In 1921 the unique treasure consisting of 60 Horde coins and 51 pieces of silver jewellery was found during excavations in 6 km from Cherkassy. There was a publication about it in 1925, and information about the treasure is preserved in the archives of the Institute of Archaeology of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine. The head of the Museum of Historical Treasures of Ukraine L. V. Strokova did a lot of work to describe and interpret the objects of the Vasylitsa Hoard.

The syulgams synchronous in time with the syulgams from the Vasilitsky Hoard are known in the Kelgininski cemetery (burial of Mordovian-Moksha of the X-XII and the first quarter of the XVI-XVII centuries in the Zubovo-Polyanski district on the bank of the Chiush River in Mordovia) (Fig. 1: 1).

Syulgams similar to Vasilitsky's appear to be found at the looted archaeological site in the village of Chernyakhiv, Cherkassy Region. It should be noted that there is a syngamy similar to the Vasilitsky hoard syulgama, only with bifurcated blades (fig. 1: 2, 3). The design of this syulgama is traditional for earlier Finno-Ugric temporal pendants from the Middle Oka.

There is a syulgama with bifurcated scapulars of Bulgar design from Tigashevskoe ancient settlement6. By the way, this find allows us to date Tigashevskoe ancient settlement in pre-Mongolian times (beginning of the 13th century). Such syulgams are not uncommon in the Volga region (Fig. 2). The problem is that no syulgams dating to the beginning of the 13th century with interlocked blades have been found in any of the Middle Volga - Oka regions.

The syulgams found in Ukraine date back to the XIII-XIV centuries, and their origin is connected with the Silver Bulgars (Fig. 3) and the Finno-Ugric people Moksha (Fig. 4). The areas inhabited by the Moksha ethnos during the pre-Horde era were under the protectorate of the Silver (Volga) Bulgars.

Technological methods of making some of the decorations (silver soldering and grains) suggest about the work of Bulgarian craftsmen, who made decorations in the local traditions for the nearest peoples, and the same situation can be traced in the Uralic area. Moreover, at this time there is a transformation of the forms of the Mokshan syulgams and, apparently, their new ideological content.

There are three directions in the development of the syulgams, similar to the syulgams from the Vasilitski hoard. First, these are Finno-Ugric temple pendants. This complex is well represented in the exhibition of the State Historical Museum in the showcase "The population of the Middle Oka of the III-VII centuries" (Fig. 5). (Fig. 5). Thereafter this tradition has no continuation.

The second trend is the development of double-bladed syulgams (syulgams of the second type 1 subtype), usually worn on the clothes, first as fibulae and then as decorations. V.N. Belitser discovered the syulgama as typically Finnish, widespread among "the peoples of the Volga region Mari, Udmurts and partly Chuvash and also among the peoples of the Baltic countries - Estonians, Latvians and Lithuanians ". Note that contrary to the opinion of Belitzer, the Chuvash as well as Mari never had bilobate syulgams in the foreseeable past.

In the third direction of development are syulgams with fused lower blades (syulgams of the second type of the second subtype). Similar ones, in the late Middle Ages, were common only among Mari and Chuvash. N. Gagen-Thorn considered Mari syulgams a rudiment of Mokshan syulgam. If it were so, we would have Mari with two-lobed variations of these ornaments. The Mari syulgams are the result of spreading and borrowing the syulgams of Chuvash type. In this case, it is necessary to trace the historical appearance of the syulgama of Chuvash type (Fig. 6).

The syulgama (fig. 6: 2) shows a generic sign (ana palli) in the upper part, derived from the Bulgar sign, and a runic inscription which has not been deciphered correctly yet.

Their most ancient analogue is a syulgama from the excavations of the Sarkel ancient settlement (10th - 11th centuries)12 and in an Alanian burial mound of the 6th-9th centuries, burial No. 7, Mokaya Balka near Kislovodsk, in catacomb 50 (118). But these publications cannot yet be considered sufficient for a direct genealogy of the Chuvash Syulgams, and no more convincing materials have been found.

As we do not have more reliable evidence for the existence of older, early medieval Caucasian prototypes of the syulgams like the Chuvash ones, and this region is associated with the history of the Chuvash ancestors (Suvar, Savir, Sapir), we are forced to state that the mass production of syulgams with adjoined blades began by the by Bulgars in the beginning of the XIII c. in Moksha settlements. In Moksha tradition they continued to exist. Thus, from the XVI to XVIII centuries syulgams with joined shoulder blades and small rudimentary notch in the middle began to spread (Fig. 7: 1). This sign, which became a symbol, was also firmly established in Erzya and Moksha wood carvings, and was depicted without a notch.

Along with them continued to exist syulgams with fully fused shoulder blades (Fig. 7: 2). Apparently, this fact should be seen as a continuation of the influence of the Chuvash (Bulgaro-Suvar) tradition. We have already examined the origin and semantic meaning of the Chuvash sulegrams16. From all these works today we would like to exclude the bone pendant from Damascus history museum, it is problematic to single out the earlier supposed upper ring17. The bone pendant from Jehirbent18 and a number of similar medieval metal Middle Eastern pendants raise doubts about the semantic connection. It is unlikely that the giant geoglyphs of the Arabian Peninsula could have been the symbol of a god. But we do not reject the idea of the ancient semantic load of the sign itself, for example, in the Canaanite (Phoenician) symbol Tanit, the Hittite "universal pillar "19 or similar ancient Egyptian hieroglyphic symbolism.

To the artefacts mentioned in my other to the artefacts mentioned in my other articles that testify to the ancient sacral meaning of this type of syulgama, we would like to add another one - the pictures of ritual standards from the Swedish town Felsbilder, around 17th century BC, which are amazingly similar to the syulgams of this type (fig. 8; 9).

The Chuvash syulgama has a pronounced cult character and is a type of the depiction of the symbol of faith in the one divine origin "Tura". In the Chuvash language this syulgama is called turpalli (sign of the god (Tura)). The second name is probably associated with an attempt to hide the true meaning of the sign from the missionaries endowed with political power. During the period of forced baptism and a ban on metalwork the Chuvash continued to wear this sign with surprising persistence under threat of execution.

Ama (female, feminine) is the name of the female breast adornment of which this syulgam was a part. Incidentally, this name could bring this sign closer to the symbol of the foremother of all divine essences Tanit (Fig. 10). Let us even note similar ornamentation techniques, consisting of three circles on the shield22. Another name - çeçtenkĕ, according to N.I. Ashmarin, is derived from the Russian word for tin plate23. However, in this case we do not take into account the fact that the Russian word tin is itself derived from the Turkic zhez, zhiz, meaning "white copper" or "brass". In this case the "çetenke" (brass, melchior denga (tenkĕ)) is the Chuvash proper name of the object, concealing its sacral meaning.

Turpals (translated as "sign of the god" (Tura)) was used by the Chuvash to decorate furniture24, it can be seen on tombstones25 and buckles26. There were several kinds of its image, one of which is presented on a wooden two-handed ladle from the Tetyushi local history museum, on the Chuvash (Suvar) medieval tombstones27. The same symbol is presented on a Bulgarian bronze overlay found on Bolvan Cape on Vaigach Island28. Vaigach28. Such a symbol is known on the helmet of the defeated Artaban in a relief from Naqsh-i-Rustam, depicting the triumph of the Padishah Ardashir (239-241).

All the syulgams in this hoard are female. All of them were made during the pre-Mongolian period. Some of the rings are also Bulgarian, dating from the end of the 12th century to the beginning of the 13th century29 , while others are Golden Horde. The style analogies of Bulgar rings of the Kipchak Khanate period from the Crimea are apparently connected with the removal of Bulgar craftsmen and their further development of rings of this type30. The Vasylitsk treasure, which was found in Ukraine, may have belonged to a merchant, who was buying up the loot of the Mongol-Tatar army and replenishing the treasure with items and coins of the Golden Horde period. It is likely that these riches are connected with the destruction by the Mongol-Tatars of the Bulgarian "Great City" of the Russian chronicles (town Moksha, now the Narovchatskoe settlement in the Penza region).

All the syulgams of the Vasylitsa hoard are like a transitional stage from the Mokshan syulgams with bifurcated blades to the syulgams with fused blades. This can be seen from the decor of the syulgams. Apparently, the early thirteenth century was the period when religious symbolism in the form of pectoral decorations was formed. It occurred in the Bulgar contact zone among the Moksha and Suvar (ancestors of the Chuvash). As a basis of adornment was taken Moksha double-lobed syulgama, which in the hands of Suvar masters turned into a religious symbol in the form of syulgama with conjoined blades.

Similar processes of penetration of the Suvar religious outlook into the Finno-Ugric environment in the territory of Silver Bulgaria took place everywhere. As a result, we see the use of the symbol of faith in the buckles and scallops of that time33. In the future, one could even use the map of the spread of the creed in the Tur in the IX-XIII centuries to clarify the borders of the state itself.