MAIASP. 2022. No. S1

I.Yu. Schaub (Saint Petersburg, Russia)

Unknown lead votive from Olbia

DOI: 10.53737/2713-2021.2022.30.96.002

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Pages: 38—49

The article is devoted to the publication of a lead composition, which was accidentally found in Olbia in the 80s of the 20th century CE and is now in a private collection. Similar lead figurines, which are not without reason considered votives, are very characteristic of Olbia and its environs. However, the plot presented in the composition under consideration — a winged woman on a chariot — was not recorded among the Olbian lead items. At the same time, a similar plot appears on the items of the Bosporan funerary inventory. The author finds close analogies among the things and plots of the funeral cult of the Thracians. Therefore, he suggests that in the image of the winged woman on the published votive, the Olbiopolites saw not the goddess of victory, Nike, but some kind of chthonic demon (or chthonic goddess). The closest Bosporan and Thracian analogies indicate that the votive was cast at the end of the 4th or in the 3rd century BCE.

Key words: Pontic Olbia, Bosporus, Thrace lead votives, winged characters, ancient religion.

Received October 18, 2022

Accepted for publication October 29, 2022

About the author:

Schaub Igor Yurievich (Saint Petersburg, Russia). Dr. habil. (History), Institute of the History of Material Culture of the Russian Academy of Sciences

E-mail: schaubigor@mail.ru