Plate decorated with a woman riding a fantastical creature from Tomyz’

Culture
Sasanian
Date
6th to 7th century
Medium
Silver with gilding
Dimensions
22.2 cm diameter; 4.7 cm height
Weight
459.7 g
Form
Plate
Footed
Inscription
Middle Persian
Graffiti
–
Collection
State Hermitage Museum
S-26
FindSpot
Tomyz', Russia

Image credit

Trever and Lukonin 1987: T. 106.

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Notes on dating, attribution, imagery, or markings

On the base, in stippled points are two lines of Middle Persian. The inscription notes the ownership of the vessel by a ‘Dadburzmihr’ but the reading of the patronymics is debated. See Livshits and Lukonin 1964: № 11; Brunner 1977: № 29.

For an in-depth technical analysis, see Trever and Lukonin 1987, Tablitsa XII, s. 144.

Image Gallery

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Image credit

1-3: Trever and Lukonin 1987: T. 106.

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.

Orbeli, I. A., and K. V. Trever. Sasanidskii metall khudozhestvennye predmenty iz zolota, serebra, i bronzy. Moscow-Leningrad: Akademiia, 1935.

Smirnov, Ia. I. Vostochnoe serebro: atlasʺ drevnei serebrianoi i zolotoi posudy vostochnago proiskhozhdeniia naidennoi preimushchestvenno vʺ prědelakhʺ Rossiiskoi imperii. Saint Petersburg: Publishing House of the Imperial Archaeological Commission, 1909.

Trever, K. V., and V. G. Lukonin. Sasanidskoe serebro: sobranie Gosudarstvennogo Ermitazha: khudozhestvenniia kul’tura Irana III-VIII vekov. Moscow: Iskusstvo, 1987.

Additional Publications

Brunner, Christopher J. “Middle Persian Inscriptions on Sasanian Silverware.” Metropolitan Museum Journal 9 (1974): 109–21.

Demange, Françoise, ed. Les Perses sassanides: Fastes d’un empire oublié (224-642). Paris: Musée Cernuschi, 2006.

Livshits, V. A., and V. G. Lukonin. “Srednepersidskie i Sogdiiskie nadpisi na serebrianykh sosudakh.” Vestnik Drevnei Istorii, no. 3 (1964): 155-176.

Otchet Imperatorskoi Arkheologicheskoi Komissii za 1893. Saint Petersburg: Tipografiia glavnogo upravleniia udelov, 1895.

Overlaet, Bruno, ed. Splendeur des Sassanides: l’empire perse entre Rome et la Chine, 224-642. Brussels: Musées royaux d’art et d’histoire, 1993.