Pages: 103-133

This is the first comprehensive introduction of the materials recovered during the excavations conducted in 1995 on Nizhnepavlovka I burial ground in the steppe Cis-Ural region. The necropolis contained impressive complexes dating to the Scythian-Sarmatian time (5th century BC — early 2nd century AD). A detailed analysis of the artefacts from several cultural-chronological complexes of this necropolis (5th century BC, 4th —3rd centuries BC, 3rd —2nd centuries BC, 1st century BC — early 2nd century AD) is supported by thorough references to the available research publications. A special attention is paid to the latest child’s burial in mound no. 3, which contained an anthropomorphic statuette dated by 1st century BC — early 2nd century AD. The third part of the paper addresses a discussion of the beginning of 20th century between V. A. Gorodtsov and N. I. Veselovsky about “miniature stone images”; it defines K. Ph. Smirnov’s contribution to the study of culturalchronological value of anthropomorphic statuettes; it studies in detail chalky, alabaster and bone statuettes and amulets found within the territory of the steppe pre-Ural region. The final part analyzes Indo-Iranian female epic mythological characters from Northern Eurasia and defines religious value of the statuettes in the context of the Scythian-Sarmatian community.

Keywords: steppe Cis-Ural region, Early Iron Age, the first nomads, Scythian-Sarmatian cultural world, anthropomorphic statuettes, mythological characters

Information about author:

Sergey Bogdanov (Orenburg, Russian Federation). Candidate of Historical Sciences. Institute of Steppe, Ural Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences. Pionerskaya St., 11, Orenburg, 460000, Russian Federation
E-mail: [email protected]