V.E. Rodinkova

Key words: early Middle Ages, male and female ornaments.
The article publishes the hoard that was found in October 2007 near the village of Kurilovka in Kursk oblast’. The hoard is stored in the Kurchatovskiy state regional museum. The assemblage belongs to the circle of Dnieper early medieval hoards, or “antiquities of the Antae” group I. The items existed in the Middle Dnieper region and the Dnieper left bank starting from the end of the 6th/turn of the 6th-7th cc. to the middle/third quarter of the 7th c. The hoard comprises 119 whole and fragmented metal items and 33 glass and amber beads. They are divided into elements of woman’s attire (fibulae, temple rings, bracelets, umbo- and trapeze-shaped pendants, bells, spiral and plain metal tubes, chains, beads, etc.) (Figs. 1-3; 4, 1-30; 5, 1-12, 16-31), elements of man’s attire (buckles, belt plates, strap terminals, etc.) (Fig. 6) and metal ingots (Fig. 5, 13, 14). The woman’s items are represented by local Dnieper forms, part of which are specific local variants and allow to include the Kurilovka hoard, together with the Gaponovo and new Sudzha hoards into the group of assemblages from the Sudzha microgerion in the Seim-Psyol interfluve area. The details of the man’s belt assemblages reflect the mainly southward focus in the external relations of the population. The complex is of a dual character. On the one hand, it includes sets of personal ornaments. On the other hand, the unfinished items and the ingots indicate a craftsman. We may assume that the Kurilovka hoard was deposited by a jeweler who decided to hide both his own unfinished goods and the decorations which belonged to his family.