History of jewellery in Ukraine
[1] The history of jewellery in Ukraine reflects the influence of many cultures and peoples who have occupied the territory in the past and present.
It is represented by two bracelets made of Mammoth ivory, decorated with the earliest known[citation needed] meander ornamentation, and a shell necklace found at the Mizyn archeological site.
The pieces included spiral armlets, rings, diadems, and necklaces from shells, copper tubes, and mother-of-pearl discs.
Fertile soils and a favorable climate along the Black Sea coast and the Dnieper River attracted Greeks as long ago as the Iron Age.
This culture brought along new traditions, including Polychrome style, an example of which is a process by which an image of an animal's body is covered with inserts of blue paste or turquoise in soldered mountings Greek art of the Black Sea region influenced the Sarmatian style.
By the 3rd century BCE Celtic art began to penetrate into southern regions of Ukrainian territory.
Another entry point for Celtic jewellery into the present day territory of Ukraine was trade and cultural contacts with northern tribes.
Celtic art and culture spread into the British Isles, Germany and the Baltic Sea coast and from there into Ukraine.
These Asiatic people brought a somewhat different version of the polychrome style, which was characterized by color inlays in soldered partitions and the presence of background patterns of filigree and granulation.
Alongside original autochthon forms, there is a mix of Scythian, Sarmatian, Hun, Greek, Celtic and Viking influence on Slavic jewellery.
The techniques which were familiar to the ancient Slavs included forging, stamping, chasing, granulation, lost-wax casting enameling, and niello.
Slavic metal amulets such as spoons, hatchets, horses, ducks, zoomorphic and anthropomorphic sewed plates are also well known.
Around this time, Ukraine also began to feel the influences of the Byzantine Empire, most notably in world view, culture and art.
New types of creative works appeared, such as rich book settings, often embroidered with pearls (mainly from the Dnieper river), liturgical cups, crosses, icon setting frameworks, and later on boxes for storing relics, church chandeliers, cups, and plates.
Simultaneously, small colonies of north-eastern Slavs along the Volga River and its tributaries were borrowing some of the better Rus' handicraft traditions.
The main feature of Renaissance jewellery in Ukraine was technical sophistication using ancient decorative elements.
Ukrainian jewellery was also influenced in this period by works originating in Augsburg, Nierenberg, Turkey and Poland.
The form of armlets changed, becoming light solid bands or chains made of gilded niello with diamonds or pearls.
In the eastern regions of Ukraine, dukach (stamped medallions or golden coins hanging on a chain) became common.
Instead of expensive adornments intended for wealthy people, specimens made of relatively inexpensive materials with inlays of cheap stones and glass became the norm.
This change was a result of a ruling of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the USSR “Regarding the Elimination of Excessiveness in Design and Construction”.
For many years Ukraine was deprived of the opportunity to participate in the processes of contemporary artistic jewellery creation.
At present, no college or university in Ukraine offers study of the design of specifically Ukrainian jewellery.
In the Lviv Academy of Fine Arts, at the only faculty of metal working in Ukraine, one semester is devoted to the small forms.
A lack of tools and materials is present, even though the number of jewellery workshops during the post-Soviet period has increased almost tenfold.
