国立情報学研究所 - ディジタル・シルクロード・プロジェクト
『東洋文庫所蔵』貴重書デジタルアーカイブ

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small. appliques (Pl. XV no. 4). Its artistic kinship to the vulture-head of Plate .XI• no. 17•is striking. • Since we know .no western prototype, we must consider it an invention from our region. The doubling of the motive with holes more or less pierced and ringed, is only a. variation without change (Pl. XV no. 5). Andersson has pointed out in what way this ornament was made entirely geometric (5i). The last phase before the complete overthrow of all natural elements is especially well represented in the Loo collection by Plate XV 210. 6. In this case the departure from realism is less akin to the fox-head described above than to the wild animal-head of Plate XV no. 1, where there is the same repetition of ihe outline by inner lines. • .

h) Coiled animals.   . •

With .the resting stag, the coiled animal. forms part of the most ancient and at the same time the most widespread of motives in the art of the Steppes. It • can. be :followed in all its phases, from the first find at Kelermes (5z) with • naturalistic and stylized elements, down to the degenerate forms of the Ural: (53) and of the Jenissei valley. Let us say once and for all, that the examples from the Loo collection all belong to a period of about moo or after, and are more • related to Minussinsk than to. the region that saw the .birth of the motive. •

• Already there is scarcely any modeling in the coiled animal of Plate XV no. 7, fairly easy to recognise as a lynx. There is a border of bird-heads and a ringed hole in the centre. The rings which emphasize certain parts of the head are very distinct. Plate XV no. 8 shows. a wolf's head in profile., The slightly decorated tail turns way around above the head. There are no real rings as in the former piece, and the forms in the centre seem rather to be claws. A bronze from Lake Baikal (unpublished) is similarly arranged. A bird-head (Pl. XV no. 9) has transformed this piece into a fantastic creature. Rings, concentric circles and stripes, all stand out clearly. A two-headed body (Pl. XV no. io), also coiled, is a wild beast at the outer curve, a bird at the inner. Only the heads are perforated ; following the contour there is a design that might be a mane.

A last lingering of the motive is found on Plate XV nos. i 1-13. Here, as in the Ural (54), there are two animals of the same species, perhaps two bears encircled by a beaded ribbon (Pl. XV no. i i). The limbs of the animals do not form the centre, but a deer is turned in the axis. The three pierced eyes help us to understand the design, and the only other perforations are on the hindquarters of the bears. The combination of two animals and their prey is also found in the Ural (55). The example of Plate XV no. iz is a repetition of the first coiled animal of the Loo collection (Pl. XV no. 7), but less clear, flattened and only slightly perforated when at all. It has been embellished with a beaded ribbon and with two bird-heads in the centre. As usual, we find an incomparable primitiveness in the last phase (Pl. XV no. i3). An outer edge surrounds an entirely inarticulated animal, the head of which is seen full-face. Perforations,

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