Evgeny Bogdanov from the Institute of Archeology and Ethnography SB RAS introduced into scientific circulation the data obtained during the study of the Tesin burial mound Skalnaya-5, located on the territory of Khakassia.
Journal “Problems of archeology, ethnography, anthropology of Siberia and adjacent territories”
The Skalnaya-5 burial ground, where the death masks were found, was plundered in ancient times.
The scientist’s article was published in the journal “Archaeology, Ethnography and Anthropology of Eurasia.” He focused his attention on ritual moments.
Earlier, in the Skalnaya-5 burial mound, during archaeological work, clay and plaster masks of the Tesin culture (2nd century BC – 2nd century AD) were found, on which the outlines of faces are visible. From the masks you can understand what the ancient inhabitants of Southern Siberia looked like.
As part of a new study, it was possible to establish exactly how death masks were made. As Evgeny Bogdanov writes, the coating was applied to the cervical vertebrae and the trepanned skull. For this purpose, local clay of one type was used.
“Sculptural portraits were created only from plaster (two main layers and one finishing), and the pigments were ocher of different shades, cinnabar and charcoal,” follows from the scientific work. “In each case, apparently, by different masters, a specific, unique an image with an ethnic component.”
The researcher notes that the female image had a more complex coloring, which was a pattern in the form of one or several trefoils. And the male image has always been monochromatic – red.
By the way, an ornament in the form of a trefoil is recorded on two more women’s “masks” from the graves of another monument – Kamenka III. This allows us to raise the question of the kinship of a certain group of women.
“Among the nomadic pastoralists of Southern Siberia there is no tradition of sculptural work with plaster and color painting, so we can assume an impulse from the western territories,” the scientist writes. “Conceptual similarities were found only with Egyptian materials of the Roman period: with painted plaster facial sculptures made for funerary ritual.”
By the way, rescue archaeological excavations at the Skalnaya burial grounds were carried out in 2021 by a team from the IAET SB RAS. Archaeologists examined three mounds. The seven burials they uncovered contained more than 100 items made of bronze, iron, clay, gypsum and organic materials.
In particular, in the Skalnaya-5 mound, identified as an elite burial complex, clay-plaster death masks and preserved burial goods were found.
Despite the fact that the crypt was plundered in ancient times, all the details of the two-tiered burial bed were preserved in it: boards, posts, supporting logs and traces of their fastening.
Almost all of the buried people found in excavations were wearing masks. In some cases, it was clay applied to the face of a deceased person and covered with a thin layer of painted plaster, essentially a death mask replicating the appearance of the deceased.
In other cases, clay was applied to a skull trepanned in the temporal part, and the plaster covering was painted red. But this was already a restored image of a person, the researchers emphasize, based on the skills and ideas of the master.
The third type – a human head was modeled from clay, and wooden sticks imitated the bones of the arms and legs, that is, in this case, dolls were obtained. Unfortunately, most of the clay and plaster products were destroyed, but from the surviving masks it was still possible to establish that they represented “faces” of both Mongoloid and Caucasoid appearance.
Source: rodina-history.ru
