From Kiev to Pereyaslavets (Πρεσθλαβίτζα). The early medieval stone egg imitations and glazed Easter egg rattles from Dobrudja, Romania.

Abstract

This article focuses on the finds of glazed egg-shaped rattles as well as on egg imitations of chalk and of Romanbricks discovered in Dobrudja and in nearby Varna. It is assumed that they were used in magical and religiousrituals connected with fertility and vegetation cults, as well as in apotropaic and healing rites. Chalk imitations dated prevailingly to the 10th century could be relics of a local Christian-pagan syncretism. Glazed items were most probably imports from Kyiv workshops in Kyivan Rus’. The latter should be associated with the presence of people engaging in military operations led by Rus’ princes, namely mercenaries and even more probably, with merchants travelling along the waterways leading from the Varangians to the Greeks. This route was most intensively exploited in the time from the middle of the 10th to the middle of the of 11th century, which correlates with the chronology of the layers and graves where these glazed eggs were discovered, their dating points mainly being to the 11th century.