Ka-mərəδa in the Art and Ritual of the Scythians? (To Semantics of the Image of Head) / Ka-mərəδa в мистецтві та ритуалі скіфів? (До семантики образу голови) (original) (raw)

The paper proposes the study of the visual motif of severed human head in the art of Scythia and contextually related to this plot the group of altars with human skulls have discovered on the ashpits of the Tsarina urochishche of the Great Bil’s’k settlement, which are dated back to the 7th – 5th centuries BC. The interpretation of the ritual of these sacrifices based on the Indian ritualistic is offered. The construction of the archaic altar No. 1 on the ashpit No. 3 resembles the building of the Agni Altar in the agnichayana ritual in which a separated human head was laid in the foundation of the structure. Proceeding from the fact that economic activity on this ashpit was closely connected with metallurgical production, the ritual, as well as in a case with the Indian equivalent, could be devoted to a cult of fire and have a similar semantics connected with the temporal cycle.