Archaeology, Ethnology & Anthropology of Eurasia 51 (1) 2023   doi:10.17746/1563-0110.2023.51.1.138-145

Annotation:  Findings from the Paleolithic Studies in Siberia The Earliest Paleolithic Assemblages from Denisova Cave in the Altai Upper Paleolithic of the Yenisey: New Discoveries, Old Debates Middle Neolithic Burials in Baikal-Yenisey Siberia: Problems of Cultural Identity and Genesis The Most Important Archaeological Discoveries Relating to the Neolithic to Early Iron Age Cultures o Possibilities of Direct Dating of Rock Art in the Khakass-Minusinsk Basin On the Chronological Position of Siba Culture Metal Artifacts, Northwest China The Current Model of Historical and Cultural Processes in the Stone and Bronze Ages of the Ob-Irtysh The Pazyryk Dwelling D.G. Messerschmidt’s Collection of Siberian Antiquities in Drawings at the St. Petersburg Archive of The Final Bronze Age in the Minusinsk Basin A Study of Silk Fabric from the Xiongnu Age Under-Headdress Discovered at Yaloman II Mound 51 in the Origin and Evolution of the Earliest Iron-Smelting Technologies in the Khakass-Minusinsk Basin “D.G. Messerschmidt’s Cups” Use of Parts of Ram Carcasses in the Funerary Practices of the Baikal Region Population in the 13th–   

“D.G. Messerschmidt’s Cups”

O.A. Mitko

Novosibirsk State University, Pirogova 2, Novosibirsk, 630090, Russia

We describe two metal vessels, procured by looters and offered to D.G. Messerschmidt, who in 1722 traveled across southern Krasnoyarsk Territory. A bronze cup, judging by a description in researcher’s journal and by the accompanying drawing, resembled Old Turkic specimens. However, the hunting scene engraved on its body suggests Chinese provenance. A silver vessel from the vestry of Fort Karaulny church is peculiar to 7th-10th century Sogdian toreutics. It evidently belongs to a group of vessels with polygonal bodies, specifically to type 1—octagonal. Having been manufactured in Sogd, polygonal vessels were exported to China. Chinese jewelers copied the form of “wine cups" and adorned them with traditional floral designs and various scenes. An octagonal silver cup with an Uyghur inscription, found in 1964 in a kurgan at a medieval cemetery Nad Polyanoi, was likewise manufactured by Tang artisans. Other polygonal silver cups are listed—heptagonal and sexagonal. It is concluded that vessels made of precious metals testify to stable trade relations that emerged in 700-1100 and connected Siberia with Sogd and the Tang Empire.

Keywords: Altai-Sayan, Tang Age, Kyrgyz, Sogdians, octagonal cup, large metal vessels