«ЖЕРТОВНІ» ЧАШІ В ПОХОВАННЯХ ДОБИ БРОНЗИ ТА РАННЬОГО ЗАЛІЗА

It was established that in exploring the spiritual culture of ancient societies, an important place is occupied by the study of funeral rites, in particular special funeral ceramic, its functions in funeral rituals, and its symbolic meaning. It was found that in the ceramic complexes of several cultures of the Late Bronze Age and Early Iron Age in Europe (Urnfield culture of the North Alpine and Middle Danube regions, Lusatian culture, culture of the Hallstatt period of the Northeast Alpine and Middle Danube regions, Villanova, Golasecca and Este in the Central and North Apennines, Bilozerska culture of the North-Western Black Sea region, Ulvivok-Rovantsi group) there was such a form of tableware as a cup (bowl, vase) on a leg. Cups on legs were discovered mainly in cemeteries, inhumation, and cremation burials. Taking into account the context in the burial objects and their unusual shape, they are interpreted as a special kind of funerary ceramics. It was observed that in many cases the bowls were placed in the burials of little girls or young women, less often – in the pair burials of an adult person and a child or a man and a woman. This feature was found in almost all the cultures mentioned in this work, which existed from the XII century BC till VII century BC, and therefore we can talk about stable religious traditions and social rules common to these cultures, which existed in a large area of Europe for about six centuries. It was established that the bowls in burials served as symbolic sacrificial gifts, connected possibly with the cult of «sacred fire». The sacral meaning of such a shape of a vessel as a cup on a leg is also traced in later times, for example, a chalice, which is the main attribute of the Eucharistic liturgical Christian service and a symbol of the Eucharist – an acceptance of the divine sacrifice. It is noted that protrusions on the rims of cups, which occur most often in the burials of women, may be related to astronomy. It is assumed that the cup from the Rovantsi cemetery, where the protrusions on the rims schematically, but quite accurately reflect the directions of the sunrise and sunset during the summer and winter solstices and the autumn equinox and the north-south direction, could serve as a primitive miniature observatory and be the subject of the paraphernalia of the solar cult.