Nomads of the Southern Urals and New Religious Doctrines of the Medieval Empires of Central Asia

Abstract

The article is dedicated to the interpretation and systematization of pictorial images placed on the front side of toreutic items from medieval sites of the Southern Urals. The collection under consideration is based on artifacts from the Uelgi burial assemblage. Until recently, the medieval toreutic images of the belt set were interpreted abstractly as “plant”, “zoomorphic”, “anthropomorphic”, “ornithomorphic”, geometric and other decors. Analyzing the material, the author has come to the conclusion in recent years that images and symbols represent a harmonious system of iconographic religious traditions, cultural and religious complexes, which were formed under the influence of Manichaean traditions. In this regard, the research is aimed to analyze and interpret the main stylistic pictorial groups and images on the toreutics of the nomadic sites in the Altai, Eastern Kazakhstan, Southern Urals and further west to the Carpathian Basin of the ancient Hungarian migration period (IX–X centuries). The research methods are comparative analysis and interpretation of individual pictorial groups, plots and lines in materials from the sites of the Southern Urals (Uelgi, Sineglazovo, Aktyuba, Nizhny Yar, Ishimbayevo, Starokhalilovo barrows), as well as other contemporaneous assemblages of the Urals, Volga region, Dnieper and Carpathian basins. The main conclusion of the study is the assumption that the emergence and development of most stylistic groups and lines occurs in the Altai and Southern Urals. The further movement of these traditions and artifacts reflecting them is directed to the West, probably during migration period of the future Hungarian population to the New Homeland in the Carpathian Basin, where they receive new development.

Keywords

• uelgi
• manichaeism
• nestorianism
• srostki culture
• tyukhtyaty culture
• middle ages