The amber processing workshop from Golden Horde Bolgar

During archaeological excavations of 2017-2018, a workshop specializing in amber working was localized and excavated. The area of the workshop yielded a whole range of finds typical of a workshop such as raw material (pieces of raw amber), blanks, finished pieces and production waste - totally 2391 items. The workshop specialized in production of beads of bitrapezoidal cross-section as well as pendants with lozenge-, cone-, and dropshaped ends (Fig. 1). The workshop was located within the compound of town mansion E (Fig. 2) dating to the second half of the 13th - early 14th centuries. Among the finds there are craft tools. The artisans who lived in the mansion had come from Medieval Russia regions as evidenced by a ceramics assemblage that includes Medieval Russia pots (Fig. 3), pendant crosses (3 specimens) and distinctive diet. The study of the trace element composition of the amber from the mansion (Table 1) indicates its similarity with Baltic samples.