Embossed Silver Medallions from Northwestern Siberia

Abstract

This study describes a specific category of jewelry—round medallions made from silver foil with bent edges and inside hoops made of copper wire; the obverse is decorated with representations embossed on a die. The sample includes 27 items. Compositions on the obverse are of six types: horseman smashing an unmounted warrior; rider on horseback; man riding a mythical animal; rider with saber on horseback; falconer; animals. A suggestion is made that embossed medallions imitate medieval plaques with falconers by their round shape, size, and the depiction of mounted characters. The technique of embossing silver foil on a die was elaborated on certain 12th–14th-century armguards. They could be prototypical also with regard to animal compositions, specifically those showing lions with open mouths and protruding tongues. Medallions and armguards from silver foil embossed on dies with wire hoops inside, as well as thin-walled bowls with elevated rims, belong to a group of silver items manufactured at Russian Permian jewelry center in the 15th–16th centuries. Medallions were manufactured for exchange with natives during the northward advance of Russian troops in Western Siberia. They were used in rituals by Voguls (Mansi) and Ostyaks (Khanty), who had long practiced a tradition of using imported silverware. It can be suggested that medallions with compositions resembling the canonical scene «Miracle of St. Demetrius of Thessaloniki Concerning Tsar Kaloyan» were imported to Siberia for missionary purposes.