Ornamented on-grave posts of the Tobol-Irtysh Tatars: particular research areas

The current state of knowledge and promising areas of research into Tobol-Irtysh Tatar’s ornamented on-grave posts are discussed. These monuments are typical for the cemeteries of Kourdak-Sargat and Tobol Tatar settlements in the northern Omsk and southern Tyumen regions. The author presents the data collected during the study of on-grave posts at the burial complexes of several villages in the Vagay and Tobol districts of the Tyumen region. The main characteristics of these gravestones in funeral rites are specified: spatial localization within the burial complex, manufacturing techniques, basic ornamental motifs, symbolic and semiotic status of the post building day, and accompanying modern and traditional cultural phenomena. The tethering posts of nomad-pastoral peoples and the gravestones posts of the northern (Taz) Selkups have been considered as the possible cultural, historical, and semantic parallels. The gravestones in Protestant cemeteries in Hungary can be considered as semantic parallels too. The semantic basis for dividing the tops of the Tobol-Irtysh Tatar on-grave posts into male and female versions is revealed. The male posts are symbolized by images of a spear (arrow), the female ones - by a comb. The images of a spear and a comb have deep symbolic connotations universally associated with the male and female principles respectively. The author believes that the full-scale comprehensive study of Siberian Tatar cemeteries with ornamented gravestones remains an urgent scientific task nowadays.