Signs of the influence of the ancient Mari culture on the area of residence of the ancient Sami

Travin Il'ya Aleksandrovich PhD in Cultural Studies Independent researcher 25 Severnaya str., Apatity, Murmansk region, 184200, Russia diletant101@list.ru Other publications by this author

The emergence of the Sami culture on the Kola Peninsula and in Scandinavia is caused by the movement of cultural speakers to these territories from other territories located to the south. There can be no other way to move cultural speakers, because all groups of people appearing in the north came from the south.

It can be assumed that the Sami culture in the form in which it was described by researchers of the North was formed as a result of the synthesis of cultures of migration flows that came to the north and cultural groups already living in the North, which only shows the depth of the problem of understanding the formation and formation of Sami culture. The change of the surrounding landscape among migrating groups interfered with this process, which influenced the final formation of culture. A fundamental part of the Sami culture speakers could end up on the Kola Peninsula and in Scandinavia as a result of following one of two possible routes. The first route option was possible for the ancestors of modern Sami, who followed the north of Asia, further to the north of Siberia and then along the circumpolar zone to the territory of modern Karelia and further north. A. F. Nazarova writes: "The ancestors of the Sami, the northern Mongoloids, and the ancestors of the Caucasoid populations (for example, Slavic) migrated to the north of Asia and further along the circumpolar zone to the west, gradually settling the north of Siberia and the north of Europe" ^{[7, p. 24]}. The second option of the route was to advance from the territory of the lower reaches of the Altai Mountains to the Middle Volga, and then to the territory of modern Karelia and only then, to the north. M. P. Shironina writes: "The Sami acquired the foundations of their culture ... in the area of the northern spurs of the Altai Mountains, where the ethnogenesis of the entire group of Finno-Ugric tribes took place" ^{[20, p. 11]}. I. S. Manyukhin writes: "The beginning of Sami ethnogenesis belongs to the Ser. I thousand BC, when the Volga population penetrates the European North and enters into active interaction with the aborigines" ^{[4, p. 10]}.

Considering that elements of the Finno-Ugric culture occupy a significant place in the Sami culture, the second route option can be considered the most likely. In this case, the history of the entire Sami culture can be divided into three major stages. The first, the earliest stage, can be called the period of culture of the ancestors of the ancient Sami. It falls at the time of the movement of the ancestors of the ancient Sami from the Altai Mountains to the Middle Volga. During this period, separate Sami words and elements of Finno-Ugric culture were probably formed in the culture of the ancestors of the ancient Sami, the presence of which is evident from the cosmogonic myth of the demiurge duck preserved in the Sami culture. V. Ya. Petrukhin describes this myth: "The Sami myth of creation begins in a strange way: in the beginning there was nothing but ... the head of an old man. There were wells on the crown of this head, but the head was covered with a cap, so water was unavailable until thunder tore the cap. Then the jets from the wells rose to the sky and flooded the whole world. A duck flying over the water finds a blade of grass in the middle of the ocean: at first the blade of grass cannot withstand the bird, but then it grows and the earth grows around it. A bird lays five eggs on a blade of grass. Plants, springs, fish and birds, animals, and finally a man and a woman arise from eggs. This first human couple has a son and a daughter: they go in different directions in search of spouses — after all, marriages between brothers and sisters were forbidden. But the first people do not find anyone — they go around the whole earth and meet again. The human race originated from them" ^{[11, p. 155]}. Yu. A. Kaliev also writes about the central role of the duck in the Finno-Ugric cosmogonic myth ^[3].

The direct legacy of this myth can be considered the presence of a married Shamshura woman's headdress in a Sami costume. N. N. Volkov describes this headdress: "The headdress of a married woman, called shamshura (shamshed), was made of red cloth stretched on birch bark or a cardboard frame. The base of this headdress was represented by a collar, with the addition of a transverse ridge curved over the forehead and the back part covering the neck. As a rule, seven– or six-color beaded patterns of a stylized geometric nature are applied on the red surface of shamshura" ^[1]. N. N. Kharuzin, along with the description of shamshura, gives an opinion about some coincidence of its shape with Athena's helmet: "... married women wear shamshir. This headdress consists of a cylinder; a semi—elliptical elevation rises above the forehead, bent forward, and on the back of the head the same semi-elliptical one falls down. This skeleton is covered with matter, also most often red; moreover, the matter covers the top of the cylinder. Shamshir is worn on the head so that the hair is not visible, and is decorated with beads, patches of colorful fabrics, sometimes even pearls. In shape, shamshir really resembles the helmet of Athena" ^{[16, p. 94]}.

It should be noted that the shape of the shamshura in the lateral projection resembles a bird, where the curved front transverse crest looks like the neck and head of a bird, and the back part lowered down looks like a short bird's tail pointing downwards. Externally, the entire combined shape of the headdress resembles the shape of a duck bird sitting on the ground. It is also indicative of some external similarity in the shapes of a swaddled baby and a bird's egg, which could strengthen the use of shamshura in culture by a married woman giving birth to children. The very fact of the creation of shamshura in the form that has come down to the present time shows the presence of a reference to the cult of the bird among the ancestors of the ancient Sami.

The second stage of the history of Sami culture can be called the period of ancient Sami culture and falls at a time when the ancestors of modern Sami moved from the territory of the Middle Volga to the Upper Volga — to the area located between the Upper Volga and Upper Sukhona and somewhat northwest, to the coast of White Lake, the settling of the ancient Sami population for some time in this area. the area. At the end of this period, it is possible to allow the advance of the culture of the ancestors of modern Sami both further to the northwest and directly to the north, towards the Mezen River. A. K. Matveev writes that Sami topographical bases are found in the area of the Mezen River: "... Sami foundations are fixed in that part of the region that is located north of the Vodlozero line — the mouth of the Moshi — the mouth of the Padenga — the Lower Toima — the upper reaches of the Pinega. They are distributed fairly evenly, almost without forming any significant gaps, while covering the extreme northeast with the Kuloi basin and the lower reaches of the Mezen, as well as the Yemtsa basin and the lower reaches of the Vaga" ^{[6, p. 83]}. This entire period of ancient Sami culture is characterized by the process of formation of markers of Sami culture and the beginning of the formation of a culture that can already be identified as Sami. The basis of the Sami language is being formed, some myths related to the reindeer are being formed, and the process of forming the pantheon of Sami gods begins.

The third stage of the history of Sami culture can be called the period of Sami culture itself. It falls at the time of the movement of the ancestors of modern Sami from the coast of Onega and Ladoga Lakes to the north, to Scandinavia and the Kola Peninsula. The period is characterized by the final formation of the Sami culture and the Sami language, so it can already be called the period of Sami culture. Cultural transformations took place related to the changing landscape around the ancestors of modern Sami in the process of their migration to the north, the final formation of the pantheon of gods, interaction with the cultures of other populations that settled in the north earlier (for example, with the likely descendants of the inhabitants of the European part of the continent who migrated to Scandinavia through the territory of modern Sweden and Norway). As a result, the culture described by researchers and travelers was finally formed, and is known to us from written sources as the Sami culture.

The most significant period for the formation of the Sami culture was the period when the ancient Sami were located northwest of the Middle Volga - in the area between the Upper Volga and Upper Sukhona. The entire territory of residence of the ancient Sami is geographically located north of the territory of residence of the ancient Mari. But the ancient Sami could only move to this territory by passing through the territory of the ancient Mari. It is quite possible that there was a joint movement of ancient Sami and ancient Mari. Most likely, migration movements took a long time, and the groups of ancient Sami and ancient Mari had sufficient time for cultural exchange. The merger into one group did not happen, apparently, for quite good reasons. Among them there may be a difference in language, a difference in environmental management, a difference in religion, etc.

A characteristic sign of the influence of the culture of the ancient Mari on the culture of the ancient Sami is the probable borrowing by the ancient Sami of a triangular element from the culture of the ancient Mari to create a symbol of the reindeer in the decorative and applied arts of their culture. The borrowing of the triangular element and its fixation at the beginning of the formation of the decorative and applied art of the ancient Sami allowed the triangular element to gain a firm foothold in the Sami culture up to the present time. In the decorative and applied art of modern Sami, a separate triangular element, with dots /circles on the outside of the figure, at the corners of the triangle, has the meaning "deer". The broken line in the form of alternating triangles, symbolically depicting a multitude of deer in the culture of the ancient Sami, changed its meaning during migration up to the meaning of "mountains, hills" (which could not be in the area between the Upper Volga and Upper Sukhona). But most likely, the original triangular decorative elements were borrowed by the ancient Sami from the culture of the ancient Mari.

In the Sami culture, the mythical character Myandash is known, who appears in mythology as the ancestor of the Sami. V. Ya. Petrukhin writes: "An ancient myth tells about the origin of the Kola Sami from the wonderful werewolf deer Myandash, called Myandash-parn ("Myandash-guy"), Myandash-pyrre ("Myandash-good")" ^{[11, p. 190]}.

Myandash has the ability to transform from a deer into a human, and back again. In the myth recorded by V. V. Charnolusky, this is described more than once: "Turned over — took on a human form… Myandash-the guy ran like a wild hirvas… So Myandash-guy built himself a vezha and appeared before the daughter of a human being as a handsome man and took her as his wife" ^{[17, pp. 55-61]}. It is worth noting that the myth tells about Myandash's mother, she also has the ability to turn from a human into a female deer.

The appearance of the image of the ancestor of man, the Human deer, was possible during the period of the culture of the ancient Sami, when it became necessary in the I millennium AD to find an explanation for the increase in the number of reindeer in the forests of the area located between the Upper Volga and Upper Sukhona, in the places of residence of the ancient Sami. In fact, the increase in the number of reindeer, which is especially important in the diet of the ancient Sami, and on the number of which the continuation of human life directly depended, was caused by a cold snap, with a peak in the middle of the I millennium AD. V. V. Sedov writes about this: "At the end of the IV century. a cold snap is coming in Europe... severe frosts were noted in 366... An unusually severe winter was also noted in 370. At the turn of IV and V, severe frosts reached Byzantium. The fifth century was especially cold. ^{[14, p. 297]}.

The cold snap should have prompted the reindeer to expand their range of residence and nutrition, which led to the descent of reindeer herds to the south. But for the ancient Sami, the increase in the number of reindeer in the forests could be the result of the care of a deer Man, who cares both about the deer of his herd and about a man, whose hunger he tries to prevent and sends more deer to the man than usual. The name of this character in the emerging Sami mythology might not yet be the one that reached the myths before the period of its fixation by researchers of the north. Most likely, during the period of ancient Sami culture, the name of this character could be similar to the name of the deity of Mari mythology, who was named Vodizh (Vadysh). Vodizh in the Mari culture is a spirit, the owner of a certain territory. N. I. Popov, A. I. Tanygin write: "Among the Mari people, echoes of the dualistic worldview have been preserved... an important place was occupied by faith in the deities of forces and phenomena of nature, in the animateness and spirituality of the surrounding world and the existence in them of a reasonable, independent, materialized being — a double master (vodizh)..." ^[12]. Interestingly, in some legends, the Vodyzh could take the form of both a human and a deer. N. M. Okhotina writes: "The ideas about this deity are very contradictory… In the Mari legend of the XVIII-XIX centuries, the deity vodizh appears in the form of a human deer" ^{[9, p. 15]}.

S. A. Nurminsky conveys the content of the legend, in which Vadysh appears as the Cheremis god, the god of the forest. "The Cheremis god did not want to appear in court at all: he considered himself right. For this, the supreme god was angry with him and did not take him to heaven anymore, but left him in the forest. This is why the Cheremissky god has now become the god of the forest… At night, he sometimes walks around villages and grazes cattle, appearing sometimes in the form of a man, then in the form of a deer… And where he passes — all the trees bow to him to the ground, birds sing songs to him, and wild animals make way for him with reverence. The name of this deity is Vadysh" ^{[8, pp. 257-258]}. The image of Vadysh in the form of a deer is understandable because a certain attitude was preserved to the deer. S. A. Nurminsky writes: "... the memory of the former reverence for the deer has been preserved to this day. Thus, the presence of a deer in a certain area is considered a sign of special divine favor. Deer antlers are considered talismans: they are kept with special honor in dwellings, as a repository from the machinations of evil spirits" ^{[8, pp. 246-247]}. Do not forget that the very name Vodizh (Vadysh) could have been somewhat different at that time, during the culture of the ancient Mari.

Most likely, the primary name of the image of the Deer-Man among the ancient Sami could be a name phonetically associated with the name Vodizh (Vadysh) or a derivative borrowed from it. Only later did it become the name Myandyash. This is the apparent similarity of the names of the deities (Vadysh/Myandash), who have the ability to turn from a human into a deer and back, who command animals in the forest, can talk about the influence of the culture of the ancient Mari on the formation of the image and name of the Deer Man among the ancient Sami.

Of course, today it is impossible to know for sure whether the deity "Vodizh" among the ancient Mari was evil or good during the culture of the ancient Sami, and whether the emerging image of the Deer Man was an antonym or a synonym for him. Over time, it was possible to transition from a good deity to a bad deity, or vice versa. The modern division into good and bad deities could have been previously only conditional, or completely different.

During the period of the culture of the ancient Sami, the initial formation of the pantheon of gods took place. The name of the god Yubmel (Yumala) seems indicative I. Schaeffer writes in the text of Lapponia in 1673: "About the Biarmians, who, as we were able to establish, were the oldest Finnish natives in Lapland, we know that they worshipped a god whose name was in their language Jumala… There is no doubt that this designation of god (Yumala) passed to the Biarmians from the Finns and was later retained among the Lapps who also came from Finland... They called the true God Yumala, which they came to know partly guided by natural reason, partly thanks to the ancient traditions of their ancestors" ^{[19, pp. 29-31]}. I. G. Georgi writes about the Sami: "Being pagans, they believed, and still believe, in Yubmel, the universal God..." ^{[2, p. 11]}. V. Ya. Petrukhin writes: "Yubmel is the universal name of the heavenly god: let's remember the Finnish and Estonian Yumala, sometimes he is considered the ancestor of the Sami" ^{[10, p. 197]}. With a high degree of confidence, we can talk about the borrowing of the name of this god by the ancient Sami from the culture of the ancient Mari, during the period of cultural interaction with the close or cohabitation of the populations of the ancient Mari and the ancient Sami. We are talking about the god Humo, who is present in the pantheon of Mari gods. G. E. Shkalina writes directly about the presence of the god Humo: "Humo (God)" ^{[22, p. 15]}. A. K. Matveev also gives its meaning: "...mariisk ... humo "god"" ^{[5, p. 37]}. V. Ya. Petrukhin writes: "His name, Yumo, Yymy, reminds us of the name of the all-Georgian heavenly god Yumal" ^{[11, p. 260]}. It can be assumed that there is a considerable probability that the culture of the ancient Mari influenced the formation of the pantheon of gods among the ancient Sami.

The probability of the influence of the culture of the ancient Mari on the territory of the ancient Sami, as well as on the culture of the ancient Sami, is very high. At the same time, the main toponymy of Mari does not go far north, into the territory of the ancient Sami culture. I. S. Manyukhin writes: "the main Mari toponymy extends northward approximately to the Kostroma– Kotelnich line" ^{[4, p. 55]}. Although the ancient Mari lived south of the settlement area of the ancient Sami (the main toponymy of the Mari is located south of the modern city of Kostroma), there must have been a border cultural interchange between the ancient Mari and the ancient Sami. Do not forget about the passage of the ancient Sami into the area located between the Upper Volga and Upper Sukhona through the territory of the ancient Mari, which gave time for the direct influence of cultures on each other.

There is evidence of the ancient Mari living in the territory located near the ancient Sami, and quite possibly their close proximity when settling this territory. This proof follows from the name of the Kostroma River, which could extend not only to the river itself, but also to the nearby territory (and subsequently to the settlement/city of Kostroma). The Kostroma River itself initially flows through the territory located between the Upper Volga and Upper Sukhona, and in this area the presence of Sami toponyms is noticeable, which is possible only when the ancient Sami lived near the river, or along its banks. It should be noted that it was through the area of the Kostroma River that groups of ancient Sami could move in the direction of the north, to the Mezen River.

It is known that the words of the Mari language associated with wind or garbage are compared with the word Kostroma: "garbage — kushtra" ^{[13, p. 206]}, "litter, kushtra" ^{[13, p. 440]}. It is also known that the name of the pagan deity is compared to the word Kostroma. K. A. Chetkarev writes: "The name Kostroma S. K. Kuznetsov derives from the Mari word kushtra, koshtra – in the wind, downwind ... but the wind in the modern Mari language is called only mardezh. Kuznetsov, apparently, was unaware of another Mari word koshtra, kostra (Urzhum dialect) — weed, garbage, lying straw. Hence koshtra shudo — weed grass, koshtran vd — weed unclean water, olym koshtra — straw garbage... However, it is very difficult to believe ... that the term Kostroma was first the name of a pagan deity, because then it should have been called not the deity of spring, but the deity of garbage, weed, rod, etc." ^{[18, pp. 124-125]}. Indeed, one should be very careful about the possibility of borrowing a name for a pagan deity from words meaning garbage and weeds.

If we allow the development of the culture of the ancient Mari to a cult practice comparable to the culture described in written sources and preserved to this day in the form of veneration of sacred groves, then the question of the origin of the name Kostroma should be looked at differently. It should be noted that in the Mari culture the sacred grove has the name "k?soto". G. E. Shkalina writes "In the Mari cult practice, the sacred grove (k?soto) is considered as a hierarchical structure with special sacred zones" ^{[22, p. 138]}. It is also quite possible to compose the names of the gods from several words, as cited by I. N. Smirnov: "The God of the mountain (kuruk-yumo)" ^{[15, p. 180]}.

The name Kostroma could arise from the location of a special sacred grove of ancient Mari or several special sacred groves in the area of this river, and the name Kostroma is directly related to the name of the deity of the Mari grove — K?soto Yumo. G. E. Shkalina confirms the presence of such a deity in the pantheon of the Mari gods: in the pantheon of Mari there is a deity K?soto Yumo, but it is personified in Onapu G. E. Shkalina writes: "Literally translated into Russian, onapu means a tree-leader" ^{[22, p. 138]}. It is quite possible that the specially allocated sacred grove or the specially allocated sacred groves of the ancient Mari were located on the banks of the river (Kostroma), or at its mouth, which subsequently transferred the name of the deity of the sacred grove to the river itself, the territory at its mouth near the confluence with the Volga River, and eventually gave the name to the city known as we like the city of Kostroma.

There could be some reason associated with the location and allocation of this special sacred grove, or special sacred groves, the key to solving which lies in the extinction of the main Mari toponymy north of the mouth of the Kostroma River. There is a situation in which there is a clear opportunity for the ancient Mari to follow this river upstream to the north and populate the shores, but the main Mari toponymy in this direction is fading. This indicates that there was no movement of the ancient Mari northward, upstream of the Kostroma River, or it was extremely limited. If we assume that the ancient Mari allocated a sacred grove on the coast of Kostroma or at its mouth, into a special sacred grove, beyond which settlement did not occur, then it is quite possible that, according to the ancient Mari, there was a territory further on to which people had no reason to move. For example, it was not the territory of people, but of deities — further north, the gods lived on earth (good or evil), or the gods lived in heaven, which was located precisely above those lands that were located north of this special sacred grove.

Many rivers flow into the Volga, and moving upstream along the banks of these rivers, you can move north — the rivers closest to Kostroma are Mera, Neya, Unzha. The essential difference lies in the fact that moving upstream along the Kostroma River, and walking along the ground for several kilometers between the Kostroma tributary — the Monza River and the Sukhona tributary — the Lezha River, you can go into the Sukhona riverbed, and along it through the Northern Dvina — up to the coast of the White Sea. Starting along the Kostroma River, it was indeed possible to go very far north. If, according to the ideas of the ancient Mari, the deities could use the river as a road or the direction of the path, then it was along these rivers (including the Kostroma River as part of the path) that the deities from the far north could move — they could come to the Volga area from the Kostroma River. Similarly, people traveling along the Kostroma River to the north, walking, and reaching the Sukhona tributary, could reach the lands of the northern deities. The Kostroma River is the beginning of the path to the land of the deities.

It is quite possible that according to the ideas of the ancient Mari, evil gods lived to the north. Information about this understanding of the northern direction can be found in S. A. Nurminsky. He's writing: "A cold, piercing north wind will blow — the savage cheremisin thinks that this is an evil Keremet from distant, cold countries, from cellars filled with ice, from abysses where it is eternal winter, where not a single tree, not a single grass never blooms, where no animal can live except a disgusting shaggy bear tied up on a chain at the entrance to the abyss, she sent her assistants — evil spirits (Shaitan), who froze and glaciated all life on earth" ^{[8, p. 265]}.

On the other hand, the sky above the earth was also north of the mouth of the Kostroma River, and the god Humo also lived in that part of the sky. The simultaneous power of evil and good gods over a certain area is quite appropriate. G. E. Shkalina writes: "Our ancestors did not build an impassable wall between Good and Evil" ^{[21, p. 81]}.

If a similar concept of the structure of the world of the gods existed during the culture of the ancient Mari, then the northern territory along the Kostroma riverbed was both under the rule of evil deities and under the general rule of good deities, and first of all, the god Humo. It is possible that according to the ideas of the ancient Mari, a person should not have been on that earth once again, where, of course, there is a presence of Humor, but at the same time, evil deities are especially strong. This can explain the extinction of the Mari toponymy in the north direction, along the Kostroma River.

A certain special sacred grove (or groves) on the shore /at the mouth of the Kostroma River could be iconic for the ancient Mari, and it showed the beginning of the earth under the rule of deities. In the most sacred grove (in the groves) there was a deity of the sacred grove, K?soto Yumo, later personified in Onapu (according to G. E. Shkalina). Perhaps there was only one special sacred grove, but its significance (the meaning of its deity) was so great that it marked the beginning of the naming of the Kostroma River, the area at its mouth, and subsequently gave the name to the city of Kostroma.

Perhaps, according to the ideas of the ancient Mari, the ancient Sami, who passed to the north and lived beyond a special sacred grove, although they lived on land controlled by evil forces, still lived under the divine sky. With this view, the close proximity of the ancient Mari and ancient Sami cultures seems completely real. Cultural exchange, cultural continuity, and cultural borrowing by the ancient Sami of images and symbols from the culture of the ancient Mari are quite possible. For example, it could be a triangular element from the decorative and applied art of the ancient Mari, taken to form a symbol of the image of the reindeer in the culture of the ancient Sami. It is also seen as possible for the ancient Sami to develop the name of the ancestor, the Human Deer, similar to the name of the Mari deity Vodizh (Vadysh). The residence of the ancient Sami in the territories, one way or another, directly related to the location of the sky god Yumo, in conditions of constant cultural exchange, should not immediately, but gradually, influence thoughts about the acceptance of this deity.

It is possible to assume a high probability of the possible influence of the culture of the ancient Mari on the territory of the ancient Sami in the area between the Upper Volga and Upper Sukhona, on the formation of cultural markers among the ancient Sami and on the formation of the pantheon of Sami gods.