The article deals with bronze slotted zoomorphic
pommels on iron pins – one of the phenomena in material culture of Ukrainian
Forest-Steppe from the beginning of Early Iron Age. One of the best preserved
complexes of them was discovered by archeological expedition of I. Krypiakevych Institute of Ukrainian Studies of
National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, led by the author, in outskirts of
village of Kotsyubynchyky near Chortkiv in Ternopil region. Almost all pommels
of this type known today are divided by the author into two groups: products
with socket and ones on iron pins. It has been suggested that this
technological feature may reflect not only slightly different functional
specificity of their use, but also differences in religious and funeral context
for which, in fact, the above-mentioned pommels were made.
It is confirmed that all pommels of this type were
found exclusively in forest-steppe zone of modern Ukraine, in Carpathian region
and in Caucasus – historical Kuban. Moreover, fact of complete absence
of zoomorphic slotted pommels on iron pins in this period in steppe zone of
Ukrainian Black Sea region (and in Eastern European steppe in general) needs to
be explained. Mapping such slotted pommels on pins, gave the author a reason to
identify four areas of their compact distribution: 1 – Pre-Caucasus region (Ulskie barrows, Kelermes,
Krasnoznamenskiy barrow, Hoverdovsky khutor near Maykop); 2 – Posullya region (Starsha Mohyla, Vovkivtsi, Budky,
Popivka); 3
– Region of the Right Bank of Dnipro River (Repyahuvata
Mohyla, Matusiv, Zhurivka, Smela, Mezhyrichka); 4 – Carpathian region (Mihályfa, Gernyeszeg, Gyöngyös and two items from the
museum in Bucharest). On the territory between these four compact and clear
areas of distribution of slotted zoomorphic pommels on iron pins (except for
researched complex in Kotsyubynchyky 2 barrow), other objects of such type were not detected. Suggestions
made at the article that such compactness of their distribution indicates their
exclusive use only for a narrow category of privileged persons within limited
area. On the other hand, at that time there could be certain «sacred» border within
which such pommels were used and to cross through which cult regulations of
that time did not allow.
Analysis conducted by the author gave grounds to
assume that zoomorphic pommels from the barrow of Kotsyubynchyky 2 can be included neither to the group of pommels of
Carpathian region (it is contradicted by image on the pommels from
Kotsyubynchyky only of the head of fallow deer, and not the whole figure,
which, as were shown above, is a striking feature of the products from
Carpathians), nor to a group of similar pommels from the areas of Eastern
European forest-steppe, among which images of heads of fallow deer are almost
unknown. Hence, it is concluded that mentioned zoomorphic pommels from
Kotsyubynchyky 2 barrow represent, by all signs, an intermediate link
between pommels of Eastern European forest-steppe and ones from Carpathian
region.
Material presented at the article shows that those
long-noticed examples of interrelationships and interactions between cultures
of Early Iron Age of Carpathian-Dnister region, South Caucasus and Western
Asian states penetrated into various spheres of life of communities of that
time; including such, seemingly, very conservative and delicate sphere of their
life as religious preferences and related funeral traditions.