Zbruch Idol

The Zbruch Idol (Polish: Światowid ze Zbrucza; Ukrainian: Збручанський ідол) is a 9th-century limestone sculpture idol, and one of the few monuments of pre-Christian Slavic beliefs. The pillar was commonly incorrectly associated with the Slavic deity Svetovit (Sviatovid), although current opinions on the exact meaning of all the bas-reliefs and their symbols differ. It is thought that the three tiers of bas-relief represent the three levels of the world, from the bottom underworld, to the middle mortal world and the uppermost, largest, world of heavenly gods. It is suggested that the sculpture was disposed of or was buried in a pit some time after the baptism of Kievan Rus', and acceptance of Christianity in Poland in 966, like various buried idols in Kyiv and Novgorod. In the 19th century, when the Zbruch River (a left tributary of the Dniester) changed its bed, the area where the pillar was buried became submerged. It was discovered during a drought near the village of Lychkivtsi, just north of Husiatyn, in 1848. The statue is now on display in the Archaeological Museum of Kraków in Poland, with exact copies located in a number of museums. In 2011, Aleksey Komar and Natalia Khamaiko suggested that the sculpture is a Romantic-era fake produced by Tymon Zaborowski (whose estate was located near the place where the statue was found) and that it was inspired by a detailed descripion of Svetovit's idol on Cape Arkona in the Gesta Danorum. It has also been suggested that the idol was made by the Kipchaks/Cumans rather than the Slavs (see balbals).