Zgarda is an archaic Hutsul neck (hryvnia) ornament of status (leader, owner, owner) and religious purpose, originally male and female, later female ornament from Verkhovyna in Hutsul Region (Verkhovyna District of Ivano-Frankivsk Oblast) and Bukovyna. In addition to Ukrainians, zgardas (of the coin type) were also found among Georgians in the Caucasus, where they were usually made of agate or hisher.
The word zgarda comes from Rum. zgardă ("sign, collar, necklace"), the etymology of which is not entirely clear: it may have a Dacian, substratum Paleo-Balkan origin (compared to Alb. shkardhë), or it may be related to gherdan ("gherdan"). Another version is from Pol. garda ("garda", "round plate on the handle of a weapon").
Description
Men's zgarda was worn on a leather strap or neck hryvnia (dart), women's had the appearance of brass or copper cast crosses strung on a strap, string or dart in one, two or three rows, between which tubes or spirals ("intervals"), folded or twisted from brass or copper. The middle cross in the shields is distinguished by chevrons from two ornamented circles, one of which has a hook, and the other has a loop.
At the base of the zgarda are 3–5 wire braids with coins (10–15 coins each), attached to a wire base (often with buttons, less often with corals, crosses, small bells). In the center of the zgarda usually there is a halbin - a silver, gold or yellow coin. Zgardas without gold coins were common in Ukrainian villages in the mountainous regions of the Carpathians, and with gold coins in Romanian villages around the towns of Storozhynets and Hlyboka.
Formation
The formation of zgardas has gone through a long path of development. Based on the pagan tradition of amulets. Apparently, the seeds of fruits, various female figurines, hatchets, etc., each of which performed a certain function, led to the creation of a complex type of amulet - a necklace in the form of one or more rows of stone, and later glass and metal beads, etc. Therefore, the appearance of round medallions in the VI-IX centuries (which, judging by the method of hanging, were worn on the chest) is a peculiar process of development of spherical elements (beads) into a more convenient for wearing and ornamental form of metal discs cut from sheet metal or cast rosettes.
The main factors in the formation of cross-type zgardas in the Carpathian lands were the appearance of body crosses. For a certain period, as a result of the forced "concealment" of religious affiliation, which was inherent in the early stage of the spread of Christianity, including in the territory of modern Hutsul region, as an alien element in the system of traditional local decorations, the body cross was first worn hidden under clothing, but gradually, under the influence moral and ethical norms that were formed in Christian ideology, starting from the 10th century, when the sign of the cross for the Hutsuls became a sign of spirituality, body crosses were transferred from under clothes to clothes, they turned from a purely Christian symbol into a talisman with a new religious meaning. Since then, Hutsul cross-shaped amulets have developed in two directions: in large male amulet crosses of the 14th-18th centuries. the large size of the cross was a sign of the status of the "master" (master-owner) and small (compared to men's) crosses-elements in women's neck ornaments. Later, in the 17th-19th centuries, "households" wore a man's coat over their jewelry to emphasize their status (wife of a leader, owner).
The word zgarda comes from Rum. zgardă ("sign, collar, necklace"), the etymology of which is not entirely clear: it may have a Dacian, substratum Paleo-Balkan origin (compared to Alb. shkardhë), or it may be related to gherdan ("gherdan"). Another version is from Pol. garda ("garda", "round plate on the handle of a weapon").
Description
Men's zgarda was worn on a leather strap or neck hryvnia (dart), women's had the appearance of brass or copper cast crosses strung on a strap, string or dart in one, two or three rows, between which tubes or spirals ("intervals"), folded or twisted from brass or copper. The middle cross in the shields is distinguished by chevrons from two ornamented circles, one of which has a hook, and the other has a loop.
At the base of the zgarda are 3–5 wire braids with coins (10–15 coins each), attached to a wire base (often with buttons, less often with corals, crosses, small bells). In the center of the zgarda usually there is a halbin - a silver, gold or yellow coin. Zgardas without gold coins were common in Ukrainian villages in the mountainous regions of the Carpathians, and with gold coins in Romanian villages around the towns of Storozhynets and Hlyboka.
Formation
The formation of zgardas has gone through a long path of development. Based on the pagan tradition of amulets. Apparently, the seeds of fruits, various female figurines, hatchets, etc., each of which performed a certain function, led to the creation of a complex type of amulet - a necklace in the form of one or more rows of stone, and later glass and metal beads, etc. Therefore, the appearance of round medallions in the VI-IX centuries (which, judging by the method of hanging, were worn on the chest) is a peculiar process of development of spherical elements (beads) into a more convenient for wearing and ornamental form of metal discs cut from sheet metal or cast rosettes.
The main factors in the formation of cross-type zgardas in the Carpathian lands were the appearance of body crosses. For a certain period, as a result of the forced "concealment" of religious affiliation, which was inherent in the early stage of the spread of Christianity, including in the territory of modern Hutsul region, as an alien element in the system of traditional local decorations, the body cross was first worn hidden under clothing, but gradually, under the influence moral and ethical norms that were formed in Christian ideology, starting from the 10th century, when the sign of the cross for the Hutsuls became a sign of spirituality, body crosses were transferred from under clothes to clothes, they turned from a purely Christian symbol into a talisman with a new religious meaning. Since then, Hutsul cross-shaped amulets have developed in two directions: in large male amulet crosses of the 14th-18th centuries. the large size of the cross was a sign of the status of the "master" (master-owner) and small (compared to men's) crosses-elements in women's neck ornaments. Later, in the 17th-19th centuries, "households" wore a man's coat over their jewelry to emphasize their status (wife of a leader, owner).
