Matryoshka

[merlin]

I appreciate  Roman Leibov's contribution to this discussion, however, I
think that we are still far from solving problems with one click.
Actually, what we learn from this historical explanation,  is that the toy
comes from Japan, but nobody in Japan knows where it comes from. Pretending
to ex-plain matryoshka, a historicist keeps on  uncovering its shells -
playing fort-da, or van'ka-vstan'ka game - what you like better.

Let us take for granted that matryoshla "appeared" in 1890s. But is not
matryoshka a puppet, that is, the oldest of the artifacts? At least that is
true for kukla - the artifact of the soul used in funeral rites. I am just
back from the Israeli Museum where exhibited are Caananite anthropoid
sarcofogi which, with their carefully designed faces and "neglected" corps,
 resemble matryoshka more than anything else. And what about the Egyptian
mummy-coffins with covers bearing the effigy of a specific face - in manner
of modern Russian souvenirs? Are not  mummies a little bit too old to have
something to do with this Arbat stuff? How do you explain it historically?

Valery Merlin

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