The article is devoted to the analysis of engravings on metal plaques, mirrors and imported tableware of the Early Iron Age-the Middle Ages. Drawings are considered as one of the components of the visual arts of the region at the specified time. The historiography of the issue is given, and the area of such graffiti is outlined. The author's position in the study of this array of products is indicated. Engravings are analyzed in two ways: images and their iconography, scenes and composition. The plot with drawings on silver plaques from the beginning of the second millennium AD is considered separately. It is concluded that the engraved drawings on metal demonstrate iconographic and compositional commonality, filling the scenes with the same characters, and matching these features to other types of ancient and medieval art in the region, in particular, bronze art plastics. Engravings are considered in the context of the phenomenon of ancient and modern culture of the north of Western Siberia and the Northern Urals.

Key words: engravings, iconography, composition, visual arts of the north of Western Siberia and the Urals.

Introduction

Engravings, or graffiti - drawn drawings applied to a base of stone, bone, or metal-are ubiquitous in cultures of various eras. In the archaeological literature, there is no single name for them: the same manifestations of ancient visual activity are called "graffiti", "engravings", "embedded drawings", "petroglyphs", etc. The meaning of these terms is almost identical: "scratched" or embedded drawings, inscriptions, ornaments. In the future, we will use the term "engraving" due to its prevalence in the literature.

In the north of Western Siberia and in the Northern Urals during the Iron Age - from the end of the first millennium BC to the beginning of the XIV century AD - drawings were often applied by means of engraving on metal products, often on top of pre-existing decor. Such images were made with a knife or other sharp tool on metal (most often bronze) plaques and dishes. Drawings made on bronze zoo-and ornithomorphic castings are also known (Kazantseva and Chemyakin, 1999, p. 108). The themes of the drawings are different: disguises, anthropomorphic figures, scenes with several characters, often supplemented with zoo-and ornithomorphic images, as well as scenes with animals, sometimes fantastic [Baulo, 2011, p. 234-235], individual figures of birds and animals.

Study history

Engravings as a type of visual activity are undoubtedly unique, their representativeness in complexes that have an ideological (sacred) character, iconographic similarity, sometimes reaching complete identity,with images of another visual array found in the same region-artistic bronze plastic. However, the degree of their study is extremely small: less than a dozen works are devoted to them.

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The first work, which presents an analysis of engraved images on silver dishes of the Middle Ages, belongs to A. A. Spitsyn [1906]. It is important that the author considers engraved and cast images together and notes the similarity of iconographic types [Ibid., p. 35]. Even more important is his remark: "... first of all, we must pay attention to the images scratched on the dishes, precisely in view of the fact that they often represent entire scenes (here and further, our italics are N. F.)" [Ibid., p. 31].

The second work, in which engravings and cast images are also analyzed together, is "Bronze of the Ust-Poluisk time" by V. N. Chernetsov. Studying the Ust-Poluy plaques with engravings from the excavations of V. S. Adrianov, the researcher writes: "These signs (drawings - engravings) connect them (plaques) with a large group of engraved images (found on plaques usually larger than described) on bronze mirrors and imported, often silver, dishes. The engravings represent anthropomorphic and zoomorphic figures, in most cases of a mythical nature, which always form whole compositions" [1953, p. 136]. Further, V. N. Chernetsov quite rightly notes:: "The question of these images, their possible semantics and purpose is so complex, and the material is so plentiful, that it is impossible to consider it within the scope of this topic" [Ibid.].

The next most recent work, dedicated to embedded drawings on imported silver dishes, was published by V. Y. Leshchenko in the appendix to V. P. Darkevich's research " Artistic metal of the East of the VIII-XIII centuries. Works of Eastern toreutics on the territory of the European part of the USSR and the Trans-Urals". It has a characteristic name: "The use of oriental silver in the Urals" [1976]. The author describes in detail the drawings on the vessels and indicates their dates, examines the symbolism and purpose of images in the framework of shamanic cults, and also provides extremely important information about the correspondence of places of discovery of dishes with engraved images to places of medieval sanctuaries [Ibid., p. 186, etc.].

Engravings (graffiti) from the complexes of the European Northeast were published and analyzed by A. L. Bagin [1998]. All of them, according to the author, belong to sanctuaries. AL. Bagin, having stipulated the difficulties of dating images, nevertheless distinguishes two chronological groups of drawings: the first "fits into the framework of the turn of the eras and the first half of the first millennium AD" [Ibid., p. 84], the second refers to the X-XI centuries. [Ibid.]. The researcher's observations concerning the number of individual subjects (anthropomorphic images, deer, etc.) and artistic techniques for transmitting images, such as deer, are important: profile images, "skeletal" style; interpretation of all four limbs in the form of thin lines, sometimes with hooves turned full-face; hypertrophied eye that stands out above the head line [Ibid.]. It is interesting to compare the iconography, compositions and individual subjects of engravings and plaques of the Perm animal style. A. P. Bratin's remark about the predominance of reindeer bones in the Heybidya-Padara sanctuary and deer images on engravings among the finds from this monument is noteworthy [Ibid., p. 85].

Several works by Yu. P. Chemyakin are devoted to Early Iron Age engravings from the Middle and Lower Ob region (see the bibliography in Kazantseva and Chemyakin, 1999). He and his co-author T. G. Kazantseva took into account almost all drawings on metal objects: "We know 147 published and unpublished items with drawings, of which about 80 date back to the Early Iron Age" [Ibid., p. 103]. Yu. P. Chemyakin points out that the largest number of drawings from the Early Iron Age were found in the Middle and Lower Regions of Russia. Some specimens were found in the Kama region, caves of the Northern Urals, as well as in the Aidashinskaya cave [Ibid.]. The researcher makes a far from indisputable conclusion, following V. N. Chernetsov, about the unconditional proximity of the subjects of engravings with rock carvings of the Urals and Western Siberia (Tomskaya pisanitsa) [Ibid.].

A very valuable publication is the collection of bronze mirrors from the collection of the State Museum of Nature and Man (Khanty-Mansiysk), prepared by a team of authors (Prystupa, Starodumov, Yakovlev, 2002). Published mirrors with engraved drawings depicting entire scenes with the participation of anthropomorphic characters were previously known as "mirrors from the Khanty-Mansiysk Museum" by V. N. Chernetsov in 1953. The new edition examines in detail the path of this collection to the museum, provides excellent quality photos and drawings of images on mirrors. The authors of the book note several important points, including the presence of mirrors with engravings mainly on ancient sanctuaries and the combination of imported mirrors and bronze disc-shaped plaques in some complexes, obviously of local work [Ibid., p. 20].

At present, the period when the engravings were made, or rather, its beginning, and their area are clear. It can be considered established that the appearance of engravings refers to the Early Iron Age, more precisely, the time of ca. Almost all drawings are made on metal objects-mirrors, plaques, dishes, even on objects of bronze plastic. There are also drawings on bone and stone: the complex of finds from the ancient Ust-Poluy sanctuary includes a deer horn with images of a deer and a bear's head, a bone-

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a new crest decorated in the style of engravings and a stone plaque with an embedded image of an anthropomorphic disguise. In the materials of monuments with a frozen cultural layer on the territory of the modern Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous District, dated to the period after the XIV century AD, there are known drawings on wood and some very specific images on birch bark. It is not a mistake to assume that the absence of products made of organic materials with engraved drawings is a consequence of their poor preservation in the cultural layer of monuments.

The area of engravings in the Early Iron Age includes the Surgut Ob region in the east; the basins of the Kazym, Lyapin, Severnaya Sosva, and Lower Ob rivers and the territory of the ancient Ust-Poluy sanctuary in the north; the territory of Glyadenovsky monuments in the Pechora basin (Kaninskaya Cave, Novy Bor burial ground) in the west and beyond the Ural Range in the northwest. To the south of the main area of such images is the site of the discovery of the Istyak treasure near Tobolsk with drawings on plaques / mirrors. Individual engravings that are quite different in style (iconography) come from the eastern part of Western Siberia (Aidashinskaya cave, Mount Kulayka, Ishim collection).

In the Early Iron Age, the center of the area where most items with the most diverse scenes were recorded was located in the north-western part of the territory of Western Siberia (the Surgut Ob region, the basins of the Severnaya Sosva, Kazym, Synya Rivers, and the lower reaches of the Poluy River). In the Middle Ages, this center seems to have shifted to the west: the main number of engravings known to date is made on silver dishes, silver and white bronze plaques, which are found in the Perm Region and the Komi Republic. The database on the number of medieval engravings from the Trans-Urals region is being expanded. There are known engravings on at least eight imported vessels-saucers from the Yamgort treasure and Pashkin yurts [Leshchenko, 1976, p. 187], a ladle from Koda Gorodok [Ibid., p. 182], a saucer from Berezov [Treasures of the Ob Region..., 2003, p. 31], and a Verkhnenilda dish [Baulo, 2004a, p. 128], a platter with the image of King David [Baulo, 20046, p. 26-29], two spherical bronze bowls from the collection of the I. S. Shemanovsky Yamalo-Nenets Regional Museum and Exhibition Complex (hereinafter-MVK). Medieval engravings are also found on cast silver plaques of West Siberian, local production [Treasures of the Ob Region..., 2003, p. 50]. A rather unexpected event was the discovery of numerous engravings on silver jewelry imported (most likely from the Pre-Urals) in the XIII-XIV centuries : a lapidary pendant [Komova and Priposta, 2012, p. 63, il. 24], a bracelet leaf [Ibid., p. 82, il. 35], and a temporal pendant with a rhombic shield [Ibid., p. 107, ill. 51]. Thus, it is quite likely that the recorded "shift" of the center of the range to the west is only a consequence of insufficient study of its eastern part.

So, at present, researchers have a corpus of finds for analysis, including more than 150 items with drawings; about one half of them are scenes with two or more characters, the other half are single images.

Problem statement

The main purpose of the article is to determine the place of graphic drawings of the Iron Age and the Middle Ages in the general system of visual arts of the peoples of the north of Western Siberia. We refuse in advance to set ourselves such tasks as determining the plot of engravings or reconstructing cults in which drawings could participate, and even more so from attempts to connect them with a specific ethnic group. The plot of the drawings cannot be reasonably interpreted by a modern researcher, and the widespread distribution of engraved images in time and space a priori suggests the presence of different ethnic groups, which could also have different local cults. Fractional classification by chronology, standard archaeological typology of images of engravings, in our opinion, reduces the perception of this type of visual activity as a certain whole, organically inherent in the ancient population of the region. Therefore, we prefer to use the terms "character" or "image", "iconography", "scene", "composition". In works devoted to engravings, the term "plot" is usually used. In our opinion, the term "image" is more consistent with the task of describing drawings than the term "plot", which implies a certain level of reconstruction/interpretation, which is not always correct: for example, V. Y. Leshchenko calls one image the head of a shaman [1976, p. 186, Fig.31]. Images of animals are sometimes difficult to define before the species, so we then give many names for zoomorphic images in quotation marks: "bear", "beaver", etc.Drawings are analyzed from the point of view of the iconography of individual images, as well as scenes in which characters participate, and their compositions. Here, a "scene" is a set of figures connected by a single action. Composition, i.e. the organization of figures on a plane, makes it possible to imagine their possible relationship or subordination. D. G. Savinov, who studied visual monuments of the Early Scythian period, distinguishes several types of compositions: single-row, multi-row, circular, "two in one", "mysterious pictures" [2012, p. 38]. In the future, we will analyze the available engravings from these positions as well.

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Description and analysis of the material

Images and iconography. Anthropomorphic characters and individual personalities were most often depicted. The latter term is rather conventional: a mask is an image of an anthropomorphic face( head), sometimes with a reduced torso or limbs. The name "anthropomorphic" is used by almost all authors to refer to human-like characters in engravings or bronze casting, because they are precisely anthropomorphic, i.e. human-like, and do not always convey the image of a person in a naturalistic way.

The analysis of the iconography of anthropomorphic images embodied on bronze or silver products allows us to distinguish two levels of visual techniques. The first one, which is the most common and characteristic of all images, regardless of the date of manufacture of the object or the area to which it belonged at the time of discovery, was used to convey the pose of the characters and some standard features of the figure and face. The figure is shown almost always full-face to the viewer (profile images of the head or figure are isolated), legs are spaced, the head is disproportionately large for the torso, the completion of the head is conical, in the form of three prongs or an animal / bird head/semi-figure. Facial features: the basis of the drawing is formed by eyebrows drawn almost in one line, a straight nose, large almond-shaped eyes close to the nose, a mouth in the form of a segment, almond-shaped or rectangular. Often a sign of the male sex or the so-called life line is depicted. Clothing details or weapons items (where they are drawn) they correspond to their own time. Pictorial techniques of the second level were used to convey more rare features from the point of view of iconography. In the Early Iron Age, this is a broken line running from the nose to the cheekbone, or arched lines on the cheeks, an image of a two - or three-headed (two-or three-faced) image, a head or disguise with an "open" top, in the early Middle Ages-an image of a kind of three-pointed headdresses and bladed weapons (Fig. 1-7).

1. A bronze plaque with engravings. The ancient sanctuary of Ust-Poluy (Moshinskaya, 1965, p. 35, fig. 20).

2. A bronze plaque with engravings. Ancient sanctuary of Ust-Poluy, BETWEEN them. I. S. Shemanovsky, Salekhard.

3. A bronze plaque with engravings. State Museum of Nature and Man, Khanty-Mansiysk [Priposta, Starodumov, Yakovlev, 2002, p. 55].

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4. A bronze plaque with engravings. State Museum of Nature and Man, Khanty-Mansiysk [Priposta, Starodumov, Yakovlev, 2002, p. 69].

Fig. 5. A dish with engravings from the village of More-Anikovskaya [Leshchenko, 1976, p. 181, fig. 21, a].

6. Ladle with engravings from Koda Gorodok [Leshchenko, 1976, p. 182, fig. 22, a].

7. A dish with engravings from the village of Sludka (Leshchenko, 1976, p. 180, Fig. 20, a).

Recently, we became aware of engravings on things from private collections and various museums. Anthropomorphic characters are depicted on two bronze Iranian bowls purchased by the I. S. Shemanovsky International Exhibition Center and on a silver disk (medallion) from the collection of the Museum of History and Culture of the Peoples of Siberia (hereinafter referred to as MICNS) of the IAET SB RAS (Figs. 8-11). The engravings on the bowls, taking into account the date of the objects themselves, were probably made no earlier than the IX century. Although in some features of the drawing, they resemble rather images of the early Iron Age: all the characters stand in a row; there are two of them on one bowl (see Fig. 9), on the other - three (see Figure 8). The characters are depicted in the full face, with their legs spread apart. Interestingly, the figures are shown in a single line from the hands to the feet. On a bowl with three figures, the arms and legs of the characters end with images of the heads of "reptiles" or birds, the torso is not drawn, and the outline of the head is also drawn.

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8. A bowl with engravings from the collection of the I. S. Shemanovsky International Exhibition Center, Salekhard.

9. A bowl with engravings from the collection of the I. S. Shemanovsky International Exhibition Center, Salekhard.

Fig. 10. A disk with engravings from the collection of MICNS IAET SB RAS [Baulo, 2011, p. 245].

11. A disk with engravings from the collection of MICNS of the IAET SB RAS (Baulo, 2011, p. 245).

Rhombic eyes are depicted, noses are represented by five vertical lines, mouths - in the form of two intersecting arcs. This technique was used to create bronze anthropomorphic castings, probably to emphasize the" many faces " of the character. On the bowl with two figures, the torsos are outlined from below, showing the sign of the male sex and four-fingered hands. The character to the left of the viewer has a headdress (?), oval eyes and mouth, and the nose is represented by five vertical lines. The second figure is similar to the first, but it has a nose and eyebrows shown in one line, and three long"eyelashes" are drawn on the lower edge of the eye outline.

On the silver medallion disk, drawings are made on two sides: on one side - anthropomorphic images combined with an animal figure (see Fig. 10), on the other - two fish figures (see Fig. 11). The iconography of anthropomorphic characters is very rare: both figures are depicted in profile, with their legs raised, shoulders shown in full view, hands on the sides of the figures, and the left hand of the right character is raised. The heads are depicted in profile, a large nose and a large triangular eye are highlighted, and behind the head is an imitation of hair (braid?). [Baulo, 2011, p. 245].

Images of animals and birds on engravings are also quite strictly canonized. Among the belly-

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Some of them are "bears", "beavers", "deer", less often "fish" or "reptiles" that are not completely identifiable or even fantastic animals [Ibid., pp. 234, 235, 241]. Animals are most often depicted in profile, only the "bear" is sometimes shown standing on its hind legs full-face (see Figs. 3, 4). The iconography of drawings made using the first-level techniques is characterized by the image of the "life line", the tail with a diamond-shaded grid in the "beavers", the open mouth and three-and four-fingered eyes. limbs of all animals, including "deer", an anthropomorphic mask on the chest of the "bear"standing in front of the viewer. Examples of the use of pictorial techniques of the second level are a special drawing of the eye-arched, adjacent to the outline of the head, sometimes even going beyond it [Ibid., pp. 234, 238], as well as drawings in the form of small crosses on the animal's rump.

On the silver disk from the collection of the Institute of Applied Physics and Technology of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences there are three images of fish: on one side - the figure of a "beaver", on the other-two independent figures are located one under the other, both have fins (one upper and three lower), almond-shaped eyes, "life line", hatching in the form of squares,- apparently, it imitates scales (see Fig. 11). Fish are depicted on engravings quite rarely and, as a rule, schematically-with one upper fin, a large eye in the form of an almond (see, for example: [Leshchenko, 1976, p. 187, Fig. 35]). Fish images are most typical, perhaps, for the north-east of Europe - the territory of the modern Komi Republic (see, for example: [Murygin, 1992, p. 19, Fig. 5; p. 37, fig. 16]).

Two iconographic types of images of the bird image are recorded: in profile and in a standing position, full-face and with open wings. Moreover, in bronze plastic, these types strictly correspond to the" breed " of the bird, for example, predators are almost always depicted full-face with open wings, and waterfowl-in profile on engravings, waterfowl do not occur at all, several images of a hog bird are known (grouse or partridge?; Fig. 12), and predators can be shown and in the fas, and in the profile. For engravings of the early Iron Age, the image is characteristic not only of the torso, but also of the head of a bird. The image of the bird's "face", especially in various "owls", is the same as that of anthropomorphic characters.

Scenes and compositions. Metal products can display a single figure or a composition in the form of one or more horizontal (vertical or circular) rows of figures, which we would call complex, since it is impossible to denote it in one word. As in Early Scythian art, some engravings show images "two in one", in the words of D. G. Savinov [2012, p. 44], i.e. one image is inscribed in another.

Early Iron Age drawings are characterized by scenes in which the main composition is a horizontal row of standing anthropomorphic figures, there are usually from two to seven of them, seven figures are most often found (see Figure 4). Less often, anthropomorphic and zoomorphic characters alternate (Priposta, Starodumov, Yakovlev, 2002, p. 55). There are compositions of several horizontal rows: a row of anthropomorphic images, below them-one or two rows of zoomorphic figures (see Figs. 3, 4).

Engraved drawings on plaques from the ancient Ust-Poluy sanctuary are presented in the form of either a single figure or a horizontal row (see Figs. 1, 2). More complex are the compositions of engravings from Barsova Gora (Kazantseva and Chemyakin, 1999, pp. 107-108). They are represented by horizontal rows, shapes arranged vertically or in a circle. Moreover, the last construction is most likely related to the shape of the product.

In the Middle Ages, anthropomorphic figures, sometimes combined with images of animals forming a horizontal row, were mainly placed along the edge of the dish (Leshchenko, 1976, p. 180, Fig. 20, b; p. 183, Fig. 25). The most common complex compositions are those with elements that, at first glance, are organized around a central anthropomorphic character, which is noticeably larger than all the others [Ibid., p. 180, fig. 20, a; p. 182, fig. 22]. The usual interpretation of such compositions as built "around the main character" seems to be simplified or even incorrect - on a dish from S. Sludka, one of the five smaller anthropomorphic characters depicted in a row over the central largest figure "stands" literally on the head of the latter [Ibid., Fig. 20, a]. There are also ab-

12. A saucer with engravings from the Yamgort yurts (Leshchenko, 1976, p. 187, fig. 36).

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These compositions are completely unsystematic, in the modern view [Ibid., p. 183, fig. 26, a; Murygin, 1992, p. 19, Fig. 5], which, of course, convey some idea.

Compositions aptly named "two in one" by D. G. Savinov are found in three versions: in the form of an anthropomorphic mask on the chest/torso of an animal or bird [Pripoda, Starodumov, Yakovlev, 2002, p. 55, 71], an anthropomorphic figure composed of two zoomorphic images or more [Ust-Poluy..., 2003, p. 26], and figures placed one inside the other [Baulo, 2011, p. 245].

Interestingly, if the object on which the drawings are applied has a natural orientation, for example, the handle of a metal mirror, then the top of the drawing most often corresponds to this handle. If the engravings are made on the pendant, then the top usually corresponds to the hole or loop for hanging. Despite the apparent obviousness of this observation, it is important, because drawings drawn with a thin line could not always be considered as decoration of the product. In other words, for some reason it was important for the person who applied the engraving to take into account the real top-bottom of the suspension or badge. This rule was used by the master of the Middle Ages when creating drawings on round plaques with loops [Bagin, 1998, pp. 89-90]. If the drawings were made on a platter or bowl, the top of the composition corresponded either to the top of the dish's own decor, or to a hole in its side, which, obviously, served to hang things.

The problem of superimposing engraved drawings of the Early Iron Age and the Middle Ages on top of each other, as well as "adding" their own decor to imported silver dishes, has been repeatedly discussed (see, for example, [Leshchenko, 1976, pp. 177-178]). V. Yu. Leshchenko writes: "Repeated overlapping of some figures by others indicates the different timing of the embedded drawings" [Ibid., p. 178]. This point of view is quite acceptable, but since the purpose of engravings and the order of their application are not known, it can be assumed that the superposition of some figures on others is a kind of compositional technique (such as creating a certain perspective in the composition).

An original composition on a silver disk from the collection of the Institute of Applied Mathematics and Applied Mathematics of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences: two anthropomorphic figures with raised legs are located above the image of a "beaver", in which the figure of a fish is inscribed. According to A.V. Baulo, who published the findings, anthropomorphic characters, possibly horsemen, "sit on an animal" [2011, p. 245]. We can offer a different interpretation of this composition. The pose with raised legs for folklore characters means the pose of flight: "Wadesi goes to the seashore, raises his legs in front of him and flies" (Golovnev, 1995, p.390). However, both interpretations of the described composition belong to the sphere of hypotheses and can hardly have strict proofs.

Masters of silver belts: on the problem of the emergence of proto-urban centers of toreutics in the Urals. At the beginning of the second millennium AD, round plaques, the base of which was cut from a thin sheet of silver or bronze, became widespread in the Cis-Urals and in the north of Western Siberia (Figs. On top

13. Plaque with engravings from the collection of the I. S. Shemanovsky International Exhibition Center, Salekhard.

14. Plaque with engravings from the collection of the I. S. Shemanovsky International Exhibition Center, Salekhard.

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the badge always had a riveted bronze loop (regardless of what material the badge itself was made of), and a pearl ornament around the edge. The place of production of these plaques was, apparently, proto-urban centers of art craft somewhere in the Urals. Some plaques were engraved [Bagin, 1998, pp. 89-90, figs. 2/2, 3; 3/1, A, B] or similar in terms of execution technique, iconography of characters, and placement of images on the plaque (see, for example, [Baulo, 2001]). The masters 'adherence to ancient patterns, or rather pictorial canons, can be considered, firstly, as a transfer of the traditions of creating "sacred" drawings on metal of the early Iron Age-the Middle Ages to completely "secular" silver plaques of the beginning of the second millennium AD; secondly, as evidence of the cultural closeness of "masters of plaques" and their customers with performers of metal engravings. It can be stated that the engraved drawings on metal demonstrate an amazing iconographic and compositional commonality, filling the scenes with the same characters, their correspondence to other types of ancient and medieval art in the region, in particular, bronze art plastics.

Conclusions: graphic art as a phenomenon of ancient and modern culture of the north of Western Siberia

The use of only an archaeological approach to the study of engraved drawings on metal gave rise to the erroneous belief that such images were characteristic only for a certain period - the Early Iron Age and the Middle Ages, and then disappeared. Indeed, metal engravings are not yet known in the materials of either earlier epochs or the late Middle Ages-Modern period (the exception is a round silver badge depicting a warrior in a Sagittarius kaftan from the Mansi sanctuary [Gemuev and Baulo, 1999, p. 80]). Meanwhile, if we do not take into account the material on which the drawings are made, and consider only the technique of drawing, images, iconography, and even scenes, it is obvious that this, one of the oldest, types of art flourished in the north of Western Siberia in a very wide chronological framework. Unfortunately, the drawings on ceramic vessels of the Eneolithic - Bronze Age and the same Early Iron Age, which are practically similar to metal engravings, are insufficiently studied (see, for example, Chindina, 1984, p. 224, Fig. 19). In the complex of finds from the ancient Ust-Poluy sanctuary, in addition to bronze plaques, products with engravings made of other materials were found - a process of a deer's horn with images of a deer and a bear's head, a bone comb with a figure of a reindeer made in the engraving technique. Engravings on metal are similar to the pattern on a plate made from a whale's intervertebral disc. In terms of iconography, he "anticipated" medieval engravings on silver dishes: an anthropomorphic character in a headdress with prongs and two daggers in raised hands [Ust-Poluy..., 2003, p. 65]. Among the Ust-Poluisk finds are known engravings on a stone pendant.

Wooden objects with engravings were found in a complex of finds from the Nadym Town (XVII-XVIII centuries) [Kardash, 2009, pp. 278-279]. Ethnographic drawings on wood and ancestral signs of the Ob Ugrians published by SI have long been known. Ivanov [1954], but for some reason they are never considered in the context of the study of engravings, although technically (embedded drawings on a plane), and stylistically they show a striking similarity to drawings on metal.

These few data allow us to state with confidence that graphics in the system of visual activity of the population of the north of Western Siberia and the Northern Urals occupies no less important place than artistic casting or drawing ornaments on ceramics, wood, birch bark, fur. It still exists in the memory and practice of the indigenous peoples of the North. In this regard, it is appropriate to recall the drawings of students of the Institute of Peoples of the North in the 1920s-1930s [Sled..., 2011] or graphic drawings of Ostyaks and Voguls of the late XIX - early XX centuries. [Rudenko, 1929]. One of the most expressive manifestations of contemporary art of the indigenous population of the north of Western Siberia is the graphic art of the famous Khanty artist N. M. Taligina, which reflects the life and customs of the population of the Lower Ob region. Recently, N. M. Taligina has been illustrating the epic of the Khanty people. "I am interested in illustrating the heroic epics of my people," she says. In this way, the past and present meet and are reflected as in a mirror in the graphic art of the population of the north of Western Siberia.

List of literature

Bagin A. L. Graffiti from the sanctuaries of the European Northeast // The Northern Urals in the Age of Stone and metal: materials on the archeology of the European Northeast. Syktyvkar: Publishing House of the Komi Scientific Center of the Ural Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, 1998. 15. - p. 73-91.

Baulo A.V. Bogatyr and the bride (silver saucer with p. Archeology, Ethnography and Anthropology of Eurasia. -2001. - N 2. - p. 123-127.

Baulo A.V. Svyaz vremeni i kul'tury (serebryannoe dish iz Verkhnego Nildin) [Connection of times and cultures (silver dish from the Upper Nildin)]. - 2004a. - N 3. - p. 127-136.

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Baulo A.V. Attributes and myth: metal in the rituals of the Ob Ugrians. Novosibirsk: Publishing House of IAET SB RAS, 20046, 160 p.

Baulo A.V. Ancient bronze from ethnographic collections and random collections. Novosibirsk, IAET SB RAS Publ., 2011, 260 p. (in Russian)

Gemuev I. N., Baulo A.V. Mansi sanctuaries of the upper reaches of Northern Sosva. Novosibirsk, IAET SB RAS Publ., 1999, 240 p. (in Russian)

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The article was submitted to the Editorial Board on 15.05.13, in the final version-on 29.10.13.

Abstract

Engravings on Early Iron Age and medieval metal plaques, mirrors, and imported ceramics from the northern Urals are described in the context of local art of the period. The distribution area of such drawings is determined, and new interpretations suggested. The specimens are analyzed in terms of images, iconography, scenes, and composition. Engravings on early 2nd millennium AD silver plaques are discussed in particular. All such representations display numerous iconographic and compositional similarities and the characters depicted are the same. Parallels with ancient and medieval art of northwestern Siberia and the northern Urals are revealed, especially those with bronze sculpture.

Keywords: engravings, iconography, composition, figurative art, Western Siberia, Cis-Urals.

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