Temporal rings with spiral ornamentation: the spreading area and chronology

Abstract

The paper considers one of the categories of medieval jewelry – temporal rings with décor made of spirally twisted wire. The study characterizes finds from Eastern Europe known to date and provides data on jewelry from Central and South-Eastern Europe. The temporal rings of different design of their ends and spiral decorations are identified. Jewelry of this type is associated with the Byzantine jewelry tradition. The finds are concentrated in Slavic sites along the Danube, in Serbia, Bulgaria and Southeast Romania. They are not numerous in Central and Eastern Europe. Their chronology, as in the Danube-Balkan region, covers the 10th–14th centuries, the largest number of finds belonging to the second half of the 11th–13th century. Rings with a spiral decor could enter Northern Rus both as a result of trade and with settlers from the southern Rus lands. A small number of finds indicate that this type of jewelry did not become the subject of mass production outside the Danube-Balkan region.