Статтю присвячено публікації бронзової бутеролі з фондів Харківського історичного музею
імені М. Ф. Сумцова, пошуку ймовірних джерел її
походження та аналізу можливого зв’язку з безпаспортним біметалевим мечем з довоєнної колекції музею.
In M. F. Sumtsov Kharkiv Historical Museum archaeological
collection a bronze scabbard-chape can be
found, which has a form of a rhomb-shaped plug that
ends with a head of a carnivorous bird. The bird’s head
is conveyed by three expressive elements — an eye in
the eyesocket, a beak, and a tonguelet. Chapes of such
type count a bit more than twenty exemplars, which
are located preferably on the Caucasus and Northern
Black Sea coastal area territories. Chape was included
in the so-called «Kharkiv treasure». This treasure was
supposedly found by two teenagers in their yard in
1957; they gave it to the museum. The treasure is very
variegated by its content and counts 236 objects of different
epochs — from the Neolithic Age to the Middle
Ages and modern ages. By the range of symptoms the
treasure can be linked to the Archaeological exhibition
opened in occupied Kharkiv in 1942 and which was
demolished by the fire in February 1943. The exhibition
was based on the materials of the Historical Museum
collections and the Archaeological Museum of the
Kharkiv University; it demonstrated as wide chronological
period as the content of the «Kharkiv treasure»
was — from the Stone Age to the Cossacks times. So,
apparently before the war, the chape belonged to the
collection of one of these museums. The loss of the accounting
records of both museums prevents from determining
the more precise origin of the chape.
In the Archaeological exhibition remnants after the
fire a bimetallic sword with an iron blade and bronze
handle was also found. The sword and the chape belong
to the same cultural and chronological context
and are tied with each other functionally. At the same
time, they are quite rare findings. It allows admitting
a possible connection between them and their belonging
to the same complex. Visually the Kharkiv chape
is the closest to the findings from the Northern Black
Sea coastal area, which allows defining the possible
territory of origin of this complex, which is just hypothetic for now.
