THE ROOSTER IN THE SALTIV CULTURE

Abstract

ІIn 2016, the Slobozhanska Early Medieval Archaeological Expedition has excavated the complex 16 — a pit-cellar, quite typical for sites of the forest-steppe variant of the Saltiv culture in the Siverskyi Dinets basin. The small material is also quite typical for the Saltiv population. The pottery is represented by two fragments of pithos and a fragment of an amphora handle with a neck. The kitchenware from the assemblage was a hand-made: touched up on a potter’s wheel and shaped by hand. The handle and walls of the jars of good quality were also found.
 The compact find of five bones of roosters tarsometatarsus from the filling of the assemblage attracts attention. This paper attempts to analyze this unique find. The role and significance of the bird in the Saltiv culture is also analyzed.
 The birds were of normal size, the length of the bones differs from the roosters from earlier sites as well as from some modern outbred roosters by less than 1 cm. Signs that they were fighting roosters (as a result of fights, the birds get leg injuries which remain the marks on the bones) are visible. The small number of finds of chickens in general at the sites of the Saltiv culture does not allow us to claim that they were used in the economy.
 Currently, this is only the second find of tarsometatarsi of roosters at the sites of the Saltiv culture (the first one comes from the so-called ritual assemblage from Mayaki). In the scientific literature, accordingly, there have been no attempts to interpret such cases. Taking into account the historiographic review of the problems of interpretation of roosters in general from archaeological sites, we come to the conclusion that the tarsometatarsus of roosters could be a symbol (amulets) of bravery and militancy, respectively, most likely, of warriors. And the act of burying this symbol (amulets) can be an act of taking away the powers of a warrior.