Concerning the sacred meaning of ceramic artifacts from the clay altars in the dwellings of the land along the Syr-Darya river

Abstract

The paper is dedicated to the publication of a unique ceramic artifact from the house floor shrine in a house, excavated while clearing the X-XI centuries layer of the ancient settlement of Kultobe in Turkestan. A horseshoe-shaped ceramic item had special stops that most likely served to install it over a special hole with coals of a small round fireplace for burning herbal substances. This artifact increases the repertoire of ceramic attributes used at the home shrine. Usually during archaeological excavations only calcined areas with holes on the floor remain. Only in exceptional cases such as the ruins of Oguz dwellings of the lower reaches of the Syr Darya river there were found ceramic items in the form of double protoma at the shrine.

These findings put an end to the interpretations at the mundane level of the so-called «barbecue area», which despite of the diversity of forms had constructive and semantic unity. It is interesting that such a ceramic fireplace/shrine attributes have been known since the Early Iron Age. They are common to «Scythian» dwellings from Siberia to Crimea. Since the Saka-Sarmatian age such figures in different religious contexts have served as important amulets the goodness of which could have an impact both on personal and public spheres.