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-16.
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
The plate has two distinct inscriptions plus graffiti in the form of a small animal head. The first inscription in Middle Persian is on the base of the vessel. Livshits and Lukonin read the bowl’s weight as ‘altogether 230 drachms’ (Livshits and Lukonin 1964, № 10); Brunner reads it as ’32 (staters) and 2 drachms’. The Sogdian inscription (cursive Samarkandian script) is on the edge of the bowl’s base. The Sogdian inscription names the owner as a ‘Vagch’. Livshits and Lukonin note that the words chosen to state custody of the vessel are Turkic (Livshits and Lukonin 1964, № 21).
Technical Notes
silver with gilding / 23cm diameter / 532.8 g weight
For an in-depth technical analysis, see Harper and Meyers 1981, p. 180, Pl. 32.
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. [Pl. 32]
Orbeli, I. A., and K. V. Trever. Sasanidskii metall khudozhestvennye predmenty iz zolota, serebra, i bronzy. Moscow-Leningrad: Akademiia, 1935. [T. 9]
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. XXX № 58]
Trever, K. V., and V. G. Lukonin. Sasanidskoe serebro: sobranie Gosudarstvennogo Ermitazha: khudozhestvenniia kul’tura Irana III-VIII vekov. Moscow: Iskusstvo, 1987. [T. 13 № 6]
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.
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. 13.
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. 13.
(4) V. A. Livshits and V. G. Lukonin, “Srednepersidskie i Sogdiiskie nadpisi na serebrianykh sosudakh,” Vestnik Drevnei Istorii, no. 3 (1964): ris. 1.
(5) 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), № 58.