The chemical composition of the medieval mirrors from Golden Horde time settlements

Introduction . The paper discussed the results of the study concerning the chemical composition of 16 mirrors from the Golden Horde period originating from the settlements Selitrennoe, Vodyanskoe, Uvekskoe Khmelevskoe I, Shirokiy Buerak and stored in the State Historical Museum (Moscow) and Saratov Regional Museum of Local Lore (Saratov). Method. The visual inspection of the items was carried out using the traceology method, XRF and SEM/EDS were used as a method of determining the elemental composition. To compare the results, data on the chemical composition of mirrors originating from other medieval sites in Eastern Europe were used. Analysis and Results. All but one mirror, made with a stone casting mold, were cast using the impression method. Some of the mirrors show traces of post-casting processing. Several types of alloys have been identified. Most of the mirrors were made of tin-lead bronze (7 items) with an increased (more than 20 %) tin content, which correlates with the results obtained on samples from other settlements of the pre-Horde and Horde times. Other large groups are mirrors made from multicomponent (3 items) and tin bronze (4 items). One mirror each is made of tin brass and lead bronze with the addition of arsenic. Mirrors with arsenic in their composition are also known from other samples from a nomadic cemetery of the Golden Horde period and settlement monuments, which indicates a sufficiently active existence of a more archaic metal in the 14th century.