Techniques for creating a visual effect of volume in producing iron toreutics of minor forms in the Askiz culture of the late 10th -12th century

This article discusses creating volume effect in items of iron toreutics of minor forms among the Yenisei Kyrgyz in the late 10th -12th centuries. The evidence from five burial grounds ofthe early second millennium AD from Southern Krasnoyarsk Krai (Eidiktyr-kyr, Mutnaya-1, Bolshoi Telek, and Monashka burial grounds, as well as a single burial mound in Bulygino) included 260 items, such as belt tips, onlays, plaques, belt clips, saddle edge plates, and beltfittings. Techniques used for manufacturing these items were reconstructed using trace analysis. Visual effect of volume was achieved in two operations of creating the object’s body. First operation involved shaping the profile ofthe blank by processing the reverse side, while second operation was aimed at treating the edge. Six techniques of shaping the object’s profile were identified, including two variants of coining, flat profile, two variants of dishing, forging on the core base, and four variants of edge shape (vertical, irregular, inclined to the front side, and triangular). The regularities in bending degree of the reverse side (profile index) as well as shape and inclination angle of the edge were established using methods of mathematical statistics (Mann-Whitney U test, Spearman’s rs). There was a direct correlation between the profile index and angle of the edge. A difference between the angle of the inclined part between the edges in the second and third variants of form has been observed. Visual effect of volume was achieved either by stamping, dishing (obtaining a real curved profile), or, in most cases, by making an inclined edge. These techniques could be combined. Creating the effect of volume was a part of the general trend towards preserving the culture of visual aesthetics revealed by cast bronze toreutics of the late first millennium AD in the iron toreutics of the Askiz culture.