Kolt

Kolt 

an Old Russian ornament worn by women from the 11th to the 13th century, a hollow metal pendant attached to the headdress. Kolty have been found in the many treasures that were discovered in what was formerly Ancient Rus’. The term kolt (the original name is unknown) was adopted at the end of the 19th century on the basis of ethnological information (the Ukrainian kovtok, or earring; the Novgorod koltki, or pendants attached to earrings). There are round and star-shaped kolty. Round gold kolty are decorated with cloisonné (representations of birds, sirens, or “saints”); silver kolty were filled with niello. Star-shaped gold or silver kolty were covered with granulation and filigree. At the beginning of the 13th century, cheap kolty were cast from bronze and lead to be sold in the marketplace. After the Mongol-Tatar invasion, this type of pendant was no longer common.