Symbols of Religious Identity in Japodian Funeral Cult

Abstract

On the basis of analysis of a representative sample-scene from a Japodian urn from Golubić, the author discusses the following problems: a) the problem of identification of concrete symbolic pattern (horse-rider, anthropomorphized bird, four-legged mostrum) in Japodian funeral cult, b) principled problems when analysing symbolic iconic structure in proto-historical and graphic cultural contexts within »Illyrian« and part of the peri-Adriatic cultural circle. Prominent polysemy, imprecision andimcompleteness of dove symbolic syntax as well as its similar potential symbolic patterns form the above-mentioned cultural circles, is determined by the following: a) by the structure of the »archeological culture«, insufficiently preserved in its deepest strata, b) by the general nature of the iconic symbolic structure. The interpretation of the semantic pattern of the dove scene that the author offers (without the inevitable degree of hypothetical guessing) shows a definite symbolic pattern, similar or identical to the Last Voyage. In this pattern with the incorporated symbol of the deceased soul (the anthropomorphized bird) we see parts of Japodian eschatological concepts with visible elements of mythic thinking.