Bronze Disk (Mirror) of the Early Iron Age – a Cult Attribute of the Northern Khanty

This article discusses a bronze disk (mirror) which was cast in the Early Iron Age in the circle of Sarmatian cultures, served as a cultic attribute, and was discovered at a sacred place of the Northern Khanty. The technology of manufacturing the disk and main elements of decoration on the front side are described. A distinctive feature of the disk is composition of anthropomorphic and zoomorphic figures, which was engraved in the first centuries of the new era in Northern Siberia. The helmets of three figures were rendered in the form of animal heads. Helmets of this type were also be depicted on Medieval bronze and silver cast representations of ancestral mighty warriors; this tradition continued until the ethnographic present. Among various points of view concerning the semantics of the depicted figures, the author supports the suggestion of V.N. Chernetsov that the composition on bronze mirrors was based on the rituals dedicated to tribal and phratric ancestors and known from the ethnography of the Ob Ugrians. The tradition of inviting patron spirits in the form of animals to bear festivals has survived until today. The bronze disk which was found was perceived by the Khanty as a message from the gods and therefore was included into the realm of their family cultic attributes. This inclusion could have been facilitated by the images of anthropomorphic creatures on the disk. These images were recognized by the modern Khanty as characters of the bear festival in which the patron spirits – totemic ancestors of the Mansi and Khanty clans in the form of animals –- participated. The disk was supplemented with later decorations of beads and copper ring. Other cases of how ancient bronze mirrors functioned in the rituals of the Khanty and Mansi are described

Bronze · Bronze Age · China · Clan · Creatures · Cult · Ethnography · Realm · Ancient and Medieval Archaeology Studies · Eurasian Exchange Networks · Vladimir Nabokov Literary Studies