|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 
The Treasures of the Golden Horde Exhibition dedicated to the artistic heritage of the Golden Horde is held for the first time. The exhibition features more than 1000 objects dating back to the 13th to 15th centuries that were created by the masters of the Golden Horde Khanate, the state that was founded at the foremost West of the former empire of Jenghiz - Khan after his death. The type of culture that was formed here was a specific one combining features of nomadic and settled culture, fusing together achievements of different peoples living on the territories of the Golden Horde. These included Mongols, Persians, Polovtsi (Cumans), Volga Bulgarians, Slavs and many others. Most part of the existing artifacts originate from the archaeological excavations of the 19th - 20th centuries in places where Golden Horde towns, settlements and tumuli used to be situated. The exhibition mostly represents objects of gold and silver made both in the steppe camps and in the centers of handicrafts of the Golden Horde. These items give an idea of the Horde treasures as of a single historical complex representing artistically made metal objects from one of the youngest Mongolian states founded in the early 40s of the 13th century by Batu-Khan (1227 - 1257), grandson of Jenghiz - Khan. Precious metals articles including belts, bowls and goblets attached to the waist, horse harness, became the symbols of sovereignty of the nomadic chiefs. They were parts of the system of gifts given by the senior feudals to the junior ones and served to the idea of strengthening of the suzerainty of the chiefs of the local steppe elite. Most part of the items were produced by the nomads and for the nomads. Four large groups of objects are represented at the exhibition. They reflect four main subjects of the exhibition. The group of artifacts, dating back to the second half of the 13th century mostly, is closely connected with the tradition of the "Great Mongolia" that was formed during the lifetime of Jenghiz-Khan (1155 - 1227). This group includes the "Jenghiz Stone", belts of warriors, p'ai-tzu of the Great Khan and of the khans of the Golden Horde. (P'ai-tzu were documents on metal plates. There were decoration p'ai-tzu, granted for special service, and those that served as orders for fresh horses to messengers running an errand for the members of the Khan's family). Silver bowls found in Ivdel (a settlement in Sverdlovsk region) reflect specific features of artistic casting that were characteristic of the Middle Horde period (the late 13th - the second third of the 14th centuries). Silver articles of the Late Horde period (from the middle or the last third of the 14th to the first half of the 15th centuries) originate from the tumuli of the Northern Caucasus and from hoards of the Volga River and Azov Sea basins and from the Crimea. Of special interest are decorative articles from the Simpheropol hoard (the late 14th century). These beautiful examples of the jewelry art of the Golden Horde are kept in the State Museum of History. Among them 328 golden and silver items: vessels, p'ai-tzu, coins, jewelry pieces for the decoration of head-dresses, beads, ear-rings, breastplates, cases for prayer-books and protection signs, buttons, bracelets. Quite a large part of the objects are decorated with coloured stones, pearls, engraving, niello. The articles from this hoard prove the wide range of contacts between the mature Golden Horde Khanate on the one hand and China, Northern India, Iran, Asia Minor and Yemen situated on the south of the Arabian coast of the Red sea, as well as the states of Islamic and Christian Levant, the trading Republics of the Northern Italy - Venice and Genoa on the other. The last subject matter of the exhibition is connected with the art of
the most refined filigree, the new style of the filigree art that manifested
itself in the articles of the nomadic camps of the Golden Horde since
the mid-13th century. Thanks to the active trading of the Sarais, the
capital centers of the nomads, through the Crimea and the sea routes of
the revived "Silk Route" with the other world spiral filigree
impetuously became "world fashionable" and in the 14th century
reached the upper Nile and Damask. |
|
|||||
|
Copyright © 2011 State Hermitage Museum |
