The Golden Baba today appears only in myths and legends. Presumably, it was she who was the main idol, which was worshiped in ancient times by the peoples of North-Eastern Europe and North-Western Siberia.
Myths about the golden idol
The earliest mention of a golden idol is found in the 13th century in the Scandinavian Saga of Olaf the Saint, which is part of Snorri Sturluson's circle of the Earth. The saga tells that around 1023 the Norwegian Vikings, led by the famous Thorir the Dog, went on a campaign to Biarmia (Bjarmaland) - that was the name of the legendary state, which spread in the 9th-12th centuries in the region of the Northern Dvina, Vychegda and the upper reaches of the Kama. In Rus' it was called the Great Perm. They managed to secretly enter the sanctuary of the Bjarmians - Yomali, guarded by six shamans. There they saw many treasures and a large gilded statue. On the neck of the idol was a precious chain, on the head - a golden crown, decorated with twelve various images. On her knees lay a bowl filled with silver coins mixed with earth. The Vikings took with them as much money and treasure as they could carry. Finally, one of them, Carly, cut off the head of the idol, seduced by the chain. But on the way back, the Vikings were met by the keepers of the sanctuary, and they had to flee, leaving all the loot.
We also find information about the cult of worshiping the Golden Woman in the Sofia Chronicle for 1398 in connection with the death of Bishop Stephen of Perm. It says that Stephen sowed the faith of Christ on those lands where animals, trees, water, fire and ... the Golden Woman were previously worshiped.
In the 15th century, the Novgorodians-Ushkuiniki, having visited the Ural lands with goods, brought news of "unknown people in the Eastern country, the growth of small ones, eating each other and praying to a golden idol".
A lot of legends about the Golden Woman are circulating among the Komi, Khanty and Mansi. So, Mansi reindeer breeders tell such a legend. The golden woman was alive and could walk on her own. When she was crossing the Stone Belt, as the Ural Mountains were called in the old days, the local shaman woman tried to detain her, as she considered herself the local mistress. Then the idol screamed in a terrible voice, and from its cries all living things died for many miles. The impudent shaman fell back and turned to stone.
The Yakut epic describes a copper statue standing in the middle of impenetrable swamps. When enemies approached, she allegedly began to make a sound reminiscent of the chirping of many crickets, and also radiated a blue glow into the sky.
The Nenets have a myth that once a year, when the Great Sun appears in the sky, a Sun Baba rises from under the frozen ground, carrying a baby in her womb.
The cult of the "golden goddess" among the Slavs
It seems that they worshiped the Golden Woman and in Ancient Rus'. In the pagan traditions of the Slavs, the Temple of the Golden Baba is mentioned, located "in the country of Obdorskaya, at the mouth of the river Obigo"(probably referring to the Ob River). She was considered the patroness of pregnant women and midwives. She was sacrificed gold, silver and furs. Even strangers came to worship the idol. Researchers of ancient Slavism believe that the Golden Baba was the main one among Rozhanitsy - goddesses responsible for human destiny.
According to most researchers, it was about the Mansi goddess Sorni-Ekva, whose name in translation means "Golden Woman". Prince N.S. Trubetskoy, who was engaged in ethnography, believed that this was Kaltash-Ekva, the wife of the supreme Khanty-Mansi god Numi-Tarum, who patronizes all living things and determines the fate of every person.
Where to look for the Golden Woman?
It is assumed that with the advent of Christianity, the pagans began to hide the statue so that it would not be destroyed. Enough detailed information one can read about this in the books about Rus' by European travelers of the 16th century. True, information about the location of the sanctuary of the Golden Baba is quite contradictory. For example, M. Mekhovsky in his "Work on two Sarmatians" (1517) writes that the idol is located beyond Vyatka "when entering Scythia". But S. Herberstein in 1549, A. Gvagnini in 1578 and D. Fletcher in 1591 indicate that it is hidden near the mouth of the Ob.
In his notes made during a trip to Russia, the Roman envoy Sigismund Herberstein reports: “They say, or rather, they say fabulously that the idol of the Golden Old Woman is a statue in the form of an old woman holding her son on her knees, and there is already seen again another child, about whom they say that this is her grandson. Moreover, as if she had placed some instruments there that emit a constant sound, like pipes. If this is so, then I believe that this comes from the strong and constantly blowing wind on these instruments..
One of the maps of the medieval cartographer G. Mercator, published in 1595, depicts a statue with a child in her arms and the signature "Golden Woman" (Slata baba) near the mouth of the Ob River.
In Uvatsky local history museum"Legends of the gray-haired Irtysh", located in the Tyumen region, you can see the exposition dedicated to the Golden Woman. The exhibits include the Kungur Chronicle, according to which 400 years ago the idol was located in the Demyansk town in the Uvat district, but after the capture of the town by the Yermakov Cossacks, led by Ataman Bryazga, the statue mysteriously gone. In the center of the museum hall there is a reconstruction of the altar with a gilded figure of the goddess, reproduced from the drawings of the chronicler S.U. Remezov.
In 1961, the statue was allegedly discovered in the vicinity of the village of Yuilsk in the upper reaches of the Kazym River, about 270 kilometers north of Khanty-Mansiysk. But it turned out not to be golden, but wooden, covered with silver on top. Therefore, there were rumors about the substitution. However, everyone who dealt with the idol died one by one. Although it is clear that the information is completely unverified ... In addition, the Yuil Idol soon disappeared.
Where the mysterious Golden Baba is now, if it really exists, is unknown. Maybe the idol is hidden in one of the hidden Ural caves, waiting in the wings...
Investigation of the hypothesis that Jesus could actually be a resident of the Yaroslavl province,
led me to an unexpected discovery, which at first glance has absolutely nothing to do with the question of interest. However, this may not be entirely true. The discovery may be connected with the history of the son of God and with the disappeared civilization of the Urals
The most curious picture left us Lucas Cranach (Rest on the Flight into Egypt). There are so many riddles in it that it's time to organize an international tournament to solve them, similar to tournaments for "collecting the Rubik's cube." However, the work of most artists of the 15th-16th centuries. one big puzzle.
Firstly, they all together painted scenes from the life of Jesus, and secondly, without saying a word, they "mistaken" and depicted European landscapes in Judea, and the Jews as completely European people. And thirdly, it is the climate. Both the Nativity and the execution of Jesus are depicted against the backdrop of frozen rivers and snow covered forests, fields and cities. Moreover, the details are completely confusing, because they do not correspond to the time that they supposedly reflect. Those. the feeling that the whole story with Birth, death and Resurrection took place during their lifetime, in the 16th century, and not in some kind of Palestine, not even in the south of the continent, but in the north. Coniferous vegetation, birches and mountain ash, clearly indicate that the events took place at least in France - Germany, and even Scandinavia or even Russia. More late artists have already explained how to correctly depict those who lived in the zero century from the birth of Christ. Here are the "stupid" medieval artists stubbornly depicted in the paintings of biblical characters by their contemporaries. Everything would be nothing. You can put it down to fashion. For example, our Nikas Safronov also depicts the famous and rich in knightly armor. But I think that's not the point at all. After all, no one thought of portraying the Old Testament characters in knightly armor and on horseback. And interest in them arose already by the 19th century. Why? But a stormy surge to the New Testament history broke out locally and at the same time. The nonsense is obvious. It's as if now all the artists, as if by agreement, began to paint scenes from H. G. Wells' book "War of the Worlds". But if you look at the TV screen and poke your finger into the buttons on the "lazybones", then you will notice an amazing thing. Nothing happens in the world, because all the news channels of all countries and continents broadcast about the same events! Now it is clear? In my opinion, it is obvious that artists, itinerant musicians, circus performers and theaters played the role that the media now play in the Middle Ages. Written sources of that time, the bulk were destroyed, and new ones were created in their place. And those few that survived were mercilessly transported. More difficult with painting and sculpture. It is quite difficult to edit, although this does happen. Basically, objectionable-destroyed. So almost all the frescoes were rewritten, and some were simply painted over. The most popular method is fake dating. It is in this way that the writings of medieval authors were assigned to antiquity. And not only medieval, but also the artists of the 19th century "aged" almost instantly by a thousand years. That is why now millions of tourists stand with their hamburgers open, near the works of "ancient" authors, and "Renaissance" Raphael, Botticelli, etc.
I told all this only in order to make it clear how one should treat “evidence of ancient times”. But the creations of Pieter Brueghel, like Lucas Cranach, somehow stand apart in the general line of artists. The details depicted in the pictures are sometimes confusing. It happens that even a few hours after watching, you catch yourself thinking that there is a phantom of what you saw in front of your mind's eye, and gradually thoughts begin to come about what all the same struck you so.
I spent a long time trying my memory, trying to remember where I had already seen this? At last I understood what exactly seemed familiar to me in Cranach. Well, of course! Sigmund von Herberstein's card! There I saw "Maria" with a baby and an older child!
Exactly. Just next to the Lukomorye, the legendary Golden Woman is depicted.
According to legend, the Golden Woman is a figure of a naked woman cast from pure gold, about one and a half meters high. The exact origin of Baba is unknown. But they say that once she stood on the shores of Lake Ladoga
And in the text of Herberstein’s “Notes” themselves there were amazing information: “Beyond the Ob, at the Golden Baba, where the Ob flows into the ocean, the rivers Sosva, Berezva and Danadym flow, all of which originate from the mountain Stone of the Big Belt and the rocks connected to it. All the peoples living from these rivers to the Golden Baba are called tributaries of the Prince of Moscow.The Golden Baba, that is, the Golden Old Woman, is an idol at the mouth of the Ob, in the region of Obdora. Actually, Obdor was called the country in the region of the Ob River.
The first mention of the golden idol of the North is contained in the Scandinavian sagas. In 1023 the Vikings, led by the famous Torer-Dog, made a trip to Biarmia. On the Dvinei River, they managed to find out the location of the Yumaly sanctuary and secretly penetrate into it. The amazed Scandinavians saw a large wooden statue with a bowl on her knees and a necklace around her neck. On the head of the idol was a golden crown, decorated with twelve different images. The bowl was filled with silver coins mixed with earth.
Yumala is the God we call Perun. Komi and Permians say - Yomal, Estonians - Yumal, Sami - Yumbel, Germans - Donner,
Lithuanians - Perkun, Scandinavians - Thor, and in geography the name of this God was reflected in the toponym YAMAL. Here is an interesting mosaic. And what did the Scandinavians call Biarmia (Bjarmland)? The answer is simple - Perm. Trying to deal with the epic geography, I used the maps of the Middle Ages and tried to overlay them on the modern one, and then a great shock awaited me. I again returned to where I started the story about the tears of the mysterious civilization of the northern Urals. All the same places, Vishera, Tulym, Kvarkush. No matter how you wander, you will return to the junction of the Yekaterinburg and Perm provinces. And this is not just a coincidence. This cannot be a mere coincidence! On the map, I managed to find the supposed place where the Golden Woman was, if she is not a myth. And what lies behind the fairy tale real events, so it is almost not called into question. Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin also heard stories about the Golden Woman from Arina Rodionovna. It was they who became driving force when writing this:
"Lukomorye has a green oak
golden chain on an oak tree
day and night the cat is a scientist
everything goes round and round
goes to the right - song
turns on
to the left - a fairy tale
He speaks."
I'm flying over the taiga, and suddenly .... An unusual hill rises in the middle of the parma! A real mound that looks foreign in the area. A kind of pimple, the navel of the earth. I had to meet such formations more than once in Kolyma. To clearly imagine how it looks on the ground, pour a bucket of rubble onto the lawn. (I don’t have my own lawn, The neighbor’s lawn will do, or the lawn in the yard.) Now mentally increase what you have received by about a hundred thousand times and the idea will be quite real.
Who in nature pours cobblestones in one place is a mystery. But there are enough such places on the planet.
The most famous is the Patomsky crater in the Irkutsk region. But he gained fame solely due to his unusual shape.
In fact, there are thousands of them.
Have you ever seen a mound of earth that a mole leaves behind? I bet it looks very similar. Only instead of clods of earth, someone or something squeezes crushed stone to the surface.
There is another association. For example, a basalt monolith destroyed to the ground. Well, we can not exclude the man-made of such objects. They may well turn out to be mounds. Only the question arises: - What should be the goal of the builders, so that they do not spare such titanic efforts to carry small stones (their weight rarely reaches 50 kg.)? If you believe the legend about Tamerlane, who ordered each warrior to bring one stone to a certain place in order to find out what the number of his troops was, and assume that this was the usual method of keeping statistics for those times, and assume that the barrow found from "this opera ”, then it turns out that the people of the entire planet came to one place, and each had a fragment from one basalt rock. Unreal.
But still, what if under this mound, which is located tens of kilometers from the roads, and the nearest housing? Maybe the great secret of the Golden Woman is hidden in the Ural taiga?
The so-called Golden Woman, a mysterious statue that serves as a cult object of the indigenous peoples of Western Siberia, has been the subject of many-sided discussion in the science of the peoples of Siberia, in popular literature about the history of Siberia and among the sacred secrets of the culture of its peoples for many years.
Despite the fact that historians tend to discuss reliable facts, and archaeologists and ethnographers prefer to deal with specific material objects, the stories about the Golden Woman require a serious attitude, if not in terms of a possible reflection of some reality, then at least in the aspect of existence some cultural concept that changes over time.
As I.N. Ionina writes,
“The oldest mention of the mysterious Golden Baba is found in the Novgorod (what? - A.B.) chronicle for 1398. It was written down after the missionary activity of Stephen of Perm, who walked the Perm land: "This teach the Perm land the faith of Christ, and before that they bowed to the beast and the tree, water, fire and the Golden Baba." Archers followed Stefan and destroyed the pagan sanctuaries of the Permians, and churches were erected in their place.
Foreign scientists also wrote about the Golden Baba. In Western Europe, interest in the unknown Yugra (the country of the Ugric peoples) arose thanks to the writings of the Italian Julius Pomponius Let, who believed that the Ugrians - the ancestors of modern Hungarians - participated in Alaric's campaign against Rome and in the sacking of the city. “On the way back,” Pomponius Let writes, “some of them settled in Pannonia and formed a powerful state there; part returned to their homeland to the Arctic Ocean and still has some copper statues brought from Rome, which are worshiped as deities. The Italians believed that the Golden Baba was taken out of Rome by the Ugrians, who, in alliance with the Goths, destroyed the Roman Empire, and the Golden Baba was supposedly a statue of Juno.
Drawings of the Golden Baba different authors different. M. Mekhovsky, for example, has a statue standing woman, in A. View - a woman with a cornucopia, and in S. Herberstein she is depicted as the goddess Minerva with a spear in her hand. Eight years later, his Golden Baba resembles a seated Madonna with a child in her arms. The Italian Gvagnini wrote that the Golden Baba was carved out of stone and was a woman with two children, she held one child in her arms, the other stood nearby and was called her grandson.
The Golden Baba was also revered as a Slavic goddess. According to numerous reports of the Khanty, Mansi and Russian old-timers. Golden Baba for a long time was stored in Belogorye - an area on the Ob near the confluence of the Irtysh. This is confirmed by the Siberian Chronicle, which tells about the adventures of Bogdan Bryazgin (Bryazgi. - A.B.), closest friend and colleague Yermak. After the capture of the Ostyak town of Samar in 1583, he visited the Ostyak prayer site in Belogorye “to the ancient goddess; Naga sitting on a chair with her son; accepting gifts from his own, and giving her the remnants in every providence, and if anyone does not give a vow, he torments and torments; and whoever brings pity to her, that fall will die before her, having God and a great congress. When they heard the arrival of Bogdan in their ears, she ordered them to hide and everyone to run; and many collections of idols are hidden to this day.
After some time, the deity, who had disappeared from Belogorye, reappeared in the basin of the Konda River. It was secretly transferred there by the Belogorsk Khanty, but then the traces of the Golden Baba are lost. Orthodox missionary Grigory Novitsky, who preached in early XVIII century Christian doctrine Ostyaks, tried to find the hidden statue and destroy it, but he failed to do so. He was able to collect only a lot of valuable information about both the idol itself and the secret sanctuary in which the Golden Baba was kept ”Ionina (Ionina, 2005, p. 273-275).
"The Golden Baba, that is, the Golden Old Woman, is an idol at the mouth of the Ob, in the Obdor region; it stands on the right bank. Many fortresses are scattered along the banks of the Ob and near neighboring rivers, whose owners, as you can hear, are all subject to Prince Muscovy. They say , or, more correctly, they say fabulously that this idol of the Golden Baba is a statue representing an old woman
Who holds her son in her womb, and that another child is already visible there, who, they say, is her grandson. In addition, they assure that some instruments are placed there that emit a constant sound like a trumpet. If so, then, in my opinion, this was done by the fact that the winds strongly and constantly blow into these instruments.
Russian scientists of the XVIII century. (G.F. Miller, I.I. Lepekhin) developed the idea that the Golden Woman is an ancient Komi deity, whose statue was taken to the Ob by pagans who did not want to be baptized. The Finno-Ugric Yomala, Guanyin as one of the incarnations of Avalokiteshvara, the Mansi Sorni-Ekva or Kaltash-Ekva, the image of some ancient deity - Hera (Juno) or Athena, were assumed as the personification of the Golden Woman.
In Tatar, the words "Golden woman" should have sounded like Altyn-Apa, where apa is a common Turkic term for a mother or an older relative. Known. that among the peoples of Siberia, with the help of terms of kinship for ancestors, sacred, cult, sacrificial places are called, associated with the cult of ancestors or ideas about the spirits-masters of the areas as reincarnated ancestors. As for the first part of such a naming, its understanding as a Turkic altun, altyn "gold" can be recognized as secondary and considered as a consequence of an imperfect understanding of the Tatar language.
Thus, it is quite possible that the onym Golden Woman is based on a combination of the words Al Tym-apa or Al Tyn-apa - the name of a sacred place in the lower reaches of the Tym River (the real right tributary of the Ob) or a river with similar name- Tyn, Son, Sym, etc. Such a name, being misunderstood or incorrectly translated into Russian from Tatar, initiated, first among Russians, and then among European scientists, ideas about the goddess, in which the features of the Virgin Mary and the images of the goddesses were synthesized. Ancient Greece and Rome.
The fate of ancient legends is curious and varied: some of them are confirmed by scientific data, while others, on the contrary, are refuted and become only the property of mythology. But some legends, repeatedly and seemingly convincingly refuted, live to this day.
For hundreds of years, researchers have been looking for the Golden Woman, the legendary idol of the Ural-Siberian peoples. Many puzzled over her riddle (See “Around the World” No. 1 for 1960, article by L. Livshits and L. Teplov “The Golden Woman of the Arimaspians”.).
I happened to travel a lot in northern places by the nature of my profession as an ethnographer, to study material culture, customs, former beliefs of the Khanty, Mansi, Komi, Nenets. And, of course, I couldn’t help but worry about the question: did the Golden Woman really exist or is it just someone’s speculation that has become a legend? I had to dig into old books, and these are the conclusions my search led me to.
The legend of the Golden Woman, apparently, was born in Rus' in the XIV-XV centuries - at the time when the growing Muscovite state began to actively expand its possessions to the northeast. Moscow service people then assigned lands to Russia along the rivers Vychegda, Pechora, Kama; crossed the Urals, penetrated into the basin of the great Ob and imposed a tribute to the “sovereign” on the multilingual population there.
Following the military and merchant people, Orthodox priests also rushed to these lands, diligently planting Christianity among the local "idolaters". For the first time, the Golden Woman was mentioned in the Sofia Chronicle under 1398, talking about the activities of one of the Orthodox missionaries, Stephen of Perm.
There is no reason to suspect the chronicler that he invented the Golden Woman. Apparently, vague stories about this idol of "unknown people in the eastern side" were already circulating in Rus'. But at the same time, the writer of the late XIV century, Epiphanius the Wise, who described in detail and with knowledge of the matter the pre-Christian beliefs of the Komi-Permians, did not say a word about such a “miracle” as the Golden Woman. According to him, the Permian idols were wooden, while offerings were made to them with various items, mainly furs (but sometimes things made of precious metals).
It is very important that in the future, not a single Russian document, with the exception of the message of Metropolitan Simon of 1501, who repeated the message of the Sofia Chronicle, contains direct evidence of the Golden Woman. But, it would seem, to whom, if not Russian, to tell about this outlandish figure. At the same time, the story about her gained great fame over time. Western European literature XVI-XVII centuries; a rare author, speaking of Muscovy, does not mention the "woman of gold."
The foundation was laid in 1517 Polish writer M. Mekhovsky, who, according to Russian prisoners of war in Krakow, told Europe that “beyond the land called Vyatka, there is a large idol of Zlota Baba ... golden woman or an old woman, the surrounding peoples honor her and worship her.”
In 1516-1518, S. Herberstein visited Russia - diplomat, author famous book"Note on Moscow Affairs". In it, in particular, referring to some Russian manuscript, he reported new information about the Golden Woman ... It turns out that this deity was not located beyond the Vyatka, but "at the mouth of the Ob, in the Obdor region, on the farther shore."
According to Herberstein, “this idol of the Golden Old Woman is a statue in the form of a certain old woman who holds her son in her womb, and as if there is already seen a child again, about whom they say that he is her grandson. In addition, as if she had placed some instruments there that make a constant sound like pipes.
This is where it all really started! The authority of the great cunning Herberstein was so high, and the belief of Europeans in all sorts of miracles in Russia is so strong that almost no one in the West doubted the authenticity of the description of the Golden Woman. And she made a truly triumphant procession through the books of many foreign authors.
But let us turn to a much more modest report from the Siberian (Kungur) chronicle, relating to the period of Yermak's campaigns in the basin of the middle reaches of the Ob River.
The greatest accuracy and reliability in this narrative is the story of the campaign in 1582 by Bohdan Bryazga "with his comrades" down. along the Irtysh to the Ob. Researchers believe that the original record of this campaign was made by one of its participants.
For our topic, the passage that speaks of the appearance of the Bryazga detachment in Belogorye, the most important religious center of the Khanty on the left bank of the Ob, is important. Here it is in full: “Because they have a prayer place greater than the ancient goddess, naked with her son on a chair, sitting, accepting gifts from her own, and giving her statues in every providence; and whoever does not give a vow, torments and torments; and whoever brings pity to her, he will die before her, having the name of God (prayers with sacrifices) and the great congress. Whenever they heard rumors of the arrival of Bogdan, she ordered them to hide and everyone to run, and many idol collections have been hidden to this day.
Further, the Belogorsk deity is mentioned twice. After the death of Yermak, one of his Khanty shells was “given to the butt of the Belogorsk shaitan.” And when the Khanty laid siege to the town built by the Russians at the mouth of the Irtysh, they brought with them a “larger Belogorsk blockhead”, hoping for his help. The Cossacks fired from a cannon, "and their idol with a tree was shattered into many parts."
Apparently, the Belogorsk idol-woman "helped" the Sredneobsky Khanty in all cases of life; therefore, he was entitled to rich offerings, including the shell of the formidable Yermak. This deity was carefully guarded, and when the Cossacks of Bryazga appeared, the “many collection of idols” - apparently, the image itself and everything that was sacrificed to him - turned out to be hidden.
The description of the “ancient goddess with her son” is extremely reminiscent of what foreigners, according to Russian people who have been in Siberia, reported about the Golden Woman. However, the Russian chronicler did not say a word that the Belogorsk deity was golden.
AT late XVI century, the essay “On the Russian State” appeared, written the English ambassador at the Moscow court by D. Fletcher. It also contains information about Siberia, all the more valuable because it was compiled from eyewitness accounts. And Fletcher completely rejected the version of the Golden Woman as an "empty fable."
The objections were serious: “Only in the Obdorskaya region, from the side of the sea, near the mouth of the large Ob River, is there a rock that by nature (though partly with the help of imagination) has the appearance of a woman in tatters, with a child; on hands". Further, he reports that Obdorsk Nenets usually gather at this place because of its convenience for fishing, and indeed sometimes (according to their custom) conjure and guess about the good or bad success of their travels, fishing, hunting, etc. ”
The information reported by Fletcher largely coincides with later and completely reliable facts collected in 1771 in the Obdorsk region by the remarkable Russian traveler and scientist V.F. Zuev. According to him, the Ob Khanty and Nenets have the most important place for idolatry near the Voksarsky yurts, 70 versts below Obdorsk ... “There are two blockheads, one in a man's dress, the other dressed in a woman's dress. Both, in the Ostyak (Khanty) manner, are decorated with different materials with special splendor and decorated with fur coats; the dress is covered with various copper and iron figures from plaques, depicting all kinds of animals, and on the head they have a silver crown.
A hundred years earlier, in 1675, N. Spafariy, the head of the Russian embassy in China, traveled through Siberia. For him, the Siberian administration specially collected various information about local peoples. And here is what Spafari wrote later:
“And near Berezov there are Ostyak idol temples, and earth writers write about them that there is an idol of Golden Women, but they don’t say de gold ones, but that there are a lot of silver, painted wooden and copper ones.”
So, most of the most conscientious researchers say that idols northern peoples were not gold.
What, after all, served as the basis for such a firmly held legend?
It is interesting that the sacred place of the Khanty, indicated by Spafari, geographically coincides with those Kyltysyan yurts, where Kaltash, the most important female deity of the Khanty and Mansi, was located.
But maybe this is the real name of the Golden Woman? No matter how various authors paint it, they all agreed on one thing - this deity was a great mother, mentor and patroness of the Ob hunters and fishermen.
But such a deity of the Khanty and Mansi was called by the name of Kaltash, Kaltash equa (Kaltash's woman), Kaltash xian (Kaltash's mother). She was presented as the "mother of the earth" and the progenitor of many genera of the Khanty and Mansi. The birth, the whole life and death of any person seemed to depend on her will.
The ethnographer K. D. Nosilov, one of the defenders of the existence of the Golden Woman, who traveled at the beginning of the 20th century, recorded the story of an old Mansi man about a silver figurine of a Mansi deity.
So, according to him, “a silver woman helps women a lot; and also helps crafts; whoever donates to it, he is the best hunter. This description completely coincides with what was said about Kaltash.
The simple-minded Khanty and Mansi believed that Kaltash gave children a soul in the womb, and at birth, each child was inscribed with notches on a special wooden stick- a fetish of his subsequent life path.
Kaltash had a son known as different names: Mir susne khum (a person looking after the people), Ekva pyrishch (mother's son), Un-urt (great hero).
How did the Khanty and Mansi represent their Kaltash? According to K.D. Nosilov, the Kondinsky old man painted her as a golden or silver woman, but according to other records, say V.N. Chernetsova, “the old people say that she has only three guises (hare, goose and birch).” Here is the Golden Woman! In one of the songs-spells addressed to Kaltash, she is characterized as “a summer hare, a gentle woman; autumn hare, tender woman...” The Ob Ugrians carved the head of a hare on the handles of women's oars, on the ends of the hooks that supported the roof, and on household items.
Often Kaltashch was also represented in the form of a goose sitting in a nest: “In good manner golden (!) goose sits”, “He sits in a happy nest of fine silk, sits in a rich nest of fine cloth”.
Kaltashch could also be a birch, more precisely, a wooden - necessarily birch - image. How can one not recall the evidence of the Kungur Chronicle that during the siege of a Cossack town at the mouth of the Irtysh, “the Ostyaks in the utria brought with them a larger Belogorsk blockhead, and put a birch under a tree, and praying and a zhryakh”!
It is no coincidence that the birch idol shattered into pieces, being struck from a small Cossack cannon.
But why was she still called the "Golden Woman"? The explanation may be twofold. Although no gold was mined in the country of the Khanty and Mansi, they received some gold and silver items from the southern neighbors of the Scythian-Sarmatians, who, in turn, were associated with Central Asia and Iran. It is not surprising that the Ob-Ugric name for gold "sarni" is of Iranian origin.
Archaeologists discover objects made of precious metals, usually in ancient sacrificial places where idols once stood.
The decoration of many of our museums are gold and silver jugs, dishes, plates, often with images of real and outlandish animals, brought from the ancient temples of the Khanty and Mansi. All these things were not made in Western Siberia, but in Central Asia, Iran, the Caucasus and have a solid age - from several hundred to one and a half to two thousand years.
Judging by archaeological finds, expensive things made of silver and gold as sacrifices were accumulated near especially revered deities made of wood or sewn from skins and fabrics in the form of dolls. Over time, precious vessels themselves became the subject of veneration as attributes of the gods.
It was precisely this, in the words of the Kungur Chronicle, "butt" that apparently gave rise to the legend of the Golden Woman.
On the other hand, in the Ob-Ugric mythology, gold constantly appears as a sign of extraordinaryness, nobility, happiness and good luck. Kaltash was sitting like a “golden goose” in the nest, the heroic armor of the Mir susne khum was “golden”; the expression "I will grow a golden horn" in the epic epic of the Irtysh Khanty meant: "I will be happy."
That's all that can be said about the Golden Woman. With some sadness I part with my "heroine". The search led to the collapse of the myth. Well, the truth is more precious than error, no matter how bright clothes they may be dressed.
L. Lashuk
Drawings by A. Zefirov
The legend of the "Golden Baba" - a pagan idol, cast in pure gold and hidden somewhere in the North in Hyperbarea , among the endless rivers, swamps and forests, its roots go back to ancient times.
"Golden woman" of the Hyperboreans.
have existed for a thousand years legends about the countless treasures of Hyperborea, about impregnable Riphean mountains (Ural mountains) , where in the snowy northern abyss is hidden a colossal statue of the Golden Woman - an idol made of pure gold , and the Arimaspians guarding her, living next to the Hyperboreans.
In the "History" of Herodotus, you can read that beyond the distant Ripean (Ural) mountains, located " damn part of the world where it snows all the time", live nerves that can turn into wolves, warlike amazons,"one-eyed men -arimaspi"(Greek Αριμασποι), who own countless treasures and « vultures guarding gold, and even higher behind them, by the sea - hyperborea» , not knowing death.
The ancient Greek historian Herodotus learned about the Arimasp tribe from the Scythian Aristaeus (IV, 27), who composed “his epic poem, which is now called among the Hellenes « "(Herodotus IV 13, 14, 27;)
It is possible that the Arimaspians, whom Herodotus spoke of 2500 years ago, were the guardians of the Golden Woman. The Scythian word “arimaspy” is translated as: “arima” is a unit, and “spu” is an eye
. It can be assumed that the ancient Greeks called this tribe Arimasp (one-eyed) because the Arimasp " slept with open eye
”, that is, they were always on the alert, guarding their golden treasures. 
The search for the Golden Woman continued into the Middle Ages. For the first time, the Golden Woman is directly mentioned in the Russian chronicle of 1398.
The first bishop who managed to somehow root Christianity in the northern lands was Stephen of Perm, who baptized Komi in 1379. Baptism was accompanied by quite aggressive actions Christian missionaries : pagan temples were destroyed, wooden idols, widespread everywhere - mercilessly burned. Confirmation of this is the iconized the image of Stephen with a raised ax over the "sacred birch" , hung with animal furs, the icon symbolized the struggle against the faith of the "wild peoples".
After Christianity took root in the administrative centers of the region, Stefan decided to strengthen Christianity in the outback, but this was hampered by the legend of the existence of ancient shrine - the idol of the "Golden Woman", but all attempts to get to the shrine of the pagans were in vain, the keepers safely hid their shrine in the taiga, away from the eyes of aggressive Christian missionaries .
In the XIV century, Christians fought with the idol, as one of the main shrines of the pagans. BUT in the 18th century, stories about the mysterious "Golden Baba" acted in Europe as a kind of hallmark of unknown Russia.
The existence of the idol is mentioned in a number of medieval publications, and its location was mentioned by an Austrian Baron Sigismund von Herberstein in the publication of Notes on Muscovite Affairs in 1549.
Golden woman on the map of 1562
Baptism of idolaters.
The baptism of the north took place with battles - the pagans did not want to abandon the worship of idols without accepting Christian faith. The process of converting the northerners to Christianity was extremely long and cannot be said to be absolutely successful, since in our time entire nations are found in the northern expanses, worshiping idols and rejecting Christianity. It so happened that the "Golden Baba" became a serious obstacle in the way of the church - the natives considered the golden idol to be their main shrine, about which legends and myths were composed.
During the Petrine era, Northern Ural Christian missionary Grigory Novitsky set off , true believer, most educated person, author of the first ethnographic monograph « Short description about the Ostyak people. The missionary decided to complete the work begun by Stefan - find and destroy the Golden Idol. However, the hunt for the idol cost the life of Grigory Novitsky, with unclear circumstances he died. What caused his death is unknown, perhaps he reached his goal and found what he was looking for, but the keepers of the idol did not allow him to carry out his plan, or perhaps he simply fell victim to natural disasters. After Grigory Novitsky did not return, no one was officially sent “for the idol”, however, attempts to find the “golden woman” did not stop, but the search for purely religious purposes moved into the category of “gold rush”. The idol became an object of desire for adventurers and treasure seekers, of which there were already quite a few in Rus' even in those days.
"Eldorado" of the Russian North.
The world's largest gold nugget was found in Russia on October 26, 1842. The serf of the peasants, 17-year-old orphan Nikifor Syutkin, who worked in the bowels of the Tsarsko-Alexander mine near Miass, found a huge gold nugget at a depth of three meters, in the form "Big Triangle" weighing 36 kilograms 16 grams. It is known that Nikifor Syutkin received a prize of 4,390 rubles for his find, which at that time was a gigantic amount, in addition to this money, he was issued a “free” that ensured his freedom. Unfortunately, Nikifor did not become a landowner, and new life did not start, but drank himself, having lost his mind from unexpected wealth. The world's largest gold nugget "Big Triangle" x wounded in Moscow, in the diamond fund of Russia.
With the beginning of mass colonization by Cossack detachments of the territories of the Urals and Siberia stories about the golden idol became a symbol of easy wealth, similar to the legend of the "Golden Man" from Eldorado, which was popular among the Spanish conquistadors who conquered South America. Ermak Timofeevich himself, the great conqueror of Siberia, once heard the legend of the golden god of the dense Mansi, seriously interested in the idol. Once one of his main associates, a Cossack Ataman Bogdan Bryazga said that he saw with his own eyes the treasured statue, storming the Samara prison, located at the confluence of the Irtysh and the Ob.
Semyon Ulyanovich Remezov (ethnographer, cartographer) the author of a book published in the 18th century describes what the ataman saw Bogdan Bryazga : « And then I went to the Ob and saw a lot of empty space and stuck on Belogorye; that they have more prayer to the ancient goddess: Naga with her son sitting on a chair; accepting gifts from her own, and giving her remains in every industry.
However, no matter how Yermak's army tried to get to the cherished treasure, nothing happened, when the ill-wishers approached the idol mysteriously disappeared, literally vanished into thin air. By the way, the failures of the idol hunters, according to some sources, are explained by the mystical ability of the Golden Baba to escape from the hands of the pursuers.
In the book of the traveler, naturalist Sigismund von Herberstein, one from the collectors of information about the golden idol, "Notes on Muscovite Affairs" , several lines are devoted mysterious abilities Golden Baba: "Feeling strangers, the idol can either disappear from under the nose of anyone who wants to take possession of it, or make some sounds compared to a wild roar, which discourages the desire to approach him, or may even throw himself off the cliff into the Ob.
These romantic-mystical characteristics of the golden idol testify to nothing more than about the existence of a certain circle of guardian priests protecting the golden idol, but remaining in its shadow. Didn't the Christian missionary Novitsky die at their hands, didn't they help the statue disappear during the storming of the sanctuary by Ataman Bogdan Bryazga? And didn’t the NKVD officers later fight with them ...?
Nakhodki-Arkaim
Hunter, explorer, writer Konstantin Nosilov at the beginning of the last century found out from the old Mansi a previously unknown story about the Golden Baba, radically changing the idea of the situation around the idol. According to the stories of the old Mansi, in his youth, engaged in hunting, in the deaf, hard-to-reach taiga blockages of the taiga, he saw a "golden woman". The old Mansi described the idol exactly as the image of the chronicle conveyed it. Everyone agrees in the story small parts, except one - the idol that the old Mansi saw was not made of gold, but of silver! Apparently, the Mansi had several copies of the idol, in case the hunters nevertheless get to the target and, having taken possession of the precious copy, finally leave the golden idol alone - the real one.
After the collapse of the USSR, inquisitive minds had the opportunity to work in the archives with previously secret documents. In one of these documents, the writer, historian Demin V.N. Found a very interesting note. It turned out that in the thirties of the twentieth century, the legend of a myriad of treasures - Golden Baba, interested in Lubyanka . The country needed money, and it was impossible to miss the chance to replenish the treasury with free gold. sent to the Northern Urals a special detachment of the NKVD in order to find a golden idol and hand it over to the state. And the hunt began: soon in the hands of the special squad were information obtained during interrogations local residents that in the area of the Kyzym Khanty , in the forest sanctuary a local shaman hides a certain golden statue . Chekists rushed to specified place, but when they appeared, they were given armed resistance, but the forces were not equal and the "guards" behind the "golden woman" were killed to the last man.
But what happened next: whether there was a statue in the sanctuary or not, the researcher could not get a definite answer - the documents about the fate of that operation were not completely preserved and just “at the most interesting place” the thread broke. However, Demin believes that the special squad still took possession of the coveted statue and took it to Moscow.
Is it worth it to put an end to the search for an idol?
Most likely, the Chekists took only a copy of it, while the real Golden Baba was hidden in another, more reliable place. The presence of the second idol is also confirmed by the fact that quite recently information about the “golden woman” reappeared, this time journalists from one of the central newspapers went hunting for the relic. But the expedition was not successful, and the team had to return to Moscow. The taiga impassability of the north has become an insurmountable obstacle to the search. However, if information about the idol comes up again, then most likely the idol is still hidden somewhere.
Golden woman - made in China?
The question of who created the Golden Baba has been before historians for a long time. There have already been many hypotheses on this subject, someone believes that the “golden woman” was cast by the Voguls tribe, by the way, the film of the same name, shot at the Sverdlovsk film studio in 1986, beats this version in detail and quite convincingly.
Someone adheres to the version that the golden idol was "inherited" to the northerners from the protocivilization of the Hyperboreans. Hyperborea ceased to exist, and the people who inhabited it left their inhabited lands, the northerners found a statue in one of the abandoned temples and have been worshiping the shrine ever since. Based precisely on the version of Hyperborean roots, many historians conclude that the deity cast in gold was extremely revered, and therefore the image was immortalized not in a single copy, but, as befits a cult, in a plurality. Hence the copies of the idol, which eyewitnesses speak of.
A similar image of the Golden Baba can be found in Chinese culture. Chinesethe goddess Kuan Yin is the patroness of the family hearth, women and childbirth. She was depicted sitting on a chair surrounded by children. The poet and prose writer Sergey Makarov was the first to express his assumption about the possible relationship of Kuan-yin with the Golden Baba in the book devoted to the history of the development of the north "Earth Circle".
How could a Chinese goddess end up in the northern Urals? Everything is quite simple, according to the supporters of the Chinese trace: the golden idol was brought to Siberia by merchants from the Middle Kingdom, where it was exchanged for furs. And since the image of the goddess was close in spirit to the local tribes who honored divine essence women, forgetting about Buddhism, the northerners adapted the idol to their own spiritual needs.
But, despite the brevity, this version is not ideal and needs a serious evidence base, like the whole story of the golden idol itself, based only on legends and testimonies of individual eyewitnesses. In the meantime, the story of the Golden Baba remains only a beautiful legend of the mysterious North, exciting the minds of adventurers who want to get rich quickly and easily on the ancient treasure, to find the Russian Eldorado, where the “golden man” is hidden ....
