Medieval amulet illustrating the divine horseman myth, Rozhdestveno, Perm Territory

Abstract

An amulet from a medieval site in the Perm Territory is described. The amulet is made from a broken, horn comb and bears an incised drawing representing a mythological scene well known in both medieval and more recent artifacts manufactured on both sides of the Urals. The scene includes a horseman, a bird of prey, and the celestial bodies. Most specialists believe that the scene refers to the divine horseman, a cultural hero and central figure in Ob Ugrian mythology. The drawing is unusual in that it shows the horseman figured in the sky rather than on the ground as is the case in all similar representations recorded previously. The composition apparently illustrates the mythical theme of the hero “patrolling the world at the height of the clouds,” and is relevant to the understanding of the divine horseman myth as it circulated among the Permian Finns and Ob Ugrians.