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This collection consists of artifacts created by the
Finno-Ugric peoples who inhabited the north-east of Russia during the Iron Age. It is
notable for its metal sculptures from the Kama valley, dated to the 1st millenium BC, and
on the basis of the zoomorphic motifs used on these sculptures all the artifacts in the
collection are classified as Perm or Kama Animal Style.
These articles were widely used in everyday life. For instance,
burial grounds have yielded metal decorations with ‘jingling' pendants for clothing;
often these are zoomorphic pendants, plaques, clasps and belt ends, which served as
amulets.
Most important and interesting are the pieces of a ritual nature
discovered on cult sites, which include zoo- and anthropomorphic figures (combining
elements of a man and an animal simultaneously), such as a figurine of a bear/man and a
bronze pendant in the form of a bird-shaped idol with an anthropomorphic mask upon its
breast.
Metal plaques with intricate multi-figured two- or three-tiered
compositions of animals and anthropomorphs are full of symbols: there is an image of 7
elk/men walking on an anteater, which is linked with the cult of Gemini; used at the final
stage of a tribal religious ceremony the gift–plaque symbolizes that the stock's envoy
has received the gifts; the plaque depicts a three-tiered, vertical view of the world, in
which birds symbolize the sky, the elk – the earth and the anteater with 7 fishes in its
belly is the underground world.
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Male Figurine
1st-3rd century AD
Full description
Plaque-Medallion with a Bear's Head
6th-8th century AD
Full description
Bird Idol (Pendant)
6th-9th century AD
Full description
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