Pages: 55-88

This article is in Russian
Was there continuity in the nature of anthropomorphic symbolism at the turn of the Pleistocene and Holocene in the south of Eastern Europe? Judging by the data of the Lower Don basin both in the Final Palaeolithic and in the Sub-Neolithic, there is a following of the female meta-theme. However, female images known from the Final Palaeolithic sites of the Rogaliksko — Peredelsky region (Lugansk), as well as anthropomorphic and non-anthropomorphic clay plastics of the Sub-Neolithic sites of the north-east area of the Sea of Azov — Matviiv Kurgan 1 and Razdorskaya — had different purposes, meaning, duration of use, they functioned and were utilized in different contexts. All this testifies against the declarative statements about the idea of the Great Goddess, patroness of fertility, universal for the Final Palaeolithic and in the post-Palaeolithic time.
The appearance of anthropomorphic representations in the southern part of Eastern Europe, in the Seversky Donets basin, is explained by the genetic links of the local hunter groups, who exploited the herd ungulates (horses, bison), with the Center of the Russian Plain. Anthropomorphic symbolism in the Lower Don basin obviously has historical roots in the culture of the Middle East world, possibly in the Zagros region. Its appearance in the Lower Don basin is explained by the development of complex societies of hunters and fishermen, specialized in the exploitation of aquatic resources, who stood out through developed kinship structures, differentiated social networks, more elaborated forms of ritual behavior and religious rituals.

Keywords: anthropomorphous symbolics, south of Eastern Europe, Pleistocene-Holocene transition, Final Palaeolithic, Sub-Neolithic

Information about author:

Alexander Gorelik (Bochum, Germany). Candidate of Historical Sciences.
E-mail: [email protected]
ORCID:  0000-0001-5305-2400