New evidence on sacrificial covers of the ob ugrians

This article presents new material evidence obtained from field ethnographic research conducted in the Yamalo-Nenets and Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrugs in 2017-2020. Four sacrificial objects associated with worshipping the deity Mir-Susne-Hum popular among the Ob Ugrians, are described. Elements of warrior ’s and rider ’s clothing - capes, belts, and covers made of broadcloth - were offered as a gift to this deity. For the first time, a sacrificial cover with three figures of riders, made in the mid 20th century by the Mansi living in the basin of the Lyapin River, is published. Information about such attributes has been known to scholars since the mid 1980s, but the real object was discovered only in 2017. A sacrificial cover from the village of Lokhpodgort (Shuryshkarsky District of the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug) shifts the northern border where the sacrificial covers were used by the Ob Ugrians in the Lower Ob region, by another 100 km to the north. In addition, the cover shows an unusual composition of riders ’figures with additional “empty” square as well as additional anthropomorphic figure on the main figure of the deity. The sacrificial cover with seven figures of riders, purchased in the village of Yukhangort, is decorated with the additional strip of the “birch branch” ornamentation which, according to the author of the article, may indicate that the cover belonged to the Novyukhov family whose surname can be translated from the Khanty language as the “white tree”. The sacrificial cape observed among the Mansi living in the basin of the Pelym River is unusual in shape (heptagon). Most likely, it might have been used as a clothing of a family patron spirit worshipped in the ornithomorphic guise. The analysis of the newly found sacrificial covers reveals that one of them confirms the model for the sequential production of this type of material attributes of deities, proposed by I.N. Gemuev, while the rest of the samples demonstrate specific local features; the unusual number of details can be explained by their peripheral nature.