The medallions among dukaches: the mental and the earthy

The main element of dukach is a medallion, which mainly contained an image and had a circular shape.  People used coins as medallions, mintings depicting the Queen, religious and even award medals, tokens.  There occurred dukaches which contained ancient coins and other “fossil” subjects.

Dukach "Horned" (Cherkasy region),
medallion " the Queen".
Dukach from the collection
of Yurii Kovalenko   

The reverse side of veremiivskiy dukach
(Cherkasy region), medallion – the Russian medal
"For courage" (IV degree).
Dukach from the collection

of Yurii Kovalenko   

It can be assumed that initially the main purpose for women was to hang up on the neck “something round”, which was not only to adorn its owner and to witness the level of prosperity in her house, but also to perform certain functions of a talisman. Eventually, under the influence of Christian traditions, dukach has partially lost the function of protection; however, the tradition to wear on the neck, “something round” remained. Not everyone had the opportunity to order a medallion with the desired image from the jeweler, to receive or bring a religious medal from the Holy places. In such cases, women found the way out by using alternate materials as a decoration. Among such alternate materials were archaeological metal occurrences, coins, men’s award medals.

Dukach from Podillya region, medallion -

the denarius with the image of Faustina

the wife the Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius.
Dukach from the collection

of Yurii Kovalenko   

Dukach "Lubenskyi" (Poltava region),

Medallion – the Soviet ruble 1921.
Dukach from the collection

of Yurii Kovalenko   

It is interesting, that in 20-30-s of XX century, some women in certain areas of the Soviet, as well as non-Soviet Ukraine, wore dukaches with medallions which had the state symbols, modern for that time. The wearing of such jewelry was dangerous, because in the Soviet Ukraine its owner could be accused of bourgeois nationalism or the kulaks and on the non-controlled by the Soviet authorities Ukrainian lands – terrorism.

Dukach - a factory badge, the front side. Dukach from the collection
of Yurii Kovalenko   

Dukach - a factory badge, reverse side. Dukach from the collection
of Yurii Kovalenko   

We have the preserved single copies of such dukaches by now.  There are lubensy dukaches in some private collection (Poltava region), in which the Soviet coins were used as a medallion and there were carved on some bows the symbols of the of the Soviet Union – sickle and hammer. The completist and art restorer Kovalenko Y.G. had documented the West Ukrainian dukach without the bow in 2015 in Kiev. The Soviet coin of 50 kopecks 1921 had lost the Soviet symbols, and had got a trident instead. However, the present-day location of this dukach is unknown for the authoress of this blog.

It is also possible that women still consciously or unconsciously treated the medallions as a kind of an amulet. This opinion is based on the fact that the religious themes medallions there were very popular (“Christmas”, “the Annunciation Day”, “the Baptism in the Jordan”, “The Resurrection”, etc.) or with the image of the Christian saints (the Sabaoth, the Holy Mother, Paraskevas, St. George, etc.). Probably the men’s award medals were given the protective attributes on the ground like “Thank God he returned home alive,” coins “Let the prosperity be”, medals with the image of the Queen - “to live like the Queen” or “Let the Queen protect” and archaeological findings - “the Holy land gave us the things not for nothing.” In particular, it is known that ancient coins were popularly called “Ivanko’s coins”. It was considered to be a good luck to find them, so they are often were worn as amulets.

Dukach with The Icon of the Mother of God
(Dnipropetrovsk Region). Dukach from the collection
of Yurii Kovalenko   

F. Vovk recalls the tradition of making a gift to a newborn baby, or more likely, he supposes, to the mother that gave birth. Assuming the fact that in all cultures at all times, people try to make the most necessary gifts to a newborn and its mother (the way of living earlier was more difficult, therefore the gifts were more pragmatic) the assumption on the belief in the “protective” function of dukach has a real reason. Along with this, it is difficult to associate it with a Christian Church that denies the power of all ethnic characters and customs.

Therefore, it seems logical that the wearing of dukach still comes from pagan traditions. On this point, I. G. Spassky expresses the view that the dukaches were not a brand new phenomenon but a new form in the development of the ancient custom. It appears to him, that the wearing of the medallion as a compositional center in the complex of the pectoral can be traced for many centuries before there had been already a purely Ukrainian custom of wearing dukaches. 

F. Vovk considers the dukach to be a relic of the coils, which are thought to originate from the East of the Old Chaldea and coming to the Ancient Rus through Byzantium. A “Common” coil is a round metal medallion with eyelet. One side depicts the image of a Christian Saint (Michael the Archangel, St. George, the Mother of God, etc), with another side – a female head in the centre of which we can see the snakes as if coming out. Visually, medallion dukach and the coil are similar. I. G. Spassky concedes that the coils in the XVII - XVIII centuries could be made already as dukaches. Particularly, in 1914 there are dukaches mentioned with the image of coils.

The coil of the XII century (copy).
Made by Yurii Kovalenko.

The coil of the XII century. (copy),
Michael the Archangel.
Made by Yurii Kovalenko.

From my point of view, it is more likely that both factors – the earthy and the mental one took place in everyday women’s attitude to dukaches. The uncommon for our understanding medallions were a kind of compromise between financial difficulty, the desire to be well dressed and have an amulet against the “evil eye”. After all, nowadays lots of people believe in a variety of talismans, charms, and in memory of their loved ones, things are used as a decoration or its element. You can often hear from people who conceive an idea to acquire a modern copy of dukach or coil (which sometimes give the impression of a very practical persons) that first of all they consider these adornments to be a guardian and are interested whether it can help them in hard times. And only after that they usually choose the most interesting for their aesthetic style type of adornment.

Yaroslava Kovalenko

PhD in History

Other publications:

• Award Medals in Dukach Adornments
• Dukach is a signet that symbolizes Ukrainian heritage
• Yahnusok - dukach with "a heart"
• Volyn Dukaches
• Earrings – Ukrainian folk adornments the second half of XIX-early XX century
• Biblical plots in dukaches
• Dukaches of South-Eastern Slobozhanshchina: Dnipropetrovsk Region