|Generate QR code
Open Access
Subscription Access
An Unusual Bronze Figurine from the Samartai Museum, Yakutia: The “Thing-in-Itself” and Semantic Content
https://doi.org/10.17746/1563-0110.2025.53.2.045-053
Abstract
This article presents a rare bronze idol—a winged bear with an anthropomorphic mask and a bear head on the chest. The artifact was found in the Khangalas Ulus (district) of Yakutia and is kept in the Samartai Museum in the village of Kerdem. The search for parallels led to a wide range of Early Iron Age and medieval cultures of the Western Urals and Western Siberia. Similar composite images are common among cast ritual items relating to the Pechora, Perm, and Western Siberian animal styles. Chemical analysis showed that the sculpture was made of tin bronze with the addition of iron. This bronze idol could have been brought to Yakutia by tradesmen or Cossacks. While being quite unusual for Yakutia, it could have been used to represent a patron spirit or aid in shamanic or domestic rituals, being consonant with Yakut religious, specifi cally totemic beliefs, as evidenced by numerous ethnographic sources.
About the Authors
R. I. Bravina
Institute for Humanities Research and Indigenous Studies of the North, Siberian Branch, Russian Academy of Sciences
Russian Federation
Russian Federation
Bravina R.I., Professor, Chief Researcher
Petrovskogo 1, Yakutsk, 677027
V. M. Dyakonov
Institute for Humanities Research and Indigenous Studies of the North, Siberian Branch, Russian Academy of Sciences; Institute of Archaeology and Ethnography, Siberian Branch, Russian Academy of Sciences
Russian Federation
Russian Federation
Dyakonov V.M., Senior Researcher
Petrovskogo 1, Yakutsk, 677027; Pr. Akademika Lavrentieva 17, Novosibirsk, 630090
References
1. Alekseev N.A. 1975 Traditsionniye religiozniye verovaniya yakutov v XIX – nachale XX v. Novosibirsk: Nauka.
2. Baulo A.V. 2004 Atributika i mif: Metall v obryadakh obskikh ugrov. Novosibirsk: Izd. IAET SO RAN.
3. Belavin A.M., Ignatieva O.V. 2010 Sovremenniy vzglyad na permskiy zveriniy stil. Vestnik Permskogo nauchnogo tsentra, No. 2: 69–77.
4. Belavin A.M., Ivanov V.A., Krylasova N.B. 2009 Ugry Preduralya v drevnosti i sredniye veka. Ufa: Izd. Bashkir. Gos. Ped. Univ.
5. Bolshoy tolkoviy slovar yakutskogo yazyka. 2004–2018 In 15 volumes, P.A. Sleptsov (ed.). Vol. 2, vol. 6, vol. 15. Novosibirsk: Nauka.
6. Bravina R.I., Dyakonov V.M., Zaitsev V.P., Masumoto T. 2016 Kitaiskiye izdeliya v kultovoy atributike yakutov. Rossiya i ATR, No. 4: 269–278.
7. Bravina R.I., Petrov D.M. 2018 Plemena, “stavshiye vetrom”: K voprosu ob avtokhtonnom substrate v etnokulturogeneze yakutov. Vestnik arkheo logii, antropologii i etnografi i, No. 2 (41): 119–127.
8. Chindina L.A. 1991 Istoriya Srednego Priobya v epokhu rannego srednevekovya (relkinskaya kultura). Tomsk: Izd. Tom. Gos. Univ.
9. Fedorova N.V. 2003 Torevtika Volzhskoy Bolgarii: Serebryaniye izdeliya X–XIV vv. iz zauralskikh kollektsiy. Trudy Kamskoy arkheologo-etnografi cheskoy ekspeditsii, iss. III: 138–153.
10. Gemuev I.N. 1985 Nekotoriye aspekty kulta medvedya i ikh arkheologicheskiye paralleli. In Uralo-Altaistika: Arkheologiya, etnografi ya, yazyk. Novosibirsk: Nauka, pp. 137–144.
11. Ionov V.M. 1913 Orel po vozzreniyam yakutov. St. Petersburg: [Tip. Imp. akademii nauk]. (Sb. MAE; iss. XVI).
12. Ionov V.M. 1915 Medved po vozzreniyam yakutov. Zhivaya starina, iss. 3/4 (App. 3): 51–58.
13. Istoricheskiye predaniya i rasskazy yakutov. 1960 In 2 volumes, A.A. Popov (ed.). Vol. 1. Moscow, Leningrad: Izd. AN SSSR.
14. Istoriya Sibiri. 2019 In 4 volumes. Vol. 2: Zhelezniy vek i Srednevekovye, V.I. Molodin (ed.). Novosibirsk: Izd. IAET SO RAN.
15. Ivanov S.V. 1970 Skulptura narodov severa Sibiri XIX – pervoy poloviny XX veka. Leningrad: Nauka.
16. Kosarev M.F. 1984 Zapadnaya Sibir v drevnosti. Moscow: Nauka.
17. Ksenofontov G.V. 1977 Elleiada: Materialy po mifologii i legendarnoy istorii yakutov. Novosibirsk: Nauka.
18. Ksenofontov G.V. 1992 Shamanizm: Izbranniye tr.: (Publikatsii 1926–1929 gg.). Yakutsk: Sever–Yug.
19. Mogilnikov V.A. 1987 Ugry i samodiytsy Urala i Zapadnoy Sibiri. In Finnougry i balty v epokhu srednevekovya. Moscow: Nauka, pp. 163–235.
20. Mukhopleva S.D. 2022 Rukopis yakutskoy narodnoy pesni Eһe yryata “Medvezhya pesnya” kak unikalniy dokument. SeveroVostochniy gumanitarniy vestnik, No. 3 (40): 100–110.
21. Muratbakieva A.D. 2021 Ptitsa s lichinoy na grudi: Ikonografiya i funktsiya. Arkheologiya yevraziyskikh stepey, No. 5: 285–296.
22. Pekarsky E.K. 1959 Slovar yakutskogo yazyka. In 3 volumes. [Second edition]. Vol. 2: Col. 1281–2508. Vol. 3: Col. 2509–3858. Moscow: Izd. AN SSSR.
23. Pekarsky E.K., Vasiliev V.N. 1910 Plashch i buben yakutskogo shamana. St. Petersburg: T-vo R. Golike i A. Vilborg.
24. Pelikh G.I. 1992 Shelab – krylatiy dyavol. In Voprosy etnokulturnoy istorii narodov Zapadnoy Sibiri. Tomsk: Izd. Tom. Gos. Univ., pp. 77–91.
25. Popov A.A. 2006 Kamlaniya shamanov byvshego Vilyuiskogo okruga, R.I. Bravina (comp.). Novosibirsk: Nauka.
26. Potanin G.N. 1883 Ocherki Severo-Zapadnoy Mongolii. In 4 issues. St. Petersburg: [Tip. V. Kirshbauma].
27. Predaniya, legendy i mify sakha (yakutov). 1995 N.A. Alekseev, N.V. Yemelyanov, V.T. Petrov (comp.). Novosibirsk: Nauka.
28. Prokofieva E.D. 1971 Shamanskiye kostyumy narodov Sibiri. In Religiozniye predstavleniya i obryady narodov Sibiri v XIX–XX vv. Leningrad: Nauka, pp. 5–100. (Sbornik MAE; vol. XXVII).
29. Skryabina A.A. 2017 Evfemizmy o totemnykh zhivotnykh v okhotnichyei leksike yakutskogo yazyka. Filologicheskiye nauki: Voprosy teorii i praktiki, No. 1 (2): 178–180.
30. Stepanov A.D. 2004 Yukagirskaya problema v izuchenii ymyyakhtakhskoy kultury i epokhi rannikh metallov Yakutii. In Etnosy Sibiri: Proshloye, nastoyashcheye, budushcheye: Materialy Mezhdunar. nauch.-prakt. konf. Krasnoyarsk, 11–13 noyabrya 2004 g., N.P. Makarov (ed.), pt. 1. Krasnoyarsk: Krasnoyar. krayev. krayeved. muzey, pp. 145–153.
31. Stepanov A.D. 2005 Samodiyskaya i yukagirskaya toponimika na karte Yakutii: K probleme genezisa drevnikh kultur Severa. In Sotsiogenez v Severnoy Azii, pt. 2. Irkutsk: Izd. Irkut. Gos. Tekhn. Univ., pp. 223–227.
32. Stepanov A.D., Kirillin A.S. 2003 Ornamentirovannaya kostyanaya plastina so stoyanki Ulakhan Segelennyakh. In Drevniye kultury SeveroVostochnoy Azii: Astroarkheologiya. Paleoinformatika. Novosibirsk: Nauka, pp. 90–92.
33. Troitskaya T.N. 2000 Kult medvedya v Verkhnem i Srednem Priobye v I tys. n.e. In Narody Sibiri: Istoriya i kultura: Medved v drevnikh i sovremennykh kulturakh Sibiri. Novosibirsk: Izd. IAET SO RAN, pp. 43–47.
34. Tugolukov V.A. 1985 Tungusy (evenki i eveny) Sredney i Zapadnoy Sibiri. Moscow: Nauka.
35. Ushnitsky V.V. 2018 Formirovaniye istoricheskogo landshafta Yakutii: Proiskhozhdeniye khangalasstsev. Severo-Vostochniy gumanitarniy vestnik, No. 4 (25): 10–19.
36. Vasiliev B.A. 1948 Medvezhiy prazdnik. Sovetskaya etnografiya, No. 4: 78–104.
37. Vasiliev V.N. 1910 Shamanskiy kostyum i buben u yakutov: (Dolozheno v zasedanii Istoriko-Filologicheskogo otdeleniya 31 oktyabrya 1907 g.). St. Petersburg: [Tip. Imp. akademii nauk]. (Sbornik MAE; iss. VIII).
Review
For citations:
Bravina R.I., Dyakonov V.M. An Unusual Bronze Figurine from the Samartai Museum, Yakutia: The “Thing-in-Itself” and Semantic Content. Archaeology, Ethnology & Anthropology of Eurasia. 2025;53(2):45-53. https://doi.org/10.17746/1563-0110.2025.53.2.045-053
Views:
2
Email this article 