Archaeology, Ethnology & Anthropology of Eurasia 41 (4) 2013

Annotation:  Acheulean Large Flake Technology in Campo de Calatrava (Ciudad Real, Spain) Alternative Interpretations of the Middle/Upper Paleolithic Interface at Vindija Cave (Northwestern Early Upper Paleolithic Stone Tool Technologies of Northern Mongolia: The Case of Tolbor-4 and Tolb On the Supposedly Young Age of Angara Alluvial Sediments Based on the Findings of Salvage Excavatio The Early Neolithic of the Kama Region On the Function of “Grooved Stones” Middle Neolithic Ceramics from the Tytkesken VI Settlement Site A New Neolithic Ceramic Tradition in the Kama Region Early and Middle Bronze Age Burials at Ordynskoye-1, Western Siberia: A New Cultural Interpretation The Suzukteh Mound 22, Mongolia: The Burial Rite Prestigious Afanasyevo Wooden Metal-Bound Ware from the Sayan-Altai Without a Face: A Silver Plaque from the Eastern Slopes of the Urals New Elements in the Iconography of 9th–10th Century Ural-Siberian Silver A 13th–14th Century AD “Horse Skin Burial” at Basandaika Kurgan 1, Western Siberia Age-Related Skeletal Changes in Adult Populations Under Various Social and Geographical Conditions:   

Without a Face: A Silver Plaque from the Eastern Slopes of the Urals

A.V. Baulo.

This article provides a description and preliminary interpretation of a unique discovery from a previously unknown burial ground in the Konda River basin (Sovetsky Region of the Khanty-Mansi Autonomous District–Yugra); the discovery represents a silver plaque from the 9th–10th century. The plaque has a fragment missing that bears the representation of the head (and presumably the face) of a male fi gure. This suggests that the missing fragments’ exclusion from burial was intentional and that the missing fragment was subsequently used to produce a fi gure of the deceased as a receptacle for his soul. An appendix to this article contains the results of traceological analysis for the plaque’s fragmentation during burial ritual.

Keywords: Silver, gilding, embossing, engraving, plate, burial, soul.