International congress of byzantine studies belgrade, 22 27 august 2016

Irina Sterligova
Moscow, Russian Federation; 
[e-mail]
Pendants (Kolty) from the 1822 Ryazan’ Hoard: 
Ornaments of an Earthly Princess or Gifts to the Queen of Heaven? 
On the Evolution of Prestigious Byzantine Women’s Headdress Accessories in Rus’
In the Moscow Kremlin Museums there is a pair of gold pendants with depictions of SS Boris 
and Gleb in cloisonné enamel (inv. № МР–969 and МР–970) from the hoard found in Ryazan’ in 
1822. In shape they resemble gold 
kolty
– pendants hung from women’s ceremonial headdress – but 
they are three times bigger and many times heavier; moreover, the images on 
kolty
are usually of 
birds or fantastic creatures. These are not the only differences. The row of pearls runs not along 
the edge of the pendants, but round the medallions, and there is openwork filigree and precious 
stones in raised openwork settings on both sides. This sort of luxurious, convex, fragile decoration 
is unique, it is practically unknown on the 
kolty
that were part of women’s finery. These pendants 
could not be containers for fragrances either, because the apertures in them are technical and not 
functional in character.
The purpose of these pendants is debated. The majority of researchers think that they were 
specially made for an icon, but others regard them as parts of a princess’s ceremonial dress that 
could have been turned into a votive offering to an icon.
A detailed technical analysis has allowed it to be determined that the single loops by which 
these pendants were attached are different from the double loops of ordinary 
kolty
, and their size 
and weight, and the nature of their decoration, make them very inconvenient for use in costume.
There is no trace of repair or wear, but at some point they had jewels added in raised decorated 
settings, which can easily be explained as decoration for icons. The contents of the 1822 Ryazan’ 
Treasure, which was found near the ruins of the Church of SS Boris and Gleb, show that the objects 
in it are unlikely to have been used in everyday life. They can all be seen as offerings to an icon of 
the Mother of God.
Thus the technical aspects, typology and iconography of the “Boris and Gleb” pendants do not 
allow them to be included among the 
kolty 
of a princess’s ceremonial dress. Although the technique 
of the enamel images of SS Boris and Gleb is Byzantine, the presence of strips of filigree pattern, the 
abundance of stones and the way they are set are typologically close to Western European church 
treasures of the Romanesque period.
The fact that “
kolty
” of this type could have been made specially for an icon on the model of a 
prestigious headdress is connected with the way icons were venerated in pre-Mongolian Rus’. Along 
with Orthodoxy, Rus’ had adopted the Byzantine tradition of decorating icons, but local tastes clearly 
showed themselves within it. The precious objects on Byzantine icon covers were an emanation of 
the holiness of the images of the world above that were depicted on the icon. By contrast, Western 
European religious images of the tenth to twelfth centuries, which were three-dimensional and in 

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most cases contained relics, were not perceived in transcendental space, but as actual mystical objects 
connected with the Lord and his saints in this earthly realm; their decoration contributed to a more 
intimate contact between man and God. The form of Latin religious treasures was close to the aesthetic 
ideals of the people of Rus’, and influenced the ornamentation of icons in the pre-Mongolian period,