Provenance
In May of 1886, a boy, Iakov Osiev, found a near his village of Shakharova (Шахарова) on the right bank of the Ingina River in the Krasnoufimskii County (Красноуфимский Уезд) of the Perm Governorate (Пермская Губерния) of the Russian Empire. About a month later, a Krasnoufimskii County police officer acquired the vessels from the boy’s father, Sofon Pimenov Osiev, and brought them to the Governor (Gubernator) of the Perm Governorate. The Governor sent the vessels, along with a bucket from the Shirokovo hoard, to the Imperial Archaeological Commission and requested a monetary reward: the Commission sent back 350 rubles (Trever and Lukonin 1987, 123). In 1891, the vessels were sent to the Imperial Hermitage Museum. All the vessels remain in the renamed State Hermitage Museum. The plate has the number S-74.
In the 20th century, a separate adjacent settlement developed, which was known as Nizhniaia Shakharova (Нижняя Шахарова) or Nizhniaia Shakarokva (Нижняя Шахарова). The hoard was found in a place called ‘Plotinka’, about 200 meters from Nizhniaia Shakharova and is thus often attributed to it, rather than Shakharova throughout the 20th century (Leshchenko in Darkevich 1976, 15). Today the area is known collectively as Shakharovo (Шахарово), which is located in the Suksunskii District (Суксунский Район), Perm Province/Krai (Пермский Край), Russian Federation.
Inscription & Other Marking Notes
Two lines in Sogdian (cursive, Samarkandian script) are located on the exterior shoulder and the base. The shoulder inscription is unclear. The base inscription includes an owner’s name, Farnga, and the weight, 310 (Livshits and Lukonin 1964 № 24).
Technical Notes
silver / 23 cm diameter / 801.9 g weight
Major Eurasian Silver Publications
Harper, Prudence Oliver, and Pieter Meyers. Silver Vessels of the Sasanian Period. New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, published in association with Princeton University Press, 1981. [fig. 8]
Marshak, B. I. Istoriia vostochnoi torevtiki III-XIII vv. i problemy kul’turnoi preemstvennosti. Saint Petersburg: Akademiia Issledovaniia Kul’tury, 2017. [ris. 97]
Marshak (Marschak), B. I. Silberschätze des Orients: Metallkunst des 3.-13. Jahrhunderts und Ihre Kontinuität. Leipzig: E.A. Seemann, 1986. [№ 97]
Marshak, B. I. Sogdiiskoe serebro: ocherki po vostochnoi torevtike. Moscow: Nauka, 1971. [ris. 30]
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. [T. XIV № 36]
Trever, K. V., and V. G. Lukonin. Sasanidskoe serebro: sobranie Gosudarstvennogo Ermitazha: khudozhestvenniia kul’tura Irana III-VIII vekov. Moscow: Iskusstvo, 1987. [T. 1-5 № 1]
Additional Bibliography
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 1882-1888. Saint Petersburg: Tipografiia Imperatorskoi Akademii Nauk, 1891.
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. 1.
Page Images
(1-3) K. V. Trever and V. G. Lukonin, Sasanidskoe serebro: sobranie Gosudarstvennogo Ermitazha: khudozhestvenniia kul’tura Irana III-VIII vekov (Moscow: Iskusstvo, 1987), T. 1-3.
(4) Ia. I. Smirnov, 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), № 36.