Combs for hair and beard have been part of Russian material culture since ancient times. Initially, they were made of wood and bone, then they began to be made of metal.

The museum’s collection features a fragment of a metal (bronze) comb with figured slits, decorated in the upper part with a horse’s head. Because of the latter feature, such combs are commonly referred to in the academic literature as “combs with horse heads.”

Similar objects were used to comb the beard — for hair there were larger combs, most often made of wood and bone. Metal products were ideal for coarse hair.

Analogues of similar products in Western Siberia are quite numerous. They spread massively in the region in the late Middle Ages and Modern Times (the 16th–19th centuries).

On the whole combs, the horses’ heads were paired, looking in different directions. Based on the results of the analysis of such objects, it can be concluded that the horse was the most common image in the decoration of zoomorphic combs. In the Middle Ages, it was also used in the decoration of other objects. Such symbolism can be interpreted as follows: horse heads symbolize sunrise and sunset or day and night, light and darkness. Some researchers have suggested that the combs could be worn on a belt and serve as amulets — protection from evil spirits.

It is believed that in Russian North, from where in the 16th–19th centuries such products were supplied to Western Siberia and the Omsk Irtysh region, the motifs of paired horse heads appeared as a result of trade relations between Russian Pomors and tribes inhabiting the territory of the Volga-Oka interfluve.

Combs, pendants, and appliques decorated with horse heads and stylized images of the sun are typical for many Finno-Ugric peoples of northeastern Europe. However, ease of use, recognizability and clarity of images allowed the combs with horse heads to spread far beyond the places of their origin — the finds are known from the results of excavations of monuments in Eastern Europe up to the Crimea and the northern Black Sea region. In Asia similar combs reached the Far East.