The Isady Hoard of 2021

This article is a preliminary publication about a jewelry hoard found in the vicinity of the fortified settlement of Staraya Ryazan’ in 2021. The items of the hoard are described, the circumstances of its finding and characteristics of the site are presented, and a preliminary analysis of the hoard contents and its dating are provided. Based on analogies, primarily from hoard complexes found on the territory of Rus’, it is concluded that the date of the Isady hoard concealment falls within the late 11th–the first half of the 12th century. A preliminary analysis of technological and stylistic devices testifies to the uniqueness of the Isady hoard among synchronous finds, which is proved by a wide variety of objects representing samples of almost all known techniques and styles of the time of its concealment.

This article is a preliminary publication on this unique find.
The treasure was hidden at a shallow depth (20-50 cm from the modern surface) in a forest on the slope of a bend on the right bank of a damp ravine, a right tributary of the small Studenets Creek. The stream crosses the territory of Spasskaya Luka from west to east, being the natural southern border of the nearby district of Staraya Ryazan', bounded from the west, north, and east by the bend of the Oka River, and from the south, by a network of small rivers and damp ravines, one of which is the mentioned stream (Fig. 2).
The place of the find is remote from known archaeological sites. The nearest of them, two small Old Russian settlements of the late 12th-13th century, Studenets 5 and 7, are located on the right bank of the same ravine, 0.6 km north (upstream) and south (downstream) from the place where the treasure was hidden. The bend where the treasures were found was carefully examined, but no signs of a cultural layer were found.
Most likely, the hoard was in a small bast or birchbark tuesok [container-Tr.] (20-22 cm in diameter, which is the size of the largest item, a torc): decay from its walls was recorded during the examination of the find at the bottom of the pit (Fig. 3).
The hoard included 32 items made of high-quality silver (a complete analysis of the metal of the items is currently being carried out by I.A. Saprykina), including eight torcs and 14 bracelets of various shapes, manufacturing techniques, and styles; five seven-bladed temple rings; one bead with granulation; and grivnas of the Novgorod type and their parts. The total weight of the hoard is more than 2.2 kg. The heaviest items are a pair of braided torcs (weighing 240 and 200 g), as well as a grivna of the Novgorod type weighing 204 g.
The torcs are of three main types (Fig. 4a). Two torcs are made of a thin rod of round cross section with incoming ends forged to a triangular section and a "wolf tooth" ornament on the front side. The back part of the decoration, adjacent to the neck, retained a rounded cross section. The ends are completed with a hook-the simplest way of the various options for completing such torcs. Analogies to such torcs are well known from barrows of the late 10thearly 12th centuries, originally found in the Sozh basin, which gave grounds for calling them torcs of the "Radimichs type" [Fekhner, 1967, p. 64]. According to M.V. Fekhner, headbands made of a thin triangular cross-section rod with gable plate ends, i.e., ends with an inner surface curved in the center (this feature is typical of both torcs from the hoard), are a late version of such torcs, characteristic of the late 11th-early 12th centuries [Fekhner, 1967, p. 64].
One torc is of a twisted variety, with tied ends. In Fekhner's summary, twisted torcs, which became widespread in Rus' from the late 10th-early 11th cen-  [Fekhner,p. 71]. However, it does not contain specimens with a similar design of the ends; thus, the Isady find is quite rare, even if not unique. The tradition of tying the ends of torcs (known from samples made of thin round rods or wire) and, to a greater extent, bracelets, which is also present on the bracelets from the Isady hoard, is considered quite archaic, dating, according to some researchers, to Scandinavian influence [Lesman, 2014, p. 49]. The remaining five torcs are braided with lamellar tips and various clasps (two-eye and hook-and-eye types). These varieties of torcs were quite often found in ancient Russian hoards, dating to the 11th-13th century [Korzukhina, 1954, Tables XI, XIV, XVII, XXVIII, XLI, XLVIII, LIII, LV). According to N.V. Zhilina, the type of clasps is a chronological indicator; the clasp of the "hook-and-eye" type is an earlier one, characteristic of the beginning of the 11th century, while the "two-eye" type appeared in the mid-11th century [Zhilina, 2010, pp. 184-186]. In the Isady hoard, two torcs belong to the former type, and three to the latter, while both torcs with a hook-and-eye clasp and one with a two-eye clasp have a wolf-tooth ornament on their tips (Fig. 4b). A preliminary visual analysis also suggests that all braided torcs from the hoard are characterized by tips made by forge welding or soldering. A similar technique but applied to twisted torcs was attributed by Fekhner to innovations of the late 11th-12th century [Fekhner,p. 73].
The 14 bracelets from the hoard are equally diverse (Fig. 5a). The most complex set is a set of three braided open bracelets with figured heads (the so-called shield-ended bracelets), the manufacturing method of which (casting or embossing) remains unclear until a special analysis has been carried out. Their inclusion in one set is evidenced by the similarity of relief ornamental motifs on the figured endings: one of the bracelets depicts crosses, another has plant palmettes, and the third is a combination of the two above: a cross is placed at one end, and a palmette is placed at the other (Fig. 5b). Close analogies to such bracelets (with a difference in the design of the ornament of the endings-with the use of niello) are well known from southern Russian hoards of the 11th-12th centuries (the closest endings in terms of style are bracelets from hoards 32 (1883, Mironovskii manor in Kanevskii uezd near Kiev province) and 34 (1895, village of Pilyava in Kanevskii uezd near Kiev province) [see Korzukhina,pp. 91,92,Tables XIII,XIV]. Later, at the end of the 12th-13th centuries, bracelets with similar endings were also found in South Russian hoards, but they were no longer made by braiding but by twisting.
The rest of the bracelets belong to the open and tied varieties, of smooth round and rhombic cross sections, and twisted. There are no completely identical items among them, although some manufacturing techniques are similar for some of them. Three pairs of bracelets form open twisted eye ended, smooth rhombic, and of round cross section. Five bracelets are tied, but also of different cross sections and techniques. One twisted bracelet belongs to the tied type with the most common knot, the ends of which were spirally twisted in several turns (type 2 subtype a according to V.P. Levasheva) [Levasheva, 1967, p. 213]. A special group consists of four bracelets with a knot of wire, designed in the form of a spiral shield (type 2, subtype c according to Levasheva) [Levasheva,p. 213], but at the same time they all have a different cross section and method of making the band (two twisted of three wires, twisted with filigree interlacing, and a rod-type one of a rhombic cross section). According to Lesman, the spiral shield, which became widespread starting from the 10th century, is also the result of Scandinavian influence [Lesman,p. 49], but similar samples, as well as with a simple knot, are found over a wide area, including in South Russian hoards of the 11th-early 12th centuries [Korzukhina,pp. 84,86, Tables V, IX, XI].
Seven-bladed rings from the hoard, judging by the peculiarities of the ornament and shape, were made in the same mold and belong to the early type, with dropshaped blades and ornamentation with small towns, which existed in the second half of the 11th-first half of the 12th century [Ravdina, 1968, p. 139]: Type 1-2-12 of the ornamental tradition, according to N.A. Krenke (see [Krenke, 2014, Fig. 1, p. 45]).
The hoard contains only one bead, completely granulated. A feature of this item in the hoard is probably the rather low quality of the silver: the bead is the only thing in the hoard covered with spots of green oxides (Fig. 6).
Monetary ingots include a whole grivna of the Novgorod type weighing 204 g, two halves of one chopped grivna with a total weight of 102 g, and a chopped piece of a stick ingot weighing 40 g (Fig. 7).
Preliminary dating, made on the basis of analogies of some of the jewelry items included in the hoard, fits into the end of the 11th and the first half of the 12th century. It is precisely this time to which the seven-bladed temple rings from the hoard, the torcs of the "Radimichs type," the braided bracelets with fig-Fig. 2 ured endings, and the bracelets tied with a simple knot and a spiral shield can be dated. The 11th-12th centuries are the time of the widest existence of torcs, but a number of features (methods of fastening and design of tips, ornamentation) make it possible to narrow the date to this specified interval.
Both the date and composition of the find differ significantly from the well-known Staraya Ryazan' hoards hidden in the city during its assault by Batu's army in December 1237.
The circumstances of the concealment of the latter are in no doubt. The belonging of the Staraya Ryazan' treasures is also quite easily determined by the place of their hiding: most of the 17 hoards come from the elite part of the city. Their composition in most cases clearly indicates that they belonged to the ceremonial costumes of noblewomen of Ryazan'. Only hoard no. 17 can be recognized as a set hidden by a jeweler based on the items included in it, including unfinished items (crosses with silver ferrules at the ends), semifinished products, raw materials, and tools (jewelry matrices), but even it mainly contains women's jew-elry, which was most likely being repaired or cleaned by the master at the time of the tragedy of 1237.
The Isady hoard is undoubtedly connected with the history of Staraya Ryazan', but unlike the hoards found in the settlement, the time of its concealment cannot be associated with any specific political event. The location of the find does not provide specific information either. Nevertheless, the context and composition of the Isady hoard allow us to propose a number of preliminary considerations.
The Isady hoard, judging by its composition, in contrast to the Staraya Ryazan' hoards, was rather a kind of accumulated wealth than a set (or sets) of jewelry for a specific costume. The predominance of rather weighty, metal-intensive items (first of all, torcs, which, after the disappearance of eastern coinage silver from hoards, became a form of storing wealth [Zhilina,p. 182]) along with monetary ingots reflects the conscious concentration of the precious metal. The composition of the collected treasures included both scattered items and sets. These, no doubt, were braided bracelets, temple rings, and also, possibly, some torcs and bracelets of the same type. How-    ever, the owner of the jewelry did not neglect small items: a hollow bead, small temple rings, thin torcs of the Radimichs type.
The treasure was hidden away from the city. Judging by the estimated date, the find turns out to be earlier than most of the settlements in the Staraya Ryazan' vicinity, which arose at the end of the 12th century. At the time of the concealment of the treasure, in addition to the city itself, only a few rural settlements existed within the boundaries of Spasskaya Luka [Strikalov, 2005]. All of them were located along an axis stretching from Staraya Ryazan' to the east, to the opposite side of the river bend, where the ancient village of Isady is located. Along this line, a road is hypothetically reconstructed that connected Staraya Ryazan' with its remote pier, which, probably, was located near the village of Isady and gave the name to this village. The place of the pier has not yet been localized, but several settlements are known in this section of the Oka bank, the materials of which include ceramics of the late 11th-early 12th centuries. The hypothesis of the existence of a pier in this area is confirmed by the very name of the village: one of the variants of the meaning of this word, according to the dictionary of V.I. Dal', is landing place on the shore, pier [Explanatory Dictionary, Column 111]. The village of Isady itself is known from chronicles starting from the 13th century: it was here where the meeting of the Ryazan' princes took place in 1217, which ended in a fratricidal bloody battle.
The treasure was hidden, therefore, a kilometer south of this road, in the then undeveloped part of the microregion, in a dense forest on the banks of a damp ravine.
Most likely, the reasons for the concealment of the treasure by its owner, who was walking from the city to the pier or in the opposite direction, are of a private nature. It is unlikely that we will be able to establish his social status (although, undoubtedly, he was associated with the wealthy, elite sections of the population) and motives, but the find is important for a wider and more general range of problems.
The Isady hoard is significantly inferior in terms of richness and artistic value to the treasures of the famous Staraya Ryazan' hoards. This is due not only to chronological differences. The hoard of 2021 is obviously associated with trade in expensive jewelry. This is indicated by the number of the items, clearly exceeding the needs of one household; by the presence of payment ingots in the hoard, which are a rare exception in the Staraya Ryazan' hoards (the only find is five grivnas of the Novgorod type in the hoard of 1970 [Darkevich and Mongait, 1978, pp. 9, 19, Table I, 3]); and the location of the find near the old trade route.
The general appearance of the objects of the Isady hoard, which includes samples of almost all known techniques and styles of the time of its concealment, allows us to hope that its further study will slightly open some dark pages of the early history of Staraya Ryazan' and the Middle Oka Region, the state of the economy and trade in this territory before the power of the local prince settled there; and, undoubtedly, this will give pause for thought on the peculiarities of the

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