Features of the Décor of Medieval Belt Ornaments from the Minusinsk Basin in I.P. Tovostin’s Collection (The National Museum of Finland, Helsinki)

Abstract

Most part of I.P. Tovostin’s combined collection of antiquities from the Minusinsk Basin is kept in Helsinki. It contains decorated objects of small-form toreutics (non-ferrous metal) of the late 1st – early 2nd millennium. The results of analysis of the décor features lead to conclusion that they fully reflect the entirety of similar items from the Altai-Sayan. The characteristic features of the décor of the collection items are as follows: its composition including all known décor types; the presence of “serial” compositions popular in a larger region; the decor having identical analogues outside the series; the unique décor; and flawed items as evidence of possible “local” attempts at copying complex decoration. The presence of a sprue in the collection testifies to the production of the simplest items (earrings) in the microregion. In some cases, the peculiarities of the décor make it possible to trace the relative chronology of items. The paper considers methods of décor fixation available in museum conditions and the importance of combining those methods.

Keywords

• archaeology
• minusinsk hollow
• sayan-altai
• early middle ages
• private combined collection
• small-form toreutics
• non-ferrous metal
• décor
• décor recording
• relative chronology