Archaeology, Ethnology & Anthropology of Eurasia 47 (4) 2019   DOI: 10.17746/1563-0110.2019.47.4.112-119

Annotation:  A Neanderthal Refugium in the Eastern Adriatic Ushbulak—A New Stratifi ed Upper Paleolithic Site in Northeastern Kazakhstan Archaeological Findings on Suchu Island (Excavation Area I, 1975) Burial with a Chariot at the Tabyldy Cemetery, Central Kazakhstan Objects of Portable Art from a Bronze Age Cemetery at Tourist-2 The Use of 3D-Modeling for Reconstructing the Appearance and Function of Non-Utilitarian Items (the Ceramic Protomes of Horses from Late Bronze to Early Iron Age Sites in the Southern Taiga Zone of Si “Portrait” Medallions from the Kazym Hoard A Runic Inscription at Sarykoby (Southeastern Altai) The Ussuriysk Tortoise—A 13th Century Jurchen Monument Turkic Inscriptions in Cyrillic on 14th–15th Century Eastern European Lithic Artifacts The Topography of Ritual Buildings in Villages of the Tobolsk Governorate (Late 19th to Early 20th C Mesolithic Human Teeth from Zamostye-2, Moscow Region The Physical Anthropology of the Odino People, Western Siberia A Study of Human Bones from a Dwelling at Ust-Voikar, in the Subarctic Zone of Western Siberia   

The Topography of Ritual Buildings in Villages of the Tobolsk Governorate (Late 19th to Early 20th Century)

A.Y. Mainicheva

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

This is the first case study of important places of public worship in three villages of the Tobolsk Governorate in the late 1800s and early 1900s, with reference to architectural planning, hagiography, and religious attitudes. The churches in Obdorskoye and Romanovskoye are located either on an elevated, unoccupied territory in a natural environment or in the center of residential quarters, according to the Russian architectural traditions. The choice of saints was motivated by the ethnic, religious, and cultural situation. Dedications of altars to Archangel Michael, Sts. Peter and Paul, St. Basil the Great, and St. Nicholas were meant to protect while affirming religious values, canons, and dogmas of Russian Orthodoxy. At the Kobyatskie yurts, a mosque was built. Its architecture stood out from the residential quarters, following the Islamic tradition. Its construction, evidencing the religious identity of the residents of the yurts, testified to the recognition of their rights. The topography of religious buildings in villages differing in the ethnicity and religious beliefs of residents evidenced the strategy of ecclesiastical guidance, religious symbolism, and the villagers’ attitudes.

Keywords: Symbols, signs, Orthodox churches, Islamic architecture, villages of Tobolsk Governorate, hagiography, ethno-religious identity