Original Bronze Pendants from Eastern Europe Volume 6 - Issue 5

Ilyukov LS*

• Laboratory of Archaeology of Academic Department of SSC RAS Presidium, Rostov-on-Don, Russian Federation, Russia

Received:April 15, 2022;   Published: May 27, 2022

Corresponding author: Ilyukov LS, Laboratory of Archaeology of Academic Department of SSC RAS Presidium, Rostov-on-Don, Russian Federation, Russia

DOI: 10.32474/JAAS.2022.06.000250

Abstract PDF

In Eastern Europe, in the cultures of the Bronze Age, there are bronze pendants, which are usually called spectacle pendants. Both of its spirals are twisted in 3-5 turns. They were found on the territory of the Donetsk ridge in the burial ground Shakhtersk, Chikmari II, Borgusta I. Decorations were hung on the chest. In one case, there were two pendants of different diameters on the chest of a buried person. The smaller suspension was strapped to the larger one. These findings are associated with the monuments of the Baba culture of the late 3rd millennium BC. The peak of the spread of spectacle pendants in the Bronze Age is associated with the post-catacomb time (late III - early II millennium BC). They adorned the bottom of the graceful knuckle. In the eastern steppe area, in the Sintashta and Petrine cultures, they are being replaced by bunches, embroidered with beads and decorated with bronze clips. Bronze plates in the form of a leaf hung from the lower edge of the ribbon. Such bone structures were indicators of the era of the spread of post-catacomb burials in the Southern Trans-Urals, the Tobol region and Central Kazakhstan [1].

What was the point in the original bracelets, under which women’s hair was hidden? Were these bracelets adorned with spectacle pendants “closely associated with the cult of fertility”? According to [2], the details of the headdress had a semantic meaning. There is a connection between hair and vegetation. The braid covered the woman’s braid and hair. There were various beliefs that a woman with a bare head was dangerous and could lead to crop failure and death of livestock, etc. [2]. In the palace of Knossos, the walls were covered with colored plaster. In one of the halls, which is considered as a throne room, there is a stone chair against the wall. Behind it, the wall is painted with large figures of two identical sphinxes with the body of a lion and the head of a bird. They are positioned on the sides of the throne in a heraldic pose. The junction of the head and body of this creature is surrounded by a ribbon decorated with transverse lines. It is adjoined by a large spectacle-shaped mark, probably attached to the marked tape. His spirals were drawn on the sides of his torso. In the center of each spiral there is a large rosette [3-5]. According to one of the legends, after the kidnapped daughter of the Phoenician king, her brother, Cadmus, is sent, whose guide was a cow, which on each forest had a sign in the form of a full circle of the Moon. Perhaps the spectacle pendant was a symbol of the sacred, “heavenly” cow, the image of which has been preserved in the people’s memory. It would be a lunar symbol that adorned both sides of the fantastic animal. Both of its symmetrical halves were connected to each other by an arcuate jumper. This sign was worn by women, adding it to the adornments of their headdresses.

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