Permian animal style in the works of shamanic ritual plastics

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

The Perm animal style is the name of a unique authentic style that combines artistic bronze metal-plastic (shamanic ritual plaques, masks, idols, etc.), created by the early medieval civilization of the Urals during the 6th-12th centuries A. D. Objects made in the animal style can be seen in the expositions of the Hermitage, the State Historical Museum, major museums in Europe, Asia and the United States.

Historically and geographically, three main routes to Siberia from Byzantium, Scandinavia and Iran crossed in the center of Eurasia, thereby creating the preconditions for the emergence of a unique ancient civilization, with an area of distribution from the Kama to the Yenisei and Ob in the forest and forest-tundra zone of the Urals. Modern scientists call it Lomovatov and Nevola culture.

One of the foundations of the civilization of the Ural hunters was a developed religious and magical system with a rich pantheon of various gods and spirits, embodied in amazing original metal-plastic products. Against the background of the lack of writing, it was in the plots of the ritual plates that the ancient masters reflected the worldview of their people, encrypted their vision of the structure of the world and the role of man in it.

Despite more than a century of study history, the Perm animal style still remains one of the most mysterious cultural phenomena of our country. It is known that the metallurgists of the Permian animal style were women, as evidenced by the finds of various one-sided and double-sided casting molds in female burials. Ritual plaques and animal-style idols were used in sacred rites as cult objects.

The most famous and characteristic image of the animal style is the elk-man, or rather, the complex image of the elk-bird. Nowhere, except for the Perm Territory and the Komi Republic, on the territory of Eurasia, such an image does not exist.

The winged hero in the form of a human-bird-bird occupies an intermediate position between heaven and earth, it is the patron saint of people, an intermediary between people and the heavenly gods. As a rule, human-voices are located on lizards guarding the entrance to the underground-underwater world, they are located in the terrestrial middle world.

Most of the human-haired figures of the Permian animal style were obviously personal amulets, this explains the considerable number of amulets found in comparison with generic amulets: goddesses or birds-ancestors.

The deity surrounded by moose is one of the main deities of the Bjarm, the creators of the Permian animal style. Usually depicted in the owner's pose "hands on hips". There are amulets indicating his age - a child. This can be seen in the figure, face, in the image of the body "in a column" as if immediately after birth.

The Mansi called this deity the Bright Boy, the Khanty Mos-Khum, Tarpyg, Aty-iki. This god had many names. As-tyi-iki was revered in the image of seven babies; the Khanty of the 19th century believed that his native land was somewhere beyond the Urals (in the Urals).

Since childhood, Alvi was distinguished by his extraordinary intelligence and strength, first breaking a wooden, then a copper and iron cradle. He gave clever advice to his father, the heavenly god. Barely leaving the cradle, he performed feats, caught up and killed a six-legged elk, cutting off a pair of his legs. He nailed the skin to the sky, creating the constellation Elk (our Ursa Major). Became the patron saint of moose people.

The Khanty said: there are many gods with legs and wings, but only Alvi "is able to lengthen the soul of a little girl (boy)." Able to extend a person's life, send him good luck in business. According to some interesting Mansi legends, the Light Boy was the creator of the earth (from his own snot).

Alvi made sacrifices before marriage, before a long journey, before hunting, etc. In the cycle of images, the "holy family" is shown as a child with a couple of heavenly gods, their parents.

Its power is so great that one hand was tied to the actor who portrayed Alvi at the Ugrian holidays. It was believed that if Alvi waving with both hands in a dance, he would destroy the Universe.

In metal-plastic of the Permian animal style, he is often depicted with his parents, in a common plot of the “holy family”.

Goddesses are the most complex compositions of a cosmogonic nature. They demonstrate the belief of the creators of the Permian animal style in the existence of three worlds and the cult of mother goddesses. Most of the plates were found in the Cherdyn area.

The composition always consists of three parts: an element of the Upper Heavenly World - the face of the sun goddess or an eagle, or a bird-soul, or elk's heads, then the middle level - the earthly goddess herself with people, human-voiced and animals, then the border of the invisible underworld - a horse, cubs, elk or pangolin hybrid.

The cult of goddesses in the Permian animal style has a more ancient origin than the cult of human-voiced birds. The oldest goddesses on the lizard were found on the Glyadenov bone, several centuries before the heyday of the Permian animal style.

The Khanty had a ritual of worship of the sun goddess - Sanke. After the sacrifice of an animal (cow) at dawn, the priest drew circles on the forehead with the first rays of the sun. The three-headed goddess has the attributes of a sun goddess, and at the same time the attributes of a fire goddess. Fire burns in three worlds, and this three-headed goddess is the only one existing in three worlds at once. She resembles the Aryan fire god Agni with three heads and a solar sign. It also has features of the most ancient deity of the Khanty - Taren, the goddess of war and madness.

The images of the Permian animal style are preserved to this day in the folklore of the Komi and Ugric peoples, and its pictorial range is in the rich ornament of embroidery and leather crafts, bracelets, in the art of the Komi, Udmurts, Mansi and Khanty.