Stone woman

The use of the names "stone man" or "stone maiden", "stone women" has been recorded since the 18th century. ^[1] In Little Russia they were also called “mamayami” ^[3] . There is also an assumption about the use of the ancient word "blvan" for their designation) ^[4] . So, in the “Word of Igor’s Regiment” , the “ Tmutarakan blockhead ” is mentioned, but this place does not have a generally accepted interpretation in the Word. ^[5] Orkhon-Yenisei runic inscriptions made by the Turks of Siberia report balbals - stone pillars depicting dead enemies. Moreover, in the preserved Turkic tradition, statues proper (not pillars) are considered monuments to heroes-heroes. It was believed that enemies after death in the other world serve the winner, and the strongest of them, presented in the form of a stone idol, will become the main servant and ally. ^[one]

The mention of stone women was left by the poet of the 12th century Nizami , who spoke about the donations of Polovtsy to stone idols ^[6] . The ambassador of Pope Wilhelm de Rubruk, driving in the Polovtsian steppe in 1253 , watched as the Polovtsy poured large hills and built statues on them, facing the east and holding a bowl in hand ^[7] .

In 1594, the German ambassador E. Lassota , who arrived at the Cossacks , left a message saying that on the "Tatar coast of the Dnieper " on the mounds or graves he saw more than twenty stone statues. In the “ Book of the Big Drawing ” (1627), stone figures “demy” are mentioned, which were installed on the mounds or simply in the steppe and served as pointers for the landmarks of the fords . ^[8] :

And on the river on Ternovka there is a man of stones, and the stanitsniks of pre-voyage memories are put from Belagorod at him, and the other memories are laid on Samara by two stone girls; and from a stone man to Samari versts from 30.

- Book of the Big Drawing . ^[9]

In the same source, stone women are mentioned as a designation of the endpoints of guards: Cossack stanitsky dig special wooden marks near stone women (“travel memories”); the next guard was to find this mark and bring it to the camp as evidence that they reached the end of the route, and near the stone statue to bury its mark for the next guard ^[10]

Since the 18th century, interest in the study of stone women has increased. Academics P. Pallas , I. Lepyokhin , V. Zuev , A. Gattsuk and many others wrote about the statues. In 1851, an official of the department of the Ministry of the Interior of Russia Piskaryov drew up the first map of the locations of stone statues.

Stone idols, which were considered by people as idols - charms , appeared on the territory of the Kipchak steppe (the territory from the Irtysh to the Danube ) in the 4th – 2nd millennium BC. e. These were small images of men with a mustachioed face, often with a body not worked out or holding a bowl with one, and a weapon with the other hand. Gradually, they penetrated to the territory of modern Kyrgyzstan, where the first female images and the first images appeared, holding the bowl with both hands. With the expansion of the Polovtsy, the distribution of statues in the southern Russian steppes in the 11th – 13th centuries is associated, established on the mounds. In the XIII-XIV centuries, the secondary use of statues was observed. The absolute dating of this type of sculptures is made according to the types of weapons, helmets and jewelry depicted, in addition, the time of the appearance of the barrows gives a lower one, and the time of secondary reuse gives the upper temporal boundary of the distribution of the sculptures. ^[one]

In the Middle Ages, on the territory of Azerbaijan, the stone figures of the ancestors known as a woman ( in Azeri means “forefather” ) marked the territory of various tribal settlements ^[2] . Bab should also be attributed to the general area of ​​the Turkic nomadic heritage. ^[eleven]

Thus, in the southern Russian steppes, stone statues are divided into several groups ^[1] : according to the time of creation on

• Anthropomorphic steles of the Bronze Age .
• Scythian statues.
• Polovtsian stone women.

by type on

• seated (male and female subtypes), the most recent;
• steles (without elaboration of the body, there are also male and female subtypes) - simplified and later versions of standing;
• standing (male and female subtypes) are the earliest.

The purpose of the sculptures

According to many archaeologists, for example L.R. Kyzlasov , G.A. Fedorov-Davydov , according to many ethnographic and archaeological (pits with the remains of a ritual feast, sacrifice) stone women with a bowl depicted a deceased ancestor for his participation in a cult feast. ^[one]

The main part of the oldest stone statues was left by the Indo-Europeans who lived in the steppes in the territories of present-day Russia and Ukraine during the early metal period ( Eneolithic and bronze of 4–2 thousand BC). They often include the Lower Mikhailovsky , Pit , and catacomb archaeological cultures. Anthropomorphic steles are also present in the Kemi-Obin culture, which may have something to do with the Caucasus.

In the steppe between the Danube and the Don, more than 330 stele-like monumental sculptures have been identified. A significant number of them were found in the Northern Black Sea region and Crimea . The mass character and diversity of early stone statues made it necessary to classify them in the 1960s. Explanations of the iconographic and semantic meaning of the statues appeared.

Depending on the form and processing techniques, the steles are divided into two groups:

• plate steles without anthropological similarities;
• anthropomorphic steles.

The first type is stele-plates without head contours, although their surface is processed. In their form, they only conditionally approach anthropomorphism. The second type, anthropomorphic steles made of plates, or pillar-like blocks of sandstone or quartzite with the obligatory image of the head.

The next group of statues in chronology is made up of idols left by the Scythians - Iranian-speaking tribes that dominated the Russian-Ukrainian steppes in the middle of 1 millennium BC. e.

Scythian sculptures date back to the 6th-3rd century BC. e. The distribution area is quite significant - from Romania to the Caucasus. Mostly all images of Scythians are transmitted by bearded men. In compositional and artistic terms, they are performed primitively. This is quite surprising for the people, the bearer of the highly artistic Scythian "animal style", brought up on contacts with ancient Greek classical art. This paradox has always surprised scientists:

On the stele-like buildings of Scythian statues, as usual, three or four objects are depicted: a horn, burns , a dagger or a sword . The horn is placed in the right hand at chest level, burns - on the left side, a dagger or sword - in the left hand at the level of the belt. Similar attributes are found in Turkic stone statues found in Siberia. They hold a bowl in their right hand and a dagger in their left hand. The absence of a beard and, on the contrary, the image of a mustache also emphasizes the similarity of Scythian statues with Turkic ones.

Polovtsian stone women, found in vast spaces from southwest Asia to southeast Europe , are monuments of the sacred art of Polovtsy (Kipchaks) of the 9th - 13th centuries . The custom of erecting idols originated in the 6th - 7th centuries in Mongolia and Altai and spread to the Danube . The statues symbolized the ancestors and were placed on the highest sections of the steppe , watersheds , burial mounds in specially built shrines for them, which were sometimes fenced with stones. The sanctuaries were square or rectangular, their sizes depended, apparently, on the number of ancestors honored in it. In the center of the sanctuary, one or more male or female statues were placed with faces facing east. Occasionally, there were shrines with a cluster of statues - in each no less than 12-15.

Sanctuaries with idols were the site of the commemoration of the ancestors' cult, not directly related to burials. Actually, the etymology of the word "woman" comes from the Turkic "balbal", which means "ancestor", "grandfather-father." ^[13] Over time, this rite transformed into a cult of the patron leaders of the horde. Female statues symbolized the invincibility and immortality of warriors. ^[14] Patrons in the form of a woman gave them strength, nourished and protected them. For this, the nomads sacrificed to them. At the foot of the statues, researchers found the bones of rams .

In the XIII century, the Polovtsy were conquered by the Mongols . A significant part of the monuments of the Polovtsian culture died at the hands of Muslims who fought with paganism . However, it was never completely eradicated and later adapted to Orthodoxy . Over the following centuries, in some Slavic settlements, there was a tradition to honor the Polovtsian idols, who were endowed with the power to influence the revival of nature, the fertility of the land, the success of the community. In total, over two thousand stone women have survived to this day.

Researchers connect stone women (balbals), set by ancient Turkic tribes ( Oghuz , etc.), to commemorate the killed enemies: “I killed their knights, I prepared [myself] balbali” ^[15] . In Altai and Tuva belong to the II-VIII centuries BC. e .; in Central Asia - to the VI-IX centuries. Balbals were sometimes established by a chain at a tombstone, and the number emphasized the importance and authority of the deceased. For large generals (for example, Bilge Kagan and Kul-Tegin ), chains could consist of 300-350 balbal and reach 2-3 km.

Literature

The image of a stone woman was repeatedly addressed by Russian poets and writers of the early XX century. So, in Remizov ’s story “The Stone Woman”, the idol tells the heroes, Alalei and Leila, an etiological legend ^[16] .

• Prussian women
• Zbruch idol
• Kernosovsky idol
• Ulug Khurtuyah tas
• Etoka Monument

• Veselovsky N. I. The current state of the issue of “stone women” or “balbals” // Notes of the Odessa Society of History and Antiquities. - T. XXXIII. - Odessa, 1915.
• Fedorov-Davydov G. A. "Mounds. Idols. Coins ”, Moscow: Nauka, 1968, 1985 reprint.
• Dashkevich Ya. R., Tryarski E. Stone women of the Black Sea steppes. Collection of Askania Nova. - Warsaw, 1982.
• Ancient statues of Siberia. Guide. - Novosibirsk: Science, 1980.
• Evtyukhova L.A. Stone sculptures of South Siberia and Mongolia / Materials and research on archeology of the USSR . - No. 24. M.: Publishing House of the USSR Academy of Sciences. - S. 72-120.
• Book of the Big Drawing / Ed. K. N. Serbina . - M.-L., 1950.
• Krasilnikov K. I. Ancient stone-cutting art of the Luhansk region. - Lugansk: Shlyakh, 1999.
• Kyzlasov L.R. On the appointment of ancient Turkic stone sculptures depicting people // Soviet Archeology . - 1964. - No. 2.
• Murzin V. Yu. Stone Guardians of Ukraine // Melitopol Local History Journal, 2018, No. 11, p. 30-37.
• Pletneva S. A. Nomads of the South Russian steppes in the Middle Ages of the 4th – 13th centuries. - Voronezh, 2003.
• Pletneva S.A. Polovtsian stone sculptures // Arch of archaeological sources . - Vol. U4-2. - M., 1974.
• Rubruk V. de. Travel to the eastern countries of Plano Carpini and Rubruk . - M., 1957.
• Uvarov S. A. On the issue of stone broads // Transactions of the XIII Archaeological Congress. - T. II. - M., 1908.
• Forostyuk O. D. Lugansk region relіgіyna. - Lugansk: Svitlitsya, 2004.
• Kharlamov V. A. About the stone broads of the Don region // Transactions of the Archaeological Congress in Yekaterinoslavl 1905. - T. II. - M., 1908.
• Chirikov G.S. Stone women in the Kharkov province. - Kharkov, 1901.
• Shepinsky A. A. Anthropomorphic steles of the Black Sea Coast // Archeology. - 1973. - No. 9.
• Cher Ya. A. Stone sculptures of the Seven Rivers. - M .: Nauka, 1966.S. ​​139.
• Evarnitsky D.I. Kamennyaya women // Historical Bulletin. - SPb., 1890. - T. 41. - S. 184-194.
• Ternopil encyclopedic dictionary. - Ternopil, printed-polygraphic combine “Zbruch”, volume I, 2004.
• Encyclopedia Kolomiyshchini, zshitok 2, letter B.

• Stone sculptures of southern Siberia and Mongolia. L. A. Evtyukhova
• National Historical and Archaeological Reserve "Stone Grave"
• Churilova L.N. “Keepers of Eternity” (“Stone Women” in the collection of the Dnipropetrovsk Historical Museum)
• Collection of cam'yano plastic
• Stone women in Altai