Idol of the Gorbunovo peat-bog
Sverdlovsk Oblast, Nizhny Tagil district, Gorbunovo peat-bog
IV–III millennium BC
Epoch – a final stage of the Stone Age – the beginning of the Bronze Age
Culture is not defined
Wood (pine)
41 x 12 cm, thickness 6 cm
From: excavations by SHM leaded by D.N. Eding (1927, 1931)
Showcase 5
The excavations of the ancient habitation site in 1930-s in Sverdlovsk Oblast took place on the bank of the shallow lake. Almost near the water's edge among wreckages of wood and various household items connected to fishing in one way or another like broken oars, plummets, float for fishing nets, cracked wooden ladles, lost bone harpoons and fishhooks, broken clay pots, five human figures made of pine wood were found. The height of these five figures was from 1 to 1,5 meters and they were dug in the lake’s bottom in ancient times. Hunter-Fishers of the end of the IV – the beginning of the III millennium BC obviously worshiped bogs and swamplands as sacral places. Sometimes they made human sacrifices to the swamp, and, probably, they used peat formed in bogs for their domestic needs: as a fuel and, supposedly as an antiseptic substance.
The ancient peoples’ imagination was amazed by deadly swamp and “swamp lights” – the light from the rotting wood.
Wooden human-shaped idols supposedly were spirits-guardians of the swamp; they were worshiped and probably were given sacrifices.
Exhibits' purpose of use – Idol, objects of worship.
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