Abstract
A staff head in the shape of a fantastic beast made from elk antler is kept in Sverdlovsk regional museum. The sculpture was found during gold mining in 1887 at the Shigir peat bog. For a long time it was dated to the metal age. But radiocarbon date (AAR-24229: 9698±36 BP – 9197±42 BC cal) obtained in 2014 dated the sculpture to the Early Mesolithic, and the trace evidence analysis showed that the artifact was made with the help of stone tools.
It is considered that the sculpture is a fantastic syncretic image combining features of several creatures. For example, a mythical underground mammoth-pike, wolf-wild boar or wolf-bear. In the light of a new 14-C date the presence of the image of a wild boar at the fi nal is questionable. The boar could not live in such a harsh climate. The image of the beast defi nitely looks more like a wolf. It has an elongated muzzle and a bared mouth with a visible tongue and teeth. A row of rhombic incisions indicates rampant hair of a roaring beast. Engraved wavy lines run from these incisions forming two angles towards the nose. These angles may indicate two triangular folds appearing on the face of a roaring wolf. But in general the beast depicted here does not look like a real one, and individual features of some animals could only be guessed. A staff head is an object which had a special status.
Until recently, the notion of the art of early Mesolithic population of Northern Eurasia was represented mostly by engravings on bone and antler artifacts. Early date of the Shigir staff head as well as a monumental wooden sculpture – the Big Shigir idol showed that highly developed art incorporating both monumental sculpture and mobile art already existed in the Middle Trans- Urals in the Early Mesolithic. The described staff head has no direct analogs. But three different antler staff heads in the shape of fantastic animals were found at late Mesolithic sites of the Volga-Oka interfl uve. Probably such artifacts emerged there during late Mesolithic under the infl uence of the Urals population.
Keywords
Middle Trans-Urals, staff head, sculptural image, Early Mesolithic.
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