Distribution Areas of Some Types of Body Crosses Referred to the 17th—19th Centuries in Russia

Abstract

This article is the first nation-wide attempt to study an issue of localization of certain types of body crosses in the Russian archaeology. The source base of the study is represented by 5,465 body crosses originating from 78 regions of the Russian Federation. The localization of 20 different types of body crosses is reviewed. It was determined that 16 of them have a dense geographical localization. The results obtained allow concluding that the data from the State Catalogue of the Museum Fund of the Russian Federation, as a whole, correctly reflects the cultural and historical phenomena of the past. The manufacturing centers for most types of crosses were established. The migration directions of groups of people with certain types of crosses were revealed. It is proposed to identify crosses with such morphological and/or iconographic features, which have limited geographical localization, as typological units, as this allows moving from a formal record-oriented classification to an informative one, that is, one that reflects the cultural and historical phenomena of the past.