Lunnytsia
A lunnytsia is a crescent-shaped amulet jewelry with the tips facing down.
Archaeological finds show that moon-shaped pendants were made by Trypillians in the fourth millennium B.C. Lunnytsia pendants were also widespread in the Late Bronze Age (in the last quarter of the second millennium B.C.) and among the Sarmatians of the Chernyakhiv culture.
In Ancient Rus, parents used to give a pendant-lunnytsia to their young daughters for their birthdays. It was believed that the girl acquired a powerful patroness in the person of the goddess Mara, who protected her from the influence of dark forces and had a beneficial effect on her future.
In the 9th and 10th centuries in Kievan Rus, among the pendants, the moon pendants decorated with circles, triangles, and diamonds, made of gold and silver, bronze, and yellow copper, stood out for their sophistication.
Archaeological finds show that in the 10th and 11th centuries, silver lunnytsia pendants were also widespread in Western Polissya and Volyn.
The best examples of lunnytsias are stamped silver ones decorated with real grain. Archaeological finds also include lunnytsias made of bronze and tin-lead alloys with a pattern that copied the grain.
The most common type of lunnytsia is a crescent moon with its horns facing downward. During excavations at different times, 3 variants were discovered: narrow two-horned, wide two-horned, and three-horned lunnytsias. In connection with the spread of Christianity, another type of this amulet appeared - supplemented with a cross.
The narrow two-horned lunnytsia (with narrow horns) appeared after the advent of Christianity, so it often has an image of a cross on it.
The wide two-horned lunnytsias (with wide horns) was an earlier version. It symbolized nature and was intended to endow its owner with fertility and health. This amulet most often has a pattern depicting plants, birds, or animals.
The three-horned lunnytsia is a symbol of the moon god, who was responsible for time. This amulet signified the unity of the past, present, and future and was supposed to endow the woman who wore it with wisdom and sacred knowledge.
The moon ring came to the Slavs from Byzantium and was intended to protect them from evil and magical influence. The closed amulet is the latest variant, which was popular until the 12th century.
Figured pendants
As early as the 9th and 10th centuries in Kievan Rus, craftsmen made pendants of various shapes (round, oval, lily-shaped, cross-shaped) from gold and silver, bronze, yellow copper, tin, and lead.
From the 17th century onwards, among the figurative pendants, there were zgardas, cross-shaped or round pendants made of bronze or brass, which were common in the Eastern Carpathians, Hutsul and Bukovyna, and dukachs, minted medallions or gold coins that hung on chains, were suspended from a brooch-bow, or were framed with decorative elements and were common in the eastern part of Ukraine and Volyn.
The production of figured pendants did not stop after the revolution in the 20th century, but Soviet pendants (mostly made of silver and gold) were not supposed to resemble tsarist times or contain Ukrainian national or religious motifs. Only individual artists from the Hutsul and Bukovyna regions, who created unique author's metal products in the style of traditional Ukrainian jewelry, were allowed to deviate from the general Soviet trends.
It was only in the 21st century that zgardas, dukachs, and other figured pendants modeled after traditional Ukrainian mosyazhnyks and goldsmiths began to create them on a larger scale.