Ust-Garevaya, Perm Region

1st-3rd century AD

Bronze

H 8 cm

This flat figure of a bear/man was cast in an open-sided mould. Its disproportionately large head with round eyes, a heavy nose and a line for a mouth, ends with the face of a bear whose forepaws hang down over the man's shoulders, as if a bearskin had been thrown over the man's head.

The male figure was linked with the cult of the bear, the strongest animal in the north, who embodied the totem ancestor and was called ‘Master of the Forest'.

The cult of the bear was widespread in the region around the River Kama.