კერა-სადგრები, მტკვარ-არაქსის კულტურის ერთ-ერთი სახასიათო დეტალი

Abstract

One of the peculiarities of Kura-Araxes culture is clay hearths and stands of diverse form and size. Their role and function is of great interest, because they seem to have a strong mental connection with the traditions, cosmogony and religious faith of representatives of this culture. The hearths are placed in special areas of buildings; they are frequently ornamented and painted. The stands are placed beside the hearths. However, unlike the hearths, the stands, taken together or separately, are found in every religious building or less important place of habitation of Kura-Araxes culture. Most probably, the broad area of spreading of hearths and stands does not imply the increased influence of the culture itself (although dominance over certain local cultures is vivid in some places – for instance, there are traces of representatives of Kura-Araxes culture in the society of Arslantepe). The influence of Kura-Araxes culture is obviously felt in daily routine, agriculture, commerce and trade. All this points to active migration-emigration of the given society. This factor is always accompanied by the export of leading cultural features. It should be noted that both hearths and stands exist within the given culture and disappear together with the culture. Yet, while the culture is present there is a diversity of hearths and stands. The assumption regarding the religious function of hearths and stands is acceptable and widespread among the scholarly circles worldwide. Hence, we can assume that these two key attributes of Kura-Araxes culture, the hearth and the stand, were visual expressions of cosmogonic ideas, according to which these objects represent heavenly bodies: the hearth represents the sun i.e. a female essence, great mother, while the stand represents the moon i.e. male essence. In this case, it is not surprising that they are placed in a special area of the house and ornamented with graphic images. Their location is a place of special religious rituals. The hearths and stands serve the purpose of visualization of implementation of such rituals, which is part of culture and daily routine of the given society, wherever the representatives of this culture settle, on the entire area of dissemination of their culture.