Home – Home – Jornals – Humanitarian sciences in Siberia 2016 number

An increasing amount of archaeological research on the monuments of Modern time in Siberia, along with publication of the received materials promoted the study of cult copper molding as a category of finds. On the basis of materials from the Ilim fortress V.I. Molodin has created a typology of crosses attributing them to the Old Belief or Catholic types. In regard to the Old Belief types of crosses it is stated that they can’t be identity marks of confessional appurtenance of their owners because the same crosses were used also by the followers of official Orthodoxy. The purpose of this article is to reveal signs of confessional distinctions on the basis of archaeological materials from the Russian complexes of Modern time. The author used materials of an archaeological monument of Izyuk-I (Omsk region). According to the written sources in the XVII-XIX centuries the majority of villagers in the settlement of Izyuk were Old Believers. The materials from a funeral complex showed that more than a quarter of collected crosses which were worn on the neck belong to the Old Belief types. They were classified by researchers as belonging to this type on the basis of analysis of their morphology and texts of prayers. It is possible that Old Believers also used other types of crosses as the texts of prayers could be missing or difficult to read because of low-quality molding. Another criterion could be position of hands of the buried, because according to the ethnographic data the arms of the Old Believers were folded in a certain way. The author comes to conclusion that certain groups of population can be attributed to various religious confessions only on the basis of a set of signs while the cult copper molding of the XVII-XVIII centuries can not be used as the defining feature. For this purpose it is necessary to analyze more profoundly an archaeological context, to correlate it with the available stavrografic materials and written sources. The pectoral cross found in one of burials is of special interest. The paper introduces for the first time into scientific circulation the copper Old Belief icon found in an occupation layer of the settlement with the image of Saint martyrs Quiricus and Julitta.