The Kursk Regional Museum of Archaeology displays a fragment of a bronze fibula of the 9th — the late 10th century. It was discovered in the course of archaeological exploration led by the historian and local history expert Gennady Yurievich Starodubtsev near the village of Dukhovets (the Kursk district of the Kursk region).
Fibulas, metal jewelry clasps of various shapes, were common from the Bronze Age to the late Middle Ages. The ends of the fibulas in the museum collection have the shape of dragon heads. The back side of the fibula has a notch formed during casting.
As suggested by the Kursk historian Andrey Gennadievich Shpilev, the voluminous ends of the fibula are stylized dragon heads in profile. The ancient jeweler focused particularly on the open mouth and the huge eye, while the body is represented by a narrow non-ornamented rod of the fibula. The decoration can be attributed to the group of items made in the Scandinavian Jelling style. In the territory of the modern Kursk region the items of the Scandinavian type are extremely rare. Andrey Gennadyevich Shpilev in his article “Ornaments of the circle of ‘Scandinavian antiquities’ from the Kursk region” cites only 22 items, which authentically come from the territory of the region. In his subsequent work another 16 items of this circle of antiquities were introduced into the academic circulation.
After the scientific analysis of the described artifact, Andrey Gennadyevich Shpilev gave an example of another item of a similar type, which was found on the territory of the settlement in the area of Soloven Bugor, located 4 km away from the village of Banishchi in Lgovsky district of the Kursk region. The entire fibula was covered with a thick layer of dark brown (almost black) patina. The heads depicted in profile have a smoothly elongated long nose with a round nostril, a small open lower jaw and large round eyes. The heads are separated from the main part of the fibula by a relief roller. There are no ornaments on the fibula. The back side of the fibula has a notch, formed during casting. Thus, it should be noted that all decorations associated with the Scandinavian descendants could get to the territory of the modern Kursk region after the final inclusion of the Severian Poseimie (the historical area in the Seim River basin, the area of settlement of the Eastern Slavic tribal union of the Severians) into the Old Russian state.
Fibulas, metal jewelry clasps of various shapes, were common from the Bronze Age to the late Middle Ages. The ends of the fibulas in the museum collection have the shape of dragon heads. The back side of the fibula has a notch formed during casting.
As suggested by the Kursk historian Andrey Gennadievich Shpilev, the voluminous ends of the fibula are stylized dragon heads in profile. The ancient jeweler focused particularly on the open mouth and the huge eye, while the body is represented by a narrow non-ornamented rod of the fibula. The decoration can be attributed to the group of items made in the Scandinavian Jelling style. In the territory of the modern Kursk region the items of the Scandinavian type are extremely rare. Andrey Gennadyevich Shpilev in his article “Ornaments of the circle of ‘Scandinavian antiquities’ from the Kursk region” cites only 22 items, which authentically come from the territory of the region. In his subsequent work another 16 items of this circle of antiquities were introduced into the academic circulation.
After the scientific analysis of the described artifact, Andrey Gennadyevich Shpilev gave an example of another item of a similar type, which was found on the territory of the settlement in the area of Soloven Bugor, located 4 km away from the village of Banishchi in Lgovsky district of the Kursk region. The entire fibula was covered with a thick layer of dark brown (almost black) patina. The heads depicted in profile have a smoothly elongated long nose with a round nostril, a small open lower jaw and large round eyes. The heads are separated from the main part of the fibula by a relief roller. There are no ornaments on the fibula. The back side of the fibula has a notch, formed during casting. Thus, it should be noted that all decorations associated with the Scandinavian descendants could get to the territory of the modern Kursk region after the final inclusion of the Severian Poseimie (the historical area in the Seim River basin, the area of settlement of the Eastern Slavic tribal union of the Severians) into the Old Russian state.
