The ancient settlement of Bolshoe Storozhevoe on the Middle Don dates back to the Scythian period. In 2009, during the research conducted by the Don Archaeological Expedition of the Russian Academy of Sciences, materials from the V-IV centuries BC were found on it, and household and religious complexes were studied. The article deals with objects of ritual practice from this monument: votive ceramics, miniature vessels, zoomorphic clay plastic, as well as an altar in the form of a cylindrical platform-pavement. The considered cult objects and structures find numerous analogs in the Dnieper-Don forest-steppe and are part of the same cult and mythological tradition formed in this territory.

Key words: Scythians, ancient settlements, forest-steppe Podonye, cults, altar, cult ceramics, small clay plastic.

Introduction

The Bolshoe Storozhevoe ancient settlement is located on a promontory of the right root bank of the Don River near the village of Storozhevoe in the Ostrogozhsky district of the Voronezh Region. The total area of the monument is 7 thousand m2 (Fig. 1, 1). Based on the materials of this ancient settlement, which is one of the largest on the territory of the Middle Don, the cult practice of its inhabitants is considered in the context of religious and mythological representations of the population of the Dnieper-Don forest-steppe. Cult practice is inextricably linked with the religious worldview, economic activity of a person and a certain type of social relations.

The monument has been known since the late 1950s. The first field research on it was conducted by the Voronezh forest-steppe Scythian expedition under the leadership of P. D. Liberov. In the course of the work, the fortifications of the ancient settlement were studied, which consisted of three ramparts and two ditches [Liberov, 1962, p.36; Puzikova, 1981, p. 45-46]. It turned out that the defensive structures of the ancient settlement were built in two stages, the earliest of which dates back to the first half of the fifth century BC (Shevchenko, 2008, p.144). In 1987, the study of the ancient settlement was continued by an expedition of the Voronezh Pedagogical Institute, led by V. I. Pogorelov [1987, pp. 4-14]. It explored an area of 500 m2, obtained interesting materials related mainly to the Early Iron Age, and also proved the presence of a cultural layer of the Bronze Age.

In 2009, the Don Archaeological Expedition of the IA RAS, headed by V. I. Gulyaev, started exploring the Bolshoe Storozhevoe settlement. Its purpose was to study the cultural layer in the north-western part of the monument, where previous researchers had not conducted excavations [Gulyaev, 2010]. The excavation area in 2009 was 80 m2. A detailed study was made of the area where the stratigraphy of-

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Fig. 1. Bolshoe Storozhevoe ancient settlement. 1-topographical plan; 2 - plan of uch. 2 of excavation 6, 2009; 3-altar No. 1, plan, section along the line A-A'.

The cultural layer of the Scythian period (0.5 m thick), as well as a number of objects of a domestic and religious nature, is traced in this column. Seven utility pits and a place of worship in the form of a cylindrical elevation made of burnt loam were discovered (Figs. 1, 2).

Characteristics of ancient settlement cult complexes

The Bolshoe Storozhevoe ancient settlement is a monument where all types of religious objects and complexes of the Scythian period characteristic of the territory of the forest-steppe Don region are found: cult ceramics, votive figurines, and an altar.

Cult ceramics are represented by miniature vessels of various shapes. Three jar-shaped vessels were found. Two were discovered during the work of P. D. Liberov's expedition [1962, p.48], one vessel was found in the utility pit No. 6 of excavation No. 6 by the expedition of V. I. Gulyaev. The height of the last container is 3 cm, the diameter of the bottom is 2.5 cm; fingerprints were preserved on the bottom part (Fig. 2, 1). Known vessel in the form of a bowl on a hollow tray with a hole under the whisk. Its height is 4 cm, the diameter of the bottom is 3.5 cm, the corolla is 5.5 cm [Ibid., Table XVII, p. 17]. Probably, the vessel served as a lamp, and the hole served for hanging. In 2009, a fragment of a vessel wall with a bottom part, ornamented with drawn vertical lines (Fig. 2, 2), and the bottom of a miniature vessel (Fig. 2, 3) were found. A unique miniature pot with a strongly shaped body and a straight short corolla was found in the utility pit No. 4 of excavation No. 6. Its height is 6 cm, the diameter of the bottom and corolla is 4 cm. In the central part, the vessel is decorated with an ornament in the form of a drawn cross enclosed in a circle with a diameter of 1.5 cm (Fig. 2, 4). The closest analog of this pot is a vessel found on the ancient settlement of Voloshino on the middle Don. It is also made in the form of a pot, decorated with two horizontal lines drawn along the corolla and three horizontal lines in the bottom part. These two motifs are connected by two

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Figure 2. Cult items. 1-4-miniature vessels; 5-7-zoomorphic figurines.

rows of triple vertical lines. In the central part, the pot is decorated with a swastika [Puzikova. 1969a]. The most ancient images of crosses belong to the cultures of Babylon, Assyria, and Phoenicia, where they were symbols of the sun god.

The swastika-a symbol of fire or the sun-appeared as an element of ornamentation of ceramics in the Bronze Age, it is noted in the materials of ancient Russian monuments of the XII-XIII centuries. By origin, this motif is close to the cross, differs only in the appendages that end each ray-a symbol of the sun's movement across the sky [Sveshnikov, 1986, p. 11]. Among the pagan Slavs, it was customary to draw crosses on outbuildings and dishes on some holidays to expel evil spirits (Darkevich, 1960).

Small plastic is represented by fragments of zoomorphic figurines that were found in excavation No. 2, in the cultural layer of the Scythian period. Three fragments of rough-cut sculptures are known: instead of two pairs of legs, they have two thick appendages; only the back part of the body remains from two figures; one statuette has its head chipped off. The images are made of yellow clay, broken by black clay; their length is approx. 5 cm, height 4.5 cm (Fig. 2, 5-7).

In modern historiography, clay plastic of the Scythian period is considered as an element of cult practice. In her work on the ancient settlements of the Middle Don culture of the Scythian period, A. I. Puzikova identifies a special category of finds - objects of worship, which include animal figurines found at the ancient settlements of Voloshino, Bolshoe Storozhevoe and Kirovskoye, and connects them with the agricultural cult [1969b, p.79].

The complex of clay anthropo-and zoomorphic sculptures of the Pekshevsky settlement on the upper Don is briefly described by A. P. Medvedev. According to the researcher, the figurines had a ritual purpose. Referring to analogs from monuments on the left and right banks of the Dnieper, he notes that such objects were an important element of the culture of the population of forest-steppe settlements [1999, p. 79].

Clay plastic from the forest-steppe right bank of the Dnieper is considered by G. T. Kovpanenko, S. S. Bessonova and S. A. Skorym. They note the absence of clay figurines in funerary complexes, and publish Early and Middle Scythian finds from Pastoral and Sharapovsky hillforts, settlements in the Skibovoye tract and near the village of Zhabotin [1989, p. 52-54, 80]. S. S. Bessonova emphasizes the difference between the beliefs of the Scythian steppe people and the religious beliefs of the forest - steppe population and cites the opinion of V. P. Skibov. Andrienko says that zoomorphic figurines go back to Belogrudovskaya, and anthropomorphic ones - to the Chernoless cultural tradition [Steppes..., 1989, p. 121-122].

In the context of epochal settlement traditions characteristic of the population of the forest-steppe zone of Eurasia, M. A. Chemyakina considers the cult clay plasticity of the Irmeneka and Sargat cultures [2004]. The researcher considers such findings to be evidence of existing settlement cults associated mainly with fertility, admits the possibility of totemic manifestations in ritual practice, and also concludes that there is a single stylistic tradition in the forest-steppe zone of the Trans-Urals and Western Siberia. According to M. A. Chemyakina, West Siberian clay images are similar in stylistic features and practical application to the antiquities of the Kizil-Koba culture and clay plasticity of the Velsky settlement, which indicates the similarity of ideological ideas among the population of the forest-steppe zone of Eurasia during the transition period [2004].

The most numerous collection is clay plastic from the Velsky hillfort. Analyzing it, B. A. Shramko takes into account the Iranian basis of numerous and diverse cults that were widespread among the inhabitants of the ancient settlement, which was a cultural and religious center. Basic images and techniques for making small clay tiles

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plastics, according to B. A. Shramko, go back to the ancient traditions that developed among the agricultural tribes of southern Eastern Europe in the Eneolithic and Bronze Age. The appearance of religious beliefs with an Iranian basis on the forest-steppe left bank of the Dnieper River is explained by the contacts of the local population with the steppe Scythians, as well as the residence of the Gelons, an Iranian - speaking people, in this territory. Based on the anthropomorphic sculpture, B. A. Shramko reconstructs the rites performed and describes the pantheon of local deities and the nature of the rites [1987, pp. 127-140]. An original hypothesis is proposed by Yu. N. Boyko: he connects the products used by the population of the Vorskla River basin for agricultural worship with the lower class of artisans and farmers, and clay images of wild animals with the military [1987].

Clay plastic is a part of the material and spiritual culture of society. Ancient societies were characterized by tradition, so art was syncretic in nature. The study of clay images opens up certain possibilities for reconstructing the aesthetic, mythological and religious ideas of the people who created it. Clay votive figurines in most cases are associated with sacrificial complexes; the image embodied in clay was a substitute for the sacrificial animal.

The literature contains numerous archaeological and ethnographic materials that indicate the use of a sculptural image as the equivalent of an animal in the ritual of sacrifice. The tradition of replacing sacrificial objects with their parts or equivalents is also reflected in mounds, for example, on the middle Don there are horse ribs-a symbol for a whole carcass, as well as a horse harness symbolizing the burial of a horse [Savchenko, 2001, pp. 53 - 134]. It is no coincidence that the circle of animals depicted is also different, each of which occupied a certain place in the hierarchy; this concept was widespread among Indo-Europeans, including in the Scythian environment. Describing the symbolic basis of the plot on the pectoral from Tolstoy Mogila and recognizing the composition of its images as "the equivalent of a magical formula that ensures the well-being and multiplication of livestock", D. S. Rayevsky refers to ancient Indian ideas. According to ancient Indian sources, man, horse, cow, sheep and goat are the five "parts of cattle"; this pentad is compared with other five - member classifications that reflect different aspects of the universe. Thus, when laying an altar, a human skull was usually placed in the center, and the skulls of a horse, bull, ram, and goat were usually placed in the cardinal directions (Rayevsky, 2006, pp. 486-488). Scythian monuments are characterized by altars with human skulls or clay sculptural groups, which include anthropomorphic, as well as zoomorphic figurines depicting animals of various biological species; such groups can be considered as models that ensure balance in nature and fertility.

A clay pavement of a cult character was found in the eastern part of excavation No. 6. It was an oval elevation, elongated along the north-south line, made of reddish-yellow loam (subjected to temperature treatment), 0.2 m high, 1.2 x 0.7 m in size. The flat surface of the structure is lined with small flat fragments of the walls of stucco vessels of the Scythian period. Above the ceramic layer was a layer of bone decay with a thickness of 0.03-0.05 m (see Figs. 1, 3). This structure was an altar, and unique for the territory of the Middle Don, structures of this type are more typical for monuments of the Povorsklya and Seversky Donets. Similar design features of religious buildings are known in the Dnieper-Don forest-steppe [Gavrish, 1992, p. 35; Bshozor, 2004, p. 10; Shramko, 1998, p.31; et al.].

V. P. Andrienko proposed a typology of altars in the forest-steppe. He assigned clay pavements with relief ornaments to type I, cylindrical elevations with a smooth whitewashed surface or a cup-shaped depression at the top to type II, and clay plate - shaped elevations to type III (Ashplenko, 1974, pp. 93-94). To these types I. P. Rusanova also adds clay pavements without ornaments, pavements made of stones and shards, from animal bones, simple bonfires, on which sacrifices were also performed [2002, p. 121]. The altar on the Bolshoe Storozhevoe hillfort is a transitional form between altars of types I and II (according to V. P. Andrienko) and is close to the altars belonging to the circle of monuments close to the Eastern Velsky hillfort.

Type I altars (according to V. P. Andrienko) belong to religious complexes of communal use: similar structures are noted at the Knyshov settlement (Gavrish, 1992, p. 40-41), the Western Velsky settlement (Zolnik No. 28), the settlement of Vishenka - 2, and the Glinsky settlement; a similar sanctuary is known at the pozdnesrubny settlement of Boguslav (Zadnikov,1992, p. 40-41). 2002, pp. 31-32]. Altars made of stone and clay, where communal cults were performed, are also found on such monuments of the Bronze Age as Pustynka and Usovo Ozero; similar altars are often found in ash pits of the Belogrudovskaya and Chernoless cultures, and are found in the settlements of Adamovka, Sobkovka, and Gindesti (Rusanova, 2002, p.122).

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Altars of type II are widely represented on monuments on the left bank of the Dnieper River; they are located near dwellings, and each residential building has its own altar. The altars were used once, and after performing the ritual, they were disposed of in the adjacent utility pits [Voropaeva and Gavrish, 2009, pp. 142-148].

Conclusion

Thus, the cult practice of the people who inhabited the Bolshoe Storozhevoe settlement in Scythian times is focused on the worship of fertility cults. Cylindrical altars often form a single complex with household buildings. It can be assumed that the rituals were performed within a separate family. Clay zoomorphic figurines demonstrate the idea of replacing the victim; they were made for one-time use and broken during ritual actions, which probably should have symbolized the killing of the sacrificial animal. These votive objects and structures have numerous analogs in the Dnieper-Don forest-steppe, primarily on the monuments of the Seversky Donets and Povorsklya, and are a manifestation of a single cult and mythological tradition for this territory.

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The article was submitted to the Editorial Board on 14.12.09.

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