Image of the Head of a Bird of Prey in Ananyino Cultural and Historical Area

Objects, decorated with images of the head of a bird of prey, spread on the territory of the Ananyino cultural and historical area (Ananyino world) with the appearance of bimetallic hammer-axes and are associated with movement of the nomads of the Kazakhstan-Central Asian region to the west at the beginning of the Early Iron Age. The earliest images of the head of a bird of prey in the Ananyino cultural and historical area are dated to the second quarter/middle of the VII century BC. From the second quarter of the VI BC under the influence of the Scythian animal style, images of the head of a bird of prey with animal ears appeared. In the VI–V centuries BC the independent Ananyino compositions were formed, such as reproductions of owls, heads of a bird of prey on the tops of the "ceremonial" axes sockets and shoulders of full-figured images of birds, "circular motion" and "transformations" of bird heads on spindle whorls. The image of the head of a bird of prey was used till the end of the Ananyino cultural and historical area existence – IV – the first half of the III century BC.