2026. no 1. Tatiana Matehina

Some Sheathes and a Casket from the Belorechensk mounds (N.I. Veselovsky’s excavation of 1896):
the construction characteristics, analogies

Tatiana Matehina
Roerich Family Museum and Institute
Saint Petersburg, Russian Federation

Abstract. The article considers in detail a miniature bone casket and three wooden scabbards with a leather shell and a characteristic metal (silver) frame, those were found in the Belorechensk mounds of the 14th – early 15th c. They are rare finds.
The small casket had an elongated trapezoidal shape. Some bone plates with carved circular ornament (the lid and three walls) have preserved, two of which are fastened with a silver rivet. The rivet passing through the casket’s box and lid at their narrow end provided them with a movable joint. The casket was opened by turning the lid sideways. The design of the casket is not clear enough due to its fragmentary preservation. The comparative material includes a variety of caskets made of bone or wood, which had a swivel lid and were used for some small elongated objects; they are found in Veliky Novgorod in the deposits of the late third of the 13th – early 15th century. Yet in the State Hermitage Museum there are two larger and more complex Middle Eastern pencil cases (kalamdans or cases for kalama – a pointed reed rod for writing) of the 12th – early 13th c., which are made of ornamented copper alloy plates and also have a swivel lid. One of them was found during excavations in Tauric Chersonesos in 1903.
The scabbards with thin silver ferrules from the Belorechensk mounds are unique as they are quite complete items of this category and derives from undisturbed burials. The characteristic feature of such ferrules: a thin longitudinal bar and some cross clips/hoops riveted to it. The ferrule is placed at the top of the scabbard. Its longitudinal bar with a hanging ring at the upper end is placed along the midline of the back of the scabbard, so it ensured the vertical position of the suspended scabbard. Some ferrules of the same design, but iron ones, were found in the territory of Russia from Veliky Novgorod to Ryazan and Nizhny Novgorod, in the deposits of late 13th – first half of 16th c.
Yet the scabbard with such ferrule and the knife made in 1513, which belonged to Prince Andrei Staritsky – the youngest son of Ivan III, have been completely preserved.
The considered items are supposed to have some Oriental features in its origin. They are probably connected with the Golden Horde culture.

Keywords: archaeology; Belorechensk mounds; N.I. Veselovsky; North Caucasus; Russia; 14th – 15th c.; scabbard; casket; construction; metal details

For citation: Matehina T.S. Some Sheathes and a Casket from the Belorechensk mounds (N.I. Veselovsky’s excavation of 1896): the construction characteristics, analogies. Krymskoe istoricheskoe obozrenie=Crimean Historical Review. 2026, vol. 13, no. 1, pp. 70–86. https://doi.org/10.22378/kio.2026.1.70-86 (In Russian)

Acknowledgments: The author expresses gratitude for the help to A.N. Teplyakova (State Hermitage Museum, Saint-Petersburg), E.M. Boldyreva, D.O. Osipov, A.O. Shevtsov (State Historical Museum, Moscow), P.A. Milyaev and the staff of the Library of the Russian Academy of Sciences’ department (Institute of the History of Material Culture of the Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS), Saint-Petersburg), M.A. Kozintsev and S.A. Frantsuzov (Institute of Oriental Manuscripts RAS, Saint-Petersburg), the staff of the Department of Storage and Study of Archaeological Collections (Novgorod State Museum-Reserve, Veliky Novgorod), S.E. Toropov (Humanitarian  Institute of Yaroslav the Wise Novgorod State University, Veliky Novgorod), O.A. Fatyunina (Ryazan Historical and Architectural Museum-Reserve, Ryazan), A.N. Khokhlov, M.E. Nesterova (Tver Scientific Research Historical, Archaeological and Restoration Center, Tver).

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INFORMATION ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Tatiana S. Matehina – Cand. Sci. (History), Senior Researcher of the Service of the Chief Curator, Saint Petersburg State Roerich Family Museum and Institute (1 A, 18th line, Vasilevskiy Island, Saint Petersburg 199034, Russian Federation), ORCID: 0009-0001-8225-579X. E-mail: matekhina@mail.ru

Received 22.02.2026

Accepted 17.03.2026