Пряслица со знаками с памятников рязано-окской археологической культуры середины I тыс. н. э. (культурный и исторический контекст)

Abstract

The paper introduces four spindle whorls with various ornamental signs from the sites of the Ryazan-Oka archaeological culture. As archaeologists have long established, spindle whorls were undoubtedly part of the technological complex of weaving – weights for spin-dles, however, in most cultures of Eurasia they had secondary sacred-magical functions and, accordingly, were often decorated with various signs in which they see calendar or cosmogonic symbolism. In three cases, these spindle whorls were placed in burials as a sep-arate element of grave goods. It is possible that the emergence of the tradition of putting various images on spindle whorls was borrowed by local residents as a result of contacts with the Chernyakhov archaeological culture, where there are finds in the burials of spindle whorls with supposed images of “Germanic” runes. Accordingly, the “Ryazan-Oka” signs on spindle whorls were a kind of import that representatives of the local “Ryazan-Oka” elites received as a result of contacts with provincial Roman limes cultures.