The study of silver artifacts of the Borodino hoard: the new about the known

The paper is dedicated to the studies of the Borodino hoard. Precise chemical and isotopic analysis of silver objects from the Borodino hoard enables a re-evaluation of similarities and differences in the characteristics of the silver alloys, their technological “biographies” and the extent to which they are related to one another. Silver with traces of lead, gold and platinum group metals was identified as the primary component in the manufacture of large spearhead (1), the dagger and broken spearhead socket (3). To this, in the latter two cases, was added arsenical tin bronze, the former was produced from pure silver. These items share a common “biography” of production probably related to the metallurgical traditions of the south Eastern European steppe. Both the typology and chemical composition of the furcate spearhead (2) can be related to the silver products of the Turbino cemetery in the Urals, the analysis of which showed a single technological scheme: the addition of arsenic- and/or nickel-bearing copper was added in varying proportions to silver with very few natural impurities.