Items of jewellery from the excavations at «Rublenyi gorod» in Yaroslavl

This publication is devoted to the results of the examination of items of jewellery found in 2008 during excavations within the territory of «Rublenyi Gorod» in Yaroslavl (led by A. V. Engovatrova). The jewellery items are traditional finds in medieval urban context, these are mostly pendants, appliques, temple rings, bracelets, finger-rings, torques and fibulae. A considerable number of the items could be classified as imitations of shapes familiar from the urban levels of the 12 th-14 th centuries (36 items). Use-and-wear analysis of these objects was carried out and the chemical composition of the non-ferrous metal was investigated with the help of X-ray fluorescent spectrometry. Many of the jewellery items studied were specimens made of easily fused alloys or of tin: these objects had mostly been cast in composite moulds using impressions from finished articles. Parallels for such articles are known from large hoards dating from the medieval period. It is most likely that, using easily fused alloys (or tin), known as «poor men's silver», jewellers enabled town-dwellers to acquire prestigious articles. What provides indirect indication of this is the fact that jewellery used for everyday wear was usually made of copper-based alloys. It would be worthwhile in the future to carry out special analysis of medieval easily fused alloys, so as to determine their share in the medieval non-ferrous metalworking and to distinguish the sources from which such metals entered the territory of medieval Rus, in particular the North-West (Novgorod, Yaroslavl, Ladoga and other centres of urban culture).