Shaman's rug

Evenki

East Siberia, Yenisei Guberniya

late 19th - early 20th centuries

interior decoration

Leather: natural leather: suede: skin suede (elk – Alces alces); cloth; fibers: animal: wool: reindeer hair under neck; paint

length total 59.0; width 55.5

РЭМ 1985-31

It was considered a "storage of souls" of deer and people. In the spring, during the rite of "renewal", such images were applied to the rug with the blood of a sacrificial deer. Such a rug was used to cover the head of a neophyte (novice shaman) during initiation into shamans and during his first healing ritual.