Abstract
The “Cimmerian rosette” is a geometric solar symbol (originally from the Middle East), which was formed in the Bronze Age and was actively used in the pre-Scythian era. This symbol was inherited in the early Scythian cultural context not only as an independent decorative element, but also as a pictorial component in the art of the animal style of the “Scythian archaic” period of the 7th – 6th centuries BC. The morphological systematization of the corpus of images of the Eastern European Scythian animal style (a local variant of the Scythian-Siberian animal style corresponding to the Scythian archaeological culture) carried out by the author of the issue made it possible to analyze almost all cases of the inclusion of the “Cimmerian rosette” in the structure of images of the Eastern European Scythian animal style. It has been established that the “Cimmerian rosette” is relevant in relation to all four mega-images of the Scythian animal style: predators, ungulates, birds and syncretic creatures. This motif is used in images of feline and wolf predators, deer, elk, sheep, horses, birds of prey and syncretic rams/griffi ns-rams. The “Cimmerian rosette” marked the eyes, shoulder blades and thighs of animals, i.e. organs responsible for attention and movement, which fully corresponds to the magic-semiotic status of images of the Scythian animal style. At the same time, however, this sign did not become a popular element of the animal style. This symbol is realized – completely or rudimentarily – exclusively in the period of the “Scythian archaic” of the 7th – 6th centuries BC and extremely rare: the “Cimmerian rosette” is involved in the structure of 33 original images (excluding copies), which leaves only 1.3% of the array of all images of the Eastern European Scythian animal style (2538 original images, excluding copies). The “Cimmerian rosette” was schematized and simplifi ed as an atavism of the ornaments of the pre-Scythian era, which ultimately led to its exclusion from the zoomorphic art of the Scythians and their neighbors, who left the monuments of the Scythian archaeological culture.
Keywords
“Cimmerian rosette”, solar symbol, East European Scythian animal style, mega images, classification.
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