Strikalov I.Y., Chernetsov A.V.
Institute of archaeology RAS, Moscow (igor.strikalov@gmail.com)

Key words: Russian Middle Age city, jewelry, Mongol-Tatar invasion, hoard, adornments.

The article is devoted to the first scientific publication of the archaeological find of 2013 – the hoard of jewelry on the territory of the site Staraya Ryazan. The article considers being preliminary and appeals to introduce the readers to the content of the hoard, its peculiarities and first hypothesis about the origin and ownership. The hoard, which was found during the field studies of the Staraya Ryazan expedition organized by the Institute of Archaeology of Russian Academy of Sciences (IA RAS) and Ryazan Historical and Architectural Museum-Reserve (RHAMR), belongs to the treasures that were hidden by the citizens of the Middle Age city in the epoch of the Mongol-Tatar invasion in 1237. It has been pointed out by the archaeological context of the location of the find and the traditional set for such kind of complexes, as well as the technology, the style of jewelry included two necklaces made of silver beads with pendants and lockets, two pairs of kolts on silver ribbons, a headband with three-beaded semi rings and two twined bracelets decorated in the techniques of granulation, filigree and blackening. However, in spite of the non-exceptional character of the hoard’s content, it also contains some items making it unique against similar ones from Staraya Ryazan. This includes the set of nine stone crosses partially modeled with small metal bands at their ends and also raw materials and semi products for jewelry (such as matrices, a pouring grate, and unfinished works of non-ferrous metals) which allows us to suggest that the hidden items belonged to a jeweler. This fact is also pointed out by the hoard’s location on the Northern site of Staraya Ryazan, an ancient part of the city, which became a trade quarter of Ryazan capital in the beginning of the 13th c. The correlation between the hoard and a residential city manor will become the topic of the following studies.