Interpretation of a group of terracotta figurines from ancient Greek sanctuaries of the Crimean Pryazovia

The paper reports on a group of terracotta figurines featuring boys that comes from excavations of rural sanctuaries in the Crimean Priazovia. Narrative scenes with children are widely represented in Bosporan coroplast of the 2nd – 1st cc. BC, for a long time they were considered items for household use. However, circumstances of the finds and analysis of iconography suggest sacral meaning of these figurines. In the context of the sanctuary practice, the children figurines with accompanying attributes (a bird, a dog, a horse, a shield) can be interpreted as incarnation of a polysemantic image of a divine child as a symbol of a fertile start of life, potential life, renewal, rebirth that includes characteristics of a liminal creature placed in sacral space on the borderline between the human world and another world with functions of a mediator linking cosmic zones.