Роль бизона в мировоззрении палеолитического человека Европы
The Role of Bison in View of European Palaeolithic Man

Summary/Abstract: One of the most important merits of P.I.Boriskovsky in study of the Paleolithic is the establishment and development of the idea of the special steppe zone in the region of the Northern Black Sea and the Azov Sea: this idea is mainly based on the data obtained as a result of excavations of sites of Amvrosievka and Bolshaya Akkarzha. In contrast to the sites of the Northern Periglacial Area where the mammoth basically was the object of hunting, on the sites of the steppe zone hunting of numerous herds of bisons was the economic basis. The second problem connected with the historical steppe area is connected with a function of bison in the society’s spiritual life. Hypothesis of P.I.Boriskovsky about the ritual nature of the Amvrosievka bison bone bed perceived earlier with a known share of scepticism, was brilliantly supported by his pupils V.N.Stanko and G.V.Grigorieva in course of excavations of the Anetovka II site. The steppe zone is the only area on the European subcontinent, where such a «material» embodiment of bison’s cult is found in the Paleolithic. In other areas of Europe the importance of bison in spiritual life of society is reflected in the Palaeolithic Art, where the image of bison and, to a lesser degree, the image of bull has a very ununiform presentation. Almost along the whole extent except for Italy, Spain and especially the Southern part of France, only some figures and carvings on bone and stone which are belived to date to different periods of the Palaeolithic are met. In this case, the exceptional representativity of images of bisons/bulls in the French-Cantabrian region and in the mobile art and on the walls of caves and awnings is so much surprising; and this fact takes place in absence of considerable number of animal bones at the sites. Images reviewed by two main manifestations of the artistic genius separately led to determination of the time of appearance and evolution of the image of the strong herbivorous animal for the period of the Palaeolithic and distinction of some areas in different time periods. In the pre-Magdalenian time, a certain chronological displacement and characteristic features typical for both kinds of art are discovered, whereas in the Magdalenian the artistic creation shows a surprising unity by all distinguished means of embodiment. Strengthening of the magic orientation in the form of «arrow-shape signs» killing the animals is of no small importance as well. Whatever their interpretation might be, performance of such combinations along with examples of perishing and even dead animals demonstrates a complication of thinking process, which is beyond the limits of dividing the world into male and female halves. Owing to the enonmous amount of data, many questions have not been considered, including division of animals by sex. Groupings of both the bisons themselves and their associations with other animals and man are given as examples. A question is raised regarding the possibility to return to notions of the Palaeolithic Art as reflection of real division of vital images and situations, rather than symbols, the role of which is played by signs.

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