Museum complex

Circinate pendant in a shape of a snake

Ergeneburial, Priozerniydistrict, Republic of Kalmykia
The middle of the III millennium BC
The Bronze Age
East Manych catacomb culture
Gold
Diameter – 1,8 cm; plate thickness – 0,2 cm
From: excavations by V.P. Shilov, 1985–1986
Showcase 4

A golden pendant in a shape of a snake with open jaws biting its tail. Vertical deepen line highlights the base of its head. The snake is the most common chthonic (connected to the underworlds, to the nether world) creature in the most ancient mythological and religious beliefs. In different narratives of worlds creation or the end of the world the snake has an important role embodying everything dark, disastrous and hostile. The image of a snake biting its tail is one of the most well-known and at the same time the most ancient images in mythological beliefs in Eurasian continent. It symbolizes the cyclicality and endlessness of the being as well as the renaissance. The item is dated XXIV century BC.
Exhibits' purpose of use. An ornament. The item was found in the burial. Supposedly it is a detail of a head-dress of a dead.

1