Qorğasyn – Lead has accompanied the cultural genesis of mankind since the earliest times, and according to the Avesta, the Vedic and other ancient cultural traditions, lead together with six other metals – gold, silver, iron, bronze/copper, tin and mercury – formed the metal “alchemical seven”. Obviously, lead, as a peculiar “relic” from the time before the gold-silver-copper-iron age in natural philosophy and mythopoetics, is tainted with an aura of something dark, hidden, and yet undeniably magical.
Among the peoples of Western and Southern Siberia, this metal was widely used for the production of cult objects.
In ancient times the Ob-Ugrians, Khanty and Mansi cast figures of guardian spirits from lead in the form of stylized idol-like male figures, deer, elk, wolves, etc. The material projection of the ancestor cult or protector is embodied in the word qorğasyn, which has the meaning “protector”.
In Turkic culture, the main function of lead is to protect people’s souls, to be a substitute, a double, into which the shaman can “transfer” the spirit of the disease. This manipulation results in a variety of figures used to diagnose the patient’s condition, based on the idea that an evil spirit possessing the person “moves” into the lead.
