Image Repertoire of the Scythian-Siberian Animalistic Style from Filippovka 1 Burial Ground Kurgans (Excavations by A.Kh. Pshenichnyuk)

Fillipovka kurgans reveal a collection of items decorated or ornamented in the animalistic style. These items are essential for understanding the Eurasian Scythian-Siberian animalistic style. Furthermore, such items throw light over the history of Scythian-Siberian nomads and ethnicities they contacted. The article analyses the Scythian-Siberian animalistic style of the items obtained from Filippovka 1 kurgan cemetery. Specifically the research focuses on the area studied by the expedition led by A.Kh. Pshenichnyuk. The author continues the research vector set by A.Kh. Pshenichnyuk and suggests reviewing the given ornaments in the context of images and plots. The selected set amounts to around 500 images excavated at Filippovka 1 kurgan cemetery by A.Kh. Pschenichnyuk. The analysis of this set turned out possible only thanks to an exhaustive 2018 publication of finds revealed by A.Kh. Pschenichnyuk’s excavations. The publication is found in the catalogue of the Museum of Archaeology and Ethnography under the Institute of Ethnological Research of the RAS Ufa Research Center (over 7 thousand items). The repertoire reveals images of a leopard, a lion, a tiger, a bear, a wolf, a deer and a deer-like animal, a boar, a mountain goat, a mountain sheep, a saiga, a horse, a bird, a gryphon, a camel, a fish and a snake. The range totally lists at least 16 images, some of them depicted in full, while some of them reduced. The images are depicted solo or as part of a fighting, preying or devouring scene. The most popular images are a red deer (most images), predator cats and predator birds (including zoomorphically transformed bird heads). The study results in partly confirming and partly adjusting A.Kh. Pschenichnyuk’s conclusions about the Filippovka bestiary diversity. Stylistics of these items partly conforms to the local South Ural iconographic tradition. However, at the same time the images contain influences and impacts of the art from the Saka-Siberian Scythian Siberian world. A minority of the items reveals artistic hints of Kuban and North Black Sea coast. It is noteworthy that here the Southern Ural art demonstrates unprecedented popularity of zoomorphic transformations. Prior to Filippovka, it could have been assumed that complete zoomorphic transformations (ambivalent or shape-shift images) were more natural for the local Eastern European Scythian-Siberian animalistic style, rather than for the Sauromatian or Saka-Siberian traditions. Besides, the Filippovka art shows numerous partial zoomorphic transformations. It confirms immanence of this artistic device to the entire Scythian-Siberian animalistic style. The findings prove that this style plays a formal and substantial role in this art.

Context (archaeology) · Ethnography · Ornaments · Repertoire · Set (abstract data type) · Style (visual arts) · Ancient and Medieval Archaeology Studies · Archaeology and ancient environmental studies · Eurasian Exchange Networks