Semiotics of the Bronze Age burials in wheeled vehicles in the Northern Pontic area

Abstract

The article focuses on mythological and ritual role of the wagons in the burial rite of the Early and Middle Bronze Age in the Northern Pontic area and neighboring territories. The paper considers the factors that underlie the cosmological beliefs of the peoples inhabiting the area under study: the location of the wagon in the burial and the location of the skeletal remains in relation to the wagon; placing the wagon solely or in combination with a draft animal; single-part wagon or dismantled wagon in burials. Special attention is given to the interaction of the cosmological systems of the Neolithic and Bronze Ages. The elements of the Neolithic cult of the earth are set that preserved in the ritual system of the Bronze Age, interwoven with the myth of the dying and rising sun that prevailed in the Bronze Age. The research determines the etymology of a wagon in Indo-European languages and draws parallels in the ritual and mythology of the Indo-European cultures. Its cosmological role as the embodiment of the Axis Mundi is identified. At the same time, the ritual changes during the transition from Yamnaya to the Catacomb culture or within the particular culture, the fact that suggests polymorphism of the cult with its dynamic character.

Keywords

• semiotics
• indo-european studies
• etymology
• bronze age
• yamnaya culture
• catacomb culture
• burial rite
• burials in wheeled vehicles
• northern pontic area