Weapon in the Rituals of the Selkups and Ancient Traditions of Eurasia

The diversity of burial traditions followed by the Narym Selkups and one of their dialect groups Shieshgula represents an interesting area for research. The remains of the burial constructions and ritual artifacts allow us to piece together their functions and the manner they were employed. It thus gives us a wider perspective on the worldview shared by the traditional population of Siberia and the neighboring territories. It is hoped that this article explains a specific burial tradition of sticking different types of weapon in the ground of the burial site as well as in the burial constructions. The interest to this topic was sparked by the examination of the burial complex in Kustovo where a copper and an ivory arrow tips were found stuck in the ground and in the burial pole. Multiple written materials from the 19th to the early 21st century provide many examples of this tradition carried out on the vast territories of Eurasia. For instance, at Mesopotamian necropolises sticking ritual copper spears was practiced from the 3d millennium BC. In Siberia similar rituals with spears, knifes and other weapons took place later in the 2d millennium BC. Deciphering the meaning of these rituals and establishing their geographical boundaries became the main goal of this study. Important information about the semantics of the ritual is provided by the ethnographic materials related to the Khanty and Mansi people. They always carried out such rituals at the cemeteries and sanctuaries devoted to the local deities. According to the written materials from the 19th century, the Khanty and Mansi hunters who went to the forest often took arrows with copper tips. Copper was believed to be an honorable metal that could fight demons. At the same time evil spirits were afraid of any sharp objects, such as the arrows. Any finds of the weapon stuck at the burial place signifies a performance of the purging rituals, that meant to clean the place from the evil spirits. The Khanty gathered at the burial places from time to time for mourning and performing a ritual of sticking knifes around themselves, against the souls of the deceased. This helped to protect their houses from the visits of the spirits. Similar rituals took place at Khanty funerals. In their views, if a weapon pierced a grave, the spirit of the deceased could never escape. At some sanctuaries the arrows would be shot at the trees as a form of sacrifices for local "hosts" of the forest, rivers, lakes, valleys and etc. The semantics of the burial poles is closely connected to the trees. Therefore the arrows found at Kustovo burial site served two purposes, that are the protection from the spirits and offering a sacrifice for a local deity.

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