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Heraldic pendant no. 88 is held in the collection of the Sheremetev Museum in Kiev. On its side ‘A’, there is a representation of a trident coated with a thin layer of gilt. On the right prong of the trident, there is an additional cross-shaped sign on the outside. The single parallel to it is found in a small cross on the right prong on side ‘B’ of two-pronged pendant no. 47 from excavations in Pskov in 1976. The uniqueness of additional marks in the form of a cross on the Old Russian princely signs indicates that elements of this kind were not employed during traditional procedures concerned with the inheritance of princely signs.
On side ‘B’ of the pendant under consideration, there is a marking scratched for an unaccomplished representation of a bident, i. e. two prongs are clearly distinguishable as well as also the base of a bident without a stem and marking of two bands of guilloche. Evidently, a parade representation of a bident without a stem was originally intended to be placed on side ‘B’. It was supposed before that signs without a stem belonged to princesses. Undoubtedly, those on whose behalf the holder of pendant no. 88 acted were directly related to Rurikovich’s administration. Therefore, the unaccomplished bident on the pendant, most probably, symbolized the widowed Princess Olga, whereas the revision of the representation on the pendant in the process of its manufacture was occasioned by her death.
The trident on side ‘A’ of the pendant could belong to Vladimir Svyatoslavich — Olga’s grandson. However, this attribution of the trident runs contrary to the presence of the abovementioned cross-shaped additional mark on the right prong, distinguishing the trident on the pendant from the ordinary trident of Vladimir.
The solution of this riddle must directly follow from the events that took place in Rus’ in the late 960s. These years saw the war of Svyatoslav against the Bulgarian Kingdom. Immediately in the time when Svyatoslav was settling in Pereyaslavets on the Danube, Kiev where Princess Olga then lived with the young grandchildren was besieged by the Pechenegs. A messenger sent to Svyatoslav informed the Prince about what had happened. Svyatoslav with his armed retinue returned to Kiev and drove the Pechenegs away from the city to the steppe. During the time when Svyatoslav sojourned in Kiev, Olga died. After her funeral, the Grand Prince appointed his sons as deputies in Kiev (Yaropolk), the land of the Drevlyans (Oleg) and Novgorod (Vladimir) and departed again with his armed force for Pereyaslavets. Thus, during the initial period of Svyatoslav’s Balkan wars, Kiev was ruled by his mother – the widowed Princess Olga. Possibly, in the absence of Svyatoslav, Olga appointed her younger grandson as her co-ruler, so that the added cross-shaped sign on the right prong of Vladimir’s trident had the single purpose to demonstrate that Olga’s co-ruler was acting as the Grand Prince’s locum tenens.

Keywords: Old Rus, heraldic pendant, Princess Olga, Prince Svyatoslav, Prince Vladimir

Information about author:

Serge Beletsky (Saint Petersburg, Russian Federation). Doctor of Historical Sciences. Institute for the History of Material Culture of the Russian Academy of Sciences. Dvortsovaya Emb., 18, Saint Petersburg, 191186, Russian Federation
E-mail: [email protected]