Кораллы в христианской культуре Восточной Европы и Средиземноморья [Korally v xristianskoj kul’ture Vostochnoj Evropy i Sredizemnomor’ja]

Aleksandr Musin (1, 2)

1 Institut pour l’histoire de la culture matérielle, Académie des sciences de Russie
2 CRAHAM - Centre Michel de Boüard - Centre de recherches archéologiques et historiques anciennes et médiévales

The article deals with a unique coral pendant in silver setting found in Novgorod and dating from the turn of the XII–XIII centuries. It is analyzed on the basis of archaeological and written sources. The other archaeologically known corals from Eastern Europe, though rare, are considered too. During the Middle Ages corals were in use as amulets and Christian devotional objects. This fact was clearly reflected in European art since the first half of the XIV century. The find from Novgorod fills the chronological gap in the tradition known since the Late Antiquity. Furthermore, it suggests that the citizens of medieval Novgorod, thanks to their European contacts, could have been aware of the apotropaic meaning of corals. The coral pendant could find its way to Novgorod as a result of trade operations and pilgrimage to the western part of the Mediterranean, including Italy, France, and Spain

Domaines: Sciences de l'Homme et Société; Archéologie et Préhistoire; Histoire

Aleksandr Musin. Кораллы в христианской культуре Восточной Европы и Средиземноморья [Korally v xristianskoj kul’ture Vostochnoj Evropy i Sredizemnomor’ja]. Российский археологический ежегодник [Rossijskij arxeologičeskij ezegodnik, Saint-Pétersbourg], 2014, 4, pp.433-454. ⟨hal-03222904⟩