Ornitomorphic Plots on Radial Temporal Rings: Semantics and Mythological Origins

Radial temporal rings (earrings, head pendants) serve for some direct aesthetic purposes, but also for ethnic identification, status-ranking and have a symbolic-sacred value. The article addresses one of the least studied group in this category of jewelry. Dents on the inside of the handle here are replaced by some cast ornitomorphic figures. A typological correlation analysis made it possible to highlight 3 insulated variants and 4 types. The defining feature is the iconography and semantics of the image associated with a certain layer of mythology. The motives of Iranian and Byzantine art are traced (some motives find analogies in Volga Bulgaria). Some of the images go back to the Perm beast style and Finno-Ugric mythology. One variant has some contrast versions for the explanation of its semantics: Oriental, Christian and Scandinavian (the plot “Odin and crows”), transformed through the Perm animal style. All this complex picture can find an explanation in the geopolitical and cross-cultural situation of the bearers of this jewelry at the end of the 9 th — mid 10th centuries. These items were found on the lands of the late Romenskaya and final Luka-Raykovetskaya cultures (Vyatichi, Severians, Radimichi, Drevlyane, and in borderlands populated by the Tivertsi and White Croats).