In the Neolithic Age, sculpture of small forms was widespread: craftsmen made small statuettes out of bone and stone. Most often they recreated images of animals that surrounded early humans: the bear, the birds, the fish, the seal and especially moose.

In Siberia, the elk was a source of food as well as hides and fur, which were used to make warm clothing. Traditionally, Siberian peoples also worshipped the moose. On a par with the bear, the animal was considered to be the ‘master of the taiga’, and because of its large size and strength, many small nations called it only by respectful names — for example, ‘the older brother of the reindeer, ’ ‘the great beast’. This attitude was due not only to its appearance, but also to how much moose meant in people’s lives: well-being of a family and the whole tribe depended on a successful hunt.

Ethnographer Aleksey Okladnikov wrote:

Inhabitants of Eastern Siberia depicted the animal in petroglyphs and created small sculptures out of different materials: horns, bone, stone, ceramics, wood, and later metal. Despite the important role of the moose in the life of taiga tribes, today researchers disagree on how to interpret its images. According to one assumption, the cloven-hoofed animal was considered a “heavenly”, “light” creature, which is associated with the upper world and on which the well-being of people depended. But there was another version in which the moose stole the sun, which resulted in the onset of night darkness. Similar plots are found in the folklore of northern peoples.

The “Moose head” sculpture was donated to the collection of the Regional Museum of Local Lore in the late 1940s by archaeologist and ethnographer Pavel Khoroshikh. It was discovered on the territory of the burial ground Lokomotiv, which is located in the Sverdlovsky district of Irkutsk.