Slotted zoomorphic pommel on iron pins from barrow 2 in Kotsyubynchyky in the context of elite burials of Western Podillia
Authors: Bandrivskyi Mykola 
Published: September 2021

The article deals with bronze slotted zoomorphic pommels on iron pins – one of the phenomena in material culture of Ukrainian Forest-Steppe from the beginning of Early Iron Age. One of the best preserved complexes of them was discovered by archeological expedition of I. Krypiakevych Institute of Ukrainian Studies of National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, led by the author, in outskirts of village of Kotsyubynchyky near Chortkiv in Ternopil region. Almost all pommels of this type known today are divided by the author into two groups: products with socket and ones on iron pins. It has been suggested that this technological feature may reflect not only slightly different functional specificity of their use, but also differences in religious and funeral context for which, in fact, the above-mentioned pommels were made.
It is confirmed that all pommels of this type were found exclusively in forest-steppe zone of modern Ukraine, in Carpathian region and in Caucasus – historical Kuban. Moreover, fact of complete absence of zoomorphic slotted pommels on iron pins in this period in steppe zone of Ukrainian Black Sea region (and in Eastern European steppe in general) needs to be explained. Mapping such slotted pommels on pins, gave the author a reason to identify four areas of their compact distribution: 1 – Pre-Caucasus region (Ulskie barrows, Kelermes, Krasnoznamenskiy barrow, Hoverdovsky khutor near Maykop); 2 – Posullya region (Starsha Mohyla, Vovkivtsi, Budky, Popivka); 3 – Region of the Right Bank of Dnipro River (Repyahuvata Mohyla, Matusiv, Zhurivka, Smela, Mezhyrichka); 4 – Carpathian region (Mihályfa, Gernyeszeg, Gyöngyös and two items from the museum in Bucharest). On the territory between these four compact and clear areas of distribution of slotted zoomorphic pommels on iron pins (except for researched complex in Kotsyubynchyky 2 barrow), other objects of such type were not detected. Suggestions made at the article that such compactness of their distribution indicates their exclusive use only for a narrow category of privileged persons within limited area. On the other hand, at that time there could be certain «sacred» border within which such pommels were used and to cross through which cult regulations of that time did not allow.
Analysis conducted by the author gave grounds to assume that zoomorphic pommels from the barrow of Kotsyubynchyky 2 can be included neither to the group of pommels of Carpathian region (it is contradicted by image on the pommels from Kotsyubynchyky only of the head of fallow deer, and not the whole figure, which, as were shown above, is a striking feature of the products from Carpathians), nor to a group of similar pommels from the areas of Eastern European forest-steppe, among which images of heads of fallow deer are almost unknown. Hence, it is concluded that mentioned zoomorphic pommels from Kotsyubynchyky 2 barrow represent, by all signs, an intermediate link between pommels of Eastern European forest-steppe and ones from Carpathian region.
Material presented at the article shows that those long-noticed examples of interrelationships and interactions between cultures of Early Iron Age of Carpathian-Dnister region, South Caucasus and Western Asian states penetrated into various spheres of life of communities of that time; including such, seemingly, very conservative and delicate sphere of their life as religious preferences and related funeral traditions.
Key words: bronze slotted zoomorphic pommels, Western Podillia, barrow 2, Kotsyubynchyky.