227 dirhams from the 11th century. On the bank of the Osetra, the right tributary of the Oka, in the village of Zheleznitsy, through which the ancient southern trade route passed, a treasure trove of jewelry and oriental coins weighing about 2 kg was found.
Therefore, next I will tell you about the most “promising” territories in the Moscow region in terms of treasures: “intermediate” cities, so to speak, that served as major transshipment points for traveling merchants. It was in their surroundings that it made sense to leave the treasure, the money received for part of the goods in the local shopping arcades, in order to pick it up on the way back, returning from distant travels. Why here, and not in the middle of nowhere? It’s very simple: a large city will not disappear anywhere; even if you want to, you cannot pass it when returning home. Move a little further from the city, up the riverbed or along the road, away from prying eyes, choose a noticeable landmark - a mighty tree or a piece of rock - and dig yourself a free cell in the Moscow Natural Bank! Surely the merchants of Yuri Dolgoruky or Ivan the Terrible had no idea what interest rates would accrue on their capital by now from numismatists...
Load pennies in barrels...
Imagine the turnover of large Moscow merchants: the income of the Filatov dynasty in the Salt of Vychegda alone amounted to 5,900 rubles a year in the 17th century (almost six hundred kilograms of kopecks!). The merchant Vasily Shorin had to pay taxes in the amount of 28,718 rubles in 1655: almost 3 million kopecks, three tons of silver money! Historians testify: the mints of the Moscow princes and tsars worked tirelessly, pennies were minted continuously, but the country constantly felt a shortage of cash, because the bulk of the money lay in the ground...
WHERE IS THE TREASURE BURIED?
I'll start with Kashira - this most important strategic point in Muscovite Rus'. This fortress was first mentioned in chronicles in 1353: pay special attention to the surrounding hills, coastal zones of the Oka, as well as Besputa, Eight, Kremnitsa and Kashirki (especially near the confluence with the Oka), lands adjacent to Alexandrovsky Nikitsky, Holy Trinity-Belopesotsky monasteries, Vvedenskaya and Znamenskaya churches.
In addition, near the modern city there are two ancient settlements from pre-Mongol times - explore the surrounding area as well.
Volokolamsk is also one of the oldest cities in the Moscow region - it was founded in 1135 at the intersection of two rivers - Gorodenka and Lama, along which trade ships crossed the Shosha River to the Volga (where the Volga Reservoir is now located).
And from Lama, trading ships were dragged to four rivers: Moscow, Ruza, Ozerna and Gryada. The Lama portage, which gave the city its name, served as a bone of contention for many centuries: first the Novgorod and Vladimir princes fought for it, then the Novgorod and Moscow princes. Only in the 15th century was it finally annexed to Moscow. And when a rich trading city and its surrounding lands are under siege, what do peaceful inhabitants do? That's right, they hide their goods!
TREASURES OF VOLOKOLAMSK LANDS AND KASHIRA
A pot with a thousand kopecks from the time of Ivan IV was found in Volokolamsk. In the village of Mikulino-Gorodishche, three treasures were found: a small jar with 1200 coins of Ivan IV, a treasure of 350 coins from 1533-1538, and on the Volokolamsk tract near the ancient settlement - a small clay cauldron with coins of Vasily III and Ivan IV. In the village of Lvovo, on a tributary of the Kopljak River, a treasure of 1,300 kopecks from the 15th century was found.
In the vicinity of the ancient settlement near Kashira, a treasure of jewelry and oriental coins with a total weight of about 1.5 kg was found. On the territory of the city of Baskach there used to be a village located on the water Oka trade route: jewelry and oriental coins of the 9th-10th centuries were found here.
TREASURES OF KOLOMENSKOYE LANDS
Another very promising city in terms of treasures is Kolomna, which arose as a port settlement. For a long time it was the most important strategic point on the southern borders of the Moscow principality and the main transit point on the trade route to the southern lands and Ryazan.
In this city in the 16th century, the courts of Moscow sovereigns and princes (the Shuiskys, Romanovs, Golitsyns, Sheremetevs and Tatevs) were located; many rich nobles, boyar children, merchants, archers and rich artisans lived. By the way, in the XIV-XVI centuries, it was here that the troops of the Moscow army gathered, preparing to defend the Russian land from the raids of the Golden Horde (troops also marched from Kolomna to the Kulikovo Field and to the war with Kazan during the time of Ivan the Terrible). What kind of warrior takes his capital with him to the battlefield?
First of all, you should explore the interfluves - the coastal zones of Kolomenka, Severka, Moskva River and Oka, the surroundings of local monasteries, the village of Stary Bobrenev and the Assumption Cathedral.
In the Kolomna region, in the village of Bokovo, a leather bag with 500 coins from the times of Ivan III and Ivan IV was found.
Silver coins from the late 14th century were found in the village of Gorodishche.
SILVER STORES OF DMITROVSKY DISTRICT
Dmitrov is one of the most ancient cities of Muscovy; until the 16th century it was the richest trading center, the capital of an appanage principality, through which trade routes passed from the capital to the north and to Suzdal and salt, the main value of the Middle Ages, entered the Moscow lands. The Velya, Dubna, Yakhroma and Sestra rivers connected Dmitrov with the Volga: along the Yakhroma, through the Sestra and Dubna rivers, merchant ships reached the Volga trade route leading to Astrakhan and beyond.
Near the mouth of Yakhroma, the Nikolo-Peshnoshsky monastery was founded in 1361, and nearby, in Ust-Pristan, goods were reloaded from small light ships onto large ones intended for long journeys. In the second half of the 16th century, Dmitrov was burned to the ground by the Polish army, could not be rebuilt for a long time, and never rose completely: apparently, many “money papers” with the locations of family treasures burned in the fire, and the victims of the fire had to start life from scratch in a new place . As a result, the trade route gradually moved from Dmitrov to the new, recently founded Arkhangelsk, and the forgotten legacy of the richest city remained lying in the ground...
Silver of Dmitrov and surrounding areas
In the area of Fabrichny Lane, schoolchildren found a treasure - 1,800 silver coins from the early 16th century. At the Church of the Savior, while digging a vegetable garden, servants found a treasure of 2,000 coins from the time of Ivan IV. Three kilometers from the city, near the village of Vnukovo, under the roots of a stump left from a mighty old tree, a local resident found a small box with coins from the time of Ivan IV. On the former road leading from the Nikolo-Peshnoshsky Monastery to the Trinity-Sergius Posad, near the village of Glazychevo, while plowing a field, a jar with coins of Ivan IV was found.
DON'T FORGET ABOUT NARU!
Today, the shallow tributary of the Oka Nara has not been explored at all by “black archaeologists” for treasures of trade silver - and completely in vain! Ten centuries ago this river was quite navigable; sailing boats loaded with goods from distant eastern lands landed on its banks.
Treasures on its banks were probably buried by many, but so far only one has been found: 227 full-weight Arab silver coins on Kleimenovsky Hill, not far from the modern riverbed. So I advise new treasure hunters to pay special attention to the coastal area of Nara, especially to those places where the coastline used to be. And remember - the river was much wider then than it is now, but the coastal hills, ancient boulders on the banks - in general, natural attractions that serve as excellent landmarks for those who were going to find their treasure later - remained unchanged! It is their surroundings that should be checked with metal detectors first...
ALL ALL THINGS ARE NECESSARY, ALL ALL THINGS ARE IMPORTANT
So, in former times goods were more often transported by ship, so treasures of merchants should be looked for in conspicuous places along the banks of navigable rivers. Keep in mind that the outlines of the banks have changed noticeably over the centuries, so it is worth exploring the twenty-meter coastal zone along straight sections of the riverbed and the area around noticeable boulders and hills.
Of course, in the land of the Moscow region, other treasures are also waiting in the wings, which were hidden by the townspeople during the Tatar-Mongol invasions and during the advance of Napoleon’s troops towards Moscow... But military treasures are a topic for a separate article. For now, we will limit ourselves to the treasures of merchants and peaceful inhabitants: I am sure that the coastal zones of the Moscow River, Oka and many other rivers near Moscow, the vicinity of ancient highways, trade routes, carefully examined with a metal detector, will bring us a lot of surprises!
A FEW MORE IMPORTANT POINTS
Passed along the Yauza waterway, which ended where the Rabotnya River flows into the Yauza: then the ships were dragged 7-8 km to Klyazma, where the city of Mytishchi now stands. Places where a travel fee (myto) was collected from merchants, and their ships landed on land and were dragged to other rivers and could be attacked by robbers along the way, probably collected a rich harvest of treasures, of which only a few have been found.
Zvenigorod, a former fortress on the western approaches to Moscow, is another of the most ancient cities in the Moscow region, in the vicinity of which there are ancient settlements and Slavic mounds.
Ruza, an ancient fortress city on the western borders of Moscow, was located on a trade route that shortened the route from the upper reaches of the Volga to its lower reaches through the Moscow River.
In the vicinity of Mytishchi, three treasures were found: in the village of Krasnaya Polyana, when the river bed was widened, a treasure of Moscow kopecks was found, in the village of Sumardyaevo near the Katuar station, a small jar of silver was dug up, in the village of Sholokhovo, 150 kopecks were found in a clay jug.
In the Klyazma basin in the village of Kildim near the Perlovskaya station, 250 kopecks of Ivan IV were found while digging a pit.
In Bolshevo (formerly a rich village on the banks of the Klyazma), during excavations of mounds, a treasure of Byzantine and German coins of the 10th-11th centuries was found. On the banks of the Klyazma in Shchelkovo (a “transshipment point” from where ships were dragged to Skhodnya and Yauza) a treasure of gold and silver bars was found.
In Ruza, a treasure of 2,000 grand ducal coins was found, buried during the feudal war between the Moscow and Galich princes during the reign of Vasily Vasilyevich the Dark, and southeast of the ancient settlement in the coastal stones - a treasure of cut silver ingots. In the village of Drozdovo, Ruza region, a treasure found in a large mound near the Astafievskaya mill contained 243 coins of the 14th century (mostly money and half-money of Grand Duke Vasily Dmitrievich). 1000 pieces of English and German coins of the 11th century were found in Zvenigorod.
EASTERN AND WESTERN SILVER IN MOSCOW TREASURES
On the territory of the village of Kryukovo, the treasure contained Polish-Lithuanian coins of the 16th century. In Serpukhov, a city with a very long history, a treasure of 400 silver coins from the Ryazan principality of the 15th century was found on Chekhovskaya Street while digging holes for fence supports. In the vicinity of the city of Taldom, 200 silver coins of the Tver Principality were hidden in a treasure. In the basin of the Dubna River, on the trade route that ran from Moscow to the north, in the village of Aibutovo, a treasure of 1000 silver coins and half-shells was found, apparently buried by a Moscow merchant of average income.
TREASURES FOUND ON THE BANKS OF MOSCOW RIVERS
On the Kropotkinskaya embankment in Moscow, while digging the foundation of the Cathedral of Christ the Savior, a treasure of the 10th century was discovered - silver Kufic coins. On the embankment of the Moscow River on Varvarka Street, during the construction of the Rossiya Hotel, a treasure of silver rubles and half-rubles from the 14th-15th centuries was found in the ground. Near Kolomenskoye, in the floodplain of the Moscow River, a treasure was discovered - 1,200 pieces of Spanish silver coins.
In the Simonovsky Monastery on the left bank of the Moscow River, past which in the 14th century the Bolvanovsky tract passed, originating from the famous Red Bolvanovsky (Tagansky) Hill, along which merchant caravans traveled through Kolomna to the southern regions, a treasure of oriental coins of the 9th century was discovered. On the same tract, the busiest of trade routes, connecting the eastern lands with ancient Surozh, the main center of Black Sea trade in the 14th-15th centuries, two more treasures were found: the first - not far from the Tagansky Gate on the territory of Marxistskaya Street (370 coins from the time of Ivan IV ); the second - in the Lyublinsky district, at the Tekstilshchiki platform, on the territory of the Gorky state farm. There, a box with 2,350 silver coins was discovered, issued in the 15th century during the reigns of Ivan III and Vasily III.
TREASURES OF SILVER MONEY IN THE CAPITAL
Not far from Teply Stan, southwest of Moscow along the Kaluga Highway, on the site of the former village of Derevlevo, a treasure trove of coins issued in the 14th century during the reign of Vasily I was found. Near the Spaso-Andronikov Monastery, a treasure was found - almost 2000 coins of Ivan III. On the territory of the Kolomensky Monastery (the former palace village of Kolomensky), during restoration work in the Church of the Ascension, 450 coins of Ivan IV were found under the wall of the temple. This treasure was hidden in 1571 during the invasion of the Crimean Khan Dovlet-Girey.
And at the Krutitsky courtyard in Moscow, near the road leading to Kolomenskoye, a treasure of 800 silver coins was found, issued in the 15th century during the reign of Ivan III and his predecessor Vasily the Dark. A treasure was found on Spartakovskaya Street in Moscow - a jug with 180 coins, buried on the territory of the palace village of Eloh in 1530. In the village of Kosino in the Perovsky district of Moscow, while digging a grave, a treasure was found in a cemetery - 45 silver coins of the Grand Duchy of Moscow.
Three vessels with silver coins from the time of Ivan III were found near the fence of the Novodevichy Convent. The place where the treasures were buried was formerly called Samsonov Meadow - there were small tracts, separate groups of houses with vegetable gardens, arable lands and meadows on it. 500 coins from the 15th-16th centuries were found near the Chesme Pond. On Samotechnaya Street, on the site of the palace village of Sushchevo, near Samotechnaya Square, a treasure was found - 100 silver coins of Moscow and Pskov minting, dating back to 1550-1600.
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SOURCE OF INFORMATION AND PHOTO:
Team Nomads
http://obzor-novostei.ru/
ARTICLE based on materials from V. Zaitsev, S.V. Kochetkov (Moscow) and State Historical Museum
OCR - Portal \"Archaeology of Russia\"
group treasure hunters VKontakte
ARCHEOLOGY in the Moscow region
Oracle Magazine
Article by candidate of historical sciences Alexey BEKSHER
Beads dating back 42 thousand years were found in a Lebanese cave. During excavations at Ksar Aqil, north of Beirut, scientists discovered 20 sea shells with holes. Experts believe that ancient people used shells as beads or decorated clothes with them. The oldest jewelry is also found in Russia. We will tell you about the five most interesting finds.
Unique Scythian treasure
In the Shpakovsky district of the Stavropol Territory, archaeologists discovered Scythian jewelry dating back to the 4th century BC. The find is considered the most valuable in Russia over the past 50 years. Scythian jewelry includes bracelets, rings and other jewelry. The fact that the gold survived is a real miracle, since the mound had already been robbed several times. Scientists cannot yet say for sure who the jewelry belonged to.
Chuvash jewelry
In the Vurnar region of Chuvashia, archaeologists found jewelry that is more than 2 thousand years old. Elements of amulets, beads, brooches, as well as pieces of fabric were found in the dump. In addition, scientists were able to recover some of the human remains from the burial, which were preserved due to contact with chest, neck and head bronze jewelry.
The oldest women's jewelry
In Denisova Cave (an archaeological site in the Altai region) a part of a stone bracelet was discovered, which archaeologists found in the same layer where the remains of an unknown type of people were located (it is assumed that these people lived about 40 thousand years ago). Scientists say that, judging by its age, the bracelet is the oldest female jewelry known to date.
There is a hole on the bracelet through which, according to scientists, a string with a bead was threaded. Researchers believe that the trinket most likely belonged to some noble person and was a symbol of prestige. What struck scientists most was that the archaic species of people owned high level culture. According to archaeologists, the bracelet is difficult to manufacture, it has neat holes and, apparently, a technology comparable to a modern machine was used for drilling.
Estii treasure
Kaliningrad scientists have found a unique treasure in the region. The treasure consists of ancient jewelry that is relatively well preserved, despite the fact that it has lain in the ground for approximately fifteen hundred years. The exact location of the find is unknown - archaeologists are keeping it secret, fearing that black diggers will arrive at the site before the official end of the excavation.
Scientists have established that the jewelry belonged to representatives of the nobility from the ancient people of the Estii, who were the ancestors of the Prussians. Most of the finds are elements of burial goods. Archaeologists claim that such objects were a symbol of a certain status. Inside the ancient burial ground, in particular, a gold ring, well-preserved silver brooches, as well as buckles richly decorated with precious stones were discovered. In total, there are about three dozen artifacts, and today they are absolutely unique.
Veneti treasure
The treasure was discovered in the Bryansk region, in the valley of the Desna River. In total, the “black diggers” pulled out 150 objects from the ground - the treasure includes several sets of bronze jewelry, both female and male, including those related to horse harness. Among them are head crowns, torcs, breast chains, brooches (clasps for clothing), bracelets, pendants, glass beads dating back to the 3rd century AD. Just at this time on the territory modern Russia The first Slavic settlers, whom Byzantine chroniclers called “Veneti,” began to penetrate from the west and south. A significant proportion of the bronze objects are decorated with engravings or champlevé enamel decoration - opaque glass, predominantly red - such decorations have already been found in the burials of Slavic leaders from the Baltic Sea to central Russia.