Provenance
In 1909 Andrei Skorynin found the plate in a pit in a field while hunting not far from the village of Lukovka (Луковка) in the Permskii County (Пермский Уезд) of the Perm Governorate (Пермская Губерния) of the Russian Empire (Trever and Lukonin 1987, 125). The Perm Governor (Gubernator) sent the vessel to the Imperial Archaeological Commission and they purchased it from Skorynin for 300 rubles. According to letters between the Perm Governor and the Imperial Archaeological Commission, archaeologist A. F. Teploukhov was sent out to investigate and map the area the plate was found. The Imperial Hermitage Museum acquired the plate from the Archaeological Commission in 1913. The plate is still housed in the renamed State Hermitage Museum with the number S-47.
It should be noted that the first publication of the plate in the Otchet Imperatorskoi Arkheologicheskoi Komissii erroneously states that Lukovka is in the vicinity of Dobrianka (Добрянка), a village on the left bank of the Kama River (OAK za 1909-1910, 225-227; Trever and Lukonin 1987, 125). The village of Lukovka no longer exists; however, letters with Teploukhov describes the findspot near the shore of Dikari Lake (Ozero Dikarinskoe) (Trever and Lukonin 1987, 125-126). The nearest modern village is Zareka, formerly called Dikari.
Zareka (Зарека) is presently located in the Kungurskii District (Кунгурский Район), Perm Province/Krai (Пермский Край), Russia.
Technical Notes
silver with gilding / 23.2 cm diameter / 959,5 g weight
Major Eurasian Silver Publications
Marshak (Marschak), B. I. Silberschätze des Orients: Metallkunst des 3.-13. Jahrhunderts und Ihre Kontinuität. Leipzig: E.A. Seemann, 1986. [№ 193]
Marshak, B. I. Istoriia vostochnoi torevtiki III-XIII vv. i problemy kul’turnoi preemstvennosti. Saint Petersburg: Akademiia Issledovaniia Kul’tury, 2017. [ris. 193]
Orbeli, I. A., and K. V. Trever. Sasanidskii metall khudozhestvennye predmenty iz zolota, serebra, i bronzy. Moscow-Leningrad: Akademiia, 1935. [T. 16]
Trever, K. V., and V. G. Lukonin. Sasanidskoe serebro: sobranie Gosudarstvennogo Ermitazha: khudozhestvenniia kul’tura Irana III-VIII vekov. Moscow: Iskusstvo, 1987. [T. 32-33 № 16]
Additional Bibliography
Otchet Imperatorskoi Arkheologicheskoi Komissii za 1909-1910. Saint Petersburg: Tipografiia glavnogo upravleniia udelov, 1913.
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.
Image Credits
Featured Image
K. V. Trever and V. G. Lukonin, Sasanidskoe serebro: sobranie Gosudarstvennogo Ermitazha: khudozhestvenniia kul’tura Irana III-VIII vekov (Moscow: Iskusstvo, 1987), T. 33.
Page Images
(1-4) K. V. Trever and V. G. Lukonin, Sasanidskoe serebro: sobranie Gosudarstvennogo Ermitazha: khudozhestvenniia kul’tura Irana III-VIII vekov (Moscow: Iskusstvo, 1987), T. 32-33.