Scythian goldwork is among the most recognisable art of the ancient world and among the least handled. It sits behind glass in Kyiv, in Saint Petersburg, in the British Museum. Almost nobody outside a curatorial staff has held a piece of it.
This project set out to change that in a small way. Working from archaeological originals preserved in museum collections, the Society produced a series of finely made replicas — pendants in the animal style, and a bracelet finished with confronted feline heads in the manner of steppe torcs and armlets. Each was developed with close attention to the proportions and modelling of its source.
They are teaching objects. They travel to events, they are passed from hand to hand, and they let a visitor feel the weight and the finish of something whose original they will only ever see through glass.
