Museum complex

Head of a moose

Nizhny Novgorod Oblast, Dzerzhinskiy district, settlement Volodary
The end of the IV – the beginning of the III millennium BC
Epoch - the final stage of the Stone Age
Volosovo culture
Horn of a moose
10,6 х 3,3 cm
From: excavations by SHM leaded by I.K. Zvetkova, 1971
Showcase 8

Sculpture of the head of a moose was found on a site of the final stage of the Stone Age on so-called “ritual ground” – a special place near a phreatic burial ground, where, probably, commemorative and memorial events connected to worshiping dead relatives were held. The head of a moose is very realistically and vividly made. Details are made with carving, polishing and grinding, with round drilled holes matching eyes. At the bottom the sculpture has a special oval hole for fixing at the handle. The item belongs to the group of so called batons with a moose head, known as in their material embodience, and as parietal art on the wide forestal areas of Eurasia from Norway to the Baikal Lake.
These batons reminded axes with their shape a bit and belonged to adult males – experienced hunters, heads of families, and these batons symbolized, supposedly, a male-moose in wintertime when he dropped off horns.
Exhibits' purpose of use – a ritual object, men’s baton.

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