BRONZE SCABBARD-CHAPE AND BIMETALLIC SWORD FROM M. F. SUMTSOV KHARKIV HISTORICAL MUSEUM

Abstract

In M. F. Sumtsov Kharkiv Historical Museum archaeological collection a bronze scabbard-chape can be found, which has a form of a rhomb-shaped plug that ends with a head of a carnivorous bird. The bird’s head is conveyed by three expressive elements — an eye in the eyesocket, a beak, and a tonguelet. Chapes of such type count a bit more than twenty exemplars, which are located preferably on the Caucasus and Northern Black Sea coastal area territories. Chape was included in the so-called «Kharkiv treasure». This treasure was supposedly found by two teenagers in their yard in 1957; they gave it to the museum. The treasure is very variegated by its content and counts 236 objects of different epochs — from the Neolithic Age to the Middle Ages and modern ages. By the range of symptoms the treasure can be linked to the Archaeological exhibition opened in occupied Kharkiv in 1942 and which was demolished by the fire in February 1943. The exhibition was based on the materials of the Historical Museum collections and the Archaeological Museum of the Kharkiv University; it demonstrated as wide chronological period as the content of the «Kharkiv treasure» was — from the Stone Age to the Cossacks times. So, apparently before the war, the chape belonged to the collection of one of these museums. The loss of the accounting records of both museums prevents from determining the more precise origin of the chape.
 In the Archaeological exhibition remnants after the fire a bimetallic sword with an iron blade and bronze handle was also found. The sword and the chape belong to the same cultural and chronological context and are tied with each other functionally. At the same time, they are quite rare findings. It allows admitting a possible connection between them and their belonging to the same complex. Visually the Kharkiv chape is the closest to the findings from the Northern Black Sea coastal area, which allows defining the possible territory of origin of this complex, which is just hypothetic for now.