BRIDLE SET COMPONENTS AND AMULETS IN THE ANTHROPOMORPHIC AND ZOOMORPHIC STYLE FROM THE BURIAL GROUND NO. 1 AT THE TOMUZLOVKA HILLFORT

Abstract

The article focuses on introducing to scientific discourse some of the artifacts from the destroyed burials of the burial ground No. 1 at the Tomuzlovka hillfort, located on the western outskirts of the village of Aleksandrovskoye, Stavropol Krai. The burial ground is situated north of the ancient settlement, on the left bank of the Tomuzlovka River in the locality of Alimova Budka. Among the discovered items of horse harness and amulets, 15 anthropomorphic and zoomorphic artifacts were recorded. A number of morphological features of zoomorphic and anthropomorphic images depicted on the findings discovered at the burial ground No. 1 of the Tomuzlovka hillfort allows us to clarify the period of dominance of authentic Koban pictorial traditions in the local applied arts – namely, IX-VIII – middle of the V century BC. In the second half of the V - first half of the IV century BC, a coexistence of Scythian art examples (Central Fore-Caucasus and Kuban variants of the Scythian animal style) and syncretic images, resulting from the interaction of Scythian and Koban zoomorphism, is observed in the local everyday culture.