Pásztor Emília (szerk.): A fény régészete. A természetes fény szerepe az őskori ember életében - Bajai dolgozatok 20. (Baja, 2017)

Andrzej Rozwadowski: Utazás a Naphoz. Égi szimbólumok a sámánizmusban és a szibériai, valamint a közép-ázsiai sziklarajzokon

to shamanic beliefs any physical or mental illness resulted from the lost part of the human soul, or one of souls (as it was believed that a human has several souls). To cure such a sick' person the shaman had to find the lost soul and return it. Shamanic rituals were thus symbolic journeys during which shamans travelled to the world of spirits (Potapov 1991: 140-158; Khasanova 2007, Burnakov 2008). As the spirits lived in different and distant places of the Cosmos, shaman had to cross many levels of the Universe to reach the right place. The journeys were made to upper or lower worlds, they could also be of a horizontal nature. Many rituals, however, were linked with journeying to the spirits of the upper world. Ethnographic documentations of Siberian beliefs show that the

Cosmos was multileveled. A common imagination of its three-leveled structure, i.e. Upper, Middle and Lower Worlds, however, should be treated as a working schema, as only the Heavenly sphere (Upper World) consisted of up to sixteen levels (Funk 1997) (local traditions differ in this matter). The concept of the "Heavenly journey" could thus be a very complex story, and only the most powerful and experienced shamans knew how to reach the highest levels of Heaven.

Sun, moon and other heavenly symbols were therefore common topics of shamanic beliefs and stories. Some ethnographers were successful in documenting such beliefs also in a graphic way. For example, over fifty years ago Ekaterina Prokof'eva (1961) published several drawings which were created by Selkup men in the 1920s in which they represented their imagination of the

Altáji festett sámándob (átmérője kb. 50 cm). A színeket digitálisan megváltoztattuk, hogy kiemeljük a vörös festést.

A részletfotó a természetes színeket mutatja. Az 5. képen a sziklába vésett doboló sámán képe nagyon hasonló.

Altaic shamanic drum (diameter ca. 50 cm) with painted images - colors have been digitally changed to enhance visibility of the red paintings. Photo below shows details in natural color. Note very similar images of drumming shamans engraved on rocks shown at fig. 5.

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