Certain type of horse-shape pendants in the forest and forest-steppe zones of Eastern Europe

The article discusses cultural and chronological attribution of 13 horse- shape pendants originating from 8 sites located in the forest and forest-steppe zones of Eastern Europe (Fig. 1). The objects are considered as a single series by three indications. The horse body, legs and tail are shaped of a round-section rod without any details shown; the animal has disproportionally big mane rendered as a high ornamented crest; behind the mane in the upper part of the body the hanging loop is placed (Fig. 2). The majority of the pendants are related to the Early Iron Age complexes known in the area between the Dnieper, Don, and Oka rivers and attributed to the Yukhnov, Milograd, Dnieper- Dvina, Upper Oka, and Dyakovo cultures. They enter specific cultural circle of the forest zone. To the forest-steppe area the objects in question were brought by the population movements from the northern territory (Yukhnov culture in the Seim basin). In three cases the pendants were related to jeweller's associations. The context of the sites that have yielded the discussed pendants dates them back to the 4 th - 3 rd cc. BC.