Eastern Europe and Siberia are the territories of early settlement of different groups of mankind. On the Russian Plain, the first sites of Modern Humans are dated to about 40 ka BP. In Siberia, the Homo erectus groups appear in the Lower Paleolithic. Later, Denisovans, Neanderthals and Modern Humans (Cro-Magnons) settled here. Modern Humans penetrate Siberia about 45 ka BP. Local groups of Homo populations have created developed cultures that include a wide range of features of behavioral modernity. For local groups of Modern Humans, the appearance of zoomorphic sculptures in the period of about 34 ka BP, in the initial period of the Upper Paleolithic. During the period of the final of Aurignac and the beginning of Gravette, zoomorphic examples of mobile art became a typical phenomenon. The archaeological context of the location of artefacts and the peculiarities of their appearance in a number of cases indicate that zoomorphic objects were attributes of zoolatry. The discovery of the «lion» sculpture in Denisova Cave suggests that zoolatry existed in the culture of the Denisovans. With an age of at least 45 ka BP, the lion figure from Denisova cave is the oldest zoomorphic sculpture. The presence of zoolatry in geographically and anthropologically different cultures indicates that it is naturally formed at the stage of reaching a certain level of development of human populations and is a regular result of anthropo- and cultural genesis. Zoolatry is a universal phenomenon. Along with the general features, local features are inherent in it. In different local groups, zoolatry has specific features due to natural factors, different adaptation strategies and mental differences (different models of imagination). In different cultures, zoolatry was combined in specific combinations with funeral rituals, hunting magic, gender cults and other forms of religion. In different local cultures, there were specific configurations of forms of religion, in which zoolatry, hunting magic, funeral practices and other forms of religion were combined in a peculiar way. Thus, in different local cultures, the morphology of religion had a different configuration. The study of zoolatry of local groups of the «basal Eurasian» lineage demonstrates the variability of the morphology (internal structure) of religion, even in culturally related and chronologically close communities.
Keywords: portable art, sculpture, Siberia, Eastern Europe, Upper Paleolithic, religion, zoolatry, symbolism, morphology of religion
DOI: 10.22250/2072-8662.2020.4.5-27
About the author
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Andrey P. Zabiyako – DSc (Philosophy), Full Professor, Head of the Department of Religious Studies and History, Head of the Laboratory of Archaeology and Anthropology, |