Archaeology, Ethnology & Anthropology of Eurasia 37 (4) 2009

Annotation:  Paleolithic Site Biryuchya Balka-2: Geology, Chronology, and Paleoecology Tolbaga: Upper Paleolithic Settlement Patterns in the Trans-Baikal Region Paleogeography of Kostenki-14 (Markina Gora) Triquestrums of the Scythian Period in the Northern Altai Woven Belts from Sargat Mound 7 at Chepkul-9 Early and Middle Bronze Age Portable Art Pieces from the Forest-Steppe Zone of the Ob-Irtysh Region Anthropomorphic, Zoomorphic, and Solar Symbolisms on Bronze Age Ceramics from the Western Baikal Re Petroglyphs on the Poperechnaya Krasnoyarka River Images of Eurasian Ethnicity in Works of Renaissance Polish Historians The Pleiades as Openings, the Milky Way as the Path of Birds, and the Girl in the Moon: Northern Eur Felt Boot Rollers of the Altai Craniometric Evidence of the Early Caucasoid Migrations to Siberia and Eastern Central Asia, with R Principal Findings of the 20th-Century Population Studies in Tuva On the Origin of the Ryukyu Islanders: The Integration of Craniometric and Cranial Nonmetric Data   

Anthropomorphic, Zoomorphic, and Solar Symbolisms on Bronze Age Ceramics from the Western Baikal Region

O.I. Goriunova and A.G. Novikov.

Artistic features and semantics of anthropomorphic, zoomorphic, and solar images on Bronze Age ceramics from the Western Baikal region are described. Themes and stylistic characteristics of images on ceramics are paralleled by petroglyphs found in the same area. Anthropomorphic images on ceramics fall into four stylistic groups. Representations of the Baikal ceramics resemble those on the contemporaneous Samus pottery found in Western Siberia. The similarity of the themes, artistic features, and ideological stereotypes indicate broad intercultural contacts between Bronze Age cultures.

Keywords: Ceramics, anthropomorphic symbolism, zoomorphic symbolism, solar symbolism, semantics, Bronze Age, Western Baikal region.