New finds with bear image from the Kipchakovo archaeological site complex (forest-steppe Cis-Urals)

The Kipchakovo archaeological site complex encompasses several monuments located in the northwestern part of the Republic of Bashkortostan. It is believed to be one of the earliest archaeological centers of the Pyany Bor culture. Therefore, the artifacts discovered on its territory serve as valuable illustrative material reflecting the process of emergence and formation of the Pyany Bor cultural traditions. One of those is the tradition of using bear images in the folk costume. The article analyzes two recent finds of metal garment elements with bear images from the Kipchakovo settlement and the Kipchakovo burial ground. The first artifact - a bronze onlay with protomes of two bears - was found by chance on the territory of the Kipchakovo settlement. The second one - a bronze buckle with the fullfigured image of a bear - comes from one closed assemblage of the Kipchakovo burial ground. The onlay has close parallels with some antiquities of the Kara-Abyz culture dated to the 3d and 2nd centuries BC, while the buckle looks similar to a number of finds, which make up the Pyany Bor and Kara-Abyz archaeological assemblages at the turn of the eras. The authors state that bear images depicted on both finds represent the same line of animal art development in the aforementioned cultures and belong to a large group of bear images that could be further divided into two subgroups (early and late) based on some typological variations. An intermediate stage between these subgroups is represented by a belt hook with the image of three bears from the Kipchakovo burial ground. The early type of bear images was formed in the Kara-Abyz culture during the 3d and 2nd centuries BC under the influence of the Scythian- Sarmatian animal style. The late type started to appear at the turn of the eras and became widespread in the Pyany Bor culture. However, it was genetically linked with the early one. The authors also emphasize the exceptional role of the Shipovo and Kipchakovo archaeological site complexes in the described processes of the bear images transformations.