Museum complex

Сlay rings and animal paws– objects of a burial ritual

Temerovski, Michaelovsky, Petrovsky burial mounds, Yaroslavl oblast.
The second half of the X century
Druzhina culture
Clay; modeling, firing
Size of clay rings: diameter from 12 to 17 cm Size of clay animal paws: 13.7 x 7.8 cm
Archeological excavations of the burial mounds by I.A.Tihomirov in 1897-1898. Came from the Yaroslavl state historical, architectural and art museum-reserve in the 1960-ies; Archeological excavations by the State history museum leaded by M.V.Fehner in 1960, 1962, 1963, 1976.
Showcase 19

Paws and rings were molded of rough clay and are fired badly. They were made especially for the burial and were not used in the daily life. On the territory of the ancient Rus’ were found 80 paws and 110 rings.
Most of them (more than 70 paws) are from Yaroslavl’s burial mounds. Practically every burial in Yaroslavl’s mounds was made with cremation, among which prevailed woman burials, that do not contain military supplies, arrows are an exception (mostly in burials with paws and rings no more than one arrow was found).
Clay paws and rings definitely belong to the list of unique findings in burial mounds of Yaroslavl’s Volga region of X-XI centuries. Beyond the territory of Rus’ clay paws are known in Aland islands (an autonomy in Finland located in the Baltic Sea near the entrance to the Gulf of Bothnia).
Findings made in the burials of these islands demonstrate that the tradition of making clay paws appeared here long before the creation of Temerovski, Michaelovsky and Petrovsky necropolises - in the end of the VII century.
Appearing of paws in ancient Russian burials of the X century is a witness that a part of the population of Aland islands migrated to the Yaroslavl’s Volga region.
For a long time in scientific literature the question of a totemic animal, the cult of which was reflected in the burials with clay animal paws was discussed. Russian researchers supposed that it was a cult of a bear that was also widespread among Slavic. But considering that Aland complexes are of earlier time, with time were accepted persuasive arguments about the cult of a beaver among the hunters of the Yaroslavl’s Volga region in X century, that was brought by people of Aland islands origin.
Clay rings unlike clay beaver paws are a differential characteristic of burials of the north-eastern region of the Ancient Rus’. It is obvious that this fact points that the cult was formed on the territory of Yaroslavl’s Volga region. But cases of finding rings and paws together and also same characteristic of burial rituals and the set of implements witnessed that it was formed among the same population that buried their dead with clay beaver paws. That ritual could been formed under Scandinavian influence with whom lived and migrated Aland’s population in the north-eastern region of the Rus’.
It is possible to suppose that clay rings were an imitation of grivna, but grivnas were not gifts to the totemic animal, but symbols of a life circle and etc.

More information...

Temerovski, Michaelovsky, Petrovsky burial mounds are the most famous burial mounds’ groups on the upper Volga, that belong to the period of formation of the ancient Russian state in the X century. Necropolises are located in a radius of 10-12 km from Yaroslavl city. In the scientific literature these archeological sites, research of which is continuing for more than 120 years are known under common name “burial mounds of the Yaroslavl’s Volga region”.
Near the Temerovski and Michaelovsky burial mounds’ groups were discovered simultaneous settlements that verge close by the burial mounds. All three archeological complexes were important sources for solving problems connected to the formation of the Ancient Russian state, its social structure, populating the Upper Volga region, and also activities and religious beliefs of local population in the past.
A “flourishing period” of these settlements functioning and burial mounds’ groups is in the middle – the second half of the X century. The structure of the population that left Yaroslavl’s burial mounds was polyethnic: local Finns – Merya; people of Alands islands and the Scandinavian peninsula origin; from the second half of the X century begins an active penetration of Slavic tribes (the Krivichi and the Novgorodian Slavs) that later composed the base of the nascent ancient Russian nation in the north-eastern Rus’.
Reclaiming of the headstream of the Volga river in the end of IX-X centuries by people of Scandinavia and Aland islands origin was connected to the trade ways of the Volga river that linked countries of the Northern Europe to Arabian countries, and also a fur-trade, in particular gaining beaver fur, that were very valuable in the East. A Slavic colonization of the region had another – agricultural character.

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