Vladimir Ya. Petrukhin

Institute of Slavic Studies RAS, Moscow, Russia

E-mail: vladimir.petrukhin@gmail.com

Keywords: saltcellar, reliquary, bone-carving craft.

Containers made from parts of the sawn horn of the red deer have received different interpretations in the literature. They are represented as everyday objects, necks of the wineskins, containers for keeping salt, or repositories of certain “relics”. There is no data on those “relics” (the cult of relics being characteristic of the Christian tradition), some sacred content is attributed to the ornamentation of containers. The assumed (S. Tash) connection of containers with transcontinental salt trade can be supported by mapping the full catalog of finds. Obviously, the areas of finds include the “Avaro-Khazar” world of Central and Eastern Europe as well as the “Baltic” region: Novgorod “saltcellars” synthesize the traditions of these areas.

DOI: 10.31857/S086960630001645-8