MOSCOW, RUSSIA—According to a Live Science report, researchers from the Russian Academy of Sciences have discovered a trove of finely made medieval jewelry at the site of Old Ryazan, the fortified capital of Rus in southwest Russia that was sacked by Batu Khan and his invading Mongol army in the thirteenth century. The silver cache weighs more than four pounds and includes eight pendants, 14 bracelets, seven rings, and several small, six-sided ingots. The items are thought to have been placed in a cylindrical container that may have been made of birch bark. The composition of the silver in the pieces varies, suggesting the jewelry was accumulated over time rather than made all at once. But the style of the jewelry and ceramics found nearby indicate that the treasure was hidden at the end of the eleventh century or the beginning of the twelfth, some 100 years before the Mongol invasion. Old Ryazan was probably powerful enough that it occasionally went to war with its neighbors, the researchers explained. To read about the mummified remains of a woman who was buried some 800 years ago at a necropolis in the Russian High Arctic, go to "Arctic Ice Maiden."
