Келермесское зеркало, сектор 6: Лиса, Медведь и Птица
Kelermess Mirror, Sector 6: the Fox, the Bear and the Bird

Summary/Abstract: The article deals with one of the 8 sectors of electrum overlay of the famous silver mirror from Kelermes dated 650-620 c. B.C. Sector 6 was decorated with the rather realistic depictions of three wild animals — the fox, the bear and the bird. Author tried to put the depictions in the wide range of stylistic and subject analogies and parallels and to compare each of them with the representations of those animals known in Greek art. Author also tried to show that in the composition of the Kelermes mirror overlay combine and interlace several stylistic traditions (“East-Greek”, “Aegean”, “Minor Asian”, “Scythian”) and to illustrate this idea by giving as an example the depictions of sector 6. The material of the overlay of Kelermess mirror — electrum — was an object of special interest. The analysis of metal made in 1904 in Saint-Petersburg gave 78% of gold. According this result we can conclude that the overlay have been made of natural mixture — so-called white gold. Moreover we can compare by the gold content the electrum of Kelermes overlay with the examples of that metal from the Pactolus river near ancient Sardis, the capital of Lydia.

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