Objects with “Animal and Rider Imagery on the Base” in the Medieval Culture of Northern Eurasia

Objects with “Animal and Rider Imagery on the Base” in the Medieval Culture of Northern Eurasia

A.M. Belavin and N.B. Krylasova.

The present article discusses a particular type of Ural-Siberian metalwork in the form of a walking animal set upon a base in the form of a snake. This kind of metalwork is represented by single fi gures of animals and riders executed according to the same canons. Ritual plaques and pendants stand out among objects of this type. Its origins can be traced to the Early Iron Age and to the territories on both sides of the Urals, which testifi es to a cultural affi nity between the population of the European Ural region and Western Siberia. Bears, elks, deer, and horses were usually portrayed on objects of this group in the Middle Ages, both in the form of single fi gures and together with riders. The present article gives a detailed examination of the stylistic features and individual elements of the objects in question. It makes an attempt to decipher their meaning, describes the use of the specifi c objects under consideration, and determines the geographical area of their origin. The article concludes that representations of walking animals and riders on a base in the form of a snake have a common iconography and that the core area of their distribution lies in Western Siberia and the Middle Urals, where they developed almost simultaneously at the turn of the Early Iron Age and Middle Ages.

Keywords: Eurasia, Middle Ages, animal style, pendants, ritual plaques, rider on a snake, animal on a snake, Ural-
Siberian mythology.