Cult Complex Research Articles

Silver Gorgoneion from the Cult Place at Eklizi-Burun (Mountain Crimea)

Abstract During a survey on the territory of the Eklizi-Burun cult complex, a repeatedly densely folded fragment of a silver sheet was discovered. When unfolded during the restoration process, it turned out to be part of an art object depicting the mask of Medusa Gorgon. The size and shape of the item suggest its purpose as part of Roman military equipment (presumably part of the umbo or a knee guard). The stylistic features of the image give grounds to attribute it to the late Roman period.

Cult Complex in Zanskar: Analysis, Interpretation

Purpose. The study investigates a Buddhist image on a standalone stone and an offering contained in a clay vessel. The cult complex is located near Zangla, not far from the Changut Choeling female monastery, in the north of Zanskar (Ladakh, India).Results. The image depicts the bodhisattva Avalokiteśvara, the patron deity of Tibet. The clay vessel (73 mm in height) found near the stone contains a square iron plate (~25x25 mm) with traces of insets, one of turquois; a transparent crystal bead; and two perforated bones. An examination of the vessel contents revealed that it originally contained a piece of meat or some blood. Based on a traceological analysis of the bone items, they appear to have been worn on a cord. All the items in the vessel are of special significance in the Buddhist culture as well as folk religion of Tibet. They could have served as offerings to Avalokiteśvara as well as local patron deities – btsan and lha, who were believed to live in that stone. After all, Buddhism in Tibet became part of the folk religion. The tradition of making offerings in a vessel placed at the foot of a stone with a divine image has parallels in the culture of Central Asian Turks. Excavations of Turkic mortuaries have revealed silver, as well as ceramic, vessels at the foot of heroic figures. Researchers believe that they were used for sacrificial offerings and for drinks in funeral rituals. Like in Zanskar, such vessels were left on the surface, and over a thousand years must have passed before they became fully covered with earth so that they would later be found during excavations.Conclusion. Offerings in vessels placed at the foot of stone statues of deities and ancestors, as well as stones accommodating local patron spirits, appear to have been common among the peoples of Central Asia in the Middle Ages.

Natural features and geological history of mount Vottovaara (Russian Stonehenge)

The article deals with the issues of physical and geographical features of the territory of Mount Vottovaara (which is the highest point of the West Karelian Upland) and its geological history. It is compared with one of the most famous attractions in the UK – Stonehenge Jam. Hypotheses of the origin and formation of this area are presented. The mountain keeps a large number of secrets, the main and most interesting among which are up to 1,600 individual stones located on its top – components of an ancient cult complex. They can be fully considered seids, many of which resemble unusual stone buildings, and according to a number of researchers who played a cult role and belonged to the culture of the ancient Sami. One of the hypotheses of the origin of the Votovaara seids connects them with the manifestation of glacial exaration processes during the periods of ancient glaciations. Another explains the presence of numerous traces of paleoseismic dislocations by a strong catastrophic palaeo-earthquake that occurred at the end of the Preboreal – the beginning of the Boreal period due to the degradation of the Late Valdai (Ostashkovsky) glaciation and the тrapid removal of glacial load. There is also a hypothesis, partly related to the ancient mythology of a Worldwide Flood, or a catastrophic flood of universal scale. According to one version, it could have happened due to the fall of a large meteorite in the area of the Philippine Sea. The tangential impact of the meteorite led to a shift of the solid earth’s crust along the surface of the liquid mantle, and the shock wave passing through the earth’s crust (compression wave) formed a ridge on the territory of modern Karelia, which includes Vottovaara. Finally, there is a version of the formation of the massif as a result of a powerful volcanic eruption that occurred several million years ago.

Mausoleum Complex near the Village of Lapas, Astrakhan Region (from the Field Diary of V.V. Dvornichenko)

The materials obtained during the work on the complex of mausoleums of the Golden Horde era near the village of Lapas in the Astrakhan region by the Volga archaeological expedition led by V.V. Dvornichenko in 1995 – 1997 are introduced into scientific circulation. These were the first scientific studies of the largest cult complex of the Golden Horde nobility, little known in the scientific community. It was then that the idea of the true size, composition and potential of the archaeological monument, its significance in the culture of the Golden Horde and the development of Islam in the Eurasian space appeared.

Enigma of the niches in the eastern wall of the Royal Mortuary Cult Complex in the Temple of Hatshepsut at Deir el-Bahari

The paper offers an explanation of the misalignment of blocks and their decorations in two cultic niches in the vestibule of the Chapel of Hatshepsut in the Royal Mortuary Cult Complex. Detachment of the niches from the adjacent walls, discrepancies in their dimensions, and intentional absence of jambs have led the author to conclude that the niches were reconstructed in this spot after having been removed from their original location in another part of the temple. As the previously matching elements were reassembled in the new location during the reign of Queen Hatshepsut, the correct reconstruction of their decoration proved impossible, as the decorated blocks were irreversibly damaged.

About the building stones of the Eneolithic cromlech, sanctuary, and burial constructions near Shakhtar village (Dnipropetrovsk region, Ukraine)


 
 
 The article presents the results of petrographic research of building stone that was used for the construction of a cromlech, sanctuary, and the ceiling of the Eneolithic burials No. 20 – 22 from the kurgan No. 29 near Shakhtar village, Nikopol rayon, Dnipropetrovsk oblast. The purpose of this work was to establish a probable place for mining the stone blocks and rubble used in the construction. As a result of petrographic and X-ray fluorescence analysis, it was determined that the studied rocks can be divided into two groups, namely granitoids and limestones. The group of granitoids included tonalites, plagiogran- ites (trondhjemites), altered granite gneiss, and feldspar crystal from pegmatite. All the limestones were represented by spherical lay- ered aggregates, which most likely belong to oncoids – carbonate structures that form as a result of cyanobacteria growth. The studied samples from the materials of the cromlech and the sanctuary of burial No. 22 were represented by plagiogranitoids, pegmatoid granite, and limestones. The first of them served as the main material for the construction of the cromlech. Carbonate aggregates together with the granites were also used as a backfilling when installing wooden pillars of the cult complex associated with the burial. The plates covering the burials No. 20 and 21 were made of tonalites. All the studied granitoids are typical rocks for the area where the excavations took place. In the Middle Dnipro Area, plagiogranitoids are represented by the rocks of the Dnipropetrovskyi, Surskyi, Saksahanskyi, and Inhuletskyi complexes of the Archaean. Plagiogranitoids of the Dnipropetrovskyi complex are the most common in the studied area. They occur here in the middle and upper reaches of the Solona River and along the rivers of Bazavluk and Bazavluchok upstream the Sholokhove Reservoir. The closest to the excavation site are the occurrences of plagiogranitoids, which are exposed on the right bank of the Solona River, opposite the village of Shakhtar. In this area, pegmatoid granites are found in the form of veins that intersect plagiogranitoids. In the area of excavations, carbonate oncoids are found in the Sarmatian limestones of the Neogene. Most often they are found as the uncemented specimens that spilled out of the limestones. Today, such structures occur on both banks of the Kakhovske Reservoir, located south of the village Shakhtar. However, in ancient times there may have been closer outcrops of these rocks, as the Sarmatian limestone occurrences are common in the immediate vicinity of the excavation site, namely between the rivers Bazavluk and Solona, near their confluence, and the middle and upper reaches of the Chortomlyk River. As a result of the research, it is proved that in the valley of the river Solona during the Eneolithic, there began the active extraction of stone raw materials for mound construction, which was continued in later epochs, particularly, in the Scythian time.
 
 

Post-New Kingdom topography and chronology of the Hatshepsut Temple at Deir el-Bahari in light of new archaeological evidence

Around 1000 BCE, an earthquake brought down many temples in Western Thebes, thus putting an end to the cult centre at Deir el-Bahari which had been a key site for the celebration of the Beautiful Feast of the Valley all through the New Kingdom. Within a few dozen years the deserted chapels and rooms of the Hatshepsut temple were turned into a burial ground. The necropolis established on the ruins of one of the most famous temples of Egypt was first excavated in the 19th century; however, current work by the Polish Centre of Mediterranean Archaeology University of Warsaw expedition in the Hathor cult complex of the temple of the female pharaoh has resulted in the discovery of a group of shaft tombs and a great number of burial remains. These new finds have instigated a revisiting of both the topography and the chronology of this reuse of the older monument, as well as a contextualization of the work of the early explorers which has gradually been forgotten partly through lack of proper documentation.

Предварительные итоги анализа фаунистической коллекции из раскопок ритуальной площадки на культовом комплексе Торопово-7А

The article presents the results of a study of paleozoological materials from excavations of the ritual site of the Shandin archaeological culture of the XI–XIV centuries at the cult complex Toropovo-7A in the Kuznetsk basin. Definitions and descriptions of animal bones by layer, excavation sector and pit are provided. Analysis of the composition of finds from the ritual site indicates a number of features in the anatomical-species composition of local zooarchaeological complexes with the predominance of domestic horse bones in them.

On Probability of Single Cult Complex of Achilles in Lower Buh Region in Archaic Times (Berezan – Beikush – Velyka Chornomorka II)

The discoveries at Cape Beikush allow us to significantly expand and refine our understanding of the nature and extent of local influence on the archaic cult of Achilles in the Northern Black Sea region. The decisive factor in the formation of the archaic cult of Achilles in the Northern Black Sea region at the initial stage was the meeting of the colonists with a powerful ideological phenomenon – the veneration of the local tribes (relic Aryans) almost continuously, since the IV millennium BCE, AXI-the Serpent – the first Ancestor and personification of the Indo-European worldview born in the Northern Black Sea region.
 The earliest archaeological evidence of the Achilles worship in the Northern Black Sea region dates from the end of the VII – early VI centuries BC and is associated with a cult complex of Achilles in the Lower Buh region (‘Lower Pobuzhzhia’), combining Berezan’, Beikush and Velyka Chornomorka II. This allows us to distinguish a special and earliest stage in the development of the cult of Achilles in the Northern Black Sea region: the end of the VII – early V centuries BCE, when the sanctuary of Achilles on Beikush ceased to exist. After that, in other places of Achilles’ worship in the Northern Black Sea region, the «Serpent» features of the cult of Achilles on Beikush were no longer repeated. In other words, the image and cult of Achilles was no longer associated with serpents. This indicates a gradual loss of syncretism of these images and cults due to the decline of local, «barbaric» influence on them after the 5th century BCE.
 This is also due to the fact that AXI-the «Serpent-ancestor» was for the Greek colonists, obviously, an alien deity. The subsequent transfer of the center of the veneration of Achilles to the Island of Levke seems to be the realization of the need to bring the cult important for further colonization (to completely abandon the cult of AXI-the Serpent – the «master» of the Northern Black Sea Region to the colonists, surrounded by «barbarians», was clearly unprofitable) in accordance with the already existing legends about the White Island and Homer’s Achilles, as well as with the «norms» of the Delphic oracle, which clearly did not meet the «barbarian» Beikush. The appearance in Roman times of the cult of Achilles Pontarchus – the «Lord of the Black Sea» and God cannot be explained by anything other than the great importance of the prototype of Achilles in the Northern Black Sea region in previous times, from the beginning of the formation of the Indo-European community.

Азиз Гази-Мансура в Бахчисарае

On the basis of various groups of sources, the author considers the origins and functioning of a spiritual cult complex formed in the medieval period around the Gazi-Mansur Medini Aziz in the southeastern suburb of Bakhchisarai. The phenomenon of a wide spread of azizes in the territory of the Crimean Peninsula connected, primarily, with a high popularity of various Sufi teachings with the population of the region, is analyzed. The author traces the etymology of the term aziz, in all probability derived from the Arabic word عزیز, aziyzun translated as “friend”, “neighbor”, “om-nipotent”, “precious”. Given the lack of reliable historical facts about Gazi-Mansur, a large number of legends and folk traditions have been studied in order to find information about this semi-legendary personality. The author admits that, a native of Medina, he might have been a companion to the Prophet (Sakhab). It was established that his grave could be only one of the places of appear-ance of the saint (maqam), where one could enter into a spiritual connection with him. If this as-sumption is correct, it is possible that such saints’ maqams may exist anywhere in the Muslim world where he could be popular. On the basis of the late 19th century photographic sources, the architec-tural appearance of the complex, whose centre was a tekieh presumably built in the 15th century, was recreated. The author has reconstructed the chronology of functioning of the spiritual centre that had been almost completely destroyed by the mid 20th century. The current state of the landmark, which is still in a state of neglect, is considered. Emphasis is put on the need for a comprehensive scholarl study of the complex based on fundamental archaeological research.

Two Portraits of Senenmut in the Hatshepsut Temple at Deir el-Bahari

Two graffiti of Senenmut from the Temple of Hatshepsut at Deir el-Bahari are presented in this paper: one located in the granite portal leading to the Upper Court of the temple, and another in the entrance to the Chapel of Thutmose I in the Royal Mortuary Cult Complex. In addition, photographs of heavily erased graffiti of Senenmut in the entrance to the Chapel of Hatshepsut are published here as well.

The Cult Complex of Bel at Porolissum. Historical and Architectural Perspective

The authors are reopening the file of a monument at Porolissum long time ago archaeologically investigated. After the history of research, they are discussing the chronology and the construction phases of the temple, They reject the initial existence of the temple of Liber Pater under the temple of Bel, as no evidence for such a situation exists. At the same time is not accepted the hypothesis of a Christian basilica built over the temple sometimes in the 4th century. There are analyzed two architectural elements (a Corinthian capital with human protome and an ornamented merlon) which offered the occasion to the authors to introspect the deep cultural roots of the monument and of the religious cult performend by the Palmyrene community to whom the temple and the banqueting hall from the vicinity belonged. The analyze of the two stone elements shows that their origins are to be found in the Oriental civilizations, as well as their symbolic meaning. Mentioning also some votive altars at Porolissum ornamented with the crowsteps motif, of Oriental origin, is proposed the activity at Porolissum of a carving workshop whose masters were Orientals who saw the original monuments in Palmyra and worked for the local Palmyrene community. The final part of the paper propose a 3D reconstruction of the cult complex, based on all available historical and archaeological data and using the ancient architectural principles.

Commodus restitutor commerciorum. The role of Palmyrene Trading Community at Porolissum

The author revisits an inscription found in 1986 in the shrine of the customs station at Porolissum (Jac village, Sălaj County, Romania). His new approach offers a new meaning to the epithet restitutor commerciorum addresed to emperor Commodus in the text of the inscription: commercium has in Latin written sources and in inscriptions also the sense of the place where barbarians were trading with the Romans in the vicinity of the Roman frontiers’ forts. The new interpretation is linked with the archaeological discovery at Porolissum, near the customs building of a marketplace identified by 129 coins and 43 barbarian brooches. Author’s conclusion in an earlier published book is that the brooches attest, very probable, a slave market. Another valuable merchandise recovered in the excavation is raw amber of Baltic Sea coast origin, proving the existence of a branch of the Amber Road, entering in the Empire at Porolissum. The next question approached by the author concerns the merchants able to support the distribution of these valuable goods across the Empire. He proposed as main candidate the Palmyrene civilian community recorded in the inscriptions at Porolissum. Then he explains the topographical position of the Palmyrene cult complex at Porolissum. The temple of Bel, the open=air altar and the banqueting hall were situated in the near neighbourhood of the customs building just because of the Palmyrene community’s economic interest. He argued his hypothesis with the example of the Palmyrene temple in Rome.

New Researches of the Bilsk Hill-Fort Fortifications

The investigations of the defensive structures of Bilsk hill-fort are important in discussing issues related to the development of military affairs and solving the problems of chronology and ethnocultural history of the population of the East European Forest-Steppe during Scythian time. The article is devoted to the publication of the protective structures researches materials at Bilsk hill-fort that were carried out during 2014, 2016—2018 by the Bilsk archaeological expedition of the IA NAS of Ukraine. The results are significant in understanding the features of planigraphy and the historical development of the complex. The excavations in 2014 on the northern part of the Bilsk hill-fort gave us the information about the lack of a cultural stratum within the Kuzemin fortification. The full height section of the rampart was conducted in the south-eastern part of the trench, because the rampart was cut by a bulldozer. The ditch was fully explored. The whole complex of defensive structures was created in one stage. However, for some reasons it was abandoned and wasn’t modernized. The new researches of protective structures in Tsaryna Mohyla hole were conducted in 2016-2017. The clean layers of clay from the moat were the basis of the rampart. The available materials, taking into account preliminary chronology of the finds from the premise and the ashy layer that were situated under the wall gave us a date — the second quarter — middle of VI c. BC. The finds in the layer that directly rested on the clay body of the rampart are important to the date of the rampart creation time. The cult complex, which consisted of a clay altar and five sacrifices, was correlated with this layer. The walls of the Big Bilsk hill-fort were created until the middle — beginning of the third quarter of VI c. BC. Also, in 2018 the Southern Rampart was localized. The profiles were discovered. The surrounding material was collected. As a result of excavations, the cultural stratum, moat and shaft were investigated and dated by the Scythian time. In the filling of the moat and in the embankment of the rampart there were found only materials of V—IV c. BC

Studying of conditions of water supply and water disposal in buddhist cult complex

In this article water consumption conditions in cult constructions are considered. An object of a research is water consumption and assignment of drains in Buddhist cult complexes of Ulan-Ude, the village of Ivolginsk (Republic of Buryatia), uts. Aginskoe (Zabaykalsky Krai) and Irkutsk. A research objective is: studying and analysis of features of water supply and water disposal of a number of Buddhist cult complexes.

More Stone Objects from the so-called Governor Palace at Tell Basta

The Middle Kingdom building complex at Tell Basta, which was first excavated by Shafik Farid in 1961, was originally interpreted as a temple, but later understood as a palace. In this artice, it will be suggested that it might have been a "royal cult complex". This interpretation is supported by several finds from the building, which have not been fully published yet. New photographs of these will be provided.

The Barque of Wenut-Shemau at the Sed-Festival: An Old Kingdom Temple Relief from Herakleopolis

In the collection of the University of Pennsylvania Museum is a limestone relief depicting a king at life-size engaged in a boat ritual as part of the Sed-festival. Discovered in 1904 at Herakleopolis, this object can be dated, based on context, iconography, and style to the early Old Kingdom. Only the upper part of this monumental relief is preserved and the name of the king does not survive. However, the associated labels show that the scene depicted a king, accompanied by Iunmutef, receiving the barque of the goddess Wenut-Shemau, or Nekhbet, at the Sed-festival. This relief, reused in the foundations of the Twelfth Dynasty at Herakleopolis derives from what was evidently a large-format tableau of Sed-festival scenes in a royal cult complex of the Old Kingdom. The relief is a forerunner to scenes in the Twentieth Dynasty tomb of Setau at El Kab depicting the arrival of Wenut-Shemau at the site of the Sed-festival. The ceremonial mooring of the barques of Wadjet and Nekhbet at the Sed-festival may form a central, but hitherto unrecognized, element of the Sed-festival. The closest surviving parallels to the Herakleopolis scene occur in fragmentary reliefs from the Valley Temple of Sneferu at Dahshur. Attribution is proposed to Huni, Sneferu or Khufu. The Sed-festival block may have been transported to Herakelopolis from one of the Memphite pyramid complexes, or from Meidum, during the early Twelfth Dynasty. Alternatively, the relief may derive from an early Old Kingdom royal complex at Herakelopolis itself, possibly originating in a mortuary complex of Huni that once stood at that site. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.5913/jarce.53.2017.a007

Late Antique and Early Medieval Rupestrian Monasticism in the Iberian Peninsula. Landscapes and material contexts of the rupestrian settlements

Rupestrian architecture has been traditionally linked to hermits' environments, considering them as isolated because of their topographical features and ‘disconnected’ from the rest of the world. But if we look carefully to their places of location in relation to the existing network of settlement, roads and circuits of production and consumption, the reality is somewhat different. In this sense, the rupestrian architecture linked to monastic communities formed authentic rural settlements, while Christian cult complex, in which a community not exclusively dedicated to religious activities conduct their daily life, because there would not be composed only of monks (as evidenced by their burial areas), forming what we might call “agricultural monasteries” or “village communities”, in which the religious element would be a factor of social cohesion. In the Iberian Peninsula these are generally cult spaces of individual or collective character, with annexed spatial areas equipped with various functionalities....

EGOZOVO BURIED TREASURE

Egozovo buried treasure was one of the first buried treasures found in Kuznetsk Depression. The paper deals with the conditions of this cult complex, a detailed characteristic of findings and their modern historical and cultural interpretation. A possible attribution of these findings to the final stage of Upper Ob culture during its assimilation with Srostki culture is considered. The analysis of the complex allowed supposing that the findings are associated to a ritual. For the fist time, the partly missing collection is presented in its entirety.

A “ghost” fragment from the chapel of Tuthmosis I in the Royal Mortuary Cult Complex of the Hatshepsut Temple

A peculiar drawing of a part of the decoration of the Royal Mortuary Cult Complex in the Hatshepsut temple at Deir el-Bahari, as copied once by Johannes Dümichen, is the subject of this paper. Its comparison with existing relief fragments leads to the conclusion that the plate in question is the result of an artificial juxtaposition of two disparate fragments of wall decoration from the Royal Mortuary Cult Complex.