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   

The Pleiades as Openings, the Milky Way as the Path of Birds, and the Girl in the Moon: Northern Eurasian Ethno-Cultural Links in the Mirror of Cosmonymy

Yu.E. Berezkin.

The Baltic-Finnish and the Baltic cosmonyms mostly coincide, while the Baltic and Slavic ones are different. Baltic-Finnish variants fi nd parallels in texts of the peoples of the Middle Volga. The interpretation of the spots in the Moon as a girl or young woman with water-pails is widespread across all of Northern Eurasia, being also typical of the North American Northwest Coast, the Algonquians to the north of the Great Lakes, and of the Maori. Part of Siberian, North American and Maori texts include a motif of a bush clutched by the person. The interpretation of the Pleiades as a “sieve” can be a variation of an Eurasian image of stars as openings in the sky. The Milky Way as the path of birds is typical of the Balts, Finno-Ugrians, and some Turkic peoples, as well as of the Amur Evenki and the Algonquians. These cosmonyms spread from the East to the West. They are almost completely unknown among the Samoyeds.

Keywords: Cosmonymy, the Pleiades, the Milky Way, lunar spots, Samoyeds, Turks, Siberian peoples, Indians of the North American Northwest Coast, Algonquians, Salish.