Bracelet with Arabic Inscription and Leonine Mask Found in Costeşti Town of the 14th Century (Moldova) Cover Image

Браслет с арабской надписью и львиной личиной с городища Костешть XIV в. (Молдова)
Bracelet with Arabic Inscription and Leonine Mask Found in Costeşti Town of the 14th Century (Moldova)

Author(s): Ana Boldureanu
Subject(s): History, Archaeology, Middle Ages, 13th to 14th Centuries
Published by: Издательский дом Stratum, Университет «Высшая антропологическая школа»
Keywords: Pruto-Dniester interfluve; 14th c.; Golden Horde; bracelet; lion mask; Arabic inscription; “knot of happiness”
Summary/Abstract: A bronze bracelet and a fragment of another bracelet of the same type, found in the Golden Horde settlement of Costeşti (Ialoveni district of the Republic of Moldova), were brought for identification to the National Museum of History of Moldova in the summer of 2015. The items correspond to the band-shaped bracelet type, whose ends do not connect. The ends of both objects are decorated by stylized leonine mask. Their surface is covered by identical Arabic inscriptions separated by an ornament named «the lucky knot»and set reversed to each other. The inscription on the bracelet contains wishes of prosperity, health and luck. All these symbols, considered to have magical functions, could have been interpreted by their wearers as amulets.