A Medieval Base from Staryi Krym

Abstract

The architectural detail is suddenly find artifact, which is from the central part of the medieval city of Solkhat-Crimea. The artifact is an extraordinary, it had a constructive purpose, and was used as a monolithic foot or, less likely, at the top of an octahedral stone column with a massive, presumably, squat trunk. The rather characteristic form of the object makes it possible to attribute it to the number of stalactite bases and capitals of the Golden Horde period, which were used in the Muslim and Christian monumental buildings throughout the peninsula. Close analogies to the discovered artifact among the Crimean monuments are not yet known. It differs significantly from the local, mainly cubic, products by a distinct plate-like form, considerable size and simplified plastic. It is not yet possible to find out exactly which building belonged this specific architectural detail. The date of its making, which hardly went beyond the framework of the 14th century, also cannot be determined unambiguously. Relatively confidently, it can only be assumed that the Armenian masters could have been involved in the appearance of this work. In the context of the consideration of the published artifact, special attention is paid to a number of pressing scientific problems, such as the preservation and restoration of architectural and archaeological monuments of the Old Crimea, ignoring important scientific information by leading experts in the field of art and architecture of the Golden Horde time, the long overdue need for special research on the use of stalactite warrants in the architecture of the medieval Crimea, in which, s objective is the study of individual components of the survivors.

Keywords

• крым, солхат, xiv-xv вв., строительные традиции малой азии, золотоордынская архитектура, армянское зодчество, архитектурная деталь, восьмигранная колонна, база, капитель, сталактиты