UDC 903.2 Perm State Pedagogical University 24 Sibirskaya St., Perm GSP, 614990, Russia Perm Branch of the Institute of History and Archeology of the Ural Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences 44 Pushkina St., Perm GSP, 614990, Russia E-mail: belavin@pspu.ru The article deals with one of the subjects of Ural-Siberian metalplastics - a walking animal on a base in the form of a snake. It is represented by images of single figures of animals and horsemen, made according to a single canon. Among the items of this circle are iconic plaques and pendants. The origins of the plot can be traced in the antiquities of the Early Iron Age from the territories adjacent to the Urals on both sides, which is evidence of the cultural kinship of the population of the Urals and Western Siberia. In the Middle Ages, the products of this group usually depicted bears, moose, deer, horses both in the form of single figures and with riders. The article analyzes in detail all stylistic features and individual details, provides a variant of decoding the meaning, describes the specifics of using the items in question, and determines their area. It is concluded that the images of walking animals and horsemen on the base-snake have a common iconography, the main territory of their existence is Western Siberia and the Middle Urals, where they were formed approximately simultaneously at the turn of the Early Iron Age and the Middle Ages. Keywords: Eurasia, Middle Ages, animal style, pendants, cult plaques, rider on a snake, animal on a snake, Ural-Siberian mythology. Introduction The most striking feature of the culture of the Ural-Siberian population of the Iron Age is zoomorphic motifs in metalplastics. Experts from different sides study objects made in the animal style. The increased interest in this category of objects of material culture is due to the fact that it most succinctly and to a certain extent in a form accessible to modern perception reflects the ancient spiritual culture, ideol ... Read more