A mold for casting of baptismal crosses and pendants from Bolgar

A.R. Nuretdinova ^a*, A.V. Gubaydullina ^b**, V.P. Morozov ^a***

^aKazan Federal University, Kazan, 420008 Russia

^bNational Museum of the Republic of Tatarstan, Kazan, 420111 Russia

E-mail: ^*alsu.nuretdinova@rambler.ru, ^**antonina.gubaidullina@mail.ru, ^***Vladimir.Morozov@kpfu.ru

Received February 22, 2018

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Abstract

The paper is devoted to the attribution of the mold for casting of baptismal crosses (most likely, four-pointed, two-sided) and the lace pendants from the archaeological fund of the National Museum of the Republic of Tatarstan. The mold has not been fully preserved (5.7 × 4.65 × 1.85 cm). The material from which the bar is made is dolomite from mountainous areas, presumably from the Urals or the Caucasus. The presumable place of finding is Bolgar, Spassky district of the Republic of Tatarstan. In the hallmarks of the cross, there is a part of the Troparion of the Cross of the Lord “KRE//ST/UT/VO” (Krestu Tvoemu poklonyaemsya, Vladyko, i svyatoe voskresenie Tvoe slavim [Thy Cross do we adore, o Master, and thy holy Resurrection do we glorify]). The paper gives a number of analogies from Pskov, Novgorod, and Ilimsk ostrogs. Similar delicate pendants are also represented in the archaeological collection of A. Likhachev in the funds of the National Museum of the Republic of Tatarstan. On the basis of the comparative-typological analysis of the subject, a version about its chronological frameworks in the 17th – 18th centuries has been put forward. The results of the radiographic analysis of the material from which the mold is made have been also discussed.

Keywords: casting mold, cross, pendant, copper casting, Bolgar

Acknowledgments. The study was supported by the Russian Foundation for Basic Research (project no. 16-31-01055_a2).

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For citation: Nuretdinova A.R., Gubaydullina A.V., Morozov V.P. A mold for casting of baptismal crosses and pendants from Bolgar. Uchenye Zapiski Kazanskogo Universiteta. Seriya Gumanitarnye Nauki, 2018, vol. 160, no. 3, pp. 572–580. (In Russian)

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