Suzdal neck-piece

In 1851 the famous archeologist and one of the founders of the Historical museum in Moscow A.S. Uvarov held excavations of the burial ground near the village Isady on the river Nerl near the city Suzdal. Under the turf of one of the burial barrows the hoard was found – a ceremonial accessory – a shoulder-mantle that firmly came into the science under the name “the Suzdal neck-piece”.
According to the description compiled by the Count S.A. Uvarov, it is clear that the "neck-piece" was only hidden in the burial mound and has nothing to do with the burial. Objects of which the neck-piece was made of, as plaques and beads, were found all together, and, in one of the beads were found traces of the cord that had been connecting them.
The neck-piece, apparently, was hastily buried in a mound of already existing burial barrow. During the Batu invasion of 1237-1240, townspeople were hiding their treasures burying them into the ground, hiding in caches and churches. Not everyone managed to come back for these hoards. That is why some priceless treasures of ancient Russian culture, vivid evidence of the talent of craftsmen of Ancient Rus’ are extant.
The “neck-piece” consists of six silver gilded round plaques-medallions: two large, two medium and two small. All of them have different images. The adoption of Christianity in 988 gave a new impulse to the development of Russian artistic culture and ornamentation of the art objects. Thus, on golden and silver accessories from hoards appear images of bloomed crosses and saints.
On one of the small medallions there is a half-length image of a young Saint with a halo around his head. He is depicted in a cap with a high crown; his clothing consists, apparently, of two parts – the lower garment, the sleeve of which tightly covers his hand, and the upper richly decorated cloak thrown over his shoulders. In the right hand of the Saint is a cross. Perhaps, this is the image of Boris or Gleb.
On one of the large medallions a cross is depicted inscribed in a hexagon with concave sides. On other four – the pattern of different variants of the bloomed cross which basis transforms into two rising upwards branches with leaves. Two big medallions are decorated also with semi-circular beads soldered to the edge. Patterns on these medallions are carved; backgrounds of these patterns are filled with niello, which expressively emphasizes the smallest details of images.
Medallions are interspersed with twelve silver, also gilded, hollow oblong beads, soldered from two halves. Ten large beads are the same in shape and size; two smaller ones are of a different shape. Large beads are divided into two halves by a wire ring, which, as well as tops, is twisted with a thin filigree thread. On the bodies of the beads are four bulges that look like peas decorated with tiny granulating. And in intervals between them a pattern is created of lozenges and triangles, and also decorated with granulating.
Manufacturing the neck-piece old Russian craftsmen-jewelers used all known in Ancient Rus’ types of techniques, the performance of which required extraordinary skills. Among them are stamping and soldering; carving, filigree, granulating, gilding and niello.
Barmas (humeral) are a part of a ceremonial prince’s clothing with images of religious nature and precious stones. Barmas were worn over the ceremonial clothing. To the end of the XV century it became a grand duke’s and later tsarist regalia. Old Russian analogy of Byzantine lorus – a detail of the ceremonial emperors clothing.
In Rus’ barmas were known under the name of a neck-piece. According to the legend they were for the first time send by Byzantine emperor Alexios I Komnenos to Vladimir Monomakh, but the first mention of them in a chronicle appeared only in 1216 where it was said that barmas sewed with gold were worn by all princes.
The legend about gifts of the Byzantine Emperor Constantine IX, the Barma and the Monomakh's Cap, is reflected in “The Tale of the Princes of Vladimir " (XVI century), as well as in the reliefs (1551) on the Monomakh's throne of the Assumption Cathedral of the Moscow Kremlin: "From where and how it was putting to the grand duke rule with holy barmas and a tsars crown". As coronation regalia they were first mentioned in 1498 when they together with the "crown" (apparently, the Monomakh's Cap) were laid on Dmitry Ivanovich, grandson of Ivan III, during the ceremony of "putting" on the throne of the Prince in the Assumption Cathedral of the Moscow Kremlin.