On a Grave Symbol from Northwest Belarus
On a Grave Symbol from Northwest Belarus

Summary/Abstract: The article focuses on an interpretation of a funeral symbol found on the gravestones in Northwest Belarus – an engraved image of a pole with a semicircle at its top. The gravestones are connected to the archaeological culture of stone tombs of Yotvingian origin. Possibly, this symbol has been given a wider perspective in the world of late paganism of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and its neighboring territories. This symbol represents an idea of ‘the world axis’, and its main mythological meaning has been to create a communication between the souls of the dead and the upper celestial world which has been imagined as ‘the celestial mountain’.

• Details
• Contents