International congress of byzantine studies belgrade, 22 27 august 2016

Svetlana Ryabtseva
Academy of Sciences of Moldova, Institute of Cultural Heritage,
Chisinau, Republic of Moldova; 
[e-mail]
Aleksandr Musin
Institute for History of Material Culture, St. Petersburg, Russian Federation; 
[e-mail]
Chronology and Periodization of the Reception of Byzantine Dress Accessories 
and Fashion in the Eastern European Culture, 8
th
-14
th
Century
The paper deals with the characteristic and chronology of different periods of penetration of the 
Byzantine-Danubian, Bulgarian and Byzantine elements of costume in the culture of Eastern Europe 
as well as their future evolution and development. The authors propose to regard this process not as 
influence, but as reception that based on the active position of local Slavonic communities and their 
representatives. The reception of byzantine and byzantine-like fashion should be understood as a 
cultural “convoy” of the Christianization that led to the formation of specific forms of the Slavonic 
Christian culture comparable and not comparable to the Byzantine one in the same time.
The first period can be determined for the 8
th 
century when in the Eastern Europe have 
been attested earrings with star-like pendants, earrings with globular or “flashlight” pendants and 
bracelets with expanding ends locally made according Danubian examples. In the end of 9
th
– 
beginning of 10
th
century another set of adornments: earrings with “rays” and “bunches” crescent 
earrings of the Danube origins appeared in the region. However, they imitated the production of 
craftsmen of Great Moravia inspired by the Danubain examples. In the mid of 10
th
century another 
important jewelry dress with the granulation known as “earrings of Volhynia type” were broadly 
spread in modern Ukraine, Bulgaria, Poland, Serbia, and Carpathian-Dniester region till the mid 

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of the 11
th
century. The production of lunula pendants with granulation had emerged under the 
direct influence of the Danubian workshops. It is clear that for the first periods the Danube region 
played a special role of the mediator in the reception of Byzantium, and the migration of craftsmen 
could be its specific mechanism. However such prestigious elements of byzantine male costume of 
the 10
th
century as belt-buckles and bronze engraved rings finds of which are known in the Eastern 
Europe had not been accepted in the local culture. In the end of 11
th
century the formation of the 
new ceremonial Old Rus’ women costume have been attested. This costume existed up to the mid 
of the 13
th
century. In that case we can reveal the adaptation of the byzantine models through the 
politic, diplomatic and ecclesiastical contacts between Kiev and Constantinople. The full dress of 
this period included various types of ornaments with cloisonné enamel on gold – diadems
, kolty, 
ryasny 
– that are supposed to be borrowed by the Rus’ directly from Byzantium. However, close 
parallels to the Old Rus’ diadems have been presented by gold item from Preslav, Bulgaria, second 
half of 10
th
century. So, in this case, Bulgaria, too, could be regarded as a mediator in the process of 
the reception of Byzantium. It should be noted that the favorite type of women temple decorations 
were 
kolty
ornaments and three-bead temple-rings or earrings that had been firstly produced by 
Byzantine craftsmen. Meanwhile, in the 12
th
-13
th
century the simple lead replicas of 
kolty
which 
could be regarded as local imitations of prestigious dress items have been attested in Novgorod, 
Volhynia, and Vladimir-Suzdal land. The reception of the byzantine fashion in the Eastern Europe 
was enough selective and transformative. In very rare cases in hoards and among archaeological 
finds the complete set of adornments and dress accessories can be attested. The analysis of sources 
shows that several items could be used as 
ex-voto
offerings to venerable icons. In that condition 
the reconstruction of medieval women causal and ceremonial dress is one of the most important 
scientific problems. The end of the 13
th
– 14
th
century did not present any clearly seen byzantine 
elements of Byzantine women dress in Russian culture. In that time the reception was probably 
limited by the importation of prestigious textiles and gold-clothe and was characteristic of the 
reusing of previously received byzantine elements and their imitation. The oriental fashion began to 
dominate in the culture and society.