On History, Issues, Objectives and Perspectives of Composition Analysis of the Orthodox Cross Pendants Metal Compounds Produced in the Late 16th - 19th Centuries in Siberia and the Far East

Abstract

Purpose . The article is aimed at a comprehensive description of progress in the studies of the metal compounds as the material for orthodox cross pendants found if Siberia and the Far East and produced in the late 16^th - 19^th centuries. To achieve the purpose, this article contains a historical survey of the studies devoted to the topic, outlines a set of relevant issues and objectives, and identifies most promising directions for further research. Results . There are few publications related to the composition analysis of the metal of staurographical collections, so the article reviews each of them. The historiographical analysis conducted allowed us to outline a set of relevant issues related to the study of cross pendants’ metal composition. All of the issues were divided into three stages determining the way of resolving them and three groups describing their relation to the task of the historical reality reconstruction: technical issues (e. g., forming a source base, inconsistency of the metal composition in the product body, comparability of results of the metal composition analysis performed with the use of different devices including those based on different physical principles), methodological issues (e. g., connection between the metal composition and phenomena, processes and events of the historical reality, integration of the metal composition analysis results into the general context of archaeological research, development of the chronological scale of alloys) and issues related to the historical reality reconstruction (e. g., determination of casting centers and workshops, classification of cross pendants by alloy composition while using non-ferrous scrap to manufacture cross pendants, identification of products manufactured from fully identical alloys, correlation between the metal composition of cross pendants and their morphological attributes, identification of vintage products, integration of the historical reality data obtained based on the composition analysis of the metal into other aspects of history and archaeology of the objects belonging to the period of the Russian development of Siberia and the Far East). Conclusion . Our summary of the history, issues and objectives of the composition analysis of the cross pendants metal compounds manufactured in Siberia and the Far East in the late 16^th - 19^th century has showed that there are conditions for full or partial resolving the issues listed above and subsequent enhancement of the information potential of the staurographical materials to reconstruct the historical reality of the period of the Russian development of the trans-Urals regions of Russia.