The Bear and Dog in Heathen Sanctuary Remains in the Mouth of the Agnevo River (Central Sakhalin)

Abstract

A comparison between the data obtained using archaeozoological methods and ethnographic data on the Far East indigenous population’s ritualistic attitude to the bones of a brown bear and a domestic dog has been performed for the first time. We revealed that bear and dog bone mounds found in front of a small grotto in the mouth of the Agnevo river in the central Sakhalin western coast is the Nivkhs sanctuary. The manner of the bones dismemberment made it possible to identify the sanctuary as belonging to genus Ksyusvongun. The studied traces on the bones of animals emphasized the peculiarity of the genus Ksyusvongun ritual actions which distinguish it among other Sakhalin Nivkhs genera, and pointed out to the possible influence of the Amur nivkhs and the Ainu to this genus.