Semantics of the skull in the rituals of the andronovo population

Abstract

A special attitude to the skull (head) of the Andronovs is one of the well-known cult manifestations, which is fixed in the materials of funerary and everyday sites. Archaeological research on the settlements of Kayrakty and Lisakovskiy revealed ritual complexes with human skulls, which testify to the presence of human sacrifices in Andronovo community, closely related to the theme of fertility and cults like Attis, Adonis and Tammuz. Such rituals had wide territorial distribution and were caused by a comprehensive dependence of man on the forces of nature, which forced all means, including through sacrifice, to turn the power of the gods for himself.More numerous are the finds of human skulls conjugated with funerary complexes. They are revealed practically on the whole territory of the Andronovo cultural-historical community. Perhaps they are focused on the worship of headless deities, like Celtic and Greek, associated with death and the cult of fertility. Such, most likely, is the sacred position of ritual complexes with skulls in Andronovo rituals, where the cult significance of the skull (head) was determined by its exclusive position in the system of anthropology and cosmology.