The Ponoi labyrinth is an archaeological site located on the banks of the Ponoi River on the territory of the settlement of the same name in the Murmansk region.
The diameter of the labyrinth is about 20 meters. This object is the brightest surviving one.
The first indications of the presence of labyrinths on the Ponoi River were made by academician K. M. Baer as early as 1844. Later, in 1877, A. V. Kelsiev described the labyrinths in connection with the preparation of the anthropological exhibition (but his materials disappeared). In 1883, brief information about the labyrinths of Lapland was published by A. V. Eliseev, and in 1900 the Ponoisk labyrinths were examined by the amateur collector P. Revo), found two labyrinths and traces of three that have already disappeared today). In 1904 A. A. Spitsyn made a summary of the labyrinths, and in 1913 S. N. Durylin described the Kandalaksha labyrinth and gave its drawing. This is how the first information about the northern stone labyrinths appeared in the literature and attempts were made to comprehend them.
The purpose of their construction is still causing ongoing debate and there are a number of hypotheses and versions that try to explain this. It is believed that labyrinths are a place of cult round dances, magic calendars or calculators, protective nets for the souls of the dead so that they can never find their way into the world of the living, etc. It is believed that they were used in religious rituals calling for the revival of the Sun and the arrival of the vernal equinox. However, none of these versions can be considered satisfactory.
The simplest Kola labyrinths, built by a single line of stones, form a snail-like figure, which is, as it were, "wound" starting from the center. Complex mazes are laid out in two or three lines. There are labyrinths with a closed central part (like, for example, Kandalaksha). Some of them have a small pile of stones in the center, others do not.
The size of the structures is different, but does not exceed ten meters along the long axis (varying within six to ten meters), the short axis is more often equal to six meters. Since the stones are relatively or simply small, the labyrinths are completely invisible from afar, and they can hardly be distinguished at close range: you need a keen eye of an experienced researcher or a person who is well oriented in local nature. The difficulty of finding the labyrinths is explained, on the one hand, by the abundance of the same stones around them, and on the other, by the fact that the stones that make up the figure are overgrown with a waterberry, which sometimes completely covers the stones, holding them in place for many centuries. You lift a stone, and there is like a nest, entwined with the roots and branches of a berry. And the labyrinth is underlain by the same stones, washed up in antiquity by the sea.
Stone labyrinths of this design, in addition to the Kola Peninsula, are known in North Karelia, in the Arkhangelsk Region (Solovetsky Islands), in Finland, Sweden and Norway. Everywhere they are located on the sea coast, often on the banks of large and smaller rapids, near the mouth.
When exploring the space surrounding the labyrinths, in the immediate vicinity or not far away, we found sites of the Early Metal Age containing quartz tools and fragments of vessels with an admixture of asbestos.
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To come closer to understanding the purpose of creating labyrinths in antiquity, it is necessary, first of all, to take into account their topography. The northern stone labyrinths lie near the sea, undoubtedly associated with it, which has been traced not only in our country, but also in Sweden, Norway, and Finland. In particular, there are numerous labyrinths in Finland (over fifty). R. Aspelin, who studied them, notes that they are all located on the shores of the Bothnian and Finnish gulfs and on the islands, only in isolated cases - in the interior of the country on the rivers.