Tyragetia (Nov 2018)
Anthropomorphic figurines from early Bronze Age burial mounds in the Bug-Dnieper interfluves and the Dnieper area
Abstract
: Figurines of the early Bronze Age from burial mounds, including ones of the Serezliivka type, have specific morphological and stylistic features, which do not allow them to be associated with Trypillia or Usatovo cultures. Mapping of the early Bronze Age figurines shows that burials are localized in different regions of the steppe zone. A very important difference between the anthropomorphic figurines of the early Bronze Age and Trypillia is that the first were used in funeral rites, and the latter in various rituals within the settlements. Probably, it was this circumstance which caused another difference: the fragmentation of the first and whole samples from burials. In the Trypillia culture sites whole figurines occur primarily in cultic sets. Anthropomorphic figurines from the early Bronze Age burials is characterized by a lack of standardization of iconographic types, most of the figurines are endowed with individual features, and some of them are unique and have no analogies. This feature contrasts sharply with the anthropomorphic sculpture of Trypillia CII, which demonstrates a high degree of standardization and monotony of iconographic types (Burdo 2014, 328-332). Since Serezliivka-type figurines have practically nothing in common with either Usatovo or Late-Trypillia figurines, they should be considered as a special category of artifacts from cultural groups from the borderland of the Steppe and Forest-Steppe at the Southern Bug-Dnieper interfluves and the Dnieper region. The same applies to the figurines of other types found in burials. It can be assumed that the early Bronze Age anthropomorphic figurines originated in the steppe zone under the influence of Trypillia culture, but this influence manifested itself in the most general sense. A context analysis of the Serezliivka-type figurines makes it possible to distinguish in Southern Bur region a contact zone between cultural groups with a mound ritual, Trypillya CII stage and Usatovo culture, which functioned during the final stage of the Copper Age and the early Bronze Age.
