Indo-Europeans cultural traditions

Abakan are some fascinating bronze door handles of local workmanship, that

represent the fantastic countenances of horned genii which "forcefully emphasize

the non-Chinese features. At any rate they are even more Europoid than the most

Europoid of contemporary Tashtyk funerary masks."38 He adds: "The mask

handles convey distinctly Europoid features particularly emphasized by the

highbridged nose. We see a Europoid's large features, of the type prevalent in

Southern Siberia from oldest antiquity and virtually up to the start of the Christian

era."39

We may thus state that the traditional ornamental pattern of meander,

swastikas, and 5-symbols characteristic of Andronovo pottery decor continued to

persist throughout Western Siberia and more specifically the Minusinsk

depression up to the start of the first millennium A.D., with some motives

reaching Ordos and Inner Mongolia.

It should be further noted that time wise the closest affinities with

Andronovo decor are to be found in North Caucasian sites of the turn of the

second and first millennia B.C., which period almost dovetails with that of the

colonization by Andronovo tribes in the 13th century B.C. of Southern Siberia's

steppes and forest-steppes. Apposite instances are afforded by the artefacts that

V.Markovin recovered from a burial vault by the village of Enghikal in

13

Ingushetia that date back to the middle of the second millennium B.C. They

include plaques and fibulae with disk-shaped finials, embellished with die-

stamped swastikas and meanders (Fig, 57).40 He adds that "regrettably North

Caucasian Bronze Age pottery has been but little studied and hardly any

comparisons have been drawn between it and the pottery of the steppe cultures";41

yet, "... there is no doubt that precisely the steppe tribes from the lower Don area

infiltrated the Kuban basin".42

Among the artefacts R. Munchayev recovered from the Lugovoi cemetery in

the Assinsk gorge in Checheno-Ingushetia, there is a high proportion of bronze

plaques in the form of a double oval with die-stamped swastikas in the middle of

each (Fig. 40). He adds that "... these items were always found near the skull or

chest which allows to regard them as temple or pectoral plaques,"43 in other words,

as protective totems. Note that both in the Nesterovo and Lugovoi cemeteries in

the Assinsk gorge, mounds were now and again raised over burials. Munchayev

believes that there were cases when the ancient tribes here also erected barrows.

All this is most reminiscent of Andronovo tradition-also indicated by the

obligatory presence in burials of vessels and adornments, embellished with

ornamental motives that are more than traditional of Andronovo artifacts.

In all likelihood analogous functions were discharged by the sheet bronze

diadems embellished with an ornamental pattern identical with the decor of the

double oval Lugovoi plaques, which B. Tekhov recovered from the TH graves in

Northern Ossctia (Figs. 38 and 39). These diadems are decorated with circle»,

triangles and lo/rn^es ;m«l also an a rule with meander and swastika typo motives.

'I'ekhov says that similar diadems were recovered from a Styrfaz chamber-tomb in

the Northern Caucasus, from the Armenian village of Geharot and from sites in

Azerbaijan and Iran.44

He has also indicated the characteristic meander and swastika motives on the

Koban-type axes recovered from the same Tliburials.

Swastika-type motives complicated by many protruding lines are also to be

observed in the decor of finds unearthed in a number of places in Azerbaijan as for

14

instance, on a clay die and also on the walls of a temple and in the plaster work of

an earth dwelling from the ancient village of Sary-Tepe, on the wall by a hearth

(Fig. 29) and the pintaderas (Figs. 54-56) of the village of Babadervish, which date

back to the 12th-8th centuries B.C.45

Consequently, the archaeological finds made in the Northern Caucasus and

partly in the Trans-Caucasus, in Armenia and Azerbaijan, provide us with

specimens of the use of ancient sacred ornamental motives that are characteristic

of Mezin site artefacts decor and of Tripolye-Cucuteni, Timber-Frame and,

especially, Andronovo pottery. Moreover, in the Caucasus these motives most

likely have the same sacred functions of talisman and possibly of tribal and clan

totem as were characteristic of Andronovo and, likely, Tripolye cultures.

We encounter echoes of swastika motives in Scythian jewelry, more

specifically in the decor of horse trappings recovered from the Northern Pontine

area. A.Meliukova believes that the openwork swastika plaques, also to be

encountered in Thracian hoards are of Scythian origin, and adds that they appeared

in the Northern Pontine area in the late 6th century B.C. True, in Scythian art, all

these forms have been markedly modified and transmuted (Fig. 47) to meet

requirements of the conventionalized realistic trend known as the Scytho-Siberian

Animal Style.

We would now like to turn to the Vologda material. The appended table

furnishes specimens of the traditional ornamental motives of peasant embroideries

and ornamental weaving, common in the North-Eastern districts of Vologda

region. We noted earlier what the historical and ethnic situation in these parts was

like and we have no reason to question the Slav, or rather, East-Slav, Russian

origin of these ornamental patterns. All the samples supplied are details of

elaborate ornamental patterns that embellished headgear, sashes and belts, aprons,

shirts and blouses and towels, items mostly sacred that beside having a purely

domestic usage were talismans. One must say that the resemblance is amazing. As

in the entire range of the Andronovo decor, in North-Russian embroidery and

ornamental weaving, too the compositions are divided into three horizontal

15

registers with the often repetitive top and bottom two enclosing the central register

that as a rule displays the vital most designs from the angle of semantic

significance. This is precisely where we encounter a diversity of meandr and

swastika motifs (Fig. 51) which are absolutely identical with the Tripolye (Fig.

52) and Amlronovo (Figs. 33 and 34) decor as well as with the North Caucasian

and Trans-Caucasian motifs of the 13th-8th centuries B.C. and Scythian decor

\'7bFig. 41). Thus, if the ornament from the Babader vish site .(Fig. 29) embellished

the wall behind the altar in a 12th-8th centuries B.C. dwelling had an

unquestionably ritual significance the absolutely identical pattern, a composition

of lozenges, which adorns the hem of a North-Russian peasant woman's blouse, is

also of a ritual nature (Fig. 31).

The design on the pintadera from the same site has an affinity with the pattern

of a wedding towel (Fig. 61) and with the design on the stitched inset for a

Vologda towel (Fig. 59). Further, the detail from the ornamental pattern of an

Andronovo vessel (Fig. 18) is almost identical with that of the embroidered hem of

a blouse (Fig. 24), while the embroidered towel end (Fig. 5) is absolutely identical

with the intricate meander weave that embellishes an Andronovo clay vessel of the

middle of the 2nd millennium B.C. (Fig. 4) etc. etc. (see Figs. 19, 20, 22, 23, 25,

30 and 60). The existence of such affinities is likewise confirmed by east Slav

archaeological finds. Thus, the intricate swastika on the clasp or buckle of 1220-

1260 (discovered in the late 1960s at the Tikhvin digs in Novgorod (Fig. 36), is

identical with the motif that the Vologda peasant woman U.Terebova employed in

the 1910s for the wedding towel of her daughter (Fig. 37). Most exciting in this

respect is the slate spindle whorl, carrying a scratched design in the form of a six-

armed Orthodox cross enclosed within spiral meanders and swastikas that was

unearthed at a Slav farming site of the 11th-13th centuries near Ryazan and

published by G. Polyakova (Fig. 42).

The list could be greatly extended. However we shall merely state that while

with different nations similar ornamental patterns may converge, one is hard put to

believe that peoples thousands of kilometers and thousands of years apart could-if

16

they are not ethnogenetically linked-invent quite independendy of one another

such intricate ornamental patterns, which are identical down to the smallest detail

and which, furthermore, discharge the same ritual functions of talisman and totem.

Refraining from far-reaching conclusions, we shall merely note that as our

analysis is restricted to the steppes and forest-steppes of the USSR, we have not

invoked analogous Indian and Persian items, if we did so the appended table of

affinities would be much longer. It is our profound conviction, however that, such

material should be invoked as representing a most serious problem for the science

of history in the foreseeable future. The affinities to be observed in the spiritual

and material cultures of the ancient Slavs and, for instance, of the peoples of North

Western and Western Indian and Iran-both in olden times and partially today-are

too numerous to be ignored.

Currently, Soviet archaeologists have amassed a wealth of evidence

warranting the assumption that actively involved in the ancient cultures mentioned

above were the carriers of the ancient forms of Indo-Iranian or Aryan47 languages.

Thus Ye. Kuzmina says: "Evidently an in-depth, research, into the Indo-Iranian

traditions of the visual arts imagery semantics-for which archaeology has already

yielded plentiful evidence-will be crucial studying the intricate ethnic history of

Southern-Central Asia and Afghanistan".48 It must necessarily be added that the

quoted region likewise incorporates the vast expanses of the Eurasian steppes and

forest steppes.

Notes

1.Стасов В.В. Русский народный орнамент. Шитье, ткани, кружево. Вып.

I. СПб. 1872.

2.Шаховская С.Н. Узоры старинного шитья в России. М. 1885.

3.Сидамон-Эристова В.П., Шабелъская Н.П. Собрание русской старины.

Вып. I. Вышивки и кружева. М. 1910.

4.Амброз А.К. Раннеземледельческий культовый символ «ромб с крючками».

«Советская археология» (СА). 1965. № 3. p.14-27.

17

Амброз А.К. О символике русской крестьянской вышивки архаического

типа.

СА. 1966. № 1. p. 61-76.

5.Матова Г.С. Орнамент русской народной вышивки. М. Наука. 1978.

6.Рыбаков Б.А. Космогония и мифология земледельцев энеолита. СА. 1965.

№ 1.

Рыбаков Б.А. Макрокосм в микрокосме народного искусства. Декоративное

искусство СССР. 1975. № 1, 3.

Рыбаков Б.А. Происхождение и семантика ромбического орнамента.

Сб.трудов НИИХП. М. 1972. вып. 5. p.127-134.

7.Рыбаков Б.А. Язычество древних славян. М. Наука. 1981. p.3.

8.Северная граница распространения дубрав находится на 300 км южнее.

9.Рыбаков Б.А. Язычество древних славян. p.471.

10.Бибикова В.И. О происхождении мезинского палеолитического

орнамента. СА. 1965. № 1. p.3-8.

11.Рыбаков Б.А. Язычество древних славян. p.89.

12.Граков Б.Н. Ранний железный век. М. изд. МГУ. 1977. p.151.

13.Киселев С.В. Древняя история Южной Сибири. М-Л. изд.АН СССР.

1949. p.45.

14. Киселев С.В. Древняя история Южной Сибири. p.61.

15.Косарев М.Ф. Бронзовый век Западной Сибири. М. Наука. 1981.

16.Стоколос В.С. О стратиграфии поселения Кипель. СА. 1970. № 3.

p.193-198.

17.Арсланова Ф.X. Памятники андроновской культуры из Восточно-

Казахстанской области. СА. 1973. № 4. p.160-168.

18.Членова Н.Л. Распространение и пути связей древних культур Восточной

Европы, Казахстана, Сибири и Средней Азии в эпоху поздней бронзы.

Средняя Азия и ее соседи в древности и средневековье. М. Наука. 1981. p.22-

32.

19.Членова И.Л. Распространение и пути связей древних культур Восточной

Европы, Казахстана, Сибири и Средней Азии в эпоху поздней бронзы.

Приложение. Карта 1. Распространение черкаскульских, курмантау,

федоровских, алакульских, срубных и абашевских памятников на

территории СССР.

20.Членова Я.Л. Распространение и пути связей древних культур Восточной

Европы, Казахстана, Сибири и Средней Азии в эпоху поздней бронзы. p.23.

21.Членова Я.Л. Распространение и пути связей древних культур Восточной

Европы, Казахстана, Сибири и Средней Азии в эпоху поздней бронзы. p.23.

22. Членова Я.Л. Распространение и пути связей древних культур Восточной

Европы, Казахстана, Сибири и Средней Азии в эпоху поздней бронзы. p.23.

23. Членова Я.Л. Распространение и пути связей древних культур Восточной

Европы, Казахстана, Сибири и Средней Азии в эпоху поздней бронзы. p.25.

24.Членова Я.Л. Распространение и пути связей древних культур Восточной

Европы, Казахстана, Сибири и Средней Азии в эпоху поздней бронзы. p.26.

18

25.Граков Б Н. Ранний железный век. p.151.

26.Киселев С.В. Древняя история Южной Сибири. p.45.

27.Косарев М.Ф. Бронзовый век Западной Сибири. p.22.

28. Косарев М.Ф. Бронзовый век Западной Сибири. p.221.

29.Косарев М. Ф. Бронзовый век Западной Сибири. p.227.

30.Грязное М.П. Этапы развития хозяйства скотоводческих племен

Казахстана и Южной Сибири в эпоху бронзы. КСИЗ. 1957.

вып. XXVI. p. 23.

31.Косарев М.Ф. Бронзовый век Западной Сибири. p.241.

32.Косарев М.Ф. Бронзовый век Западной Сибири. p.224.

33.Косарев М.Ф. Бронзовый век Западной Сибири. p.117.

34.Киселев С.В. Древняя история Южной Сибири. p.50.

35.Киселев С.В. Древняя история Южной Сибири. p.50-51.

36.Хлобыстина М.Д. Некоторые особенности андроновской культуры

Минусинских степей. СА. 1973. № 4. p.61.

37.Киселев С.В. Древняя история Южной Сибири. p.256.

38.Киселев С.В. Древняя история Южной Сибири. p.272.

39.Киселев С.В. Древняя история Южной Сибири. p.270.

40.Маркович В.И. Склепы эпохи бронзы у сел. Энгикал в Ингушетии. СА.

1970. № 4. p.83-84.

41.Маркович В.И. Степи и Северный Кавказ. Об изучении взаимосвязей

древних племен. Восточная Европа в эпоху камня и бронзы. М.

Наука. 1976. p.198.

42. Маркович В.И. Степи и Северный Кавказ…, p.199.

43.Мунчаев Р.М. Луговой могильник (исследования 1956-1957гг.).

Древности Чечено-Ингушетии. М. изд.АН СССР. 1963. p.207.

44.Техов Б.В. Тлийский могильник и проблема хронологии культуры

поздней бронзы-раннего железа Центрального Кавказа. СА. 1972.

№ 3. с.18-37.

45.Вели Алиев. Археологические раскопки в урочище Бабадервиш. СА. 1971.

№ 2. p.223-231.

46.Мелюкова А.И. К вопросу о взаимосвязях скифского и фракийского

искусства. Скифо-сибирский звериный стиль в искусстве

народов Евразии. М. Наука. 1976. p.116.

47.Дьяконов И.М. Восточный Иран до Кира (к возможности новой

постановки вопроса). История Иранского государства и

культуры. М. 1971. p.126.

48.Кузьмина Е.Е. Происхождение индоиранцев в свете новейших

археологических данных. Этнические проблемы истории Центральной Азии

в древности (II тыс. до н. э.). М. 1981. p.120.

19

20

21

22

1986.

ON THE POSSIBLE LOCATION OF THE HOLY HARA AND MERU

MOUNTAINS IN INDO-IRANIAN (ARYAN) MYTHOLOGY

The location of the legendary Hara and Meru, the holy northern mountains of

the Indo-lranian (Aryan) epos and myths is one of the many riddles in Eurasian

ancient history that has been troubling researchers for over a century and

prompting ever more, sometimes totally contradictory, hypotheses. As a rule, they

are believed to be the Scythian Ripei or Hyperborei mountains mentioned by the

authors of antiquity. Over 80 years ago The Arctic Home in the Vedas, 1 by the

outstanding Indian political figure, Bal Gangadhar Tilak, launched a series of

publications related to this subject in one way or another and continued to this day.

The answer has never been found, as obvious from the two most recent

publications - a book by G. Bongard-Levin and E.Grantovsky From Scythia to

India (1983), 2 The Ethnogeography of Scythia by I.Kuklina (1985). 3 The two so-

called Ripei Mountains locations, which the books propose, are mutually

exclusive, though the authors proceed from the same ancient myths, historical

sources and data.

Bongard-Levin and Grantovsky, analyzed the Avesta, Rigveda, Mahabharata,

the works of Herodotus, Pomponius Mela, Plinius, Ptolemaeos, and the

information provided by medieval Arabian travellers, ibn-Faldan, ibn-Batuta, and

concluded that the geographical characteristics, repeated without exception in

every source, are factual a id indicate that the Ripei Mountains, Hara and Meru

were the Urals, since only they possess nearly all the specific features attributed to

the holy northern mountains: high altitude, natural resources, proximity to northern

seas, etc.4

I.Kuklina, the author of The Ethnogeography of Scythia, disagrees entirely,

and argues that "it is apparently necessary to first distinguish the concept of the

mythical northern mountains from that of mountains north of Scythia where many

23

rivers began. Both of them were named Ripei. However there is no doubt that only

the latter mountains can be localized, whereas the former, connected with the far

north and Hyperborei, should be sought for in the myths of Indo-lranian peoples".5

Kuklina backs up her conclusions with a large number of comments by ancient

authors - Pseudo Hippocrates, Dionisius, Eustaphius, Vergilius, Plinius,

Herodotus, etc.6 - about the northern mountains called Ripei. She then cites, from