So, in 1853, the famous Feodosian artist - marine painter I. Aivazovsky received official permission from the Ministry of the Imperial Court and Estates to conduct archaeological work in the Feodosia region. The purpose of the archaeological research was supposedly to search for “old, ancient Feodosia.”In the mid-19th century, there were allegedly disputes between scientists around the world about the location of medieval Kafa-Feodosia. Someone placed it on the slopes of Tepe-Oba, in the area of ​​Cape St. Elijah, someone at the foot of Karadag, in the area of ​​today's Koktebel, and someone in all seriousness placed the ancient Kafa 70 km to the east, on Cape Opuk. But one day, the famous archaeologist of that time, A.A. Sibirsky. , while walking along the slopes of Tepe Oba, I discovered an ancient Greek coin, presumably from the 5th century BC. The archaeologist shared his find with the famous Feodosia artist I. Aivazovsky, expressing his opinion about the existence of " ancient city"in the area of ​​Cape St. Elijah on the slopes of the Tepe-Oba ridge. The artist fully supported the ideas of Sibirsky A.A. and took direct part in organizing the archaeological expedition.

Already in the spring of 1853, survey work was in full swing on the slopes of the ridge, and almost immediately they were discovered 5 mounds- burial grounds. Four mounds turned out to be completely empty, but in the fifth...! In the fifth, the burial of a woman was discovered, presumably from the 4th-5th centuries BC, many exquisite ceramic objects, as well as a whole galaxy of interesting jewelry, including THEODOSIAN EARRINGS, unique in their craftsmanship. The news of the unique Feodosia find spread throughout the world, attracting the attention of numismatists, antique dealers and goldsmiths. Jewelers from all over the world tried to copy the jewelry, but to no avail - the technologies of the ancient Greek masters were irretrievably lost. Even famous Carl Faberge, who tried to repeat the “Feodosian earrings”, was a complete fiasco.

Encouraged by the incredible find, I. Aivazovsky continued his archaeological search with triple energy, and during the summer-autumn of 1853. uncovered more than 80 mounds in the vicinity of Feodosia, and luck smiled on the artist again - one of the burial grounds on the Tepe-Oba ridge was also full of jewelry. Naturally, all the jewelry found was counted, described and sent to St. Petersburg, where it was put on public display in the Hermitage.
Based on the results of the archaeological expedition led by I. Aivazovsky, approximately the following conclusion was made - on the slopes of the Tepe-Oba ridge there was a Greek Necropolis, approximately 4-5 centuries BC.

This beautiful story about “Feodosia earrings” can be heard from Feodosia tour guides or read on numerous “historical” sites. The reality, however, is much harsher and dirtier.

In fact, the number of so-called “antique jewelry” that cannot be copied is quite large and numbers hundreds and thousands of pieces. Naturally, this group also includes the so-called “Scythian gold”, jewelry found in Scythian burial mounds- burial grounds. The geography of finds of "Scythian gold" is very extensive - from Altai to the Danube from east to west, and from White Sea before North Africa from North to South. Many of the “Scythian jewelry” are truly unique and technologies unknown even today were used to create them. The photographs below (“Feodosian earrings on the first”) show a small part of the “golden women’s earrings” discovered during excavations of Scythian burial mounds in completely different places: Southern Siberia, Tavria, Taman, Dnieper region, Volga region. These unique products have one thing in common - they are truly unique, they are extremely difficult, and often impossible, to counterfeit, and they are works of art of ancient Greek jewelry craftsmen, whose technologies are irretrievably lost.

Exactly - in Scythian burial mounds lay "ancient Greek gold"!!! Including Siberian and Altai! How it got there is absolutely not of interest to modern “historical science” - but you never know - it was bought at the market, on sale!

The only argument of these “fighters for ancient Greece” is the assertion that the Scythians are nomads, and nomads are not capable of creating unique masterpieces.
But let’s return to the “Feodosia earrings”. So, on the slopes of the Tepe-Oba ridge, an archaeological expedition led by I. Aivazovsky discovered some burial mounds in the amount of about 90 pieces, which were identified as the Greek Necropolis of the 4th century BC. However, 50 years later, a certain German forester F. Siebold, on the same slopes of the Tepe-Oba ridge, discovered about 30 objects of the medieval hydraulic system of Feodosia, as well as a significant number of ceramic water pipes. Naturally, ceramic water supply was created not in the 4th century BC, but much later, in the 15-16th centuries.

It turns out to be a very interesting picture - a medieval hydraulic system was built right on an ancient Greek necropolis! There is one of two things here - either our ancestors, who built the ceramic water supply system, had no idea about hygiene and sanitation, or someone is openly and blatantly lying. But I don’t think that our ancestors would have built a hydraulic system in the middle of burial mounds, so it’s something else!

By the way, it is known that the Sibirsky-Aivazovsky expedition revealed the order 90 burial mounds on the Tepe-Oba ridge, but where are they, and why haven’t they survived to this day? And as a rule, all burial mounds where something worthwhile was discovered have their own name (Kul-Oba Mound, Solokha Mound, Tsarsky Mound, etc.) What is the name of the mound in which “Feodosian earrings” were discovered? "? No way.

The same F. Siebold, describing the Tepe-Oba ridge in 1900, mentions, in addition to hydraulic structures, numerous stone ruins of other structures, but these were absolutely not burial grounds.

By the way, the big question is why gentlemen historians of the mid-19th century, who allegedly speculated about the location of “old Feodosia,” did not see these ruins and hydraulic structures, as if they did not exist? Were they struck by sudden blindness?

But I. Aivazovsky, allegedly born in 1817 in Feodosia, must have probably known about certain ruins on Tepe-Oba, which at that time could have had a completely different appearance.

In the painting by K. Bossoli, who captured Feodosia in 1842, we can observe a rather interesting landscape - fortifications and structures of unknown purpose in the foreground and the city itself in the background, in the valley. It is quite obvious that the Italian artist painted the picture while on the slopes of the Ridge - you cannot find another perspective like this. The question is - what happened to these buildings after 15 years? Disappeared without a trace or turned into burial mounds?

It must be admitted that no Greek Necropolis, consisting of Scythian burial mounds, NEVER EXISTED on the Tepe-Oba ridge; on the ridge there were structures of a completely different nature, absolutely incompatible in their purpose with the City of the Dead.

But where, in this case, and when exactly was the archaeological expedition of Sibirsky-Aivazovsky carried out?

Indeed, in the vicinity of Feodosia there are quite a lot of incomprehensible hills that can be identified as burial mounds, only they are located for the most part in the north and northeast of Feodosia, i.e. in the opposite direction from Tepe Oba. Several hills similar to mounds are located south of the ridge, in the valley of Dvuyakornaya Bay, but these may well be the remains of fortifications.

In any case, in the vicinity of Feodosia in the mid-19th century there were quite a lot of interesting ancient monuments, which, I would venture to suggest, had not yet been looted and desecrated.

Undoubtedly, a very rich profit awaited the treasure-hunting archaeologists.

And here a very interesting moment arises. The age of many Crimean mounds in Crimea is about 2000 years or more. According to official history, over these 2000 years, dozens of tribes and peoples passed through Crimea, but for some reason no one had the desire to see what was stored in these very pyramid mounds until the 19th century, when research and development of ancient monuments began . Therefore, it should be recognized that from time immemorial only one people lived on the Crimean Peninsula - the descendants of the Tauro-Scythians - the Russians; in any other case, all the burial grounds and mounds would have been destroyed long before the 19th century. In the 19th century, there was a change of ownership of the peninsula - it became part of the Russian Empire, which, despite its name, did not at all represent the interests of the Russian people, rather the opposite. Therefore, all archaeological expeditions on the Crimean Peninsula, without exception, pursued, by and large, only two goals - to destroy the monuments of the past of the Great People and, if possible, to enrich themselves as much as possible by tearing apart and appropriating the wealth that had been accumulating for thousands of years in the territories of the Tauride Peninsula.

Aivazovsky's Archaeological Expedition is no exception. It is enough to take a closer look at the personality of the chief archaeologist of the expedition, and part-time antiquarian and numismatist - Siberian A.A., as well as the personalities of his friends-patrons J. Reichel, B. Kene, I. Bartolomei, P.-Yu. Sabatier. All these gentlemen obviously not of Russian origin stand at the origins of the creation of the Imperial Archaeological Society, the curator of which was directly the House of Romanov. Naturally, all these people had the largest collections of jewelry and gold in Europe. antique coins. I think there is no need to prove where this wealth fell on their heads. This happened in the order of things - most of the looted jewelry and antiquities simply remained in the hands of the people who led the “archaeological searches” and then ended up in numerous private collections, a smaller part went to museums.

By the way, I. Aivazovsky also had a fairly large jewelry collection, which after the artist’s death in 1900 was left to his widow, A. Burnazyan - Sarkisova. After the October Revolution, the widow's collection was taken over the real hunt, and since the power in Crimea changed several times a year, literally everyone was hunting for Aivazovsky’s jewelry collection - the occupying Karaite-German government of Solomon Solomonovich Crimea, a former friend of I. Aivazovsky, and the White Guard “black baron” Wrangel, and Dzerzhinsky’s security officers . The latter, it must be said, succeeded the most. A. Burnazyan was arrested by the Cheka and spent at least six months in prison, from which she was released only after handing over her jewelry collection to the new authorities.

It is possible that A. Burnazyan managed to preserve some part of the collection, since it is known that during the Great Patriotic War, some jewelry from the artist’s collection somehow ended up with the Germans who occupied Feodosia. Further fate I. Aivazovsky’s jewelry collection is unknown, because it came from darkness and went into darkness.

1. Peacock watch: In 1777, Prince Grigory Potemkin decided to once again surprise Empress Catherine. His choice fell on the work of the English mechanic James Cox. Why exactly on him is unknown. Perhaps the Russian count saw amazing things in the advertising catalogs that the master published. To send the gift to Russia, it had to be disassembled.

They took it apart, but they couldn’t put it back together - some of the parts turned out to be either broken or lost. The spectacular gift would have been gathering dust if in 1791 Potemkin had not instructed Ivan Kulibin to “revive the birds.” And the master of the highest class did the impossible: the clock started ticking, and the intricate mechanism began to move. As soon as the clock starts ringing, the owl in the cage “comes to life”.

As the bells ring, the cage begins to rotate. Then the peacock “wakes up”: its tail rises and begins to unfurl, the bird bows, draws in and throws back its head, and opens its beak. At the moment when the tail fully opens, the peacock turns 180 degrees so that the audience sees its ... butt. Then the feathers are lowered and the peacock takes its original position.

Find out about the real reason Such impartial behavior of a peacock is impossible today. According to one version, Kulibin failed to ensure that the bird made a full rotation. Another legend claims that the master deliberately forced the bird to perform a similar “fouette,” thereby demonstrating his attitude towards the royal court, for which the “bird” was intended.

2. "The Tomb of Homer"

So, in 1853, the famous Feodosian artist - marine painter I. Aivazovsky received official permission from the Ministry of the Imperial Court and Estates to conduct archaeological work in the Feodosia region. The purpose of the archaeological research was supposedly to search for “old, ancient Feodosia.”In the mid-19th century, there were allegedly disputes between scientists around the world about the location of medieval Kafa-Feodosia. Someone placed it on the slopes of Tepe-Oba, in the area of ​​Cape St. Elijah, someone at the foot of Karadag, in the area of ​​today's Koktebel, and someone in all seriousness placed the ancient Kafa 70 km to the east, on Cape Opuk. But one day, the famous archaeologist of that time, A.A. Sibirsky. , while walking along the slopes of Tepe Oba, I discovered an ancient Greek coin, presumably from the 5th century BC. The archaeologist shared his find with the famous Feodosia artist I. Aivazovsky, expressing his opinion about the existence of an “ancient city” in the area of ​​​​Cape St. Elijah on the slopes of the Tepe-Oba ridge. The artist fully supported the ideas of A.A. Sibirsky. and took direct part in organizing the archaeological expedition.

Already in the spring of 1853, survey work was in full swing on the slopes of the ridge, and almost immediately they were discovered 5 mounds- burial grounds. Four mounds turned out to be completely empty, but in the fifth...! In the fifth, the burial of a woman was discovered, presumably from the 4th-5th centuries BC, many exquisite ceramic objects, as well as a whole galaxy of interesting jewelry, including THEODOSIAN EARRINGS, unique in their craftsmanship. The news of the unique Feodosia find spread throughout the world, attracting the attention of numismatists, antique dealers and goldsmiths. Jewelers from all over the world tried to copy the jewelry, but to no avail - the technologies of the ancient Greek masters were irretrievably lost. Even famous Carl Faberge, who tried to repeat the “Feodosian earrings”, was a complete fiasco.

Encouraged by the incredible find, I. Aivazovsky continued his archaeological search with triple energy, and during the summer-autumn of 1853. uncovered more than 80 mounds in the vicinity of Feodosia, and luck smiled on the artist again - one of the burial grounds on the Tepe-Oba ridge was also full of jewelry. Naturally, all the jewelry found was counted, described and sent to St. Petersburg, where it was put on public display in the Hermitage.
Based on the results of the archaeological expedition led by I. Aivazovsky, approximately the following conclusion was made - on the slopes of the Tepe-Oba ridge there was a Greek Necropolis, approximately 4-5 centuries BC.

This beautiful story about “Feodosia earrings” can be heard from Feodosia tour guides or read on numerous “historical” sites. The reality, however, is much harsher and dirtier.

In fact, the number of so-called “antique jewelry” that cannot be copied is quite large and numbers hundreds and thousands of pieces. Naturally, this group also includes the so-called “Scythian gold”, jewelry found in Scythian burial mounds. The geography of finds of "Scythian gold" is very extensive - from Altai to the Danube from east to west, and from the White Sea to North Africa from north to south. Many of the “Scythian jewelry” are truly unique and technologies unknown even today were used to create them. The photographs below (“Feodosian earrings on the first”) show a small part of the “golden women’s earrings” discovered during excavations of Scythian burial mounds in completely different places: Southern Siberia, Tavria, Taman, the Dnieper region, the Volga region. These unique products have one thing in common - they are truly unique, they are extremely difficult, and often impossible, to counterfeit, and they are works of art of ancient Greek jewelry craftsmen, whose technologies are irretrievably lost.

Exactly - in Scythian burial mounds lay "ancient Greek gold"!!! Including Siberian and Altai! How it got there is absolutely not of interest to modern “historical science” - but you never know - it was bought at the market, on sale!

The only arguments of these "fighters for ancient greece"is the statement that the Scythians are nomads, and nomads are not capable of creating unique masterpieces.
But let’s return to the “Feodosia earrings”. So, on the slopes of the Tepe-Oba ridge, an archaeological expedition led by I. Aivazovsky discovered some burial mounds in the amount of about 90 pieces, which were identified as the Greek Necropolis of the 4th century BC. However, 50 years later, a certain German forester F. Siebold, on the same slopes of the Tepe-Oba ridge, discovered about 30 objects of the medieval hydraulic system of Feodosia, as well as a significant number of ceramic water pipes. Naturally, ceramic water supply was created not in the 4th century BC, but much later, in the 15-16th centuries.

It turns out to be a very interesting picture - a medieval hydraulic system was built right on an ancient Greek necropolis! There is one of two things here - either our ancestors, who built the ceramic water supply system, had no idea about hygiene and sanitation, or someone is openly and blatantly lying. But I don’t think that our ancestors would have built a hydraulic system in the middle of burial mounds, so it’s something else!

By the way, it is known that the Sibirsky-Aivazovsky expedition revealed the order 90 burial mounds on the Tepe-Oba ridge, but where are they, and why haven’t they survived to this day? And as a rule, all burial mounds where something worthwhile was discovered have their own name (Kul-Oba Mound, Solokha Mound, Tsarsky Mound, etc.) What is the name of the mound in which “Feodosian earrings” were discovered? "? No way.

The same F. Siebold, describing the Tepe-Oba ridge in 1900, mentions, in addition to hydraulic structures, numerous stone ruins of other structures, but these were absolutely not burial grounds.

By the way, the big question is why gentlemen historians of the mid-19th century, who allegedly speculated about the location of “old Feodosia,” did not see these ruins and hydraulic structures, as if they did not exist? Were they struck by sudden blindness?

But I. Aivazovsky, allegedly born in 1817 in Feodosia, must have probably known about certain ruins on Tepe-Oba, which at that time could have had a completely different appearance.

In the painting by K. Bossoli, who captured Feodosia in 1842, we can observe a rather interesting landscape - fortifications and structures of unknown purpose in the foreground and the city itself in the background, in the valley. It is quite obvious that the Italian artist painted the picture while on the slopes of the Ridge - you cannot find another perspective like this. The question is - what happened to these buildings after 15 years? Disappeared without a trace or turned into burial mounds?

It must be admitted that no Greek Necropolis, consisting of Scythian burial mounds, NEVER EXISTED on the Tepe-Oba ridge; on the ridge there were structures of a completely different nature, absolutely incompatible in their purpose with the City of the Dead.

But where, in this case, and when exactly was the archaeological expedition of Sibirsky-Aivazovsky carried out?

Indeed, in the vicinity of Feodosia there are quite a lot of incomprehensible hills that can be identified as burial mounds, only they are located mostly in the north and northeast of Feodosia, i.e. in the opposite direction from Tepe Oba. Several hills similar to mounds are located to the south of the ridge, in the valley of Dvuyakornaya Bay, but these may well be the remains of fortifications.

In any case, in the vicinity of Feodosia in the mid-19th century there were quite a lot of interesting ancient monuments, which, I would venture to suggest, had not yet been looted and desecrated.

Undoubtedly, a very rich profit awaited the treasure-hunting archaeologists.

And here a very interesting moment arises. The age of many Crimean mounds in Crimea is about 2000 years or more. According to official history, over these 2000 years, dozens of tribes and peoples passed through Crimea, but for some reason no one had the desire to see what was stored in these very pyramid mounds until the 19th century, when research and development of ancient monuments began . Therefore, it should be recognized that from time immemorial only one people lived on the Crimean Peninsula - the descendants of the Tauro-Scythians - the Russians; in any other case, all the burial grounds and mounds would have been destroyed long before the 19th century. In the 19th century there was a change in the owner of the peninsula - it became part of Russian Empire, which, despite its name, did not at all represent the interests of the Russian people, rather the opposite. Therefore, all archaeological expeditions on the Crimean Peninsula, without exception, pursued, by and large, only two goals - to destroy the monuments of the past of the Great People and, if possible, to enrich themselves as much as possible by tearing apart and appropriating the wealth that had been accumulating for thousands of years in the territories of the Tauride Peninsula.

Aivazovsky's Archaeological Expedition is no exception. It is enough to take a closer look at the personality of the chief archaeologist of the expedition, and part-time antiquarian and numismatist - Siberian A.A., as well as the personalities of his friends-patrons J. Reichel, B. Kene, I. Bartolomei, P.-Yu. Sabatier. All these gentlemen obviously not of Russian origin stand at the origins of the creation of the Imperial Archaeological Society, the curator of which was directly the House of Romanov. Naturally, all these people had the largest collections of jewelry and ancient gold coins in Europe. I think there is no need to prove where this wealth fell on their heads. This happened in the order of things - most of the looted jewelry and antiquities simply remained in the hands of the people who led the “archaeological searches” and then ended up in numerous private collections, a smaller part went to museums.

By the way, I. Aivazovsky also had a fairly large jewelry collection, which after the artist’s death in 1900 was left to his widow, A. Burnazyan - Sarkisova. After the October Revolution, the widow's collection was taken over the real hunt, and since the power in Crimea changed several times a year, literally everyone was hunting for Aivazovsky’s jewelry collection - the occupying Karaite-German government of Solomon Solomonovich Crimea, a former friend of I. Aivazovsky, and the White Guard “black baron” Wrangel, and Dzerzhinsky’s security officers . The latter, it must be said, succeeded the most. A. Burnazyan was arrested by the Cheka and spent at least six months in prison, from which she was released only after handing over her jewelry collection to the new authorities.

It is possible that A. Burnazyan managed to preserve some part of the collection, since it is known that during the Great Patriotic War, some jewelry from the artist’s collection somehow ended up with the Germans who occupied Feodosia. The further fate of I. Aivazovsky’s jewelry collection is unknown, because it came from darkness, and went into darkness.

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Curiosities of antiquity sometimes present researchers with mysteries that modern science hastens to declare unsolvable.
Everyone probably knows the famous exhibit of the Hermitage - gold earrings with gold grains, which can only be distinguished with magnification. The product dates back to the 4th century. BC.

These “filigree gold earrings, found during excavations in 1853 in one of the mounds on the outskirts of Feodosia, are one of the most striking examples of the work of Greek jewelers of the 4th century. BC. and executed in the so-called microtechnique, which reached an unusually high level in Athens at that time. At the top of the earrings there are round discs with an elegant flower in the center, which are bordered by rows of tiny grains and decorated with an ornament of filigree palmettes and rosettes... Feodosia earrings became especially famous precisely thanks to the use of grain, when the smallest droplets of metal are arranged in groups of four and placed in regular rows.”
No matter how hard the jewelers tried to repeat this result, they failed. The smallest grain melted when heated. Attempts stopped, the art of the ancient Greeks was recognized as unsurpassed.

So how did they manage to do it in the 4th century? BC. accomplish what could not be repeated in the twentieth century?
In Altshuller’s book “Invention Algorithm”, in case of problems with temperature regulation and control, it is advised to use a phase transition. A phase transition, like melting, is hardly acceptable here. But metal can become liquid in another case - in amalgam, an alloy with mercury. Try to imagine this option: tiny balls of gold (it’s not difficult to get them, just melt a short piece of thin wire on a non-wettable surface, for example, charcoal) on a short time immersed in mercury. A thin layer of amalgam is formed on the surface. The substrate on which the grain is applied is also rubbed with mercury. The desired pattern is laid out with grains, after which the entire composition is heated to a temperature that is lower than the melting of gold, but sufficient to remove (evaporate) mercury from the amalgam. The gold grains are firmly connected to each other and to the substrate. A similar technology for evaporating mercury from gold amalgam (fire gilding) is the most ancient gilding technique. The Eastern Slavs were familiar with the method of making a gold amalgam “from an alloy of gold and mercury” and coating silver and bronze items with it. Working with amalgam requires strict adherence to safety measures, as severe poisoning can occur. So, when gilding the domes St. Isaac's Cathedral in 1838-1841 60 workers died from the effects of mercury vapor.

It is not surprising that the technology of the Athenian masters was lost for many centuries. After all, the masters strictly kept their secrets, and death overtook such craftsmen as inexorably as St. Petersburg gilders two thousand years later.

Vladimir Repin

Treasures of the Hermitage.

// M.-L.: USSR Academy of Sciences and State. Hermitage Museum. 1949. 352 p. (Popular science series.)

Feodosia earrings (M.I. Maksimova)

Gold. 8.8×2.5 cm (shield diameter). IV century BC. Entered in 1854

[ The book contains a black and white photo. See cat. 200 in the book Greek Gold. ]

Gold filigree earrings were found during excavations in 1853 in one of the mounds on the outskirts of the city of Feodosia in Crimea. Together with a luxurious gold necklace, they made up the attire of the woman buried there. Unfortunately, the incorrect method of excavation did not allow us to establish whether the deceased belonged to the local Hellenized nobility, or whether she was a representative of the wealthy strata of the Greek population of ancient Feodosia. Both the Scythians and the Greeks widely demonstrated their love of luxury in funeral rites.

As shown by images on coins and a few items related to Theodosian earrings, most of which were found in our south in dated burials, the earrings are a product of Greek jewelry art of the 4th century. BC. They can be called the most striking example of the refined works of Greek jewelers - works dating back to the period when the culture of the Greek city-state had reached its full flowering and was already beginning to decline.

Feodosia earrings consist of a round shield, on the reverse side of which there is a hook and loop, and a lunula placed below it. These are two types of ear decorations that existed independently in Greece, and here an attempt is made to combine them into a single whole by hanging the moon from the shield on two chains. Added to this complex form of earrings are

three rows of various pendants on woven chains of varying lengths, and, moreover, the entire product is decorated with an ornament that completely covers and wraps around it on all sides. To consider all the details of the various motifs used by the master, it is necessary to peer for a long time and repeatedly at his work, which amazes with both the richness of imagination and the accuracy in conveying the smallest details. Thus, the lunellas are covered with rows of grains so fine that it is difficult to grasp them with the naked eye, but upon closer examination it turns out that each grain is composite and is made up of four tiny grains. Floral ornament, arranged in the form of individual flowers and leaves, as well as bouquets, garlands and complex fantastic patterns (for example, on a shield), made of thin wire, smooth, twisted or granulated, and sprinkled with grain, with openwork rosettes and palmettes sometimes superimposed on each other on each other, forming weaves like golden lace.

But the master was not satisfied with this. In the free space between the shield and the moon, he placed a multi-figure group - a sculptural monumental composition reduced to a minimum size. This is a chariot drawn by four fast galloping horses and controlled by the goddess of victory - Nike. Winged Geniuses fly next to the horses, showing them the way, and at the edge of the chariot stands a warrior with a large shield in his hand. This is the so-called apobat - a warrior-athlete who, at full gallop, had to jump from the chariot to the ground, after which he continued the competition with his comrades on foot. The Apobates competition is one of the most difficult types of athletic exercises among the Greeks, dating back to ancient times, when warriors fought each other from war chariots and the outcome of the battle often depended on the skill of the driver and the dexterity of the combatants. In the 4th century. BC. this type of competition was maintained only in a few greek cities. He enjoyed especially great popularity in Athens, which allows us to make an assumption about the Athenian origin of the master of Theodosian earrings. When considering what he did

In the miniature group of the victorious chariot of the apobat, attention is drawn to the fact that, despite the tiny size of the figures, the master was able to model a naked body, convey the feathers on Nike’s wings with notches, and even decorate the shield of the apobat with granulation and geometric patterns.

The Greeks were known to glorify the winners of the games by erecting statues of them. In accordance with this custom, sculptors during the archaic period developed the theme of a victorious chariot. Parts of such monumental sculptural groups (for example, from Delphi) and numerous of their images on reliefs and monuments of artistic craft have survived to this day.

Ancient literary sources tell of several Greek masters who were passionate about overcoming the technical difficulties associated with rendering monumental forms in microscopically small sizes. This type of art even had a special term in Greek and was called “microtechnology” - the art of small forms.

Strict connoisseurs of art treated this trend with some irony and even contempt. Playing with words, they called it “matanotechniya”, i.e. art that deals with trifles. However, even major Greek masters, such as those who worked in the 6th century BC. On the island of Samos, at the court of the tyrant Polycrates, the architect, sculptor and toreut Theodore tried their hand at this genre. Ancient writers tell the story that Theodore cast his own statue image from bronze: in one hand the statue had a file, and with the fingers of the other hand it supported a tiny image of a chariot drawn by four horses and driven by Nike. The viewer also got a visual idea of ​​the size of the group thanks to the fact that the master placed above it a figurine of a fly with open wings, and the fly completely covered the entire chariot with horses. They also talk about other achievements of microtechnical masters, made in precious metals, bronze or bone: about ships in full equipment -

zheniya, the size of a bee, from insects that could only be seen when placed on black matter, about Homeric hexameters inscribed in gold letters on sesame seeds, etc.

These and similar stories could have been mistaken for guild legends about ancient “left-handers,” if the Theodosian earrings and related products had not shown us with our own eyes the extent of sophistication and sophistication that the art of the ancient Greek masters, inaccessible to modern jewelers, reached, although the latter did not possessed many of the advanced devices of our time and did not even know magnifying glasses.

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