Review of the book by Georgy Vladimirov «Earrings in the form of a question mark from medieval Bulgaria (13th–14th centuries): about the material traces of the Cumans and the Golden Horde in the culture of the Second Bulgarian Kingdom» (Executive editors

Abstract

A review of a specialized catalogue work on the study of oriental influences in the culture of the Second Bulgarian Kingdom on the Danube in the high and late Middle Ages (12^th–14^th centuries). As the main example of these influences, earrings in the form of a question mark are considered – a very common category of nomad jewelry of the Golden Horde period of the Eurasian steppe belt. The author considers the hypotheses of their origin and distribution in the Middle Ages as a nomadic type of fashion that arose in the culture of the Asian peoples of the Kimak-Cuman circle and spread during their resettlement in the Balkans. In the chapter "The origin and distribution of earrings in the form of a question mark", the author made a brief analysis of the distribution of these jewelry in large regions – the Volga river region, Western, Central and Southern Kazakhstan, Transbaikalia, Tien Shan. The author suggested that it was the migration of late nomads that extended the fashion to earrings in the form of a question mark. The fashion for this type of jewelry, which has become widespread in the culture of the Golden Horde, has acquired a supranational character. The author of the peer-reviewed work hypothesized that in the 13^th century the cultural and ethnic picture in medieval Bulgaria is "cumanized", and in the first half of the 14^th century even "tatarized". He contrasts these processes with the previous hypothesis about the "Byzantine" influence in the Danube basin at the beginning of the 2^nd millennium.