Arts | Special Issue : The Zoomorphic Arts of Ancient Central Eurasia

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21 pages, 5838 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Deer or Horses with Antlers? Wooden Figures Adorning Herders in the Altai

by Karen S. Rubinson and Katheryn M. Linduff

Arts 2023, 12(1), 29; https://doi.org/10.3390/arts12010029 - 6 Feb 2023

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Among the burials of horse herders who lived in the 4th–3rd centuries BCE Altai Mountains of South Siberia were some that contained small wooden figures of four-legged hoofed animals that represent horses, deer, or hybrid creatures. They decorated headgear buried with select commoners [...] Read more.

Among the burials of horse herders who lived in the 4th–3rd centuries BCE Altai Mountains of South Siberia were some that contained small wooden figures of four-legged hoofed animals that represent horses, deer, or hybrid creatures. They decorated headgear buried with select commoners of the Pazyryk Culture. Although the people, material possessions, and horses of the elites were frequently ornamented with imagery often associated with the so-called Scytho-Siberian animal style, these figurines are generally more realistic and less stylized representations of natural creatures, either cervids or horses. There is, however, ambiguity in these representations; in some cases, figures that are horses have inset recesses on the tops of their heads, in addition to holes for ear inserts. This recalls the elaborate headdresses on some horses outfitted with large displays of antlers or horns made of wood, leather, and felt buried with the Pazyryk leaders. The implication of this ambiguity is explored here. Horses were “cultural capital and tokens of clout” (see Andreeva Introduction, this volume) in the Pazyryk Culture, as well as the base of the economy. Deer were foundational to older belief systems in Siberia. The commingling of horse, mountain goat/ibex, and deer features in Pazyryk Culture imagery has inspired this study. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue The Zoomorphic Arts of Ancient Central Eurasia)

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19 pages, 17030 KiB

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“Animal-Style Art,” and Special Finds at Iron Age Settlements in Southeastern Kazakhstan: Chronology, Trade, and Networks during the Iron Age

by Claudia Chang, Sergei Sergievich Ivanov and Perry Alan Tourtellotte

Arts 2023, 12(1), 28; https://doi.org/10.3390/arts12010028 - 6 Feb 2023

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Abstract

Two Iron Age settlements, Tuzusai and Taldy Bulak 2 (ca. 500 BC to 1 CE), located in southeastern Kazakhstan on the Talgar alluvial fan north of the Tian Shan range, have yielded a small collection of bone, antler/horn, bronze, and stone artifacts with [...] Read more.

Two Iron Age settlements, Tuzusai and Taldy Bulak 2 (ca. 500 BC to 1 CE), located in southeastern Kazakhstan on the Talgar alluvial fan north of the Tian Shan range, have yielded a small collection of bone, antler/horn, bronze, and stone artifacts with an affinity to the nomadic art of the first millennium BC. Both settlements date within the period of late Saka culture. Two pieces have decorative ornamentations with zoomorphic imagery: a small carved fragment with carved images of a wing and an ear and a perforated bone disk with the carving of three birds’ heads. The other artifacts include objects associated with Saka weaponry or nomadic economy, such as two horn psalias (cheek pieces) and a bronze amulet. A carnelian bead will also be described as an imported object. These special finds were found on the occupation floors of mud brick houses and in the pit houses of settlements, not in grave or burial contexts. The objects were placed in a stratigraphic sequence in the settlement sites. The method for placing these objects within the chronological framework of “animal-style art” is through comparisons with similar objects found throughout Eurasia—a method used in Soviet and post-Soviet archaeology. The results show that the functional and stylistic elements of the six objects indicate that the Talgar settlements were part of a larger world-system of trade and communication along the early Silk Route(s). Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue The Zoomorphic Arts of Ancient Central Eurasia)

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13 pages, 9903 KiB

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Animal Imagery in Eastern Han Tomb Reliefs from Shanbei 陝北

by Leslie V. Wallace

Arts 2023, 12(1), 26; https://doi.org/10.3390/arts12010026 - 30 Jan 2023

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Abstract

Wild and fantastical animals climb, fly, scamper, and prance across pictorial stone carvings decorating Eastern Han tomb doors in northern Shaanxi. Alongside dragons and other mythical animals, bears felicitously dance, tigers grin opening their mouths to roar, and other wild animals frolic in [...] Read more.

Wild and fantastical animals climb, fly, scamper, and prance across pictorial stone carvings decorating Eastern Han tomb doors in northern Shaanxi. Alongside dragons and other mythical animals, bears felicitously dance, tigers grin opening their mouths to roar, and other wild animals frolic in swirling cloudscapes. While the same animals can be found in Eastern Han tomb reliefs and mortuary art in other regions, their frequency, emphasis on plasticity and movement, and combination with the yunqi 雲氣 motif are unique to the region. Originating in a hybrid style of art that was created during the Mid-Western Han Dynasty (206 BCE–9 CE), their significance was dependent not so much on any individual creature but on their display as an assemblage of shared forms, behaviors, and habitats. This paper explores how Eastern Han patrons and artists in Shanbei reinvigorated such imagery. It argues that on tomb doors through the region, these same wild and fantastical animals have become a key element of compositions meant to pacify the potentially dangerous realms that awaited the deceased in their postmortem ascension to Heaven (tian 天). Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue The Zoomorphic Arts of Ancient Central Eurasia)

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25 pages, 14888 KiB

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The Saka ‘Animal Style’ in Context: Material, Technology, Form and Use

by Saltanat Amir and Rebecca C. Roberts

Arts 2023, 12(1), 23; https://doi.org/10.3390/arts12010023 - 28 Jan 2023

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Abstract

The Iron Age Saka population of the eastern Eurasian Steppe is considered one of the earliest of the Scythian groups to emerge at the beginning of the 1st millennium BCE, consequently producing some of the earliest expressions of ‘animal style’ art. Recent excavations [...] Read more.

The Iron Age Saka population of the eastern Eurasian Steppe is considered one of the earliest of the Scythian groups to emerge at the beginning of the 1st millennium BCE, consequently producing some of the earliest expressions of ‘animal style’ art. Recent excavations of burial mounds (kurgans) in the East Kazakhstan region have provided invaluable data on the depositional contexts of such objects. This paper combines contextual archaeological data and visual analysis with data on the chemical composition and technological production (through X-ray fluorescence and optical microscopy) of some of the gold artefacts from the Eleke Sazy funerary complex in East Kazakhstan. It is demonstrated that the positioning of wearable ornaments within undisturbed archaeological contexts can give vital information about their form and function, while evidence of production techniques and use-wear indicate the time investment and status the objects may have held. It is concluded that the Saka engaged in a complex process of design and execution of their art, depicting many different elements of the natural world. Further research is needed into understanding Saka lifeways and belief systems in relation to large-scale processes of climate change, land use, time, and society from securely dated and well-documented funerary and domestic archaeological contexts. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue The Zoomorphic Arts of Ancient Central Eurasia)

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13 pages, 15399 KiB

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Siberian Animal Style: Stylistic Features as Generic Indication

by Elena Fiodorovna Korolkova

Arts 2023, 12(1), 19; https://doi.org/10.3390/arts12010019 - 18 Jan 2023

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Abstract

This paper is devoted to the problems of differentiation of stylistic variants in the common phenomenon of the so-called Scythian and Siberian animal styles, which is one of the main distinctive features of Eurasian nomadic art. The animal style is a concept of [...] Read more.

This paper is devoted to the problems of differentiation of stylistic variants in the common phenomenon of the so-called Scythian and Siberian animal styles, which is one of the main distinctive features of Eurasian nomadic art. The animal style is a concept of more scale than an artistic style proper which distinguishes with some formal characteristics and depends directly on generic traditions and ethnic and cultural roots of art. Together with the technical-technological methods these formal features could be evidential indications of the origin of works of art. The Siberian collection of Peter the Great includes some different groups of golden ornaments decorated in animal styles of different origins. The paper focuses on a compact group of items originating from various mostly unknown sites from different territories in Asia including the Oxus treasure, several items from the Siberian collection of Peter the Great from Southern Siberia, a few jewelry pieces from other collections of the world museums as well as items made of leather and felt coming from the First and the Second Pazyryk kurgans. A distinctive feature of this group of zoomorphic images are colored inlays that accentuate a hind-leg or a shoulder of the animal; such inlays have the form of an intricate figure made up of a circle and a curvilinear triangle abutting to it or elongated round brackets. Genetically, such an ornamental motif, which is not generally typical for Persian art, may be linked to a periphery area of the Iranian world and nomadic culture, while the group of sites can be dated back to the 4th–3rd centuries BC. The paper considers a bracelet from the Siberian collection of Peter the Great which is the only item in this category of jewelry type of bracelets. It represents a rare type of ornament with a multi-component structure. It consists of three open-work strips with zoomorphic compositions in an animal style similar to the above-mentioned stylistic group. All three parts of the bracelet are created in a unified style, but obviously in different individual manners. There is no doubt, that the zoomorphic images show three different authors’ hands, and were made by different artisans. So, there is evidence of collective work on the object when each artisan makes his own operation to create a unique jewel at a workshop. Some parts of the composition on the bracelet are similar in style to zoomorphic images from kurgan Issyk in Kazakhstan which perhaps were made in the same workshop. This fact confirms the assumption of the origin of some of Siberian jewelry. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue The Zoomorphic Arts of Ancient Central Eurasia)

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22 pages, 30260 KiB

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Earthly Beasts and Heavenly Creatures: Animal Realms in Early Medieval Chinese Tombs and Cave Temples

by Heather Clydesdale

Arts 2023, 12(1), 14; https://doi.org/10.3390/arts12010014 - 16 Jan 2023

Cited by 1 | Viewed by 3117

Abstract

This analysis of the fabricated worlds in tombs and cave temples of China’s Hexi Corridor shows that animals are integral to concepts of earthly and heavenly realms. Changes in animal imagery from the third through sixth centuries connect to the region’s social, cultural, [...] Read more.

This analysis of the fabricated worlds in tombs and cave temples of China’s Hexi Corridor shows that animals are integral to concepts of earthly and heavenly realms. Changes in animal imagery from the third through sixth centuries connect to the region’s social, cultural, and demographic transformations, including an embrace of pastoralism followed by increasing cosmopolitanism with the spread of Buddhism. A profusion of domestic animals in Wei-Jin tombs establish microcosms, while otherworldly creatures on entrances and coffins play supernatural roles. Western Jin tombs emphasize fantastic beasts over familiar ones and fuel the mysticism of this era. A Sixteen Kingdoms tomb represents the synthesis of the celestial and terrestrial, setting the stage for Buddhist cave temples. In these, real-world animals are all but expunged while imaginary beasts adapt easily to the new habitat. The proliferation of human figures in the form of buddhas and bodhisattvas not only crowd out animals but indicates that the introduction of Buddhism ushers in an anthropocentric view of earthly life and paradise. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue The Zoomorphic Arts of Ancient Central Eurasia)

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22 pages, 5632 KiB

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Strange Creatures of Chu: A Regional Approach to Antlered Tomb Sculptures

by Cortney E. Chaffin

Arts 2023, 12(1), 3; https://doi.org/10.3390/arts12010003 - 23 Dec 2022

Cited by 1 | Viewed by 2424

Abstract

Lacquered wooden sculptures of fantastic hybrid beasts adorned with real deer antlers are among the most extraordinary examples of sculpture found in Chu tombs dated from the sixth through the third centuries BCE. Conventionally known as zhenmushou 镇墓兽 or “protecting tomb beasts”, the [...] Read more.

Lacquered wooden sculptures of fantastic hybrid beasts adorned with real deer antlers are among the most extraordinary examples of sculpture found in Chu tombs dated from the sixth through the third centuries BCE. Conventionally known as zhenmushou 镇墓兽 or “protecting tomb beasts”, the antlered sculptures have grotesque features, including bulging eyes, fangs, and protruding tongues. In the fourth century BCE, production and use of these sculptures increased and peaked in the Hanxi region of Hubei province. Although most of these figures have been found in tombs in Hanxi (west of the Han River), distinctive variations of antlered tomb sculptures are also documented in regional areas of the Chu polity, including the Nanyang Basin, the Upper Huai, Eastern Hubei, and Jiangnan. Through a systematic regional analysis of Chu antlered sculptures, this paper presents a spatial framework for analyzing this unique genre of Chu funerary sculpture. This approach provides fresh insight into the interregional networks of interaction across the Chu state and beyond, via waterways and the Suizao corridor from the sixth through the third centuries BCE. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue The Zoomorphic Arts of Ancient Central Eurasia)

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19 pages, 28245 KiB

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Xianbei Zoomorphic Plaques: Art, Migration, and Human-Environment Entanglement

by Fan Zhang

Arts 2022, 11(6), 129; https://doi.org/10.3390/arts11060129 - 19 Dec 2022

Cited by 1 | Viewed by 2893

Abstract

This paper adopts an ecological perspective to investigate the visual and material remains associated with the Xianbei people, a nomadic group active in Northeast Asia from the turn of the common era to the early medieval period. Through the study of metal plaques [...] Read more.

This paper adopts an ecological perspective to investigate the visual and material remains associated with the Xianbei people, a nomadic group active in Northeast Asia from the turn of the common era to the early medieval period. Through the study of metal plaques bearing animal motifs and the environmental contexts of these artworks, I articulate the entangled relationship between humans, animals, and nature. More specifically, this research highlights three groups of zoomorphic designs, including the deer, the horse, and the human–animal juxtaposition. By investigating the stylistic changes and geographical distributions of these three types of zoomorphic metal plaques, I analyze the various roles that animals played in the Xianbei society and the different ways in which the Xianbei people engaged with animals. The shifting relationship between humans and animals as reflected in the zoomorphic metal plaques, I argue, likely resulted from the changing environment of the Xianbei people as they migrated from the Greater Khingan Range to the southern Mongolian Steppe and, finally, to North China. At various stages of their migration, the Xianbei people conducted different modes of living, ranging from hunting, pastoral nomadism, to a sedentary lifestyle, which significantly shaped the design of their zoomorphic metal plaques. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue The Zoomorphic Arts of Ancient Central Eurasia)

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