Nettle is one of the first plants from which a person learned to extract yarn. Fishing nets were woven from nettle fibers, clothes were made and utensils were sewn from soft materials. The peoples of the Ob region processed nettle until the end of the 19th century. However, already in the 20th century, this continued to be done only in remote places and only by elderly people.

In the late 1990s, the staff of the Museum of the Ob River went on an expedition to the national village of Lempino. Together with the locals, they managed to recreate the traditional nettle processing.

Nettles began to be harvested in early October during the morning frosts until the sun did not warm the soil. This made it possible to break off the stalk, and not pull it off the ground.

The stalks were first dried in bundles in a cold room. Then, each stalk was split into fibers with the help of special needles. The Yugan Khanty made needles from wood or elk bone, the Salym Khanty used reindeer or elk bone. For the fiber to bend and spin freely during processing, it was soaked.

Then the fibers were cleaned. They were pushed in a special nettle breaker, broken with a wooden beater on a stone, and mashed with hands. There was also a second method: the fibers were combed with a special comb—this was what the Salym Khanty used.

The comb is a special composite device. The wooden handle was made separately, and then, thin metal teeth were inserted into it. This made it possible to quickly separate the fibers and get nettle hay.

A spinning wheel and a spindle were used to spin the yarn. The Khanty spindle differed from the Russian one — it had a spindle whorl — disk or a low cylinder-shaped weight with a hole in the center. With its help, the yarn was fastened and the hand spindle was weighted. Spindle whorls were made of stone, clay, bone, and sometimes, from pieces of the broken pots. Due to their small size and strength, the spindle whorls were well preserved, and they are often found during archaeological excavations. The women were spinning on their knees.

Nettle yarn was divided into several varieties depending on the purpose: canvases were woven from thin yarn, and thick yarn was used for nets.

Полное наименование: Nettle yarn

The Khanty decorated traditional women’s clothing not only with beads, colored broadcloth, rovduga (suede) and fur mosaics. Special metal castings were also made for decoration.

The decorations displayed at the exhibition “Ugra Heritage” are identical in shape and size to the decorations that were made by the Yugan Khanty at the end of the 19th century. Prototypes of such castings are found in medieval burials; it is likely that the form of the decoration was passed down from generation to generation. Cast decorations on the Khanty clothes can be seen in the album “Ethnographic Description of the Peoples of Russia”, which was published in 1862 in St. Petersburg. Then, the Khanty were called the Ostyaks.

In addition to the castings, archaeologists also find casting molds that craftsmen cut with a knife from a piece of wood, bark, and less often from soft slate. An ingot of metal was heated in a pot over a fire, and then poured into a mold.

Such decorations were made from tin, because it is easy to melt, and it has a light color. In the culture of the Khanty, products made of light-colored metal had a sacred meaning and performed a protective function. Castings were sewn along the sides, collar and along the hem of sak — unfastened clothing. These decorative elements were separated by two beaded stripes. Sometimes, the castings were edged with stripes of multi-colored broadcloth. Such metal adornments were characteristic exclusively of Khanty women’s clothing. Warm outerwear, shirts and dresses were also decorated with castings. Also, women could embroider the collars of children’s clothes with tin decor.

By the beginning of the 20th century, fashion had changed and women from the eastern group of the Khanty switched to other decorative elements — coins and buttons. By the end of the 20th century, ornamental beaded stripes became popular. Today, the Khanty women almost never use homemade metal stripes to decorate traditional clothing, preferring more affordable materials.

Tin decorations from the ethnographic collection of the Nefteyugansk History and Art Museum Complex — 46 castings — were made and used in the 20th century. The items were found near the Khanty settlement in the upper reaches of the Samsonovka River, not far from the village of Salym.

Полное наименование: Casting for clothing decoration
Дата создания: the 20th century