Archaeology, Ethnology & Anthropology of Eurasia 40 (1) 2012

Annotation:  Bairaki – a Lower Paleolithic Site on the Lower Dniester The Denticulate Mousterian as a Supposedly Distinct Facies in Western Central Asia Non-utilitarian Lithic Objects from the European Paleolithic Decorated Birch-Bark Artifacts from Section VI of the Gorbunovsky Peat-Bog An Alakul Funeral and Ritual Site in the Eastern Orenburg Region Medieval Amulet Illustrating the Divine Horseman Myth, Rozhdestveno, Perm Territory Face Images in Lower Angara Rock Art Boats in the Rock Art of Kanozero and Northern Europe New Data on Bronze Age Jewelry in the Southeastern Urals The Old Russian Male Funerary Attire (Based on Finds from the 10th–11th Century Burial Mounds at Goc Investigation of Wooden Burial Structures in the Process of Archaeological Excavations A Contribution to the Study of the Eastern Links of the Bronze Age Culture of the Northern Middle Vo Secular Imagery in the Islamic Space of Medieval Zirikhgeran Stone Statue of Ailyan, Gorny Altai Jurchen Pendants of the Netsuke Type Elements of Religious Ritualism in Popular Medicine among the Izhma Komi of the Lower Ob Region Early Metal Age Crania from Bolshoy Oleniy Island, Barents Sea   

Medieval Amulet Illustrating the Divine Horseman Myth, Rozhdestveno, Perm Territory

N.B. Krylasova.

An amulet from a medieval site in the Perm Territory is described. The amulet is made from a broken, horn comb and bears an incised drawing representing a mythological scene well known in both medieval and more recent artifacts manufactured on both sides of the Urals. The scene includes a horseman, a bird of prey, and the celestial bodies. Most specialists believe that the scene refers to the divine horseman, a cultural hero and central fi gure in Ob Ugrian mythology. The drawing is unusual in that it shows the horseman fi gured in the sky rather than on the ground as is the case in all similar representations recorded previously. The composition apparently illustrates the mythical theme of the hero “patrolling the world at the height of the clouds,” and is relevant to the understanding of the divine horseman myth as it circulated among the Permian Finns and Ob Ugrians.

Keywords: Perm Territory, Rozhdestveno fortifi ed settlement, Middle Ages, amulet, horseman, Mir-susne-hum, Ugrian mythology.