STONE STELE BEARING A “SUN-HEADED” DEITY ON THE TUIM RIVER, KHAKASSIA: (In commemoration of the Finnish Antiquarian Society Expedition to the Yenisei headed by J.R. Aspelin 120 years previously)

Abstract

The present article gives a description of a stone stele discovered during a Finnish Antiquarian Society Expedition to the northern Minusinsk Basin in 1887–1889, and cites the research conducted previously. The article presents the author's view that the stele serves as an example of early Okunev art (late 3rd millennium BC). The article particularly focuses on the possible meaning of the representation. An interdisciplinary approach is considered most fruitful based on philological and semiotic approaches to interpreting ancient verbal ritual texts rich in epithets and metaphors. The stele is interpreted as a “visual hymn” conveying eulogy to the deity in which mytho-poetic clichés of an extinct oral tradition are reproduced graphically.