Dagger with carved final from Rostovka burial site
Place of storage. Florinskiy Museum of Siberian Archeology and Ethnography, Tomsk State University, Tomsk.
Material. Bronze.
Place of discovery. Rostovka burial site (Western Siberia, left bank of the river Ob, 15 km from Omsk).
Context of discovery. The dagger was discovered during the excavation of Rostovka Seima-Turbino burial site performed by a joint Tomsk State University/Omsk Pedagogical University expedition under the supervision of Vladimir Matyushchenko in 1966.
Dating. Bronze Age. 16th–15th cc. BC.
Description
The dagger was discovered in tumulus no. 2, where a 10-centimeter coaly layer covered bone remains of a 9- or 10-year-old boy burnt in a special “crematorium”. In consistence with the necropolis funeral rites, the dagger was stuck into the floor of the bone chamber and covered with crane fragments left after cremation. The tomb doesn't look too rich, given the number and composition of funerary gifts, but such highly prestigious object as a knife with carved finial indicates that the boy belonged to the upper class of Seima-Tubino society. In the social structure of the latter, the main roles were played by nomadic warriors and bronze casters, who possessed the most sophisticated technologies of the time. In the mid-2nd millennium BC, they made a huge forced march from Xinjiang in the east to the lower reach of Dniester in the west, leaving only burial sites and memorial altars behind them. The hallmark of such altars were glorious bronze weapons: celts, hefty spearheads, daggers, etc.
An exclusive group of Seima-Turbino bronze includes “ceremonial” (“prestigious”, “lord status”) weapon—daggers with carved handles. The knife from Rostovka stands out even in this category, being known as the most exquisite and mysterious item. It consists of two separately cast parts: a single-edged blade and a handle crowned with an absolutely unique composition of a horse and a skier. The statuary is made by lost-wax casting and “soldered” to the blade with molten metal. A man with high Mongoloid cheekbones is standing on short skis, tied to a horse with a rein. The horse has a massive head, short legs and an erect mane, resembling those of extinct tarpans or still existing Przewalski's horses.
The composition is interpreted based on two alternative hypotheses. One of them admits skiers really moved around by being pulled behind galloping horses back in the Bronze Age. However, the static figure of the horse doesn't fit in this conception. Moreover, the skier seems to be rather holding back the horse he has just caught than following it, as judged by the specific angle of his body and the position of the skis. More preference is given to the version claiming the scene on the handle of the unique knife has a mythic or ritual nature. For instance, it could be a motive of a cultural hero catching a horse. The plot dates back to the era of horse domestication and has been variously preserved in myths of many peoples of the world.
PUBLICATIONS
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Chernykh Y., Kuzminykh S. (1989) Drevnyaya metallurgiya Severnoy Yevrazii [Ancient Metallurgy of Northern Eurasia], Moscow: Nauka.
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Golovnev A. (1998) Bronzovy lyzhnik iz Rostovki [The Bronze Skier from Rostovka]. Integratsiya arkheologicheskikh i etnograficheskikh issledovaniy: Materialy mezhdunarodnogo nauchnogo seminara, posvyashchennogo 155-letiyu so dnya rozhdeniya DN Anuchina [Integration of Archaeological and Ethnographic Studies: Proceedings of the International Research Workshop Celebrating the 155th Anniversary of the Birth of Dmitri Anuchin], Omsk, Part I, pp. 50-53.
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Matyushchenko V., Sinitsyna G. (1988) Mogil'nik u derevni Rostovka blizi Omska [The Burial Site near the Village of Rostovka in Omsk Suburbs], Tomsk: Tomsk State University.
Author: Vasilyev Y.