Bowl decorated with a human-headed bird from Bol’shaia Anikovskaia

Culture
Semirech'e
Date
9th to 10th century
Medium
Silver with gilding
Dimensions
15 cm diameter; 4.5 cm height
Weight
Form
Bowl
Footless and Baseless
Inscription
Arabic; Persian
Graffiti
-
Collection
State Hermitage Museum
FindSpot
Bol’shaia Anikovskaia, Russia

Image credit

Marshak 1986: № 115.

‍

Notes on dating, attribution, imagery, or markings

Circling the inner perimeter of the bowl is a single register of calligraphic ornament in Persian, using the Kufic form of the Arabic script. The inscription is about the pleasantries of wine drinking (Marshak 1976: 150). On the exterior middle shoulder of the vessel is a non-ornamental Arabic inscription marking the bowl’s owner: “belongs to Khumartegin, the treasurer” (Marshak 1976: 150).

‍

From Bol’shaia Anikovskaia I.

‍

Image Gallery

Click on the images below for a larger view to explore the object's details.
No items found.

Image credit

1-2,5: Marshak 1986: № 115; 3-4: Darkevich 1976: T. 29,1 and 29,5.

Bibliography

Inclusion in key Eurasian silver publications

Darkevich, V. P. Khudozhestvennyi metall Vostoka VIII-XIII vv.: proizvedeniia vostochnoi torevtiki na territorii evropeiskoi chasti SSSR i Zaural’ia. Moscow: Nauka, 1976.

Marshak, B. I. Istoriia vostochnoi torevtiki III-XIII vv. i problemy kul’turnoi preemstvennosti. Saint Petersburg: Akademiia Issledovaniia Kul’tury, 2017.

Marshak (Marschak), B. I. Silberschätze des Orients: Metallkunst des 3.-13. Jahrhunderts und Ihre Kontinuität. Leipzig: E.A. Seemann, 1986.

Additional Publications

Lunegov, I. A. “Anikovskie klady.” Ural’skii Sledopyt 12/1979 (1979): 35.

Marshak, B. I. “Serebrianye sosudy X-XI vv.: ikh znachenie dlia periodizatsii iskusstva Irana i Srednei Azii.” In Iskusstvo i arkheologiia Irana. Vol. II, 148-173. Moscow: Nauka, 1976.

Otchet Imperatorskoi Arkheologicheskoi Komissii za 1909-1910. Saint Petersburg: Tipografiia glavnogo upravleniia udelov, 1913.