Archaeology, Ethnology & Anthropology of Eurasia 37 (3) 2009

Annotation:  Middle Paleolithic Industries of the Early Late Pleistocene (OIS 5) in the Southwestern Part of East Evidence of Environmental Instability of the Lake Baikal Area after the Last Glaciation (Based on P Radiocarbon Chronology of Neolithic and Bronze Age Cultures in Yakutia Clay Balls from Suchu Island as Neolithic Sacral Symbols Models of Metal Production in the Near East (Chalcolithic – Middle Bronze Age) Chinese Inscription on the Lacquer Cup from Noin Ula Mound 20 (Mongolia) Horse Forehead Pieces from the Kuban Region The Pakhomovskaya Culture of the Late Bronze Age Stone Stele Bearing a “Sun-Headed” Deity on the Tuim River, Khakassia (In commemoration of the Finni Methodological Issues in the Digital Mapping of Archaeological Sites The Church of the Saviour from Zashiversk: The Dendrochronological Aspect The “Harlequin”: An Ostyak Idol “Technological Eschatology” in Modern Traditions of Popular Orthodoxy and among the Old Believers o Mummery in the Calendar Rites of German Settlers in Siberia Silver of Kazakh Zergers: Traditions in Modern Jewelry Art Dental Remains from Mound 20 at Noin-Ula, Mongolia The Origin of the Medieval Population of the Novgorod Republic) (10th–13th centuries): A Craniometri   

Stone Stele Bearing a “Sun-Headed” Deity on the Tuim River, Khakassia (In commemoration of the Finnish Antiquarian Society Expedition to the Yenisei headed by J.R. Aspelin 120 years previously)

Y.N. Esin.

The present article gives a description of a stone stele discovered during a Finnish Antiquarian Society Expedition to the northern Minusinsk Basin in 1887–1889, and cites the research conducted previously. The article presents the author’s view that the stele serves as an example of early Okunev art (late 3rd millennium BC). The article particularly focuses on the possible meaning of the representation. An interdisciplinary approach is considered most fruitful based on philological and semiotic approaches to interpreting ancient verbal ritual texts rich in epithets and metaphors. The stele is interpreted as a “visual hymn” conveying eulogy to the deity in which mytho-poetic clichés of an extinct oral tradition are reproduced graphically.

Keywords: Southern Siberia, Minusinsk Basin, Bronze Age, Okunev culture, rock art, steles.