The purpose of the study is to determine the origin and purpose of a series of wooden horse figurines (“koniki”) found during the excavations of Russian towns in the north of Siberia in the layers of the 17^th — 18^th century. The Siberian collection includes 66 items from excavations of Mangazeya, Berezovsky settlement, Staroturukhansky settlement, and Poluisky town. Materials from Siberian cities show the continuity of the tradition of manufacturing stylized horse figurines of Novgorod forms, which continued until the end of the 18^th century. Morphological analysis of the Siberian collection showed the similarity and continuity of forms of the Siberian figurines with those from Novgorod. These are stylized flat figures, many with ears depicted, some with slightly open mouths. At the same time, the Siberian figurines acquired differences and new details. For example, some of them have carved saddles or wings, eyes and protruding tongues, and high arched necks. Unique are the two-headed figurine and three horses with steep ledges in the area of withers. All figurines have most realistically carved heads. In Slavic mythology, it was in the head where the soul of a creature and its vital force were located. When laying the foundation of a house, the head of a sacrificial animal replaced its body, and the soul embodied within would have become the owner-patron of the house. Two-thirds of the assemblage of Siberian horse figurines were found in ruins of residential and service buildings. They were continuously present near the inhabitants and were always available for “communication” with them. These “koniki”, same as the sacrificial ones, demonstrate the mythological perceptions of the Russian Siberians about house spirits in the form of a horse. The magical protection of the house and the estate as a whole was provided not only by mobile horses, but also by stationary images of horses in the exterior and interior of the buildings. “Mobile” horse figurines represented a horse hypostasis of house spirits — the guardians of the house. They were paced as construction sacrifices when laying the foundation of a house (“sacrificial”), and also were placed within the living space (“domestic”).

Keywords: horse figurines (“koniki”), guardian spirits, construction sacrifice, Mangazeya, Berezov, Staroturukhanskoe ancient settlement, Poluisky gorodok, archeology, Siberia.

 

Funding. The work was carried out with the financial support of the Russian Science Foundation No. 22-18-00624 “Historical urbanism of Russian cities of the North of Siberia: Berezov” (analytical data processing and manuscript preparation), state assignment No. FWZG-2022-0005 IAET SB RAS “Research of archaeological and ethnographic monuments in Siberia of the era Russian State" (collection of field research materials).

 

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Accepted: 03.10.2024

Article is published: 15.03.2025