CULT HILLS IN THE FOREST TRANS-URALS (QUESTIONS OF ORIGIN AND FUNCTIONING)

In the Middle and Northern Trans-Urals, there are several unusual cult bulk hills that are widely known. All five famous hills are located in the eastern lowland part of the Sverdlovsk region. These include the Koksharovsky hill on Lake Yuryinskoe (Verkhnesaldinsky district), the Ust-Vagilsky hill on the Tavda River, the Makhtylsky hill on the Sosva River and two hills on the lakes – Bolshoy Vagilsky Tuman and Kostyur (both in the Garinsky district). All of the hills have been excavated to varying degrees, with the Koksharovsky and Ust-Vagilsky hills being the most studied. The Makhtylsky hill has been partially studied, and there are small exploration complexes from the rest of the hills. The article provides a brief description of the cult complexes of these hills, emphasizing the features and differences of sacrificial complexes. The hills began functioning in the Mesolithic and Neolithic periods, and significant Neolithic, Eneolithic, Early Iron Age, and Medieval complexes are present in the northern hills. About 95% of the finds on Koksharovsky Hill belong to the Neolithic period, while the Eneolithic and the Middle Ages are represented by smaller complexes. Sacrificial complexes consist of two parts: the majority of sacrificial artifacts characterize different aspects of the economic and industrial activities of the ancient population, while a smaller number of items have no practical use. A significant part of the artifacts from the first group was intentionally broken. It is these items that highlight the differences between the southern and northern hills. There are no “ironings” or shaped hammers on the northern hills. Instead, hammers are replaced by the pommels of maces. Vessels with relief patches are rare, and there are completely no pendants on the southern hill, which are present in series on the northern hills. Clay plastic is notably represented on the northern hills, and the staining of sacrificial objects with ochre was widely practiced. The revealed differences prevent us from considering all the hills to be the same type of sites. The Koksharovsky hill, along with the Yuryinskoe settlement, was a special type of cult site. All the hills originally served as ancestral sanctuaries, but over time, the significance of some of them has changed due to various reasons.