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enable us to place it under the above heading and allow us to trace its path. This north China disk is in every way allied with another from the region of Kiev (i2), The latter has been placed in the V Slav period which comes just after the year i 000. The openwork and primitive dragon is duplicated in another European example from the extreme west of the Steppes, in Hungary, once again after the period of the " occupation of land " in the IX century (i 3). This representation should certainly descend from the Slays who inhabited the east of Russia towards the end of the I millennium. We actually know but few openwork disks from that region, only those with geometric designs, none with animal designs (4). In any case the date of the Chinese object is proved by these parallels to be the beginning of the II millennium.
4) Ear-ornaments.
At first the purpose of the object of Plate XXXII no. 8 seems obscure. The regular ellipse along nearly one third of its outline has an oar-shaped projection decorated at the outside edge with a beaded ribbon, and inside with three beaded lines above a striped background. Bronzes from eastern Russia help us to understand the meaning of this object. In that region the earring in various forms and geometrically ornamented is known by numerous examples (is). The contour is always broken for a short distance so that one section can be bent to pass through the pierced lobe of the ear. This earring is nearly contemporary to the openwork disk we have just described (beginning of the II millennnium).
Parallels from east Russia also explain a bronze, the purpose of which has been misunderstood until now (Plate XXXII no. 9). Andersson has published a similar specimen as a belt buckle (i6). But that it was designed to be an ornament for the ear is clear when one examines the two ends. Even the ornamentation helps us to reach the correct solution. It is composed of three dotted lines from which issue three projections. Below is an antilope-head in the round, the eyes and nostrils of which are inlayed with turquoise. This head can only be understood vertically, never horizontally as on a belt-clasp. It seems possible to date this piece with an animal decoration earlier than the example with but a geometric design, and it may be of about i000.
IIIFカラー高解像度
