Archaeology, Ethnology & Anthropology of Eurasia 51 (2) 2023   doi:10.17746/1563-0110.2023.51.2.110-119

Annotation:  Lakhuti-IV: A New Site of the Loessic Paleolithic in Tajikistan The Emergence of Levallois Blade Industry in the Western Foothills of Tien Shan: Kulbulak Layer 24 The Kushevat Site and the Paleogeographic Context of the Initial Peopling of Northern Urals The Concept of Civilization in Modern Studies of the Neolithic in China and Japan The Pisany Kamen Rock Art Site on the Angara (Marking the Tercentenary of Its Discovery by D.G. Mess A Chalcolithic Burial in the Mountain-Forest Zone of the Trans-Urals Okunev Culture and the Dene-Caucasian Macrofamily A New Approach to the Study of Archaeological Charcoal: The Case of Metallurgical Furnaces of the So A Jurchen Temple at the Southern Ussuri Fortifi ed Site, in Primorye Irrigation Systems of the Altai: Results and Prospects of Archaeological Studies An Old Believers’ Skete near Maltsevo, Fort Chaus, Based on Mid-18th Century Documents and Their Com Artifacts from the Ural-Hungarian Center (800–1000 AD), Recently Found at Ob Ugrian Sanctuaries “Mountains” on the Draft of the Land of Fort Narym by S.U. Remezov From the History of Ethnographic Studies in the Yenisei Region: F.A. Fjelstrup’s Siberian Materials A Metric Analysis of a Human Cranium from the Khatystyr Cave, Republic of Sakha (Yakutia)   

Artifacts from the Ural-Hungarian Center (800–1000 AD),
Recently Found at Ob Ugrian Sanctuaries

A.V. Baulo

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

This article introduces four silver dishes and a copper plaque from Ob Ugrian sanctuaries in the Yamal-Nenets and Khanty-Mansi (Yugra) Autonomous Okrugs. A dish representing a bird snatching a fish; a dish and a plaque representing deer; a medallion of a dish showing a griffin and two flying birds; and a dish (sliced into pieces) with a scene of a wedding feast were apparently manufactured at the Ural-Hungarian center in the 9th or 10th century. Parallels from medieval workshops of Iran and Central Asia are listed. In terms of technology and ornamentation, seven artifacts from the Ural-Hungarian center can be regarded as a separate subgroup. Each is made from three superimposed silver sheets without gilding and has a thin punched ornamentation on the face (its negative image is clearly visible on the reverse side). The ornamentation includes a border consisting of two parallel arches and a vertical dash with three round imprints of a punch, arranged in a pyramid, and a punch imprint on the animal’s paw. Both humans and animals have large almond-shaped eyes with iris but no pupil. A dish with a scratched drawing superimposed on the principal composition is the first known example of such an item among the Ural-Hungarian artifacts. An explanation is provided as to why those artifacts survived in the ritual practice of Ob Ugrians, and ways they could be used in the ritual are suggested.

Keywords: Ural-Hungarian center, silver, dish, deer, horseman, griffin