On crescent-shaped objects of the early Bronze Age in southern Siberia and the surrounding areas

Abstract

Abstract Crescent-shaped objects are a special type of artifact commonly found among early Bronze Age archaeological cultures in southern Siberia and the surrounding areas. Based on typology, burial context, and accompanying assemblages, in addition to related iconographic evidence, this study shows that these crescent-shaped objects, in the form of single or double birds, were religious representations once suspended from sacred attire. Crescent-shaped objects in southern Siberia and the surrounding areas might have originated in the Baikal region during the first half of the third millennium BCE, and likely began to influence regions of northern China toward the end of the third or the beginning of the second millennium BCE.