A PIN WITH A RIDER FROM THE COLLECTION OF THE VIENNA MUSEUM. QUESTIONS OF ORIGIN AND DATING

Abstract

A bronze pin with a figure of a horseman, stored in the Vienna Museum from the end of the XIX century, has no close analogies, and for many years attracted the attention of researchers. However, until now it has been used only descriptively, and has not been subjected to a comprehensive historical and cultural study. This article is devoted to the issues of its origin and dating and is based on a number of important details that had not been previously the subject of a special study. For their analysis, a significant component of additional sources is involved, the basis of which is the bronze anthropomorphic plastic of the Caucasus of the middle II - the first half of the I Millennium BC. The article applies such methods of historical research as the comparative-typological, the information-analytical, the method of scientific analogies, the method of systematization and periodization, the method of quantitative characteristics. Using a considerable amount of various sources and comparing different versions, the author's interpretation of the object, which is different from the traditional views on its origin, is justified. Various dating options are offered, new approaches to its further study are presented. As a result, we come to the conclusion that at this stage of the study it is not possible to come up with the unambiguous interpretation of this subject as belonging to the circle of only Western antiquities. At present, its dating by the end of IX-the first half of VIII centuries BC is more justifiable, although the dating close to the final VII-the beginning of VI centuries BC should not be excluded.

Keywords

• koban culture
• bronze pin
• horseman
• figurine
• dating
• bow
• arrows