CAST COPY OF THE MEDAL OF MORITZ SAXON FROM UNDER KOBRIN OF THE BREST REGION OF BYELORUSSIA
The article deals with a cast copy of a medal of Moritz of Saxony found in the Brest region, Belarus, which probably was used as a model for a "dukach". to the Ukrainian ethnos: the ethnic border runs from west to east between Brest and Belostok, Kobrin and Volkovysk, Pinsk and Slonim. Thus, the site of discovery lies within the range of Ukrainian material culture. Herman Moritz (1696–1750) was the illegitimate son of Augustus II, King of the Polish- Lithuanian Commonwealth, a French officer and statesman, military theorist, marshal general of France. The TPQ of the medal is defined as 1777, as there is a sculptural group of the mausoleum in the church of Saint-Thomas in Strasbourg by Jean-Baptiste Pigalle (1714–1785) depicted on the reverse. The mausoleum was completed in 1777, at the same time, on 20 August, the coffin with the remains of the marshal was solemnly transferred from the Strasbourg Cathedral. During the second half of the 19th century, the "dukach" as an element of material culture began to degenerate in most of Ukraine. Based on the known data, the described artefact should be dated from the last quarter of 18 - the first half of the 19th century.
