Female Jewelry of the Mongolian People in the Collection of the V. A. Obruchev Kyakhta Local Museum

Abstract

This article examines the Mongolian female jewelry collection of the Kyakhta Local Museum amounting to almost a hundred and fifty items. The collection started with expeditions of the Russian Geographical Society in the early twentieth century and continued throughout the Soviet period when it was significantly enlarged with items from various regions of Buryatia. According to the museum’s documents, and most of the items are still unidentified, the collection consists of scattered items or their individual elements which need proper research and technical expertise. During their examination of the said items, the authors solve several problems, i.e. they analyse and describe the art piece, the semantics of the ornamentation, identify the scrambled elements and pieces of jewelry used in the traditional costume of the Buryat regions. The authors use the iconographic, iconological, and comparative methods. The full set of female jewelry for the Mongolian people adorns the head, the neck, the chest, the shoulders, the waist and both arms. The article only focuses on headpieces and items worn hanging from the temples all the way down to the chest. It includes the description of silver decorations used for the top of male and female hats, and techniques for their differentiation. The study attempts to attribute the jewelry to define its affiliation with a specific Buryat ethnic group, as different areas of Buryatia and Mongolia have their own variations and artistic identities expressed in the traditional costume of their tribes and families. The article describes three items of Mongolian female jewelry. The authors aim to continue the research by focusing on each group of female jewelry attire with reference to comparable material from different museums.