The Tree of Life

Seen above is the Tree of Life or Tree of All Seeds which is typical throughout nomadic horsemen cultures including that of the Bulgars. It represents that everything is connected to everything else in the universe. Many times Senmerv, the goddess of fertility, is depicted at the top of the branches spreading the seeds of the Tree of Life. Senmerv was typical of many nomadic horsemen cultures including that of the Sassanid Empire nearby in the 7th century AD. In any case, this gold object is actually one of two identical belt buckle halves that came from the Altai region (burial mound) around the 5th to 6th centuries BC (Sakae culture), but is indicative of the beliefs of Altaic shamanism carried well beyond that time into the time of the Bulgars. The buckle has two males and one female it it besides their horses with one of the men being a dead hero. Through the classic genre, 'Breaking the Journey' which is typical in many folklore studies, the life of the dead hero is returned to him.