Key features of medieval jewelry items of the Pre-Urals

Abstract

In recent years, due to comprehensive research of jewelry making found at medieval sites in the Perm Pre-Urals, as well as new materials of field archaeological research, convincing evidence has been obtained of the existence of its own jewelry centers here. The items made by medieval masters met the needs of the local population and are represented by costume ornaments, as well as household and ritual items. All of them have a number of distinctive features which are manifested not only in the material and pattern, but also in the methods and techniques of their manufacture and decoration. These features distinguish them among the entire jewelry heritage of the territory of Eurasia in the period of the 9th - 13th centuries. The paper looks into identifying clear-cut key features (stylistic, chemical and technological) of Prikamye jewellery items. These are certain cultural chronological traditions of the implementation of individual structural elements, the location of the grain-filigree decoration in the manufacture of products and its technical performance, certain methods of inlaying certain categories of jewelry, applying gilding, etc. Fixing these features makes it possible to more accurately attribute the items found both in the medieval monuments of the considered territory and far beyond its borders.