Treasures of Staraya Ryazan’: Two Hundred Years of Research and New Discoveries

ISSN 1019-3316, Herald of the Russian Academy of Sciences, 2022, Vol. 92, Suppl. 8, pp. S684–S694. © The Author(s), 2022. This article is an open access publication. Russian Text © The Author(s), 2022, published in Rossiiskaya Arkheologiya, 2022, No. 2. Treasures of Staraya Ryazan’: Two Hundred Years of Research and New Discoveries A. V. Chernetsov# Institute of Archaeology, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, Russia e-mail: Received October 28, 2022; revised November 1, 2022; accepted November 1, 2022 Abstract—This article is dedicated to study of the jewelry craft of Staraya Ryazan’. It has been prepared for the 200th anniversary of the discovery of the first hoard there (1822), which marked the beginning of the study of ancient Russian towns, the most important area in the science of Russian antiquities. The marks of the individual style of a craftsman who served representatives of the princely family (interpretation of the images of animals, birds, anthropomorphic figures, and elements of ornamentation, as well as features of the technique) are considered. Jewelry made by him was found in four hoards (1950, 1966, 1970, and 2005). The hoard of 2013, in addition to jewelry, included raw materials and tools of the jeweler (bronze matrices). The number of the matrices indicates that they were intended for several workshops. Some data show that a large grand ducal jewelry workshop was located near the place of the find. Keywords: Staraya Ryazan’, jeweler’s individual style, large grand ducal workshop, semantics of images DOI: 10.1134/S1019331622140039 This article has been prepared for the 200th anniversary of the discovery of the first Staraya Ryazan’ hoard on June 6, 1822, marking the beginning of the archaeological research into ancient Russian towns, which has become the most important area in the science of antiquities of the Russian Middle Ages. The first book devoted to the study of the antiquities of Staraya Ryazan’ was published the following year [Kalaidovich, 1823]. Note that the title of the book contains the words archaeological research, and the author, unlike other scientific writers of that era, uses the word archaeology in a meaning close to its modern understanding. In honor of the upcoming anniversary, a number of articles have been published (see [Strikalov and Chernetsov, 2020; Sterligova, 2021]). This article was written under the influence of S.A. Avdusina’s publication in the journal Rossiiskaya arkheologiya (Russian Archaeology) (2022), accompanied by high-quality photographs of the jewelry in question. I point to the artistic features of a silver medallion with the image of Our Lady of the Sign, found in 1950 by the expedition of A.L. Mongait, as part of a hoard partially destroyed by plowing (some ornaments from this hoard were found in 1937) [Avdusina, 2022, p. 174, Fig. 2.2]. The settlement of Staraya Ryazan’ is a kind of “field of miracles,” and new finds often allow a new # Aleksei Vladimirovich Chernetsov, Dr. Sci. (Hist.), is a Profes- sor and Chief Researcher at the RAS Institute of Archaeology. interpretation of the features of things from collections containing materials from excavations of previous years. The “zest” of the Staraya Ryazan’ archaeology is, undoubtedly, hoards of precious jewelry. By their origin, they are usually associated with the siege and capture of the town by Batu’s army in December 1237. Russian museums currently have 17 similar complexes. We can conditionally add another one, found in 2021 in the immediate vicinity of Staraya Ryazan’ (near the historical village of Isady) [Strikalov, 2022]. The current stage of the study of the site began in 1994 with the work of the Staraya Ryazan’ archaeological expedition of the RAS Institute of Archaeology together with the Ryazan’ Historical and Architectural Museum-Reserve (since 1997, with the Russian State University for the Humanities as well); since 1994, this work has been supported on an annual basis by the Russian Foundation for Basic Research (RFBR) and the Russian Humanitarian Scientific Fund (RHSF). From 1997 to 2004, it was additionally financed under the federal target program State Support for the Integration of Higher Education and Basic Science. Since 2003, these field studies have been supported by the RAS Division of Historical and Philological Sciences within the framework of the program History, Languages, and Literature of the Slavic Peoples in the World Sociocultural Context. Later, the research of the Staraya Ryazan’ expedition was supported within the framework of the RAS Presidium program of basic research Historical and Cultural Heritage and Spiri- S684 TREASURES OF STARAYA RYAZAN’ tual Values of Russia. In 2012, the work of the expedition was also supported within the framework of a federal target program of the Ministry of Culture of Russia—Culture of Russia (2012–2018). By a decree of the Council of Ministers of the Russian Soviet Federal Socialist Republic of August 30, 1960, Staraya Ryazan’ was put under protection as a monument of history and culture of federal significance. Soon the architects A.F. Pankin and O.I. Okunev together with the archaeologist L.A. Belyaev drafted a project of the monument’s museumification [Pankin, 1987]. The project was not implemented. Meanwhile, natural processes are gradually destroying the settlement [Chernetsov, 2009; Uskov et al., 2013], and traces of illegal excavations, sometimes quite successful, have been discovered in a number of years [Chernetsov, 2018]. Since 2012, a permanent guard post has been functioning on Staraya Ryazan’. Only about 6–7% of the fortified area has been unearthed by long-term excavations. The area is very significant for its time—more than 67 ha, and outside the town walls there was a vast unfortified posad. About onethird of the area of the site has been studied by groundpenetrating radar [Klochko et al., 2008]. On July 31, 2005, another jewelry hoard was discovered in the Southern Settlement of Staraya Ryazan’ [Bulankina et al., 2005; Chernetsov, 2007; Staraya Ryazan’, 2014]. Among the ornaments found in the hoard, one of the medallions, depicting a bloomed cross, stands out for its artistic merit (Fig. 1, 1) [Staraya Ryazan’, 2014, p. 35, Table 14]. The medallion was part of a rich necklace, which included three similar decorations. The one in question is undoubtedly the central one. It surpasses the other two in size (the diameters of the medallions are 79, 72, and 70 mm). While the two smaller medallions are decorated with soldered ribbed wire imitating granulation, as well as with engraving and niello, gilding was additionally used to decorate the central medallion. Characteristic are the images of birds, depicted as well fed, with short curved beaks, a peculiar eye shape, and images of paws marked by artistic negligence, revealing extreme proximity to the ornithomorphic motifs on the famous lamellar bracelet with images of a female dancer and a male gusli playe (...truncated)