There is information about an archaeological find made five years ago on the territory of Khakassia. This is the burial of a one-year-old child. The researchers were surprised by the many artifacts found in the burial. The discovery, perhaps, even pulls for a scientific sensation …
Finds from a birch bark cradle
The burial was found back in 2010 in the vicinity of Lake Itkul, in one of the mounds of the Itkol II burial ground located in the northern part of the Minusinsk depression. Excavations have been carried out there since 2007.
The grave contained a birch-bark cradle, and in it lay the remains of a one-year-old baby who died about 4500 years ago. Together with the baby skeleton, there was a headdress made of 11 small copper plates in the cradle. Each of them had two holes through which, probably, leather cords were once threaded. Remnants of the cords themselves were also found nearby.
In addition, eight antler carvings rested on the child's chest. Traces of red ocher have been preserved on them. Nearby lay a stone ball, a ring or earring of white metal, and a vessel, probably intended for a funeral rite.
Unfortunately, only very recently have researchers been able to begin studying the find. A lot of time was spent on the process of drying, preserving and restoring the objects found in the burial.
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Toys or amulets?
Andrey Polyakov, who headed the joint archaeological expedition of the Russian Academy of Sciences and the State Hermitage, and his colleague Yuri Yesin immediately paid special attention to the figurines made of horn. Two of them depicted the heads of birds, the third - the head of an elk, the fourth - the head of a wild boar.
But scientists were much more interested in four small figurines up to 15 centimeters high. The fact is that they very much resembled the so-called Okunev steles - stone statues found in 1928 on the territory of Southern Siberia, during the excavation of a mound near Okunev ulus in the south of Khakassia. The steles reached several meters in height and had humanoid and animal "masks". They were attributed to the Okunev culture - this is the name of the culture of the Bronze Age cattle-breeding tribes that lived on this territory.
In all likelihood, the burial of an infant also belonged to the same culture. “The burial belongs to the early Uybat stage of the Okunev culture and dates back to the second half of the 3rd millennium BC,” the authors of the study believe. “The shape and composition of some items are similar to the stone steles of the Okunev culture.”
Meanwhile, the purpose of the figurines in the cradle remains unclear. One of the versions says that these are children's toys or rattles (all the more, some of the figurines are hollow from the inside and can make noise upon contact). But much more curious is the hypothesis that the bone figurines played the role of amulets.
As you know, people for centuries believed in evil spirits and deities, as well as in the fact that with the help of various ritual objects one can protect themselves from them. So, one of the figures, depicting a creature with a human head and animal ears, could well play a protective role.
But why was it necessary to put amulets in the grave of the deceased, what sense did it have after death? Perhaps, in this way, they tried to facilitate the transition to the afterlife for the baby?
Phallic cults and more …
However, amulets in children's burials are not such a rarity. Recently, researcher Adam Parker of the Yorkshire Museum explained why the ancient Romans placed oblong copper amulets in the graves of children, which on the one hand looked like phalluses, and on the other, like fists with an extended index finger.
At least such finds were made in the vicinity of the Roman Fort Cataractonium (North Yorkshire) in the 50s of the last century. The burials date back to 160-200 AD.
According to a publication in Brittania magazine, such amulets were of an apotropic nature, that is, their purpose was to drive away evil spirits from the burial places. They had a phallic form, since the Roman phallic god Fascinus was associated precisely with protection from the evil eye, witchcraft and evil demons.
The fist is called in Latin manus fica ("fig"), which is a euphemism for the word "vulva". Interestingly, the central part of the amulets is a scallop shell, which the Romans symbolized the goddess Venus. Similar artifacts have been found in other parts of the former Roman Empire.
By the way, according to the International Business Times, in the same South Siberian mound Itkol II, on an area of about five square meters, there are four more ancient burials. They probably also belong to the Okunev culture. But, as you can see, different cultures have a lot in common …