The Ornithomorphs of the Museum of Archaeology and Ethnography of Chelyabinsk State University and the Center of Historical and Cultural Heritage of Chelyabinsk

This article publishes new archaeological materials that came to the Museum of Archaeology and Ethnography of Chelyabinsk State University and the Center of Historical and Cultural Heritage of Chelyabinsk in 2015–2017. Materials of so-called “hoards” of ornithomorphs are extremely rare in the Northern areas of the Southern Trans-Urals. Therefore, the discovery of new objects of small bronze sculpture in storage facilities is of great scientific interest. The main area of distribution of “hoards” is connected with the territory of the forest–steppe zone of the Middle Urals, where the “settlements” and “sanctuary” complexes of Itkul culture of the 6th – 3rd centuries BC were located. Finding ornithomorphs in the forest-steppe zone of Chelyabinsk region extends the border of the influence of Itkul archaeological culture carriers far to the South. Ornithomorphs are traditionally associated with religious beliefs of Itkul culture carriers. As a rule, ornithomorphs are found in places where ancient “sanctuary” complexes were located: on mountain tops, in rocks or at the foot. In our case, the findings came from areas where there are no mountains or mountain outliers. These findings are from the cape hills of the South Ural lakes. The random detection of ornithomorph collection, unfortunately, does not allow to accurately determine the location of the “sanctuary” complexes. It allows to determine only the area of their approximate location. The article provides a detailed description of ornithomorphs and proposes their typology. The collection includes a variety of ornithomorphs, which can be attributed to six typological groups, and their transitional forms can be allocated. Finding a bronze arrowhead allows us to offer a conditional dating of “hoards” within the 4th century BC.