What were the ancient Russian women's hats with cassocks and kolts?

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

On the territory of Ancient Izyaslavl (a settlement near the village of Gorodishche, Shepetovsky district, Khmelnitsky region of Ukraine), many unique historical finds were made - both individual items and whole complexes of jewelry. Thanks to this, we see a cut of the material culture of the population of South-Western Russia in the second half of the XII - the first half of the XIII centuries.

Among the decorations on this site, the most frequent find are ring-shaped rings bent in one and a half turns. Half of the complexes considered in the article contained only these products. Quite a lot of silver kolts and three-bead earrings or temple rings … Most of the jewelry found appears to have been produced locally.

The local production of kolts is evidenced by both their standardized form and the finds on the site of various jewelry tools, including a metal matrix for embossing the shield of such an ornament.

The items of the uniform attire, most likely, were the items presented in treasure No. 5, found in 1958 near the tower of the settlement. It includes one silver kolt with an openwork border and very schematic images of birds and silver blocks from several cassocks. They found 32 middle and four triangular end pads from cassocks, decorated with scanned loops, two of them with locking rings. In addition, 2 unpaired three-bead earrings originate from the same complex. Anna Anisimovna made a very interesting suggestion that in this case, three-bead rings, which replaced the missing kolts (or kolts), could be the pendant ornaments attached to the cassocks. This assumption brings us close to the question of the variety of options ancient Russian jewelry with robes, the interchangeability of a number of types of products within fairly standardized sets of jewelry.

Based on the materials of ancient Russian treasures, a number of variants of collections of jewelry are distinguished, in which there are kolts and cassocks. We will try to highlight the most typical sets. There are, of course, also known findings of kolts without cassocks. The robes may not have survived, but it is likely that there were other ways of hanging the kolts. In addition, there are treasures in which robes were found, but no kolts.

Perhaps these complexes do not contain complete sets, but it can be assumed that some other decorations were attached to the cassocks. In this case, it is likely that bead rings were the pendant ornaments.

However, first I would like to briefly dwell on the issues of terminology. In the archaeological literature, metal temporal pendants attached to a headdress or headband and used for hanging kolts or as independent head pendants are usually called robes. In the written tradition, there is a slightly different term "cassock" / "cassock".

This name has already been recorded in ancient Russian written sources of the XII-XIII centuries. V. Dahl's dictionary gives a rather detailed interpretation of the term "cassock". According to this dictionary, the main range of meanings is - suspension, low, plentiful bunch. I. I. Sreznevsky knows this word in the meaning of "fringe". He quotes from Kozma Indikoplov and Georgy Amartol. In the first case, the description is more detailed: "the robes are sewn and on between their gold klakolta". It is interesting that, according to M. Vasmer, the word "ryasno - jewelry, necklace" is derived from the word "cassock".

In the XV-XVI centuries. robes were called pendants made of pearls and precious stones. Headdresses with similar ornaments were kept in the royal treasuries:.

As for the kolts, they (“kolts”) are mentioned in the birch bark charter of the 12th century; later, in the 15th century, this term was used to refer to ear ornaments. In the Polish language, the term kołtka, analogous to the Old Russian, has also survived.

Old Russian headdresses with kolts and cassocks date back mainly to the 12th - first half of the 13th century. It should be noted that these decorations, most likely, were considered exactly as a headdress and were made in the same style. For ancient Russian silver and gold kolts, peculiar types of pendant-cassock were developed. All types of cassocks are composed of collections of individual plaques. Like the plates of diadems, the plaques of the cassock are usually double, the outer side is sometimes convex, the reverse side is smooth.

To date, several kolts and cassocks have been found, connected together with chains or rings. In some cases, these structures are additionally reinforced with threads, textiles, and leather. But, unfortunately, such finds are not numerous, and so far only sets have been found with robes of the same type - made up of embossed blocks. In cases where the hoards contain several kolts, in the absence of surviving fasteners, we cannot be sure exactly which of them was attached to the cassocks, and how this fastening was performed. Therefore, many variants of reconstruction found in the literature are quite speculative and based on the traditional idea that these jewelry should be worn together.

It is believed that gold kolts with enamels were attached to gold cassocks, made up of round or quadrifoil-shaped plaques, decorated with images of birds and floral or geometrical ornaments. At one end of such robes, as a rule, a clasp in the form of a ring-shaped ring with a lock is attached, at the other - a chain. The signet ring clasp was part of the hinge of the plaque link and was manufactured in conjunction with the hinge.

Initially, after the first finds, the purpose of this type of jewelry was completely unclear, then they began to be considered neck chains. There are references in the literature that some of them were found in hoards connected in pairs. A similar composition, reminiscent of a necklace made of round plaques and chains, is presented in the Kiev treasure of 1887, found in the fence of the Mikhailovsky Monastery. The robes made of quadrifolium plaques in the Sakhnov treasure of 1900 were also connected in a similar way. Already in the first publications of these items, we see constructions of two low plaques with enamel decor, united by chains. With this use, plaques could be located on the chest and along the back of the neck, and chains were placed on the shoulders.

Finds of chains with plaques without enamel decoration lead to the idea that some of these items could indeed be used as breast ornaments. So, from the Staroryazan hoard of 1868, there is a decoration consisting of two collections (7 and 10 copies each) of gilded silver embossed plaques of a quadrifole shape, decorated with images prosperous cross … The plaques were attached to each other with hinges. The outermost plaques have only loops; the sets of plaques are interconnected by two chains. The clasp is missing. One gets the impression that we are dealing with a chain-necklace in its original form. In this case, it would be logical to place fewer plaques in the cervical region, and more on the chest. It is interesting that “doubled” (connected in pairs) are also robes of the most common type - silver from embossed shoes. A similar composition is known from the Terekhovsky hoard of 1876.

GF Korzukhina ranked chains with enamel images as breast decorations. In addition, she noted that despite the constant presence of ten round plaques in gold robes, there is always a double hinge between the fifth and sixth plaques, which the researcher associated with the design of the necklaces.

Currently, there are several options for reconstructing the methods of wearing these products as pendant ornaments for attaching kolts. In the reconstruction proposed by B. A. Rybakov, the robes are fixed to the upper edge of a high headdress of the kokoshnik type, and the kolts suspended from the chains of the robes hang on the chest at the necklace level. TI Makarova believed that the robes were folded in half. Just in the place where the double hinge is located, the kolt was suspended, and the structure was attached to the headdress with a clasp and a chain. In this version, the robes become shorter and more compact, and some images of birds are not turned upside down, as they would have been if the robes were used unfolded in accordance with the hypothesis of B. A. Rybakov. However, T. I. Makarova was not categorical, she noted that. However, the pairing of the products and the fold in the middle made the researcher quite confidently associate them with kolts.

N. V. Zhilina also offers her options for the reconstruction of headdresses with robes. The researcher calls this type of adornment "ryasna-chains" and is of the opinion that the low ones were double and served for fastening kolts.

Gold items with round plaques decorated with enamels are known so far only from Kiev hoards (1842, 1880, 1887, 1906 and 1938). The design of the cassocks is very standardized; it is characterized by a strict alternation of plaques with birds and a plant-geometric pattern. According to T. I.

On the golden robes made of quadrifolium plaques, there are practically the same pictorial subjects - figurines of birds and a plant-geometric ornament. But here one can clearly see the predominance of plaques with a varied plant-geometric pattern (about 3 such plaques account for one with birds). A distinctive feature is the use of pearls in the decor, which served to decorate the ends of the pins connecting the hinged fastenings of the cassock. Two finds of these cassocks are associated with the settlement of Maiden Gora near the village. Sakhnovki (Kanevsky district, Cherkasy region, Ukraine). A pair of cassocks comes from the Sakhnov treasure of 1900. Another pair found on this monument as a separate find is kept in the collection of the Kiev Museum of Historical Treasures. In both cases, the robes contain 10 plaques. Such cassocks are also known from the Kiev hoard of 1827. The cassocks, connected in the form of a chain, contained 23 plaques of a quadrifole shape 4. In addition, in Moscow in the Armory there is one unported plaque. But it will differ in size and character of the loop and may well be a patch, and not a detail of a cassock. Badges-stripes with enamels are quite diverse, some of them are very reminiscent of the details of the cassock.

For both kolts and gold robes with enamels, researchers distinguish items made presumably by a Byzantine master. These are robes with round plaques from the Kiev hoard of 1938, found on B. Zhitomirskaya street.

The image of birds spreading their wings decorating these pendants is similar to the image of a peacock on a Kiev kolt, presumably associated with a Byzantine work. We can agree with this statement in the sense that it was the Byzantine masters who started the enamel business in Kiev. At the same time, the ancient Russian gold kolts, by the nature of their design, represent a rather expressive compact group, which is noticeably different from the Byzantine prototypes. In our opinion, among the finds of golden kolts in the territory of Ancient Rus, the jewelry from Old Galich, decorated with a geometrized pattern, is the closest to the works of Byzantine masters. This product has a very clear range of analogues among Byzantine kolts (for example, an unfinished kolt from a Byzantine fortress on the Păcuiul Lui Soare island on the Danube, Ostrov commune, Constanta county, Romania). As for the ancient Russian chains-robes with enameled plaques, such ornaments are not yet known among the things of the Byzantine-Danube circle. It can be assumed that the original sets of "kolty-cassocks" with enamel decor were formed in Russia under the influence of the tastes of local customers.

According to TI Makarova, robes with round plaques are more perfect works than products with quadrifolium plaques, on which there is no longer that clarity of the ornament; in the placement of the decor appears "fear of emptiness." N. V. Zhilina believes that robes with quadrifoil links appear somewhat later, coexist, and then survive the existence of chains with round plaques (up to the first third of the 13th century). According to the researcher, a tendency towards miniaturization of plaques is also gradually noted.

There are also known gold robes without enamel decoration. They are made up of embossed hollow pads and are similar to the more common silver patterns. Similar decorations are known from two Kiev treasures (Tithes Church in 1906 and Streletskaya Street until 1914), from a 1900 treasure from Sakhnovka and from a Chernigov treasure from 1850.

Such robes ended with a ring and a chain or two chains. It can be assumed that the gold chains of ribbed links were also robes-chains. This is evidenced by the discovery in the Kiev treasure of 1911 of gold kolts with chains threaded through the bows and images of saints.

Similar gold chains are also known from the Kiev hoards of 1876 and 1938. and 1891 from the Princess of the Mountain. It is interesting that similar silver (sometimes gilded) chains are found together with silver kolts. They were found in the Kiev hoard of 1902 and the hoard near the village. Verbov (Berezhansky district, Ternopil region, Ukraine).

Unique for the territory of Ancient Rus is a gilded silver jewelry with rosette-shaped plaques, connected by means of a hinge, originating from hoard No. 2 from Gorodets (Khmelnytsky region, Ukraine). The plaques are decorated in the center with tourmaline inserts (5 plaques) and emeralds (2 plaques). Unfortunately, we cannot be firmly sure that this unusual product, ending in chains on both sides, is exactly a cassock. Since there is no fastener with kolts (there are several specimens of kolts in the hoard), it can be assumed as a variant of wearing it as a breast ornament or as a cassock.

Silver robes were intended, as a rule, for kolts made of silver, rounded with niello or star-shaped, strewn with grain. But there are also exceptions to this rule. So, in the Kiev hoard of 1901 and in the hoard of 1897, originating from the Knyazha Gora, silver robes and gold kolts were jointly found.

The most common version of silver cassocks is a ribbon made up of embossed shoes. Small holes are fixed on the shoes, designed to connect them into robes.

According to the number of blocks, several groups of robes are distinguished, differing in length. For example, in the Svyatozersk hoard in 1908, two sets of cassock were found. One pair had robes with 35 shoes, the other consisted of robes with larger shoes, each having 25 shoes.

The Lgov hoard of 1879 (Chernigov region, Ukraine) contains 50 blocks from cassocks. It can be assumed that the long robes folded in half and passed through the bow of the kolt, and with the help of chains and rings they were attached to the headdress.

However, it has been documented that chains on long robes could also serve directly for hanging kolts. In the 1970 hoardFrom the Bolkhov settlement (Derazhnyansky district, Khmelnitsky region, Ukraine), on the arches of two paired kolts, the remains of thick semi-rotted threads have been preserved, which apparently served to fix chains from cassocks on them. Among the scraps of thread are the links of the chains. The chains themselves, connected to the pads of the cassocks, are also fixed. In total, the complex contains 122 cassock blocks.

Very short robes are also known, made up of one or two dozen blocks. They are typical, for example, for the treasures of Old Ryazan. Here were found robes containing 10-16 blocks. In these assemblages, they are found together with kolts (silver star-shaped or rounded with an outcropping of large balls). In some cases, the fastening of kolts with chains to the end triangular plates of the cassock has been preserved. Remains of leather (a fragment of a leather strap) were found on a cassock from a 1974 hoard. Perhaps the product was reinforced on the back with a strip of leather. The cassocks from the 2005 Staroryazan hoard contain fragments of textiles. According to the researchers, they represent the remains of a braid that duplicated the suspension of the kolt to the chain or replaced a broken fastener. Probably, the cassock shoes were also strengthened with cloth. Robes made of embossed shoes on one side, as a rule, ended with wire rings, on the other - with chains. However, there are cases when the chains are located on both sides, the robes from the old Ryazan hoards of 1967 and 1970 end in two rings. In addition, two gilded robes 8 from the 1993 hoard, found in the chronicle Vozdvigl (Novograd-Volynsky, Zhytomyr region, Ukraine) have small loops, apparently for attaching to a headdress. On the other side there is a chain, ending with a clasp ring.

A number of cassocks have flat triangular end plates (sometimes the shape is more complex with a ledge at the end). These robes lack long chains. We can confidently say that in the upper part of the product there is a ring for attaching to a headdress. In the lower part there is a flat plate. Plates are often pumped in with a small loop, and a ring is attached to it. The bow of the kolt is threaded into this ring. This method of fastening is demonstrated by the decorations from the Staroryazan hoard of 1974. The plates could be smooth, decorated with embossed ornaments or filigree. Cassocks with lamellar ends are presented in the hoards of Kiev in 1899, Staraya Ryazan, Izyaslavl in 1958. The hoard from Verbov contains openwork end plates decorated with the image of palmette. Judging by the fact that in the above-mentioned hoard from Izyaslavl, 32 middle blocks and 4 end triangular blocks were found, each cassock of 16 blocks was framed on both sides with triangular plates.

It is quite possible that a similar picture is presented in Verbov, where 40 middle and 3 end blocks were found. Thus, robes with triangular plates seem to demonstrate two options for attaching these endings - on one side or on both sides.

Finds of cassocks with end plates from Staraya Ryazan give us a rare opportunity to see firsthand the way of fastening cassocks and kolts. Thus, in the 1974 hoard, three pairs and a fragment of the seventh large silver star-shaped kolt with pear-shaped rays were found. Attachments with robes have been preserved for two pairs. The bow of the kolt is attached to the end plate with a ring. The cassocks are quite small - they consist of only 10–12 main links. The end plate, like the main ones, is made using the embossing technique.

The 2005 treasure represents a different variant of wearing the cassock. Here, kolts with embossed large embossed balls are attached immediately to two cassocks, which apparently consisted of 15 blocks. In addition, in the 2005 hoard, three-bead half-rings fastened to woven ribbons were found.

N. V. Zhilina proposed a variant of reconstruction of a complex cassock, made up of embossed blocks and bead arches attached to the fabric. The bows are located in this reconstruction between the lows of the shoes.

In general, there are several options for wearing robes made of embossed shoes. The variant with a folded cassock, often mentioned in the literature, is logical, but has not yet been documented by an in situ find. Variants of attachment of kolts to cassock chains (on specimens without end plates) and to rings attached to end plates are documented.

A recent find of cassocks from Staraya Ryazan (2005) demonstrates the option of wearing a kolt on two short cassocks with end plates at once. According to N. V. Zhilina, a chronological tendency towards a decrease in the blocks themselves, as well as a shortening of the length of the cassock, can be traced.

The researcher traces such miniaturization both on the materials of the “golden” attire and the “silver” one. More rare finds are silver robes composed of round convex plaques connected by hinges, smooth or decorated with grain and filigree. A similar decoration, which has 14 plaques decorated with diamond-shaped grain compositions, and two locking rings come from the Ryazan hoard of 1937-1950.

From the Kiev hoard of 1903, found in the fence of the Mikhailovsky Monastery, a cassock comes from, made up of convex silver plaques, decorated with wire rings, which are connected by hinges. In the same complex, an unusual gilded silver robe was also found, made up of 15 rectangular hollow plaques strung on 4 threads, separated by small pearls. The plaques are decorated with the same engraved plant-geometric ornament. The engraving lines are covered with niello. A loop and a chain are preserved on one terminal plaque.

Several hollow embossed plaques with acorn-shaped beads suspended from them were found in the hoard of 1891 on Knyazhaya Gora. Of course, this compilation composition in its last use could not be a cassock. It can be assumed that we have before us a detail of a necklace, and, most likely, it combined jewelry of different origins, as evidenced by the shape of beads atypical for ancient Russian products.

Of the above cassocks, only the ornaments found in the treasure in Dorogobuzh in 1975 are paired, and the rest do not have a pair, which suggests the possibility of using them as breast ornaments. Whether the previously mentioned beautiful silver gilded chain with quadrifolium plaques from the Staroryazan hoard of 1868 was a cassock, we also cannot assert with certainty. The option of wearing it as a cassock, but folded, is not excluded.

Thus, the considered products fall into two groups. The first includes ornaments, which undoubtedly were robes for hanging kolts. These are tapes made of embossed pads, since only they were found fastened with kolts. The rest of the considered jewelry could be both robes and neck chains, or used polyfunctionally. This multifunctionality is clearly visible in the example of chains of ribbed links. We mentioned that they were found in one of the Kiev treasures, threaded through the bows of kolts.

In the Tver hoard of 1906, such a silver chain is flanked by the heads of dragons connected by a ring. Thus, we are dealing with a completely different adornment that originally belonged to a completely different cultural circle. In search of analogies and prototypes for the ancient Russian garment with kolts and cassocks, it is logical to turn to the Balkan region. Perhaps the earliest find of kolt can be considered the aforementioned enamel-decorated item from Pekyul lui Soare, which can be attributed to the 11th century. Wearing in Bulgaria in the XIII-XIV centuries. ornaments of the Kolt type are confirmed by both figurative materials (the Church of St. Panteleimon in Boyana, Sofia, Bulgaria; the Church of the Most Holy Theotokos in Donja Kamenitsa, Kolubar district, Serbia) and archaeological finds. Jewelry such as kolts and their images in Serbia also cannot be called early, they mainly belong to the XIV-XV centuries.

It is interesting that in Bulgaria there were found embossed plaques-pads, similar in shape to the pads worn in Russia in silver robes. However, they were used here to decorate the head rims.

In the monuments of the XIII-XV centuries. The Carpathian-Balkan region is famous for a variety of tiaras decorated with pendant chains. Among them, there are specimens made in the same style and worn complete with pendant items, including those very reminiscent of Old Russian robes with a bell-shaped top. Sets of tiaras and pendants originate, for example, from Brasov (county [county] Brasov, historical region Tsara Byrsay, Romania) and Banatski Despotovac (Central Banat district, Vojvodina, Serbia). Perhaps, for this period, over time, headpieces with pendant ornaments such as kolts will also be discovered.

For a later time (XVI-XVII centuries), whole sets are characteristic, consisting of the forehead part of the diadem (consists of chains and plates) and pendants descending from it, made in the same style. Decorations were attached to the pendants, including kolts, but flat ones. A similar silver gilded set found in s. Gartsy (Vidin region, Bulgaria), kept in the Archaeological Museum in Sofia, Bulgaria It is interesting that the "robes" are attached not to the bow of the "kolt", but to a special ring next to the bow of the "kolt". Such typefaces were, apparently, quite typical for the attire of the population of the Carpathian-Balkan region (a similar diadem-cassock, but without kolts, is known from the Covei hoard (county [county] Dolj, Romania). One of the centers of making such things was the Bulgarian Chiprovskaya jewelry school of the 16th – 17th centuries (Chiprovtsi, Montana region, North-West Bulgaria).

Thus, we can state the fact that, under the influence of the Byzantine tradition, both in Russia and in the Carpathian-Balkan region, a kind of headdress with pendant ornaments such as kolts was formed. The archaeological material of the Balkan region does not yet give us direct prototypes for the Old Russian set of "kolty-cassocks". In the ancient Russian tradition, kolts practically fell out of use after the Tatar invasion. In the Carpathian-Balkan region, just in the XIII-XIV centuries. its production of similar products is being established. Apparently, in the XIII-XVI centuries. here also the type of the tiara-tiara is formed, which was made in a set with metal pendant ornaments, similar in function to the ancient Russian cassocks. To these pendants were attached, among other things, ornaments similar in shape to kolts.

The situation with the addition of ancient Russian jewelry is completely analogous to the one that researchers trace in the history of ancient Russian architecture. According to OM Ioannisyan, by the end of the XI century. … At the same time, in Russia, under the Byzantine influence, a kind of jewelry was also formed.