Yamal khadako, image of the ghost Lady of Yamal.

Nenets

late 19th - early 20th centuries

Museum of the Peoples of the USSR

Wood

РЭМ 8761-10795

Ya nebya (Mother of the Earth), a key figure of the Nenets pantheon, corresponds to it. Святилище of the Lady of Yamal is in Cape Khayen Sale in the north of the Yamal peninsula: it was believed to be the home of seven main tribes of the Yamal Nenets. Apart from the goddess’s figure itself, on the sanctuary were seven peaked heaps of horns of deer offered to the goddess. Deer were offered to her before hunting trips. During sacrifices, Yamal khadako was “fed”: the figure’s mouth was greased with deer blood and deer fat. Abstract by I.A. Karapetova