Bronze Matrices from the Nikolskoye Settlement: to the question of their use as weights in the middle ages

Abstract

This article presents another find of a bronze jewelry matrix from the Nikolskoye settlement, which was used in the Golden Horde time for the manufacture of cored jewelry from sheet metal – garment sewn details. The authors consider this item as part of a set of similar matrices found earlier on the site of the settlement and related to the jewelry workshop of the XIV century. All known jewelry matrices found on the territory of the Nikolskoye settlement were weighed. The results showed that their weight is probably oriented to the weight standards adopted for coinage in the Golden Horde in the XIV century. This suggests that they could have been used not just as a jewelry tool, but also as weights for determining the weight of metal and items made of it. To confirm or disprove the author's hypothesis statistical data on the weight parameters of jewelry matrices from other Golden Horde sites are needed.