Mystique Skythian statues, VII - III cc. B.C

Scythian monumental art, a fairy complicated and constantly developing cultural phenomenon, reflects in a mediate way the main stages of the history of Scythians - bearers of the original cultural complex. The problem of the genesis of Scythian monumental art is not yet solved; its solution depends mainly on the clarification of sources of penetration into Scythian art of the concept of antropomorphism earlier practically unknown. In the period of VII-III cc. B.C. we may observe the evolution of morphology and iconography of the statues as of the repertoire of attributes represented on them. This enables us to reconstruct the evolution line of Scythian statues and to date newly discovered specimens by analogy. Scythian monumental art at the early stage of its development (VII-VI cc. B.C.) is characterized by such morphological kinds as anthropomorphic pillars, anthropomorphic slabs and flat sculpture. Iconographically they embody the image of a warrior in variants of a sitting figure, a half-figure