Scythian Antiquities of the North Caucasus in the Hermitage Collection. Ancient Scythians: their history, religion, culture Scythian animal style in the mounds of the Ostrogozhsky region

With the exception of the Pazyryk felt cloths, which sometimes have very impressive dimensions, the art of the nomads who worked in the Scythian style was small in volume. And yet, virtually every object that can somehow be associated with this group of people has many of the essential features of a true work of art. Clarity of conception, purity of forms, balance and rhythm of drawing, and, what is important, understanding of the material from which the thing is made - all these were characteristic features of the style of the Eurasian nomads. Perhaps the scope of their activities was limited. The slit through which they looked at the world may not have given a complete view, and yet, within these limits imposed on them by fate, wide vistas opened up; their eye saw with extraordinary clarity and insight, a sharp mind worked clearly, and the hand created the form with unmistakable and unconstrained skill Chernikov S.S. Mysteries of the Golden Mound. Where and when did Scythian art originate? - M.: 2010..

Perhaps, among the people of antiquity, the zoomorphic ornament was not as widespread as among the Scythians of the Northern Black Sea region and related tribes of the steppe and forest-steppe Eurasia. Images of animals adorned horse harness, weapons, clothes, signs of power, cult and toilet items.

With a subtle understanding of nature, the artist singles out, typifies, and sometimes even hypertrophies the most essential from his point of view in an animal: in a deer, elk, mountain goat - horns, ears, hooves; a leopard, a lion, a wolf have a toothy mouth, nostrils, ears, paws and a tail; the eagle has a beak, an eye, claws. When modeling the body, only the leading muscle groups are emphasized, primarily the shoulder and thigh. Such a combination of vital expressiveness with a business interpretation of the characteristic features and posture of the animal is the most important sign of the Scythian animal style.

Masterpieces of the Scythian fine arts, stored in the best museums, have long been included in the treasury of world culture. Any educated person will recognize a thing made in the Scythian animal style. It is the animal style that constitutes the most original feature of the art of the Scythian world.

Animal style is an image of animals (or separately their heads, paws, wings, claws), made in a special manner. The master boldly reduced, enlarged or twisted parts of the animal's body, while maintaining the impression of its reality and recognition. Using parts of the body of different animals and birds, they created the image of a fantastic creature. Animals were depicted in strictly defined poses. For example, predators - crouched on their paws (as if preparing to jump), curled up in a ring or tormenting their prey. Deer, roe deer and other ungulates - with their legs tucked under their stomachs - either in a sacrificial pose, or in a flying gallop. The birds were shown with open wings. Works of the animal style served to decorate weapons, horse harness and clothing. What do the Scythian images of animals mean? Some scientists believe that they were credited with magical power - the ability to convey to humans the enviable properties of animals. For example, by depicting an eagle's eye or a lion's head on the hilt of a sword, they wanted to endow the warrior with strength and vigilance. Other scholars believe that the animals were symbols of the Scythian gods. Still others think that the images of animals indicated the position of their owners in Scythian society.

Probably, the closest to the truth is the opinion of those who find in the art of the animal style a mythological description of the universe. It is known that in the Scythian picture of the world, birds were associated with the sky (upper world), hoofed animals with the earth (middle world), and predatory animals with the underworld (lower world). The structure of the universe, consisting of three worlds, was repeated in the division of society into three estates, and countries into three kingdoms. Therefore, such an understanding of the objects of the animal style includes all other meanings - magical power, an indication of the patron gods and the belonging of the owners to certain estates or kingdoms. The favorite "heroes" of works of animal style are deer, elk, mountain goat, leopard, panther, wolf, eagle. Scythian craftsmen sought to convey the main properties of the animal, refusing minor details. The talent and imagination of the artist helped to give things a perfect shape and decorative look, using stingy means and adhering to the strict rules of animal style. It has long been noticed, for example, that a deer is most often depicted with eighteen horn processes, and this completely coincides with the image of the "eighteen-horned deer" from the Nart legends. The best preserved things were made of gold, silver, bronze, but not only metals were the material for the Scythian craftsmen.

In the thickness of the icy Pazyryk mounds in Altai, archaeologists have found intact works of carvers in wood, bone and horn, items made of fabric, leather and felt. Felt carpets depicting ornaments and mythological subjects are true masterpieces of ancient art. Clothes and shoes, horse ceremonial decoration, weapons, hiking bags and tables - everything was decorated with a pattern or decorated in animal style. Among all the peoples known to us, only the Scythians have one, but the most important for human life art. It consists in the fact that they do not allow a single enemy who attacked their country to be saved; and no one can overtake them, unless they themselves allow this Agbunov M.V. Journey to the mysterious Scythia. - M .: Nauka, 2009 .. A striking example of Scythian art is an openwork plate - decoration of a horse dress - depicting a rider shooting a deer from a bow. And the golden pectoral (breast decoration of the Scythian king) is a unique work and a masterpiece of world art.

The death of the Scythian king was an important and tragic event for the people. He was mourned for a long time, performed a series of bloody rites and dug a grave. In addition to the king, animals, servants, wives, money and jewelry were buried in the grave. Then they poured a huge hill.

Artists of the Scythian world mastered many genres - carving, relief, three-dimensional plastic, appliqué, embroidery. Metal products were created using casting, stamping, engraving. Another side of Scythian art is stone sculptures in the form of a standing human figure. Such a statue was installed on the top of the barrow. It had nothing to do with a portrait, it was a generalized image of a man, roughly carved from a monolithic stone. The master showed only the most necessary features - the head, face, arms and legs, clothes and weapons. The attributes of power were also depicted - a hryvnia around the neck and a rhyton in the hand. The statue conveyed the image of Targitai, the progenitor of the Scythians, whose earthly incarnation was the king. The Scythians believed that by erecting this image over the grave mound, they overcome the violation of the world order that occurs with the death of the king.

The heyday of Scythian art falls on 7-6 thousand BC. There is. Scythian art is wood and bone carving, and most importantly, it is a virtuoso metalworking. The Scythians knew the secrets of many alloys, they were engaged in casting, stamping, chasing, they knew soldering, granulation, filigree.

All items were made in a peculiar artistic manner, as if numerous Scythian masters agreed on plots and special techniques. In wood and bone carving, casting in bronze, gold and silver, figures of animals or fantastic creatures are reproduced. The image was made in a peculiar artistic manner, which was called the animal style.
Deer, elk, mountain goats, birds of prey with outstretched wings, panthers with lowered heads, bird paws, animal muzzles and ears, hooves - the plot of Scythian works consists of such motifs.
It is impossible not to pay tribute to the sharpness of the eyes of the Scythian artists, they could accurately express the essence of each beast. It should also be noted that the creators of the animal style tend to develop ornamental details. So, deer antlers turn into vegetative curls or end with stylized bird heads. Beautiful artistic perception and the feeling of the material allowed the ancient masters to provide any household subject of accounting for this or that beast.
The world's largest collection of Scythian products is kept in the Hermitage.

Among art products, discovered in the burials of the Scythians, the most interesting items are decorated in the animal style: quiver and scabbard covers, sword hilts, details of the bridle set, plaques (used to decorate horse harness, quivers, shells, and also as women's jewelry), mirror handles, buckles, bracelets, hryvnias, etc.

Along with images of animal figures (deer, elk, goat, birds of prey, fantastic animals, etc.), there are scenes of animals fighting (most often an eagle or other predator tormenting a herbivore). Images were made in low relief using forging, embossing, casting, embossing and carving, most often from gold, silver, iron and bronze. Ascending to the images of totem ancestors, in the Scythian time they represented various spirits and played the role of magical amulets; in addition, they may have symbolized the strength, dexterity and courage of a warrior.

An undoubted sign of the Scythian belonging of this or that product is a special way of depicting animals, the so-called Scythian animal style [ . Animals are always depicted in motion and from the side, but with their heads turned towards the viewer.

The peculiarities of the Scythian animal style are the extraordinary liveliness, specificity and dynamics of images, the remarkable adaptation of images to the shapes of objects.

All ancient art, in particular, the Scythian-Siberian animal style, is imbued with great pathos of the eternal laws of nature that are not subject to time and someone else's will, inspired by the worship of these laws, animated, materialized in visible images thanks to the talent and imagination of unknown masters. The artistic form is extremely laconic: everything random is discarded, the most characteristic is emphasized. Compared with the animal style of Western Asia and the Caucasus, the Scythian animal style is more dynamic.

The deer from the village of Kostroma (Krasnodar Territory), kept in the Hermitage, made of massive gold and served as a shield decoration, is remarkable for its masterful transmission of strong movement, running, almost flight: its legs do not touch the ground, its muscular long neck and thoroughbred head are directed forward, large branched horns thrown back, which enhances the impression of movement (ill. 310 a). Interpreted by three large planes, the body seems very tense. The internal rhythm is clear, simple and dynamic. The form as a whole is very compact and concise, there is not a single random line in it.

golden panther

So very simple visual techniques maximum expressiveness was achieved in the golden panther from the Kelermes mound of the 6th century. BC e-(Hermitage; ill. Z10 6). This is an image of an angry beast preparing to jump. The elongated neck enhances the impression of flexibility and strength. The tail and paws of the panther are covered with images of a beast twisted into a ball. The eye is inlaid, there are partitions in the ear with traces of enamel. This technique of inlay, as well as the very motif of the panther, was borrowed by the Scythians from the East. Panther from Kelermes is one of the most characteristic monuments of Scythian art. The conventionality of the image in the early Scythian art does not destroy the power and expression of the image.

Indeed, only those who, with sacred awe, with constant delight in the power and beauty of the world, carefully observed the smallest phenomena of the life of nature, only those who truly realized themselves not just as a part of all living things, but also as the identity of all living things - only they could to be the creators of such rhythmically expressive, dynamic, logical, stylistically integral compositions and images of the Scythian Siberian animal style.

Master on the badge skillfully
Terrible dog and mighty
Claws at him young
Doe sculpted; like alive
She was trembling and scared
The dog looked furious.

Scythian material culture clearly distinguishes the so-called animal style from other cultures or, in other words, the art of the animal style. These are images on various objects of animals, birds, as well as their parts (head, claws, beaks, etc.). Animals are both real and fantastic, and sometimes a combination of both is bizarre (like a griffin). This bright art is also represented in the burial mounds of the Ostrogozhsky region. We will return to these images from the Dubovsky, Mastyuginsky burial grounds, mounds near the villages of Kolbino-Ternovoe, look at them through the eyes of people of that time. But first, let's clear up a few questions.

How does the Scythian animal style differ from the depiction of animals from other eras? When we talk about the Scythian art of the animal style, the question arises: weren't animals and birds depicted before? Paleolithic caves with images on the walls of mammoths, wild horses, bison come to mind ... It can be seen that Scythian art is also Scythian, which differs from everything previous. With what?

Firstly, Scythian animals differ from others in the way they depict the body of the animal and its individual parts. Deer antlers, beaks of birds of prey, head of a predator, etc. composed as if of separate planes, which converge with each other at angles. Sharp edges with ribs are obtained, and as a result, a picture of the play of light and shadow on flat surfaces is created. Let us imagine a warrior with a shield on which is depicted a golden panther or a golden deer. Under the rays of the sun, the deer burns! Here the warrior slightly turned the shield, and a deer, similar to a living one, shone with new highlights ...

Secondly, the Scythian animal style was characterized by the allocation of any one part of the body, its exaggeration. Deer antlers, for example, are unrealistically large. They branch out along the entire length of the back and end only at the tail. The eye of a bird of prey is depicted in such a way that it has the dimensions of almost the entire head. The claws of predators are unnaturally large - both animals and birds. The desire of the artist to single out one or another part of the beast is clearly visible.

Third, in this art, images of various animals, birds on cereals, deer shoulder blades, and predators are often found. And the claws of predators often end in the heads of birds of prey. This is something like the reincarnation of one animal into another.

fourth, Scythian animals and birds very rarely make up any plot compositions, such as a grazing herd of deer, etc. Animals and birds themselves. They are detached from the environment and are not associated with any action. Here lies a deer, a wild boar stands, a bird flies, everyone has “his own business” and they don’t care about anyone.

Fifth, in the Scythian animal style, it was popular to depict not a whole animal or bird, but their parts - the head of an elk, deer, griffin, claws of a bird of prey, etc. This feature - to replace the part with the whole - was common in the art of the Scythians and Sarmatians.

The features noted above are not all immediately present in all images. Somewhere some signs are prominent, somewhere else.

These are the main features of the Scythian art of the animal style. You can single them out, but finding out why is much more difficult. Since here we have to intrude into the unfamiliar jungle of the views of the creators themselves, and the creators have left us nothing but the images themselves.

What is "beautiful" among the Scythian nomads?

Before singling out the opinion of researchers of the animal style about its purpose, let's keep in mind that beauty here had a completely different meaning: behind today's beauty of animal style products lies another beauty, beauty in the understanding of those people.

Today we admire the images of the Scythian animal style, not thinking that the Scythians, like other peoples of antiquity, the concept of beauty was very different from the one we have today. And today these concepts are completely different among different peoples.

The beauty of the thing itself was determined in antiquity for the most part by its practical need - beautiful is what is useful! Swords, arrows and cute animal-style animals should help in some way, help out. Even jewelry was worn not for the purpose of being beautiful in our understanding, but mostly because of the need to shield oneself from evil spirits, sorcerers, to show people, especially foreigners, their belonging to one or another tribe, clan. Let us note how far these ideas are from our present ones.

Further, we take into account that the ancient people had a special attitude to weapons, jewelry, dishes - everything that they took from nature. The common view was this: nature is alive; everything from it is also alive. Therefore, it is necessary to treat objects as if they were alive. They talked with them, read spells, punished for a mistake. And today, echoes of those views, no, no, yes, and appear in a developed society. It is difficult to say whether such judgments prevailed among the Scythians and related tribes, or simply "took place." But they were more than likely.

Totems and a totemic view of the Scythian animal style

For a long time, the answer to the question about the purpose of the Scythian animal style was simplistic, which was associated with views on the underdevelopment of the Scythian society. He was assigned the primitive stage, at best, at its final stage. It was assumed that the images of animals and birds are nothing more than evidence of the remnants of totemism. In this regard, the followers of this point of view turned to a vivid example - the image of a deer. Many tribes related to the Scythians and living in Central Asia, Siberia, characteristic of the name "Saka" or names with this root.

Linguistic studies by V.A. Abaev, a well-known specialist in this field of linguistics, led him to the conclusion: "Saka" - itself - the name of not only Asian Saks, but also European Scythians; in the Ossetian language there is a word "sag", which translates as "deer". The deer is an animal revered by the ancient Iranian-speaking ancestors of the Ossetians, and it could be a totem animal; the name "Saki" and "Scythians" comes from the name of the deer as a totem animal (Abaev, 1949). This hypothesis was based on the only evidence (“saka is a deer”) and turned out to be the only one for supporters of the “totemic theory”. No other (written, linguistic) data was found.

But that's not the point. The recognition that the animals and birds of the Scythian art were the totems of the Scythian clans means the recognition that the Scythians did not go beyond the limits of primitiveness in their development. After all, totemism, as a system of views, characterizes the early history of mankind, but not the history of a developed society of pastoralists with signs of classes. The totem theory cannot explain many features of the animal style, for example, the selectivity of objects depicting animals and birds - weapons, horse harness, military harness accessories.

Magic in the art of the Scythians

The idea that Scythian deities stand behind the animals and birds, which are characterized by reincarnation from one image to another, did not find support. But studies of the animal style led to the conclusion that animals and birds were associated with magic, which was the most important part of the general worldview of the Indo-Iranians. There is no doubt that the Scythians were followers of the magical actions of those who worshiped the precepts of the Rig Veda and Avesta. There are sacrifices to the drying of nature, sacred objects, a sacred drink. The same is attested among the Scythians. Herodotus reports, for example, about the sacrifice of horses at the burial of the king. A year later, another 50 horses are sacrificed at the wake.

The magical power inherent in animals and birds, apparently, was supposed to enhance the effect of weapons, horse harness, accessories of military equipment, on sacred objects (metal goblets, rhytons, etc.). Thus, the image of the claws of a bird of prey was supposed to enhance the effect of the sword, on the handle of which claws were depicted. The bared mouth of a predator on a horse harness was supposed to frighten the enemy, make him retreat from his plans (Khazanov, Shkurko, 1976). All Indo-Iranians had a magical idea that a part replaces the whole (Kuzmina, 1976, p. 59). It also existed among the Scythians, related tribes. It is not for nothing that the animal style is presented on weapons, horse harness, warrior's harness accessories.

However ... It seems unlikely that magic would have such significance that in a developed Scythian society it would play the role of art serving the interests of its elite and the entire army. Magical acts exist today and existed in antiquity, but to exist is one thing, and to dominate the ideology through art in the minds of people is another.

Military and hunting look at the Scythian art

Attempts to find out the meaning of the word "saka" began to bring new data. So it arose from the pen of V.A. Korenyaki military-hunting hypothesis. "Saki" - "dogs" were not so much guardians of the herds as hunters and warriors. The name "Saki" had many meanings, among which were not only "warriors-hunters", "hunters-catchers", "hunting dogs", "warriors like dogs", but also others ... endowing carriers with "power", "courage", the ability to "watch sharply", "shoot accurately" and "move quickly" (Korenyanko, 2002). Numerous written documents testify to the great importance of hunting in the life of nomads.

Hunting required remarkable abilities from a person. He must be brave, dexterous, despise adversity, deprivation. Riding without saddles and stirrups was impossible without long training, and not everyone could cope with this difficult task.

The art of the animal style began to fade and died out with the advent of hard saddles and stirrups. They appeared at the beginning of the Middle Ages, at the earliest in the 4th century AD. As a result, clear boundaries social groups warriors blurred.

Thus, the military hunting theory of the origin of the Scythian animal style is based on the proof that animals and birds, which were the object of constant military hunting training, received art form. There are both kneeling deer and bound predators. The social stratum of society that created the animal style is not so much the aristocracy as the hunters-warriors. Those who were engaged in battue, driven hunts. This occupation required great skill, dexterity, strength. By manifesting it, the warriors became respected and revered. To serve their ideology, the animal style arose.

The military-hunting hypothesis is original, has solid evidence and weaknesses. So, it is not clear what place in it is occupied by various fantastic creatures, all sorts of complications, such as images on one animal of several, images of parts of animals.

Myths and animal style

There is another opinion about the origin of the animal style. It can be called "mythological theory". The essence of the view of this approach lies in attempts to link the images of animals and birds with the myths about the structure of the cosmos that existed among the creators of the animal style (Raevsky, 1985).

According to this view, the world of animals and birds can be easily divided into groups. The first group are predators. Predators in the eyes of the ancients brought death, therefore they displayed the underground, other world. Ungulate animals are peaceful. They have horns that grow like trees. Once a year they disappear, which is consistent with the ideas of the ancients about the natural cycle. Often deer antlers are unnaturally large, like a tree. Ungulates reflect the world of the living, the current world. Birds, especially eagles, fly high in the sky, reflecting the upper world, the world of the gods. The three-stage vertical scheme of the structure of the world is characteristic of the views of the previous time - the Bronze Age. Thus, the Scythian animal style is a system designed to describe the world order.

In this scheme, a special place is occupied by a wild boar. On the one hand, he is an ungulate animal and is close to fallow deer, deer, elk, rams, goats. On the other hand, the boar is a predator. He is always dangerous, can attack a person, eats different foods without understanding. This behavior of the boar has long led to a cautious attitude towards him. It is always dangerous, it can attack a person, eat different foods without disassembling. This behavior of the boar has long led to a cautious attitude towards him. He seemed to be "stuck" between two worlds, and therefore was an "unclean" animal. Not because he loves to fall in a puddle, but precisely because, as they say, he has a dual nature - “herbivorous-predatory” (Perevodchikova, 1994, pp. 46-48). This position of the wild boar led to the fact that already in the Bronze Age in the Southern Urals it was almost not hunted, and the meat of pigs was not eaten.

It is precisely because of its dual nature that the boar is often a guide to the realm of the dead. Although such a role was assigned not only to him.

The three-level system must find matches in images, i.e. if birds are the upper world, then they should be depicted above ungulates, and even more so predators. As it turns out, it's not that simple. Often deer were depicted at the very top, the heads of lions above the birds. And such cases are quite numerous. The mythological view fails.

Where is the birthplace of the Scythian animal style? And was she?

At first glance, the question posed at the beginning of the paragraph seems strange. If something has appeared, then it must have a point, a place of birth.

Archaeologists and historians have long and stubbornly searched for the homeland of the Scythian animal style. The difficulty was that this style appears immediately, suddenly, already in its current form. Nothing like this was known in the Bronze Age.

There have been attempts to explain the origin of the animal style by the fact that the art of carved wood has not come down to us due to poor preservation. Therefore, we, they say, do not know this layer of art, but it has yet to be found. P.D. Liberov was sure that the roots of the animal style were at the heart of the cultures of the Bronze Age. But we do not find it, because it was presented on wood and bones, which have not been preserved (Liberov, 1976). It should be noted that from the Bronze Age, a lot of surviving bone items and even wooden bowls are known. But there are no animals on the bones or on the bowls. And if something was depicted, then these are geometric compositions.

The search for the "homeland" continues, but the idea that it is not very promising to look for this "point on the map" is becoming more and more obvious. More and more researchers of the Scythian animal style are becoming new way explanation of the confusing situation.

If you look at the problem from the other side: since the search for "motherland" did not lead to anything, isn't it time to admit that this art appears as a result of a "revolutionary explosion". The sharp, sudden appearance of the Scythian animal style is the result of huge changes in the life of the entire steppe population (transition to nomadism), its culture. Researchers are looking for transitional stages of evolution, but they did not exist, and do not exist.

Probably, it is no longer possible to find out what is more, what is less. But the new art, having fused everything into a single and new one, quickly conquered huge spaces, became part of the worldview of many and for a long time ...

Scythian animal style in the mounds of the Ostrogozhsky region. Who was portrayed

Animal style appears in the burial mounds of the Middle Don only with the appearance of mounds left by the newcomer times. In the Bronze Age, none of the cultures in this area had a tradition of depicting animals and birds. There are no signs of the animal style on the existing finds of the Pre-Scythian period. The time of the appearance of the first burials is the 5th century BC. BC. Until the end of the 4th - beginning of the 3rd century. BC. items of the animal style are found mainly, often in burial mounds - in about 50% of the graves. Given the repeated robbery of mounds, it can be assumed that in reality this percentage was higher. Finds of products in the animal style in the settlements are very rare.

On the sword from the Blizhnestoyanovskiy burial mound, the pommel was probably decorated in the form of curved claws of a bird of prey. This design of the pommel is well known. It remains only to regret that the ending was poorly preserved. On the sword of one of the mounds near the village. Kolbino's hilt is bound with gold plates depicting a lying deer with bent legs and lowered head. The head of the animal is crowned with huge branched horns. The oval pommel depicts some kind of animal, apparently sitting with its head turned back.

Sewn-on and overlaid plaques, most often made of gold, decorate funeral clothes. Sometimes they are attached with small nails to wooden objects. In 1908 N.E. Makarenko during the excavation of mounds near the village. Mastyugino in mound 2 found a gold overlay on the gorit - a case for carrying a bow and arrows. On the Mastyuginsky gorite, a seated griffin with raised wings is depicted on a plate. The Greeks called griffins winged monsters with a lion's body and an eagle's head. The Greeks believed that these animals really exist somewhere on Far North and protect the gold of Zeus from the one-eyed people - the Arimaspians.

In the mounds of the same burial ground, plaques depicting a lying deer and griffins were found. Two griffins stand on their hind legs facing each other in the so-called "heraldic" pose (in a detailed way, often at a later time - in the Middle Ages, lions were depicted on the coats of arms of knightly families). A "walking" griffin is depicted on a plate from Russian Trostyanka. The plate is poorly preserved, but the importance with which the griffin comes, and the stern contemptuous look from above, is well preserved.

In the mound burial ground Kolbino-Ternovoe, the expedition of V.I. Gulyaev, sewn-on gold plaques in the form of boar heads were found in a female burial. The foil is very thin and it is unlikely that such a garment can be worn even for very important holidays. Poetmou Valery Ivanovich believes that for the funeral rite there were specially prepared items, decorations that were created not for everyday life, but specifically for funerals.

The animal style is also represented on bone items, such as, for example, on a horn cheek-piece from a burial ground near the village. Ternovoe. The head of a wolf is depicted on the left at the end, the head of a boar is depicted on the right.

One of the characteristic images of the animal style of the Middle Don population was a bear. In percentage terms, there are few images of the beast, but these finds are bright, although they are similar. About ten bears are depicted on belt hooks-clasps along with the head of an "eared griffin". In other cases, bear figurines adorn the horse's bridle.

Researchers of the Middle Don burials drew attention to the fact that these animals, despite the opening of their mouths, look somehow peaceful. These are not terrible owners of the forest, but good-natured little animals. Particularly interesting in this respect is a bear on a hook-clasp from mound 6 of the Dubovsky burial ground. If we evaluate it by the standards of "peacefulness", then it is the most peaceful and even somewhat comical. The bear seems to have found something and, sniffing, carefully examines the find.

Images of a wolf are present on belt hooks-clasps, bridle plaques and on bone cheek-pieces. It is possible that this beast is depicted on the end of a gold earring from the Blizhnestoyanovka burial mound. Unlike bears, which are easily recognizable at first sight, the wolf is more difficult. Here the ancient artist is less specific and precise in depicting the beast.

The depiction of a cheetah on a bone crest from the burial ground of Terovoe I looks foreign in Middle Don art. Gulyaev and E.I. Savchenko, who discovered this find, did not find an analogy to it, or at least a close and similar image. Unique item!

Sometimes, as on the bone crest of one of the Mastyuginsky burial mounds, animals are not identified at all in terms of their species. Below - clearly predators with cat's paws. In the center of the fish, and on top of the neck are the heads of some strange animals.

Animal style is constantly present on the horse bridle. So, on the bridle from the Russian Trostyanka, animal heads are depicted on cheek-pieces.

This is in general terms the animal style of the Middle Don of the Scythian time. Studying it allowed us to come to the following main conclusions.

Animal style appeared on the Middle Donku in the 5th century. BC. along with the advent of the kurgan burial rite. According to the most proven hypothesis to date, the creators of the Middle Don mounds appeared on the Middle Don from the territory of the Dnieper region - its right-bank and left-bank parts. Research specialist in the field of animal style A.I. Shkurko showed that the earliest products of the animal style repeat those samples that were characteristic of the kurgans of the Dnieper forest-steppe Right and Left Bank. But already in the IV century. BC. on the Middle Donku, original local art is being formed. Its creation is influenced by the traditions of the steppe Scythia, the Bosporan kingdom (Shkurko, 1976; Goncharova, 2001). How this influence was carried out is no longer known, unfortunately. But it was in the 4th century BC. most predators lose their formidable appearance and turn into calm and peaceful animals. The eagle, like a parrot in a cage, calmly cleans its claws. Nothing tells us in his image about a vigilant and formidable predator with steel claws. The heads of the horses look like toys for children. We have already spoken about the "king of the forest".

The paths of art are complex. But if you look closely, you involuntarily see the obvious - art almost always, if you look at it as a whole, reflects the life of society. The search for new ideas, answers to questions give rise to certain artistic images that are reflected in art monuments. Maybe the relatively peaceful life of the Middle Don barrow makers led to a rethinking of artistic images? When the war, the development of new territory, then the beasts of prey and terrible, corresponding to a fierce struggle on the principle of "who wins." And when is relative calm? Maybe that's why the animals calmed down and calmed down?

Sources

• Vinnikov A.Z., Sinyuk A.T. - Roads of millennia: Archaeologists on the ancient history of the Voronezh region. - 2nd ed., corrected. and additional - Voronezh: Voronezh State University Publishing House, 2003.

Nov 17 2011

Bronze Age. Scythian art.

Bronze Age

The Bronze Age is characterized by the leading role of bronze products, which was associated with an improvement in the processing of such metals as copper and tin, obtained from ore deposits, and the subsequent production of bronze from them. In general, the chronological framework of the Bronze Age: 35/33 - 13/11 centuries. BC e., but different cultures are different. Art is becoming more diverse, spreading geographically.

Bronze was much easier to work than stone and could be molded and polished. Therefore, in the Bronze Age, all kinds of household items were made, richly decorated with ornaments and of high artistic value. Ornamental decorations consisted mostly of circles, spirals, wavy lines and similar motifs. Particular attention was paid to decorations - they were large in size and immediately caught the eye.

The oldest bronze tools were found in southern Iran, Turkey and Mesopotamia and date back to the 4th millennium BC. e. Later they spread in Egypt (from the end of the 4th millennium BC), India (end of the 3rd millennium BC), China (from the middle of the 2nd millennium BC) and in Europe (from the 2nd millennium BC). In America, B. c. had an independent history, here metallurgical center the territory of Peru and Bolivia appeared (the so-called late Tiwanaku culture, 6-10 centuries AD). The issue of the Bronze Age in Africa has not yet been resolved due to insufficient archaeological knowledge, but the emergence of a number of independent centers of bronze casting production here no later than the 1st millennium BC is considered undeniable. e. The art of bronze casting in Africa flourished in the 11th-17th centuries. in the countries of the Guinean coast.

The unevenness of historical development, outlined in previous periods, in the Bronze Age manifests itself very sharply. In the advanced centers with a developed manufacturing economy in the Bronze Age, early class societies were formed and the most ancient states were formed (in the countries of the Near East). The productive economy spread in a number of vast areas (for example, the Eastern Mediterranean) and outside these centers, causing their rapid economic progress, the emergence of large ethnic associations, the beginning of decomposition tribal system. At the same time, in large areas remote from the advanced centers, the old, Neolithic way of life, the archaic culture of hunters and fishers, was preserved, but even here metal tools and weapons penetrated, to a certain extent influencing general development the population of these areas. In the Bronze Age, the establishment of strong exchange ties, especially between areas of metal deposits (for example, the Caucasus and of Eastern Europe). For Europe, the so-called Amber Route was of great importance, along which amber was exported from the Baltic to the south, and weapons, jewelry, etc. penetrated to the north.

In Asia, the Bronze Age was a time further development previously established urban civilizations (Mesopotamia, Elam, Egypt, Syria) and the formation of new ones (Harappa in India, Yin China). Outside this zone of the most ancient class societies and states, cultures develop in which metal, including bronze, products are distributed, and the primitive system is intensively decomposed (in Iran, Afghanistan).

A similar picture in the Bronze Age can be observed in Europe. In Crete (Knoss, Festus, etc.) the Bronze Age (late 3rd-2nd millennium BC) is the time of the formation of an early class society. This is evidenced by the remains of cities, palaces, the appearance of local writing (21-13 centuries BC). In mainland Greece, a similar process occurs somewhat later, but here, in the 16th-13th centuries. BC e. an early class society already exists (royal palaces in Tiryns, Mycenae, Pylos, royal tombs in Mycenae, the writing of the so-called system B, which is considered the oldest Greek writing of the Achaeans). In the Bronze Age, the Aegean world was a kind of cultural center of Europe, on the territory of which there were a number of cultures of farmers and pastoralists who had not yet gone beyond the primitive system in their development. At the same time, the accumulation of intracommunal wealth and the process of property and social differentiation also take place in their midst. This is evidenced by the finds of hoards of community bronze-casters and hoards of jewelry belonging to the tribal nobility.

Scythian art

With the exception of the Pazyryk felt cloths, which sometimes have very impressive dimensions, the art of the nomads who worked in the Scythian style was small in volume. And yet, virtually every object that can somehow be associated with this group of people has many of the essential features of a true work of art. Clarity of conception, purity of forms, balance and rhythm of drawing and, what is important, understanding of the material from which the thing is made - all these were characteristic features of the style of the Eurasian nomads. Perhaps the scope of their activities was limited. The slit through which they looked at the world may not have given a complete view, and yet, within these limits imposed on them by fate, wide vistas opened up; their eyes saw with extraordinary clarity and insight, their sharp minds worked with precision, and their hands fashioned form with unerring and effortless skill.

The economy of these communities was necessarily based on pastoralism, so the members of the tribe developed an insight into the animal world and a much deeper understanding of it than many of us can now realize. This interest has shaped them artistic look on things, which led to the development of art, mainly associated with animalistic forms. The general level of development that they themselves had reached did not allow them to produce objects whose only purpose was to give pleasure. Such an approach could not be an incentive for primitive peoples, and in fact most of the great civilizations of the past did not create their most magnificent things for purely aesthetic reasons. The nomads had little reason to create any objects in honor of gods or people, but they instinctively felt beauty and wanted to surround themselves with "animal" forms that gave them joy. These forms had to be decorated, since the nomad does not like art, which is supposed to stimulate his imagination. And without this, too many terrible sounds break the silence of the nights spent in the steppe, too many strange visions appear in order to mislead fellow tribesmen looking for an elusive trail, too many obscure fantasies take possession of the nomad in hours of loneliness. In a nomadic society, the imagination tends to follow a dark path, while memory often chooses self-deception as its companion and can embellish everything terrible and unpleasant in order to dwell instead on joyful and encouraging thoughts.

Animal style is a historical artistic style that developed in the 7th-4th centuries. BC e. in the vast territories of Eurasia from the Lower Danube, the Northern Black Sea region and the Caspian steppes to Southern Urals, Siberia and northwestern China.
The origins of this style should be sought in primitive totemism (the deification of animals as human ancestors) and in the "natural style" of the art of primitive hunters.

At the same time, the "animal style" differs from the abstract animal ornament of the 6th-13th centuries, common in Romanesque and Norman art, and from the teratological ancient Russian motifs. A broader concept is zoomorphic motifs. More often, the definition of "animal style" is narrowed down to the "Scythian animal style" of the peoples of the Northern Black Sea region of the 6th-4th centuries. BC e. Similar geometrized and stylized images of real and fantastic animals adorn the metalwork of the Khalyitatta and Laten cultures of the early Iron and Bronze Ages.
Works distinguished by the originality and integrity of stylistic features, which make it possible to speak specifically of style, are found in excavations of burial mounds in the steppe regions from the Kuban to Altai. At the same time, it turns out that "the Scythian culture and the culture of the Scythians are not at all the same thing."

In the VII-VI centuries. BC e. enterprising and energetic Greeks founded many colonies along the banks of the Black and Seas of Azov: Olbia, Chersonese, Kafu, Panticapaeum, Phanagoria, Tanais. The ancient Greek historian Herodotus (484 - ca. 430 BC) compiled a description of the southern part of the East European Plain. Its indigenous population, which consisted of different ethnic groups, he called the Scythians. In the II century. BC e. tribes of Iranian origin, the Sarmatians, invaded the southern steppes. The Goths came from the north. The nomadic way of life, cattle breeding, hunting, contacts with settled inhabitants developed among these tribes a peculiar style of products made of wood, gold, bone, leather and felt appliqués.

Some of these products were probably made by Iranian craftsmen. It is known that Persian traders reached the Slavic lands and Scandinavia. They carried with them gold and silver vessels, which are found in abundance in the Ural treasures. Local tribes preferred to receive not coins, but golden bowls and goblets in exchange for their goods.

In the mounds of Central Asia, objects are found that combine in their style the features of Hellenistic, Sasanian and Chinese art. So, according to one version, the formation of a unique “Scythian animal style” was influenced by bronze items from the Ordos province in Northwestern China, the so-called Ordos bronzes. Another possible source is Luristan in the southwest of the Iranian Highlands, the Persian animal style, brilliantly developed by the masters of the Achaemenid (VII-V centuries BC) and Sassanid (III-VII centuries AD) era. Elements of the same style are present in the art of the Ionians of the archaic period, who inhabited the islands of the Eastern Mediterranean and were under obvious Persian influence.

Through the Greek colonists, this art was then assimilated with the "Scythian". Versions were expressed about the local, Siberian origin of the “animal style” and about the influence of traditional woodcarving on its formation. The earliest finds date back to the 9th century. BC e. , but the features of the original style are formed by the 7th century. BC e. Masters of the Eurasian steppes forged weapons - akinaki (short Scythian swords), shields, made horse harness, plaques, buckles, cheek-pieces (bits) - rods crowned with the head of an animal, cauldrons, mirrors, ritual tops of wands. Images of animals in the era preceding the appearance of certain types of decorative and applied arts did not decorate, but revealed, designated and "strengthened" the function of the object. There are few characters of the "animal style", they are repeated and clearly divided into three groups according to the three "zones" of the mythological "World Tree": heavenly (birds), earthly (ungulates) and underground (predators). Among the birds, griffins of the Greek type with archaic sickle-shaped wings, vulture-rams, fantastic winged animals that have analogues in Persian art stand out. Deer, goats, bulls, rams, horses are depicted among the ungulates. The “mediators” (lat. mediator - mediator) include a wild boar, freely “moving” along the trunk of the “World Tree” from one zone to another (because it has a dual nature: it is both hoofed and carnivorous, a predator).
One of the main features of the "animal style" is the contrast of clean surfaces, smooth volumes of the animal's body, solved by the characteristic intersection of planes, with an exaggerated texture of details. This feature is partly due to the original technology: Scythian craftsmen preferred not to sculpt, but to cut a model of a future metal casting with a knife with a wide blade from soft wax. Hence the nature of the interpretation of the shape of the animal's body - large planes with sharp edges, as well as the analogy of gold items with carved wood. Heads, eyes, ears, horns, hooves of animals are geometrized, increase in size and, contrary to plausibility, are arbitrarily transferred from place to place. So, on the paws of a panther and on its tail, you can see miniature images of curled up predators. Instead of claws, the paws of the beast end in bird heads.

A similar technique of "zoomorphic transformations", interpolations is characteristic of many archaic cultures, ancient American, Egyptian art, products of the American Indians and aborigines of Polynesia.
Animal poses are also peculiarly conditional, they do not express movement or action. The definition of "flying gallop" in relation to the famous golden deer from the village of Kostroma in the Kuban (VI century BC), according to experts, does not correspond to reality, since the deer's legs are folded completely implausibly.

In the Persian tradition, protomes (front parts of animals) are also depicted, and even separate heads, for example, the head of a predator, in the mouth of which the second one, its victims, is visible. Bronze cheek-pieces on one side are crowned with the head of an animal, on the other - with its hoof. Many pictorial details are "wandering", regardless of the breed of the animal, they move from one image to another. All these unusual compositional techniques testify to the influence of some special factors. It can also be seen that in all cases the bizarre poses of the animals, their fragmentation and exaggeration of details follow the principle of a closed, compact silhouette.

The researcher of Scythian art M. Artamonov defines this main feature as follows: “This is a style of art that is organically connected with practical things - weapons, horse equipment, clothes ... striking in its adaptability to limited, pre-given forms of these things with amazing ingenuity and use of space, compactness and economical clarity of contours. Remarkable is the ability to convey the characteristic features of an animal in the final analysis by conditional forms. The closed construction of the figure, despite the vitality of the image, leads to simplification and deformation, corresponding to its decorative purpose. Another characteristic feature of the Scythian style is the segmentation of the image into large, sharply defined surfaces or edges.

The whole image is built on several smooth, but sharply separated surfaces from one another. By inscribing an image into the closed format of a plaque, buckle, and bottles, the master strives to fill the surface as much as possible - this is the principle of decorative art, which was clearly manifested in yet another oriental “carpet”, or orientalizing, style of antiquity. The desire for maximum density led to an interesting phenomenon: “mysterious pictures”, in which the contour of one animal fits into another and continues in the third. In such images, several "fused" animals may have common details - heads, horns, hooves. It is quite difficult to unravel such images. Decorative generalization of masses and accentuation of details leads to typification, and stylization combines different forms into one decorative image of the beast.

The technique of ornamentation can be attributed to the play on holes and voids in the image, which is especially common in gold overlays for shields and horse harness, enhancing its compactness. This technique is clearly designed for perception from afar, from a distance, when such an overlay stands out against a dark or bright colored background of felt. Round recesses - the eyes, nostrils of the animal - as well as ornamental recesses, were filled with colored enamel, which was valued at that time on a par with precious stones and effectively stood out against the background of gold. This technique is included in the general concept of "polychrome style".

In the art of the Scythians, as in Persian, there is a technique of symmetrical doubling of the image, conditionally called "heraldic", or antithetic (from the Greek antithesis - opposition). It is connected with the phenomenon of simultanism. In the 5th century BC e. under the influence of Greco-Persian art, the motif of “clawing predators” tormenting ungulates appears in the works of Scythian masters. The art of the Scythians in the 5th century. BC e. sometimes called "Scythian baroque" because of its pretentiousness and lush ornamentation of details. By the end of the IV century. BC e. the unique "animal style" disappeared as suddenly and mysteriously as it appeared. The reason for this phenomenon is seen in the change in the general cultural situation.

Among other historical and regional modifications of the "animal style", undoubtedly related by common roots with the "Scythian", one should mention the ornamentation of Western European Romanesque cathedrals and the Vladimir-Uzdal school of white-stone carving. These manifestations of the "animal style" in a broader sense are sometimes seen as the result of the interaction of local ethnic traditions with Christianity. However, it was in the Scythian art that the interaction of forms and techniques of compositional constructions developed in different cultures took place. In particular, it is assumed that some products were made by Greek masters who parodied and stylized the unusual appearance of the barbarians, others by settled Scythians in Hellenic workshops, and still others by alien princes. This may explain the international spread of the style and its many local variants. So in the Scythian proper, the "Scythian-Siberian" and "Permian" animal style are distinguished. The permanent, unchanging features of these styles are:

- assimilation of the form to the format;
- simultaneity of the image;
- symmetrical doubling of forms;
- transposition of details;
- hypertrophy of individual elements.

Golden hryvnia with endings in the form of Scythian horsemen. Fragment 400 - 350 BC. e. Gold State Hermitage St. Petersburg Found in Kurgan Kul-Oba, Crimea

Belt plaque 8th century BC e. Gold, silver, colored glass historical Museum Kyiv Belongs to the culture of the Cimmerians who inhabited the lands of present-day Ukraine before the arrival of the Scythians

Plaque "Deer" 6th century BC e. Gold State Hermitage St. Petersburg An example of zoomorphic art (“animal style”). Deer hooves are made in the form of a "big-beaked bird"

Sheath. Fragment Late 5th - early 4th century BC. e. Gold, chasing State Hermitage St. Petersburg Scenes of the battle between the barbarians and the Greeks are depicted. Found in the Chertomlyk mound, near Nikopol

Scythian comb depicting a battle scene Late 5th - early 4th century BC e. Gold State Hermitage St. Petersburg Found in the Solokha barrow

Pectoral. Fragment Mid 4th century BC. e. Gold; casting, filigree. State Historical Museum Kyiv Men's jewelry depicting pictures of pastoral life, battle scenes involving griffins, lions, horses and wild boars. Found in the Tolstaya Grave mound (Ukraine)

Vase depicting Scythian warriors 4th century BC e. Electrum; chasing State Hermitage St. Petersburg Electrum is a natural alloy of gold (80%) and silver (20%). Found in the kurgan Kul-Oba

Hryvnia with figurines of Scythian horsemen, 4th century BC. e. Gold State Hermitage St. Petersburg Decoration was in use among nomadic peoples. Found in the kurgan Kul-Oba

Earrings, necklace, bracelets and tube 4th century BC e. Gold, forging, embossing, filigree, granulating, embossing, soldering State Historical Museum Moscow Decorations are made by Greek jewelers. Found in Northern Ukraine

Vessel with hunting scenes 400 - 375 BC e. Silver; gilding Found during excavations in 1913 in Solokha Kurgan (Pridneprovie)

Plaques depicting a lying deer 400 - 375 BC. e. Gold Found at the excavations of 1913 in Solokha Kurgan (Pridneprovie)

Pair of gold earrings with disc and boat-shaped pendant circa 350 BC. e. Gold Kurgan Kul-Oba, Crimea

Pendants and fibula 2 - 1st century BC. e. Agate, carnelian, colored glass Krasnodar State Historical and Archaeological Museum-Reserve Krasnodar From the village of Dinskaya

Bracelet Second half of the 1st century AD e. Gold, turquoise, coral, glass

Temporal falar from a bandana 1st century Gold, agate, turquoise, almandines, coral, colored glass Azov Museum of Local Lore From the burial ground "Dachi"

Bracelet 4th - 5th century Gold, glass; casting State Historical and Cultural Museum-Reserve "Moscow Kremlin". Armory Moscow

Neck grivna 4th-5th century Gold, glass; casting Diameter 22 cm The Moscow Kremlin State Historical and Cultural Museum-Reserve. Armory Moscow Found in the Northern Black Sea region

A plaque in the form of a figurine of a wild boar Gold State Historical Museum Kiev Small zoomorphic (in the form of figurines of wild boars, lions, deer, horses) and anthropomorphic (in the form of Bes, Gorgon and other deities) plaques became widespread in the art of the Scythians and were used to decorate clothes, headdresses and horse harness

Plaque in the form of a figurine of a lion Gold State Museum of Oriental Arts Moscow

ART OF THE SCYTHIANS

With the exception of the Pazyryk felt cloths, which sometimes have very impressive dimensions, the art of the nomads who worked in the Scythian style was small in volume. And yet, virtually every object that can somehow be associated with this group of people has many of the essential features of a true work of art. Clarity of conception, purity of forms, balance and rhythm of drawing and, what is important, understanding of the material from which the thing is made - all these were characteristic features of the style of the Eurasian nomads. Perhaps the scope of their activities was limited. The slit through which they looked at the world may not have given a complete view, and yet, within these limits imposed on them by fate, wide vistas opened up; their eyes saw with extraordinary clarity and insight, their sharp minds worked with precision, and their hands fashioned form with unerring and effortless skill.

The economy of these communities was necessarily based on pastoralism, so the members of the tribe developed an insight into the animal world and a much deeper understanding of it than many of us can now realize. This interest shaped their artistic view of things, which led to the development of art associated mainly with animalistic forms. The general level of development that they themselves had reached did not allow them to produce objects whose only purpose was to give pleasure. Such an approach could not be an incentive for primitive peoples, and in fact most of the great civilizations of the past did not create their most magnificent things for purely aesthetic reasons. The nomads had little reason to create any objects in honor of gods or people, but they instinctively felt beauty and wanted to surround themselves with "animal" forms that gave them joy. These forms had to be decorated, since the nomad does not like art, which is supposed to stimulate his imagination. And without this, too many terrible sounds break the silence of the nights spent in the steppe, too many strange visions appear in order to mislead fellow tribesmen looking for an elusive trail, too many obscure fantasies take possession of the nomad in hours of loneliness. In a nomadic society, the imagination tends to follow a dark path, while memory often chooses self-deception as its companion and can embellish everything terrible and unpleasant in order to dwell instead on joyful and encouraging thoughts.

In a pastoral community, the fondest memories are usually associated with hunting. The excitement of stalking the prey, the nervous trembling at the sight of it, the trembling that is often accompanied by a painful admiration for the prey, the successful outcome of the hunt - all this provides material for a wonderful story told to admiring listeners at sunset. The most disturbing details remain fresh in the memory long after the story has lost its salt. Most enduringly stand the test of time are dramatic incidents, an imaginary picture of the moment when the hunted game, first sensing the approaching danger, stops to sniff the air with flared nostrils, and then gallops wildly in search of escape, until, finally, pierced by a deadly arrow, it falls to the ground , but not like a dying person, but with grace and humility.

Like prehistoric drawings in northern Spain and southeastern France, the drawings discovered by Lamaev in 1940 in the almost inaccessible Zarautsay Gorge in Uzbekistan depict hunting scenes. They were necessarily magical in their purpose, and thus their artistic originality is largely due to this. But in Siberia during the Neolithic period, that is, during the 3rd millennium BC. BC, full-length figures of animals carved from wood or bone were often used as bait. Eding discovered several figures of ducks during excavations in the town of Torbunovsky Bog in the Nizhny Tagil region of the Sverdlovsk region. Such figurines-baits were at first completely naturalistic in execution, but as the centuries passed, the naturalism of such products began to give way to a certain stylization. The style became more refined, and the association of certain animals with specific symbols began to be forgotten. Nevertheless, the drawings, which lost some of their religious meaning, continued to be decorative elements and survived partly by force of habit, and partly because they continued to bring joy. Thus, an aesthetic element was introduced into the field of graphic images, which led to the development of a more complex style. Among the Scythians, it became obligatory that animal drawings, regardless of their religious significance, please the eye with a carefully and convincingly transmitted image of the object, and memory - with a synthesis of the main characteristic features animal seen at various points in its life. Therefore, the nomads tried to combine in one image all the striking features of the animal, showing it simultaneously in motion, when its front legs were still beating the air, and at rest with its hind legs bent. A motion picture would satisfy the requirements of the Scythians; even a cartoon would make them happy. In fact, they came closer to inventing the latter than the Sumerians with their cylinder seals, although it is quite possible that they served as a source of inspiration for the Scythians.

The nomads achieved significant success in the difficult task of showing in one image the various and often incompatible poses that an animal takes during its life. The stretched outline of a fast-moving animal - the flying gallop, as it was called - is the highest achievement of their art, even though the head and front legs of the animal may be shown from the front, while its hind legs may be turned in the opposite direction so that it looks like the fall of a wounded animal. It is hard to imagine that figures of this kind, perhaps the closest thing to pure abstraction that the fine arts have ever achieved, have any profound religious content embedded in them. These images are too vital, too analytical and dispassionate, the grouping of animals is too arbitrary, their set is too wide, and their poses are too varied for this to be probable. It is quite possible that the characteristic features of this art, with its certain forms and conventions, were dictated by tradition, and religion did not exert any influence here.

The nomads reacted to the world around them with unusually keen sensitivity, and since the Eurasian plain was full of life, they tried to express this all-encompassing vitality through the use of originally conceived zoomorphic images in the impressionistic and symbolic language of their art. Thus, the limb of one animal became part of another. Frankfort suggested that the Scythians may have adopted this idea from the Lurs, but if so, then the Lurs themselves must have learned this from the Hittites, who, representing animals, turned the tail of one animal into the head of another in a continuous line. Habits to fill empty space, allowing a part of one animal to become the hallmark of another, Minne attributed to fear or aversion to empty spaces, but I think this should rather be interpreted as an intuitive response to the diversity and variability of nature. The idea to experiment in this direction may have come to the Scythians directly from the Hittites, since the royal burials that Kuftin unearthed in Trialeti, a hundred miles from Tiflis, found a large number of gold and silver objects, many of which bear clear signs of of Hittite origin. Other finds of the same type and almost as rich were found by Petrovsky at Kirovakan in Armenia. They, in turn, were probably brought directly from Asia Minor.

Most of the animals that appear in the art of the Scythians played an important role in the art of the civilizations that flourished in Egypt and the Ancient East from the 4th millennium B.C. e. Although some art forms arose in one place, and some in another, they spread throughout the civilized world of that time and became recognizable. Different animals, real or imagined, were thus portrayed by artists of all races, but in a style specific to each region. In the Near East, images remained strongly naturalistic until the Sumerian era, when heraldic compositions began to appear. The most popular of the new motifs was a group of three figures, which included either a human figure, or a tree, or an animal, on both sides of which were images of heraldic beasts. Initially, the central figure represented the god Gilgamesh, and the animals personified the power of Darkness, with which he was in constant hostility, but the Scythians transformed him into the Great Goddess, and the animals into her servants. Hunting scenes began to come to the fore in Central Asia at about the same time. Fairy beasts appeared gradually, but approximately from the 3rd millennium BC. e. their unusual forms are conspicuous in the art of Mesopotamia. In the 2nd millennium, aggressive lions with ferocious muzzles began to guard the entrances to the fortresses, palaces and temples of the Hittite Empire. A variety of creatures tirelessly watched the monuments erected by the Assyrians, and in the magnificent palace of Persepolis, winged lions attacking bulls proclaimed the important role of force from both a political and religious point of view. On the southeastern outskirts of Eurasia, griffins with the heads of lions and eagles continued, albeit not so theatrically, to guard the precious gold treasures of Siberia and Tibet.

By this time, northern Syria, Upper Mesopotamia, most of Anatolia, the entire region of Armenia and the Caucasus, and most of Persia formed a single cultural union. Attempts to trace the source of the animalistic style in the art of the Scythians proved fruitless, since the traces are numerous and lead in many directions. So, Rostovtsev looked for the origins of this style in Central Asia, Talgren - in Russian Turkestan, Borovka - in Northern Siberia, Schmidt - in the Ancient East, and Ebert - in Ionia and on the Black Sea coast. In fact, the art of the Scythians is a system of elements belonging to all these regions, built around its own specific center.

In the Caucasus, its own "animal" style in art developed long before the appearance of the Scythians in this region. The royal graves in Maykop date back to the 3rd millennium BC. e., but it is there that gold plates appear as decoration of clothes. Their iconic bull and deer figurines are in a style that coordinates to some extent with the earliest examples of animal art found to date in pre-Hittite works from the Alaja Huyuk burial ground in Anatolia. Frankfort drew attention to the style of the copper bull figurines found there, and Vieira suggests that the features inherent in the Maikop finds may have been brought here by people who migrated to Anatolia from the Caucasus. Piggott is no less aware of this connection. But the finds in Maikop were not the only achievement. Subsequent excavations have provided a large amount of evidence that metal craftsmen have been located in various places in the Caucasus since the Bronze Age. Kuftin found clear evidence of this both in Trialeti and Kirovakan, while Gobejishvili discovered the remains interesting works metalworking, as well as workshops with molds and castings dating back to the 2nd millennium BC. e., near the village of Gebi in the upper reaches of the Rioni River in the Caucasus. The objects found in the Maikop burials were probably produced by a group of metalworkers working in a similar manner. In each case, the craftsmanship is so perfect and the style is so developed that, obviously, these products must have had a long line of predecessors, which, although not identifiable, nevertheless contributed to the formation of the art of the Eurasian nomads.

IN Scythian products certain features of the fact that they evolved from products carved from wood or bone are also visible from metal, and therefore some scientists began to look for their origins in the northern regions of the Eurasian plain, among the Eskimo carvers from the shores of the White and Bering Seas. In this case, the first trial carvings of the inhabitants of the north must have undergone a long process of evolution in Siberia and the Caucasus before they developed into stylized and refined forms that survived on the bits and cheek pieces of the harness of the Scythian horses, where this national style is preserved in the purest form.

The influence of the art of the Middle East resulted in the inclusion of a number of new animal scenes in the art of the Caucasus. After the 8th century BC e. - and by this time the Assyrians had already subjugated the Syrians and Phoenicians - the influence of the East became more noticeable. Then the advance of the Scythians through Asia brought the Caucasus region into contact with the culture of Egypt, and the statuettes of the goddess Bes penetrated into Western Siberia, Kyiv and neighboring lands, while the lotus appeared in Pazyryk.

Of all the variety of elements that appeared in the art of the Scythians, the most noticeable was, perhaps, the Ionian element. It penetrated Eurasia from several directions. He first came to the nomads from Persia, where Ionian craftsmen worked on the construction of the huge palace of Darius in Susa. But it was also brought directly from Ionia by merchants trading with cities on the eastern coast of the Black Sea, and in addition to this it was distributed throughout southern Russia by Greek artists who worked in Panticapaeum and other places in the north of the Pontic kingdom. The Scythians liked the elegance of Ionian art, but they vividly perceived both the beauty and splendor of Persian art, enjoying its splendor and dignity.

The earliest known Scythian burials coincide in time with the Scythian military successes in the Near East, and as a consequence, most of them are located on the eastern border of the European part of the plain. Some of the burial mounds in the southern part of Russia are close in time to them. Three of the earliest burials - barrows in the village of Kostroma, in the village of Kelermesskaya in the Kuban and the Melgunovsky barrow in southern Russia, as well as a treasure discovered relatively recently in Sakiz in Urartu, at the site of the likely location of the first capital of the Scythians, are of particular importance. Based on the details of clothing, Tirshman was able to establish that the finds at Sakiz date back to 681-668. BC e., but the age of the burials is more difficult to determine. It is generally accepted that the Melgunov kurgan belongs to the second half of the 6th century. BC e., but there is no consensus on the age of burials in the villages of Kelermesskaya and Kostroma. Thus, Rostovtsev dates them to the 6th century, while Borovka and other authoritative Soviet scientists date them to the 7th century. But whatever age they belong to, the important thing is that Scythian style is already in full bloom at all four sites, and the discovery of earlier burials dating back to a period when the Scythians were not yet known, should be expected until the evolution of their art can be traced in full detail.

Items found at these four sites reflect Persian influence. The sword scabbard from the Melgunov kurgan demonstrates a successful combination of national and Assyrian elements, since the sword itself is Persian in shape, and the decorations on the scabbard also show strong Assyrian-Persian tendencies. So, the main drawing consists of a number of winged quadrupeds, reminiscent of Persian motifs; animals through one have human and lion heads and move forward with bows with a stretched bowstring. However, their wings are inherent in Scythian images, since instead of being composed of feathers, they look like fish that hold onto the archer's shoulders with their teeth. He, however, does not seem to suffer from this ancient and unusually bloodthirsty specimen of zoomorphic splicing. Another Middle Eastern element is to accentuate the muscles in the creature's legs with dots and commas. This detail appears constantly in the animalistic art of the ancient world. It can be seen on many Persian sculptures of the early period, as well as on a woven strip of Persian origin with images of lions, which was found in Pazirik. This detail also appears in Aladzha-Hyuk, and it is impossible to determine whether the Scythians adopted these marks from the later Hittites or Persians, or to find out where else these marks could come from. Another Persian motif adorns the same scabbard. This time it is an image of an Assyrian altar set between two trees. It also bears some resemblance to the altar depicted on the second piece of Persian woven fabric from Pazyryk. But for contrast, the side ledge of the scabbard is decorated with a beautiful relief figure of a lying deer, which is often a sign of Scythian products.

The Persian influence is also reflected in the gold items found in the village of Kelermesskaya. The sword sheath from this burial is almost identical to the find from the Melgunov kurgan. The figurine of a leopard in the center of a round shield with Persian-style enamel inlay looks absolutely stunning. The golden diadem and other found jewelry were decorated in a similar way. The symbolic ax was covered with gold ornaments, mostly of a Scythian character. Its hilt shows figures of various recumbent beasts arranged in rows, although the protruding end of the ax is more Persian in style. Next to the ax lay a silver mirror of fine Ionian work, adorned with various animals, centaurs and monsters. Another remarkable find was a dish with the image of the Great Goddess.

Rice. 52. Detail of a golden scabbard for a sword from the Melgunov kurgan. Dimensions 1.75 by 1 inch

The kurgan in the village of Kostromskaya is notable for some unusual construction details, but it is known mainly for the significance of its contents. Among other magnificent objects, iron scaly chain mail with copper shoulder scales was found in it, and - this is the most charming find - a golden figurine of a lying deer, which is one of the most magnificent achievements of Scythian art.

In Sakiz, next to outstanding examples of early Scythian art, several purely Assyrian jewelry was found. Among them were a golden sword scabbard decorated with images of goat heads and rough outlines of apparently human heads, a gold plate depicting lynx heads interspersed with figures of reclining mountain goats and deer, Scythian in appearance, and, most excitingly, a large a silver dish about 14 inches in diameter. Patterns covered it entirely: the main patterns were arranged in rows or formed concentric stripes. One band showed a row of crouching creatures looking to the left, while another had a row of hares looking in the opposite direction, and another band included animal heads similarly turned to the right. The arrangement of creatures or people moving in opposite directions is reminiscent of a pattern on a woolen carpet from Pazyryk, in which horsemen and deer are depicted moving in the same way. On Mesopotamian seals dating from 3500-3000 B.C. BC e., the animals depicted on the stripes sometimes also move in opposite directions.

There, this idea was not developed; it does not appear in Persian sculpture either. But the beginnings of it can be seen on the famous silver vase from Maikop, on which one bull is depicted standing with its back to the others, as well as on a silver jug ​​from Trialeti of about the same period, on which the entire decoration is divided into two horizontal stripes. The lower part shows deer walking in single file from right to left, while the upper strip shows the chief seated on a throne next to a sacred tree flanked by sacrificial animals. The leader watches a procession of twenty-three half-animal, half-human, resembling the Hittites, approaching from the left. This idea reaches its full development as a decorative tool only in Scythian metal products. An early example is a dish from Sakiz, a later illustration is the Chertomlyk cauldron, where goats on two central handles “look” in different directions. Rudenko attributes the Pazyryk carpet to Persian craftsmen, but since the arrangement of patterns on it seems more typical for Scythia, it is quite possible that it was made on the orders of the Pazyryk leader. The appearance two centuries earlier in Sakiz of a similar arrangement of ornamentation seems to suggest that the patterns, consisting of creatures moving in opposite directions within limited bands, speak of a Scythian origin.

Rice. 53. Drawing from one of the Maikop vases. 3rd millennium BC e.

Among the patterns on the dish from Sakiz there are some reminiscent of creatures found on items from the village of Kelermesskaya and the Melgunov kurgan. Thus, all the motifs most characteristic of Scythian art, with one notable exception, have already been found in fully developed form in the four most ancient places that can be associated with the Scythians. The exception is scenes depicting one or more animals attacking another animal, for example, a wing-fish from a scabbard from the Melgunov kurgan.

The most characteristic single motif in the art of the Scythians is the deer. Originally an object of worship among the Siberian natives, it seems to have lost much of its ancient religious significance by Scythian times, but it is more than likely that the belief that deer endure souls of the dead into the other world, was still widespread in Eurasia during the 1st millennium BC. e. It continued to exist until recently among the Buryats. Perhaps this explains the presence of images of deer on funerary objects and may help explain the presence of deer antlers on horse masks found in Pazirik, where mourning fellow tribesmen could well hope to speed up the journey of the dead to the afterlife, endowing their horses with the additional speed of a deer or a bird through these masks. The deer decorating the coffin in the Pazyryk mound No. 2 are depicted with great realism. And it probably matters that they are shown running, while deer appearing on objects that have nothing to do with funerals are often in a pose of rest and are so heavily stylized that it is difficult to imagine that they were intended here for some other purpose, non-decorative. The best gold figurines of deer belong to relatively recent times. The larger ones were often the central decorations on shields and were usually gold relief images.

The magnificent deer from the village of Kostroma belongs to the 7th-6th centuries. BC e. He is in a supine position with his legs bent under him, so that the soles of his hooves are visible. Triangular in shape, they are not overly exaggerated, and although the stag is lying or rather crouching on the ground, its head is raised so that the antlers rest on its back. Its neck is stretched out, as if it were moving swiftly, like a large glider into the wind; it seems that sensitive quivering nostrils give him energy. Its round eye expresses apprehension, the muscles of the neck and body are so tense that, although the animal is depicted at rest, it leaves the impression of a quick, easy movement. This deer is an excellent example, resemblances of which, with slight deviations, reappear on various objects of various sizes and ages.

Another important, even if not so interesting, find was made in Kul-Oba in the Crimea. It should be attributed to the middle of the IV century. BC BC, that is, to a later date, which is confirmed by stylistic features, since, although the deer itself has excellent forms, when compared with a deer from the village of Kostroma, something slightly mechanical in the processing of the antlers is revealed. In this case, the stylization is not artistic enough, the ear is almost unrecognizable, the eye is not made very neatly, and the hooves tucked under themselves are exaggeratedly pointed. These features give grounds to suggest here the hand of an urban master rather than a nomad. The filling of empty space on the body of a deer with images of smaller animals is also done more in a pseudo-nomadic style than in a purely Scythian one. Fish from Vettersfeld, which almost coincides with him in age, dating back no earlier than the first decades of the 5th century BC. BC e., has no less magnificent forms than the deer from Kul-Oba, and in the same way its surface is covered with inappropriate inserts, representing various scenes from the life of animals, which, although skillfully executed, are alien to it.

Both of these pieces must have come from the same workshop, and it is tempting to attribute them to the work of the Greeks of Olbia, who failed to distinguish between zoomorphic fusion, which serves to complete the design, and that type of filling of empty space, which violates its integrity.

Such criticism does not apply to the luxurious bronze standard of the 6th century. BC e. from mound number 2 in the town of Ulsky. Here the image is so strongly stylized that the animal forms that formed its basis have lost their appearance in a geometric pattern that serves as a frame for a small heraldic deer, placed in an empty space specially left for it.

The magnificent golden deer from Tapioszentmarton in Hungary shows a greater purity of design than in the example from Kul-Oba. He is closer to the deer from Kostroma, whose descendant is clearly. Its limbs are outlined with graceful notches, legs have clear contours, neatly shaped hooves are turned up. Initially, his eye and ear holes were filled with enamel, suggestive of a Persian influence. And yet this is probably again a Greek work, since the incision of this type is uncharacteristic of Scythian art. The deer belongs to a relatively early period - certainly not later than the 5th century BC. BC e.

Fish figurines are quite common, although more often in Siberia than in Scythia. In the Middle East, fish carried a religious meaning, and in the Caucasus they lived in legends and retained a certain symbolic meaning even during the time of Christianity. Large images of fish carved from stone can still be found in high, open places in Armenia, where they were probably installed for ritual purposes in those days when they personified the god of weather. In Scythian art, they are characteristic of the ancient period. In Pazyryk, they appear quite often, and one fish was included in the design tattooed on the leg of the Mongoloid leader.

The use of multi-coloured enamel was a technique used in the distant heyday of Ur, but nowhere in the ancient world was it used more generously and with more splendor than in Persia during the Achaemenid dynasty. The Scythians must have learned this fine technique from the Persians, since objects from a somewhat earlier period from Siberia are usually still decorated with inset stones and not with enamel. The Scythian fascination with enamel was especially pronounced during the first years of their dominant influence, and there is no indication that their kindred tribes ever used this difficult and costly method of decoration. A fine early example of enamel is represented by a golden leopard found in the village of Kelermesskaya, whose forms are full of the same graceful force as the practically contemporary deer from the village of Kostroma. Passion for enamel was not limited to the Kuban. From Altyn-Oba in the Crimea, a figurine of a lioness made of cast bronze, dating from about the 6th-5th centuries, has come down to us. BC e.

She is covered in gold, and the central part of her body is made of tiny vertical gold sections filled with enamel. Here, too, like the Kelermes leopard, the toes and cheeks of the animal are marked with carvings.

Single animal figurines such as these are masterpieces of Scythian art, but compositions in which animals are depicted in combat are scarcely less characteristic or less beautiful. The plot, in itself very ancient, became very popular in Scythia, but nowhere was it expressed with such passion as in Altai. An earlier, purely Scythian version of this plot, in contrast to the Altaic one, is represented by a find from the mound of the Seven Brothers in the Kuban. A wooden rhyton from the beginning of the 5th century was discovered here. BC e., decorated with four gold plates. Each depicts a bird of prey or animal attacking a herbivore. On the plate given here as an illustration, a winged lion is seen attacking a mountain goat; his claws had already left marks on the side of the victim when he dug his teeth into her back, but the goat sits upright and calm. Only the expression of anguish in his eyes somehow indicates the pain he endures.

Rice. 54. Drawing from a saddlecloth from mound No. 1, Pazyryk. 5th century BC e. Size about 12 by 7.5 inches

The magnificent golden stag from the Zoldalompust burial in Hungary probably belongs to the same group of images as the plate from the mound of the Seven Brothers. The frightened appearance of the animal and the impression that it is about to break into a run - so subtly conveyed is its pose with a raised front leg - undoubtedly indicate that in its original state the deer was depicted being pursued by some predatory animal. Once again we see powerful reliefs of the limbs and muscles, and despite the hint of movement, the animal is depicted in a static position. Such an almost passive posture connects him with the victims we saw on the rhyton from the mound of the Seven Brothers. And yet, the notch on the deer's legs and tail, the curious comb-like pattern that outlines its neck, and the inset of a bird's head at the base of its horns point to Greek influence. These details unite it with the deer from Kul-Oba and make it possible to date this find no earlier than the 5th century BC. BC e.

On products from Pazyryk, the same plot sounds differently than on the Scythians. It constantly appears on their subjects, being their main decoration, and yet never gets bored with repetition. One version of it - but only one - is static in nature; it depicts two animals of the same species: one is a griffin with a lion's head, and the other is a griffin with an eagle's head. Both are thus equal in position and opposed to each other. This is not, strictly speaking, a battle scene; it is either a symbolic composition whose meaning is lost to us, or a purely decorative image. A semi-static version of this theme can be seen on a saddle from Pazyryk mound No. 2; it is also not a full fight scene. Depicting an eagle or a crested griffin in a victorious pose, plunging its claws into the quivering body of a defeated deer, this plot marks the moment of victory rather than the phase of the struggle.

On another saddle from the same mound, the moment of the collision is captured rather than its result. We see a tiger landing with all four paws on the back of a mountain goat. While the animal falls under the onslaught of the beast with its front legs bent under it, its backside is turned upside down, and its hind legs are uselessly extended, and the tiger bites its fangs into the quivering flesh. Although this design is made of felt, leather and gold foil in the technique of appliqué, and all materials except the last one are devoid of attraction, it achieves an amazing emotional rhythmic effect. The stylized bodies of the animals nevertheless retain their inherent anatomical features intact, while the rounded lines of their silhouettes justify Hogarth's belief in the beauty of the curved line.

Rice. 55. Drawing from a saddle from the Pazyryk burial mound No. 1. V c. BC e. Size 15 by 6 inches

Rice. 56. Drawing from a saddlecloth from the Pazyryk burial mound No. 1. V c. BC e. Size about 18 by 10 inches

No less permeated with rhythm is the scene on the saddle, found in the Pazyryk burial mound No. 1, depicting a tiger chasing a deer. Here the tiger jumped attacking, but had not yet wounded its prey. Both animals engaged in a duel, colliding in the air; their bodies intertwined in an absolutely impossible way, reflecting some phases of the struggle. Each of them has their ass turned out in a way that is completely contrary to nature, but it still looks convincing. The battle scenes tattooed on the body of the Mongoloid leader from the Pazyryk Kurgan No. 2, being fantastic, depicting unreal animals of a completely unreliable appearance, seem, however, no less authentic than scenes with real animals. The extremely powerful impression of fast, almost frantic movement and power created by these Pazyryk images has rarely been surpassed in Scythian art. These drawings continued to be popular in Asia well into our era.

Magnificent woolen carpet of the 1st century. n. e., quilted and appliqued, found under the coffin of a Hun leader buried at Noin-Ula in northern Mongolia, has a scene of a griffin attacking a deer in its border and demonstrates that this skill continued to exist for many centuries.

The most unusual battle scene, of exceptional interest, adorned a wall panel found in the Pazyryk mound No. 5. Initially, the panel had a little more than a yard in length. Both the stage itself and the border around it were made in the form of an appliqué made of multi-colored felt on a white background. The figure on the right has been preserved almost entirely. The half-man, half-lion may have come from Hittite mythology, but Rudenko associates him with the sphinx, although his face with black mustache points to Assyria rather than Egypt or Eurasia. Brown rosettes are strewn across its pale blue, lion-like body. He stands upright on lion feet with large claws similar to those of one of the creatures tattooed on the back of the dead chief. Its long tail is tucked gracefully between its legs and rises to the level of its chest, ending in a cluster of leaf-like shoots. A wing rises from the center of its back, its lateral feathers form S-shaped endings, somewhat reminiscent of the curls of the antlers of a deer found in the village of Kostroma. His arms are outstretched forward, and the newly reconstructed fragments show that they are directed towards an attacking figure, similar to a bird with a face somewhat reminiscent of a human. The head of the attacking figure is crowned with either horns or a large crest. But the most interesting thing in this composition is probably the horns that rise above the head of the first participant in the duel. This scene is undoubtedly imbued with a deep mystical meaning.

Rice. 57. Fragment of drawings tattooed on the left hand of the leader

Rice. 58. Fragment of drawings tattooed on the right hand of the leader

If the horns of this figure are considered together with countless images of horns various shapes, which appear in the art of the Eurasian nomads, it becomes obvious that the horns played one of the most important roles in the religious rituals of completely different peoples for many millennia in the prehistoric era. In fact, Salmonius traced their periodic appearance as a religious symbol in the west back to finds in the Cave of the Three Brothers at Montesquieu-Avant in France, where they were discovered on a carved and painted figure of a half-man, half-beast. At Hunter's Camp in Star Carr, Yorkshire, several sets of horns were found, which undoubtedly took part in ritual ceremonies. For the same purpose, deer antlers had already appeared in early Hittite art by this time. However, nowhere was their symbolic use more widespread than in the eastern part of the Eurasian plain. This emblem is especially characteristic of the art of the Scythians. In it, deer antlers often retained most of their symbolic meaning, but at the same time, careless nomads, regardless of whether they belonged to the Scythians or to a kindred tribe, once subjected without hesitation sacred pattern with the image of deer antlers in their artistic processing. Their passion for embellishment is thus responsible for the beautiful and unusually harmonious design preserved on the forehead of a bronze horse from the Kuban dating from the 4th century BC. BC e. In this well-thought-out composition, the central motif is the profile of a deer's head framed by symmetrically placed antlers. On one side of this main pattern are the zoomorphically connected heads of three birds, and on the other, the head of a deer, which is in such a position in relation to the central motif that its horns balance the bird heads. The resulting pattern is strikingly beautiful.

Rice. 59. A fantastic creature tattooed on the left arm of the chief

Rice. 60. A fantastic creature tattooed on the leader's right arm.

Rice. 61. Cloth depicting the battle of a half-man-half-lion with a mythical bird. Mound No. 5, Pazyryk. 5th century BC e.

If we want to advance in understanding the attitudes and beliefs of the Asian peoples in the 1st millennium B.C. e., it is necessary to resolve the issue of the role of deer antlers. It takes seekers straight to China, to the province of Hunan, where in the town of Chang-sha, in the graves opened during construction work, a small group of human and animal figures carved from wood were found, all of which were decorated with deer antlers. One of these figurines human head with tongue hanging out, currently in the British Museum. All of them became public thanks to Salmonius. Trying to establish the symbolic meaning of deer horns, Salmonius came across a mention in one of the Shanhai Ching texts, some of which date back to the Han Dynasty, about creatures with animal bodies and human faces, whose heads were crowned with deer and other horns. They may have been variants of a mythical deer-like creature with antlers that was capable of warding off the evil eye. It was mentioned in a legend from the northern regions of China. In this regard, Salmonius reminds his readers that the Buddhists included eleven symbolic deer in their earliest legends, that the Tibetans and Siberian shamans until very recently retained deer antlers for ceremonial vestments, and also that deer antlers played some role in life. Celts in Ireland, in medieval England and Scandinavia.

The use of deer antlers in Chang-sha must no doubt be attributed to the influence of the nomads. Salmonius admits that in Eurasia the cult of the deer was of a local nature and its roots go back to prehistoric times. So it is not without meaning that the Chinese historians mentioned by Salmonius, in the second half of the 1st millennium BC. e., spoke of the inhabitants of the Hunan region as "semi-barbarians" and argued that they were radically different from the peoples of the rest of China. Nowhere else in China, except for Hunan, have so far been found figures crowned with deer horns. And all those that have been discovered so far belong to the 4th-3rd centuries. BC e., to the very period when the Asian or, in any case, the Altai nomads were at the peak of their prosperity. The horns on one of the Chang-sha figurines, on a two-headed animal now in the Cox collection in Washington, like many of the objects found at Pazyryk and Katanda, were made from tree bark, and this confirms the fact that the objects were made under the influence of nomads and that the key to solving the problem of deer antlers should be sought in Siberia.

Nomads decorated horse harness with both "animal" and geometric patterns. They recreate all the various animal world, although deer and eagles are probably still more numerous. Deer antlers, geometric and floral motifs, bird heads with cockscombs, griffins with gopher features appear in relief images in the form of carved silhouettes, sometimes round. Among the most beautiful works are drawings of feline animals, many of which evoke the opening lines of Pushkin's poem "Ruslan and Lyudmila":

By the seaside, the oak is green,

Golden chain on an oak tree;

Day and night the cat is a scientist

Everything goes round and round in a chain;

Goes to the right - the song starts,

To the left - he tells a fairy tale ...

Bone carving probably reflects the national style more clearly than metal products. The head of a ram from the village of Kelermesskaya and the head of a predatory animal, probably a wolf, from the Black Mountains of the Orenburg region show how little change was needed to adapt the bone or wood carving technique to such a material as metal. The inhabitants of Pazyryk liked to cover their wood carvings with chased gold or lead foil, but even when working with simple wood, they made things that are real masterpieces of their kind, such as the head of a mountain goat or the head of a stone goat. Whatever their size, the figures remain superbly proportioned, and the less expensive material is worked skillfully and thoughtfully, as if the most precious, so that the bronzes are artistically no worse than those made of gold, and the felt designs are no less good, than carved from wood. In Persia, this art has survived to the present day, and the figurine of a stone goat, made by a nomadic Turk from dried figs, which I saw near Shapur twenty years ago, is undoubtedly worthy of standing in a long line of animal images made by Asiatic nomads.

In the time of the Scythians, figurines of deer, stone goats, bulls, or some other animal with legs standing at one point on some hillock served as the tops of poles or decorated the edges of furniture. This form is often associated with the Scythians, but it is much older, appearing already on ivory combs from the Amrat culture in Egypt in the 4th millennium BC. e. It is curious that, although the horse played an important role in the daily life of the nomads, it rarely appears in their art. An early example of such an image is a silver vessel from Maikop. Images of horses continued to appear periodically here and there for many centuries. They are very popular in the village of Kelermesskaya and adorn the vessels that the Greeks made for the Scythians, and they are found from time to time in Pazyryk, where they appear in the form of amulets.

Rice. 62. The head of a ram made of felt from a saddlecloth from mound No. 1, Pazyryk. 5th century BC e. Approximately 5 by 4 inches

Rice. 63. Pattern on a case for a ponytail from mound No. 1, Pazyryk. 5th century BC e.

The nomads saw a pattern in everything; it was no more difficult for them to turn the outlines of an animal into a geometric form than to discern the outlines of an animal in a geometric pattern. So, for example, a colorful image of a ram with a saddle from the Pazyryk mound No. 1 has a halo of curls around the head, which are a pattern resembling the shape of an ax head. The same motif appears on a ponytail case from the same burial mound.

The effect that these animal images produce is extremely powerful. The great diversity of the creatures themselves is no less impressive than the various forms in which they appear. Real and imagined, perhaps existing, and at the same time incredible beasts compete and oppose each other, intertwine and mix with each other with such violent ease and fury that a new, unexpected and unknown world is revealed before us. When we dare to penetrate this unfamiliar country- tense muscles here, a frightened look there, magnificent antlers in front - all the details conspire to convey a familiar scene from life, evoking memories carelessly marked by memory during the pursuit of game and quickly forgotten by excitement. And in the background are scattered images of the sun and geometric patterns arranged with perfect craftsmanship.

In Pazyryk, love for jewelry was expressed in everything. The arrow, whose lot was only once to whistle through the air, was painted with the same graceful wavy lines and spirals that appear on objects intended for more frequent use. All kinds of belts and strips of matter were decorated with openwork patterns of rhombuses, stars, hearts, crosses, rosettes, palmettes, lotus flowers and flower petals. The images on the saddlecloths were worthy of the patterns of magnificent carpets. The human figure alone plays an insignificant role in this art. In Scythia, the majority human figures were made by the hands of Greek craftsmen living nearby, and, apparently, they did not inspire the Scythians to imitate. Sometimes, rather as a joke in the manner of a Romanesque grotesque, both in Scythia and in Pazyryk, a human face will suddenly appear in some ornament, but the intentions of the master were rarely predictable, and in Pazyryk a person who carved a face on a wooden twisted ornament could not resist the temptation to turn the top of his head into a palmette. And yet the inhabitants of Eurasia could portray a person if they only wanted to. This is clear from the image of the creature from one of the Pazyryk wall panels, which has already been mentioned here, since although from an anatomical point of view it is a semi-animal, from a spiritual point of view it is still a person. There is nothing brutal or primitive about it, and it gives the impression of sophistication and grace.

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From the author's book

From the author's book

CHAPTER 18 The Art Behind Us Behind a Tucson warehouse converted into a Metal-Physical Sculpture Workshop, two casters put on thick leather jackets and leggings, asbestos gloves and stainless steel mesh, and helmets with eye shields. From the oven to

From the author's book

Chapter 9 The Art of the Attaché They tell of a story that took place in one of the embassies in the Balkans. In the cellars of this embassy, ​​along with stocks of wine, explosives were stored, but the ambassador did not know about this.