Sign of the Way in the Symbolism of the Fedorovo Culture

Abstract

The authors offer an interpretation of one of the exclusive attributes of the Fedorovo culture such as clay containers known as dishes. Artifacts from two burial sites are considered as the main source: Urefty I (forest-steppe Trans-Urals, Chelyabinsk region) and Lisakovsky I (Northern Kazakhstan, Kostanay region). The analysis of contexts and analogies in the Bronze Age cultures of Central Europe makes it possible to regard clay dishes as wagon models. This symbolism corresponds to the dynamics of the Fedorovo culture, the bearers of which had a pronounced motivation to move. The Fedorovo culture has a widespread distribution of its sites within the Andronovo community. The main features of this culture are the complexity of the funeral rite, a significant influence on aboriginal cultures during the colonization of the lands to the North and East of the original migration territory. All of the above indicates the formation of an autonomous group in the hierarchy of local society, which had a high degree of mobility. The original core of the Fedorovo culture was formed in the steppe Trans-Urals and Kazakhstan in the status of the subculture of one of the local community elites, which was represented by sites of the Alakul culture. It was here that the original “chariot complex” had been formed, which reflected innovations in the field of transport and speed, representing an expressive form of ritual practice. The development of the “mobility sign” in the funeral rite from the chariot (the Sintashta culture) to its imitation (the Petrovka culture), and then to a more capacious expression in the form of a wagon model (the Fedorovo culture) corresponds to the symbol’s universal trajectory.