Archaeology, Ethnology & Anthropology of Eurasia 44 (2) 2016 document link DOI: 10.17746/1563-0110.2016.44.2.118-128

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“The Old Man of the Sacred Town”:
Ancient and Recent Representations of a Bear-like Deity
from the Lower Ob, Northwestern Siberia

A.V. Baulo

Institute of Archaeology and Ethnography, Siberian Branch, Russian Academy of Sciences, Pr. Akademika Lavrentieva 17, Novosibirsk, 630090, Russia

Native northwestern Siberian representations of a bear-like deity known as the Old Man of the Sacred Town span the period from the Early Iron Age to the present. It is proposed that the character standing in full height is indeed a deity, whereas bears shown in side view or in so-called sacrifi cial posture (head between front paws) refer to prey. The distinction was especially marked in Early Iron Age representations found on the right-bank stretch of the Ob from its confl uence with the Irtysh in the south to the village of Vanzevat in the Beloyarsky District, Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug–Yugra, in the north. Certain newly acquired Eastern and Sarmatian bronze mirrors and silver artifacts, too, depict bears standing in full height; the scene shown on one of the mirrors is paralleled by ethnographic evidence. In the 19th and 20th centuries, bear festivals were held by several local groups of Ob Ugrians, specifi cally in a territory Eva Schmidt considers the primary and the secondary area of the Old Man’s cult. These rites played a key role in the center of the Por phratry—the village of Vezhakary of the Beloyarsky District, the Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug–Yugra. During the ritual, the killed bear is placed in the “ancient” sacred posture, with its head between its front paws. This posture, however, is not represented in Mansi or Khanty art, where the “Old Man of the Sacred Town” is still being rendered standing in full height.

Keywords: Sanctuary, ritual, bear, mirror, tradition, Mansi, Khanty.

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