Stone slabs with a ram's head
The stone slabs with a ram's head belong to the category of stone sculptures. The handy rectangular, oval or rounded stone slabs have a mostly stylized ram's head on one of their front sides. Although the first zoomorphic sculptures appeared in the Urals and Kazakhstan at the end of the 19th century , their chronology and cultural affiliation are unclear.
Classification
More than 30 plates with a ram's head are currently known. Some specimens have a slight bowl-shaped depression in the mostly polished surface. Almost all panels have traces of red ocher . Light blue paint residues were found in three cases. The classification of PA Dmitriev was further differentiated by NP Matveeva. Depending on the degree of stylization, they divided the plates into three, albeit not completely homogeneous, groups:
- realistic,
- stylized
- schematic.
In terms of development history, the realistic preceded the schematic and stylized representations. Without a knowledge of realistic representations one could not have identified some schematic interpretations.
Find context
Most of the stone slabs with a ram's head are accidental finds. They were found in fields or come from former settlements or Kurganen . A slab (with a symbolic representation) was found together with a cubic stone in a pit in the area of the Sarmatian-era mound of Rafajlovo. It was a weighty argument for those researchers who wanted to assign the find category to the Sarmatians. The opponents of this assignment, (including the German researcher K. Jettmar), classify the plates in the Bronze Age .
distribution
The mapping of the finds revealed that most of them came from the basin of the Iset ', Mias and Tobol rivers, a small area in the Southern Urals . Pieces from the early phase are apparently missing from the records. The imported specimens represent an elaborated or simplified form. Based on these facts, it can be assumed that the plates with a ram's head were already developed in the Southern Urals, or that they had precursors made of other material (wood).
interpretation
The traces of paint and the cavity on the top indicate the use as a mortar or mortar for making paint. Two stone vessels (sacrificial altars) with a ram's head appear to be a prototype. However, the connection between the stone objects from the small pit under the Rafajlovo Kurgan and the Sarmatian burial remains unproven. Early dating of slab mortars with a ram's head has been confirmed in the Saratov area. In Kurgan 4, grave 1 of Bol'šaja Dmitrievka 2, a well-smoothed mortar was found on the north wall of the chamber, almost rectangular in shape, with a depression on the flat side and three protrusions on the front side. This plate belongs to the group of finds with schematic representations, which means a similar date for the plates with "realistic" representations, which should come from the previous period. The grave can be classified in the early catacomb grave culture (around 3000 to 2500 BC). The finds from this burial also included a stone pestle and a large amount of ocher.
Cultural assignment
The frequent use of ocher at burials testifies to the importance of the objects for the rituals of the pit and catacomb grave culture. The use of blue paint in the funeral ritual has been noted several times, but less frequently than that of red. Flat stone mortars of a simpler type are also known.
The exact cultural affiliation of the stone slabs with a ram's head sculpture cannot be determined, as several archaeological cultures (cultural traditions) existed in the southern Urals at the time in question . What is certain is that most of them belong to the Eeolithic cultures in the Southern Urals.
literature
- Sergej V. Chavrin, & Ol'ga P. Čenčenkova: Stone slabs with a ram's head Eurasia antiqua 2000 ISSN 0949-0434