THE IMAGE OF THE IRON POPLAR IN ORAL HISTORY (IN THE CONTEXT OF INTERPRETATION OF PAZYRYK CULTURE MATERIALS)

Abstract

The world tree is one of the universals of culture. Despite the fact that the image of a tree, in particular a birch, is well developed in Altai folklore studies, the motives associated with poplar have been little studied, which is the relevance of the topic. A typological analysis of the materials of the Altai heroic epic revealed such stable motives about the poplar as a sacred object that gives prophetic knowledge, the elixir of immortality, and also as a ritual pillar with the sacrifice of the maral. As a result of the study of the material in the context of the Altai Pazyryk culture, it was possible to interpret the image of a tree on a buckle from the Siberian collection of Peter I as a prototype of the world poplar. In conclusion, the chemical properties and their features on human impact are noted, and, accordingly, the possibility of using black poplar for medicinal purposes and for embalming in the Pazyryk time.