Pages: 165-180

This article is devoted to the study of making technology and variations of chemical composition of metal of gold items from the rich female burial Mukhino-2 on the Upper Don (the first half of the 5th century), which contains North-Pontic dress elements. All investigated items were made of gold-silver film (or foil), where precious metals are connected to each other by the diffusion method. The closest parallels to this technique we see in Bosporan numismatic materials — on the surface of individual issues of stators of Sauromates IV and Thothorses (Fophors) (4th c. AD). We assume that this manufacturing technique was used in late-antiquity Bosporan jewelry workshops. The obtained data about the manufacturing method of gold items confirm the previously stated assumptions about the connection of the female garment from the “princely” burial Mukhino-2 with the North-Pontic zone. It seems that there must be many more gold items of this period, manufactured by using this technique, and that this technique could be widely spread.

Keywords: Upper Don, Hunnic Period, gold items, manufacturing techniques, chemical composition, alloys

Information about authors:

Irina Saprykina (Moscow, Russian Federation). Candidate of Historical Sciences. Institute of Archaeology of the Russian Academy of Sciences. Dmitry Ulyanov St., 19, Moscow, 117036, Russian Federation
E-mail: [email protected]
Anna Mastykova (Moscow, Russian Federation). Doctor of Historical Sciences. Institute of Archaeology of the Russian Academy of Sciences. Dmitry Ulyanov St., 19, Moscow, 117036, Russian Federation
E-mail: [email protected]