Bronze cups and bowls from burial mounds of the epoch of the Great Migration of Peoples of the European Northeast
Year: 2025
Type: article
Abstract: One of the categories of “long-range imports” to the territory of the Eurasian forest zone during the era of the Great Migration of Peoples is considered – metal tableware made of high-tin bronze, called “white bronze” in historiography. Items made of it, the technical apogee of processing copper-based alloys, are known in the area of the Iranian plateau, rich in copper and tin deposits. However, the region and time of their production remain a matter of debate. The appearance of tableware in the scientific literature is associated with the end of the Sassanid Empire (late VII century), however, the complexes of sites of Western Siberia, the Vyatka-Kama interfluve and the European North-East allow us to confidently speak about the appearance of “white bronze” items here already in the VI century. Having spread across Western Asia as an imitation of the silverware from the Sassanid period, cups and bowls made of “white bronze” became objects of religious significance in Western Siberia and the European Northeast, and in the Vyatka River basin they became materials for making adornments – trapezoidal pendants.
Authors: A. Belickaya, V. Silaev, V. Filippov, A. Khazov
Institution: Ural Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences
Language: English
Subfield: Archeology
Field: Arts and Humanities
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: diamond
OpenAlex ID: W4417313432