Abstract
In the mountainous regions of Central Asia, primarily on the rocks of the Sayan- Altai highlands, images of chariots with drivers or warriors aboard or next to the chariot are very common. Chariots are shown in various contexts, often characterized by the presence of deer and sometimes female characters surrounded by animals. Among the images in such a context, it is possible to identify the scenes depicting the same repetitive subject – “chasing of a deer by a hero in a chariot”. The scenes of this type in the Sayan-Altai petroglyphs are likely to be generally dated to the Late Bronze Age, and some part of them, probably, to the very beginning of the Early Iron Age (the beginning of the period of early nomads). At the opposite end of the mountainoussteppe strip of Eurasia, the same subject received its expressive embodiment in the metalworking and plastic art as well as partly in the funeral rites of Transcaucasia of the Late Bronze Age. For all the ambiguity of the deer, warrior and chariot images in different historical periods, the revealed plot “chasing of a deer by a hero in a chariot” can be interpreted within the framework of the “the guiding deer” semantic fi eld. The folklore-epic parallels, which are primarily revealed in the Indo-Iranian cultural tradition, testify for this interpretation. By analyzing the context of situations in which the deer, warrior and chariot appear in ancient Indian epic and ritual texts, an additional participant in the plot was revealed – a female deity associated with the “eternally young foremother” image. The “semantic clues” obtained through the analysis of the Indo- Iranian mythological tradition make it possible to reliably reconstruct the mythologeme behind the identifi ed plot of “the guiding deer”. At the same time, the reconstructed mythologeme can be considered among the main ones for a number of cultural traditions of the Sayan-Altai and Transcaucasia of the Late Bronze Age and the Early Iron Age, taking into account its manifestations in funerary, commemoration and initiation rituals. It is critically signifi cant for the reconstruction of the mythological and ceremonial tradition of the Scythian period.
Keywords
Archaeology, Prehistory, Late Bronze Age, Central Asia, the Sayan-Altai Highlands, Transcaucasia, petroglyphs, metalwork art, plastic art, images of chariots, images of deer, folklore motifs, epic stories, the Indo-Iranian cultural tradition
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