Abstract
Medieval small artistic non-ferrous metalwork is a distinguishing marker of cultures of the Sayan-Altai and adjacent territories. The peculiar style of décor makes finds there interesting for both researchers and lovers of antiquity. Most of the collections made by both groups end up in museums. The paper considers four cases: in particular, three including chance finds, two of which are collections of lovers of antiquity (P.K. Frolov, from the northwestern foothills of Altai, and I.P. Tovostin, from the Minusinsk Basin), and one is a hoard from the Minusinsk Basin; the last collection contains burial materials in southwestern Transbaikalia excavated by Yu.D. Talko-Gryntsevich. The history of their study clearly shows that the most effective approach is a comprehensive study of all objects in each collection involving the artistic features of the décor and the analysis of manufacturing technology including the chemical composition of the metal. In each case, researchers obtained diff erent results, however, all of them prove these materials to be an important source of new information. One collection of chance finds was investigated by the traditional method. It was found that a random sample as a whole reflects almost the entire spectrum of a signifi cant number of medieval small artistic items made of non-ferrous metals from Sayan-Altai and adjacent regions. The author concludes that it is a comprehensive study of all items of collections containing both materials that have an archaeological context and those collected from chance finds that makes it possible to obtain new signifi cant information. At the same, even the traditional approach alone (as well as the modern complex one) makes a collection a full-fledged source for studying not only artistic features of the décor of small artistic metalwork, but also cultural and historical processes in the region.
Keywords
Sayan-Altai, southwestern Transbaikalia, museum collections, chance finds, small artistic non-ferrous metalwork, décor, Middle Ages, history of study.
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