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View the masterpieces of this collection Panoramic view of Hall 2 of the Gold Rooms The time of Great Migrations was marked by tremendous moves of tribes inhabiting the lands between the Manchurian steppes and the Atlantic coast of what is now France. One of the peoples most actively involved were the Huns who in the 4th century conquered an immense territory from the Volga to the Dniester, including the Crimean steppeland. The Hermitage possesses a remarkable collection of Hunnish antiquities: gold adornments for clothing and headwear, rich decoration for horse harnesses. The majority of these items come from burials in the steppes of southern Russia, where an alliance of tribes led by the Huns formed in the late 4th century. A new culture formed there, the influence of which was reflected in the appearance of a distinctive polychromatic style in jewellery. Its distinctive features are the combination of a gold background with red or orange insets made of semi-precious stones (garnets, almandines, cornelians, less often amber and coloured glass) in soldered sockets, ornament made with granulation and filigree or stamped bands in the form of "braid", "rope" or "twists", as well as the use of cloisonné incrustation in the decoration of pieces. In the Treasure Gallery visitors can see multicoloured diadems with a
figured frieze, kolts (ornaments worn at the temples), the ends
of torques (neck ornaments) of original designs, such as the stylized
head of a dragon, decorative fibulae (clasps) and rich harness ornament. |
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Copyright © 2011 State Hermitage Museum |
