The Clay "Rattle" in the Shape of Bear Head and the Variants of Its Usage by the Population of Krotovo Culture (Bronze Age, the end of the 3rd millennium BC, Baraba Forest-Steppe)

Comprehensive analysis of clay rattle in the shape of bear head found on the Krotovo settlement Vengerovo-2 (Baraba forest-steppe) is represented in the article. The study contains the results of morphological, fluoroscopic and technological survey of the artifact. The rattle is hollow ceramic ball with molded details: ears, nose, ajar chops, and a handle. Morphological traits (stretched lips, absence of cavity between forehead and nose bridge, roundish skull) indicate young age of the depicted specimen. Its surface was treated with notched tool to imitate pelage of an animal. The workpiece was made in the rag technic. Inside the rattle there were found 16 ceramic balls, which utter specific sound with joggle. Authors offer several variants of functional interpretation of the artifact, relying on wide archaeological, ethnographic and ethnohystorical parallels. The first version is connected with straight analogies in modern culture of childhood and supposes that this rattle was used as a child’s toy. The second version is that this noisy zoomorphic object was used with ritual purpose. The rattle from the sacral place of the Neolithic site near the Voznesenovka village (Amur River) is presented as the closest analogy. Also, authors adduce a range of archaeological and ethnographic data significant about the value of bear’s image and in particular bear’s head in products of ancient and medieval Western Siberia population’s plastic arts. Besides the stylistics and zoomorphic image, the importance of the “sound” function is noticed. As examples of analogy there are mentioned: common usage of noisy pendants in shaman’s practice and costume; wide spreading of noisy bronze arched pendants in the medieval period in Prikamye region, where central position belongs to the bear in sacrificial pose. The third version supposes usage of the rattle as musical percussion instrument. Ceramic balls are found rather frequently on the sites of Krotovo culture. On the base of this version authors suggest hypothesis that probably these balls pertain to such or larger musical instruments, which were made from the organic materials (wood, leather etc.). Also there are noted other scientists’ hypotheses about usage of rattles in gambling and as fertility amulet. In conclusion authors notice that suggested variants of this object usage are not mutually exclusive. This artifact, such as similar objects and analogies, probably was multifunctional and its interpretation tightly bound to chronological and cultural historical context.

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