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DOI: 10.46698/VNC.2022.16.9.005

BRONZE RECTANGULAR BUCKLES FROM CHECHNYA WITH SOLAR ORNAMENT AND THE HEAD OF A LONG-EARED ANIMAL

Volnaya (Kertseva), Galina N. , Dudarev, Sergei L.
Kavkaz Forum. 2022. Issue 9.
Abstract:
At the end of the XX - beginning of the XXI century. in Chechnya, in the vicinity
of the villages of Zona, Duba-Yurt, Ersena, 11 bronze rectangular buckles with
solar ornament and the head of a long-eared animal were discovered. The head
of the long-eared animal is carved from a bronze leaf. The necessary convex and
concave volume of the front part of the muzzle, eyes and ears is given with the
help of bypass chisels. Then the animal’s head was fixed on the buckle shield. It
closes the rectangular hole behind it.
The animal’s head is most likely a fallow deer or a deer, there are relief rosettes
on the sides of it. Above the animal’s ears is a diamond-shaped solar sign in the
form of intertwined swastikas. Based on the heroic epic and fairy-tale folklore of
the peoples of the North Caucasus, the symmetrical composition on the buckles
can be interpreted as the «tree of life», and rosettes as the sun and moon, swastika
ornament as a star, deer / fallow deer personifies solar cults, and can also
represent the deity of hunting and fertility Elta. The circumference located around
the perimeter of the object can be understood as heavenly bodies, and the inner
space of the object - as the visible, upper world. A similar symmetrical ornament
of volutes and/or rosettes is found on vessels of the Kuro-Arak culture of the III-II
millennium BC, on pins with volute-like completion and «spectacled» pendants
of the early stage of the Koban culture. Bronze sub-rectangular buckles with two
concentric circles and a zigzag pattern are characteristic of the late stage of the
Koban culture. These buckles date back to the VI-V centuries BC and belong to the
eastern variant of the Koban culture.
Keywords: Early Iron Age, North Caucasus, Chechnya, belt buckles, zoomorphic images
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