Metalware and Pottery from the Khmelevka I Settlement

Abstract

The paper deals with the objects of armament, horse equipment and daily life from the Hmelevka I settlement of the second half of 13th – 14th cc. The settlement is located in the Saratov Volga region and was studied by expedition of Kazan University headed by L.F. Nedashkovsky in 1995–2002. The armament is represented by fragments of axes, arrowheads and ceramic bomb; the horse equipment – by the iron framework of supporting buckle, ring from bridle, horseshoe and debacle thorns. Rivets, fragments of copper and bronze vessels, sheets, cast-iron cauldrons, iron plough blade, scythe, knives and their couplings, locks and keys make the daily life objects analyzed in the paper. We provide the data on the mass material, including ceramics (spindle-whorls, unglazed Golden Horde, Old Russian, Mordvin pottery, fragments of Trebizond amphorae, stamped vessels and fragments of glazed red-clay and kashi vessels). The broad comparative background of materials of synchronous monuments of Eastern Europe and Asia is used as a basis for studying the morphological features of metalware and pottery and to make typology. The Hmelevka I settlement can be characterized as urban site, as well as larger Uvek site, but the shown differences in material culture reflect differences in the daily life and culture of the population of the town and the city of Golden Horde, respectively. City dwellers (especially the sedentary Golden Horde aristocracy, who lived predominantly in the cities) were apparently more connected with military affairs and trade, and the population of town – with subsidiary farming and cattle breeding.

Keywords

• settlements
• the golden horde
• the lower volga region
• regions of the uvek site
• armament
• horse equipment
• object of daily life
• pottery
• material culture