History and Culture: Old Russia’s mace discovered in Rivne Oblast

Archaeologists from Volyn have unearthed a unique mace of Old Rus dated 12th-13th cc. Excavations were conducted in the village of Peresopnitsa, Rivne Oblast (Ukraine).

A small mace (its size is 4х5 cm) has been produced from bronze and is covered with gilt. Archaeologists ran across the find as they watched the excavator working in an unpromising place where used to be an old bridge.

“The found mace belongs to the third type according to Kirpichnikov classification. It can be often met in the north-east territories of former Old Rus’. The mace is covered with gilt on the inside as well. This proves an opinion that it used to belong to a prince or voivode, not a common Boyar. The mace is hollow, not filled with lead, that’s why it is very light and it could have been used as ceremonial”, said the fellow of “Volyn’ ancestries” Mikhail Vasheta.

There are several princes whose names are associated with these territories of Rus’: founder of Moscow Yuri Dolgoruky and his son Andrei Bogolyubsky. “Both of them used to come to Volyn’. We can accept that the mace could have belonged either to one of them or to commanders of their armies”, Mikhail Vasheta presumes.

However archaeologists have found not the whole mace but only its fragment. There are no traces of deformation as a result of blow. This suggests that the mace was perhaps broken by a cold steel vertically.