A pendant with the «sign of Rurikovich» from the collection of the Archaeological Museum of Ivanovo State University

The article publishes a pendant with the «sign of Rurikovich». It was found by chance on the territory of a destroyed ancient Russian settlement in the Komsomolsky District of the Ivanovo Region. This is the second artifact with the «sign of Rurikovich» discovered in the Ivanovo Region. The first is a hatchet from the Shekshovo burial ground (Gavrilovo-Posad District). It was found during excavations by the Suzdal Archaeological expedition of the Institute of Archaeology of the Russian Academy of Sciences under the leadership of Academician N.A. Makarov in 2012. Analytical studies of the suspension conducted at the Institute of Archaeology of the Russian Academy of Sciences found that the suspension was cast from an alloy of copper (Cu) 78%, zinc (Zn) 13,6%, lead (Pb) 6,8% and tin (Sn) 1,7%. Its surface was covered with corrosion, which revealed the inclusion of elements from the environment. In particular, there is a high phosphorus content. This circumstance may be due to the fact that there was a cemetery in the area where the pendant was located, and the pendant could be associated with the burial goods of one of the graves. The closest analogies of the pendant found in the Ivanovo Region are: a pendant from a female burial of the Khilovo burial mound in the upper reaches of the Volga and an pendant find in the basin of the Volkhov River in the Novgorod Region. The pendant can presumably be dated to the XII–XIII centuries. This date can also be confirmed by fragments of pre-Mongol vessels, which were found in the same conditions as the pendant at the site of the destroyed ancient settlement.