Dagger with carved finial

myminifactory

The dagger was discovered in tumulus No. 2, a site where a 10-centimeter coaly layer covered the bone remains of a 9- or 10-year-old boy who had been burnt in a special crematorium. In accordance with necropolis funeral rites, the dagger was stuck into the floor of the bone chamber and covered with crane fragments left after cremation. The tomb doesn't appear to be particularly rich, considering the number and composition of funerary gifts, but such a highly prestigious object as a knife with a carved finial indicates that the boy belonged to the upper class of Seima-Turbino society. In the social structure of the latter, nomadic warriors and bronze casters played the main roles, possessing the most sophisticated technologies of the time. By the mid-2nd millennium BC, they had made a huge forced march from Xinjiang in the east to the lower reach of the Dniester in the west, leaving behind only burial sites and memorial altars. The hallmark of such altars were glorious bronze weapons: celts, hefty spearheads, daggers, etc. An exclusive group of Seima-Turbino bronzes includes "ceremonial" or "prestigious" weapons, known as daggers with carved handles. The knife from Rostovka stands out even in this category, being recognized as the most exquisite and mysterious item. It consists of two separately cast parts: a single-edged blade and a handle crowned with an absolutely unique composition of a horse and a skier. The statuary is made by lost-wax casting and "soldered" to the blade with molten metal. A man with high Mongoloid cheekbones stands on short skis, tied to a horse with a rein. The horse has a massive head, short legs, and an erect mane, resembling those of extinct tarpans or still existing Przewalski's horses. The composition is interpreted based on two alternative hypotheses. One hypothesis suggests that skiers really moved around by being pulled behind galloping horses back in the Bronze Age. However, the static figure of the horse doesn't fit this conception. Moreover, the skier seems to be holding back the horse he has just caught rather than following it, as judged by the specific angle of his body and the position of the skis. More preference is given to the version claiming that the scene on the handle of the unique knife has a mythic or ritual nature. For instance, it could be a motive of a cultural hero catching a horse. This plot dates back to the era of horse domestication and has been preserved in various forms in myths of many peoples around the world. This object was scanned by The Laboratory for Interdisciplinary Research in Archaeology "Artefact" of the National Research Tomsk State University.