Archaeology, Ethnology & Anthropology of Eurasia 35 (3) 2008

Annotation:  Sergeyevka-1: Neolithic Site in the Khanka Plain, and the Typology of Middle Neolithic Sites in Pri Cultural Change during the Late Prehistoric Period in Southern Primorye (Based on Archaeological Ev Formation of the Eurasian “Steppe Belt” of Stockbreeding Cultures: Viewed through the Prism of Arch Stages in the Settlement History of Chicha-1: The Results of Ceramic Analysis New Early Iron Age Culture in the Southern Taiga Zone of Central Siberia Prospects for Correlating Radiocarbon and Archaeological Chronologies of the Scythian and Hunno- Sa The Role of Migration in the Evolution of the Andronov Community The Bear Image in Western Siberian Art of the 2nd Millennium BC and its Relevance for Delimiting the Ethnic and Cultural Functions of Name in Traditional Japanese Society G.I. Choros-Gurkin’s Archaeological and Ethnographic Drawings at the National Museum of the Altai R Eco-museums in Siberia as Centers for Ethnic and Cultural Heritage Preservation in the Natural Envi Cranial Characteristics of the Saka Populations of the Eastern Pamirs   

The Bear Image in Western Siberian Art of the 2nd Millennium BC and its Relevance for Delimiting the Eastern Periphery of the Samus Culture

I.V. Kovtun.

The paper addresses the artistic features and meaning of clay and metal representations of bears in early 2nd millennium BC art of Western Siberia. These representations are linked to various Bronze Age cultural traditions of the region. Four groups of representations are described: staffs, pendants, containers shaped as bear heads, and heads. The author attempts to identify the context of Bronze Age pendants shaped like bears. Based on the analysis of compositions, a hypothesis concerning the ritual function of the bear image and its relation to bronze casting is proposed. New archaeological fi nds suggest that the distribution area of one of the most enigmatic Western Siberian cultures, the Samus, was larger than earlier believed. The Samus people depicted bears and made complex ideographic signs on clay vessels. Certain petroglyphs in the eastern Kuznetsk Alatau, near the place where a Samus burial was discovered, may have been related to this culture.