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

V : 2 ; Salmony, Pl. 38 : 8 ; Inner Mongolia and the Region of the Great Wall, Pl. V : 8. All these are bronze knives. Of special interest is a bronze tube in the last mentioned publication, Pl. XI : 2, and here reproduced as Fig. 15, because of its combined decoration of cowries and triangle-bands, i. e. two different elements possibly denoting fertility.

In the Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities in Stockholm there are several unpublished Ordos knives with elaborate triangle-band designs,

Fig. 15. Bronze

tine of the Or- two of them being reproduced, with kind per-

dos style. (Inner mission, as Fig. 16. Mongolia and

the region of From the Minusinsk region reference may be the Great Wall

Pl. XI : 2). made to MARTIN'S publications (1893 Pl. I I : 3

—6, Pl. I 5 : 8-9, and 1897, Pl. 24 : 4).

The relief designs on these bronzes, whether geometrical patterns or elaborate animal representations, originally imitated wood-carvings. Grave finds from Siberia and Altai have proved this beyond doubt in the case of the animal figures. We may be quite sure that geometric carvings similar to those on the pegs and arrows from our cemetery were the prototypes for the bronze pattern referred to above. In wood, this pattern has remained in use up to modern times (Martin 1897, Pl. 13 : 5-7, some cutting-boards from the Ostyaks), and on Swedish Lap carvings in bone.

One of the famous Noyan-ola textiles has a pattern of rows of pointed triangles alternating with geometrical scrolls (Trever, Pl. 19:3), no doubt a Chinese silk fabric but with an unusual "barbaric" design.

Certain Chinese bronze mirrors of the Han period have one or more borders of small triangles, the so-called saw-tooth pattern, usually near the outer rim (for

instance Sirén 1930, Vol. 2, Pl. 66   68) but it is uncertain whether this pattern has
anything in common with our triangle-rows.

The well-made arrow-shaft No. 5 : 112 is a little different in the ornamentation, as seen on the drawing Fig. 14: 5. It has five single rows of triangles with the points turned in the same direction. There are four such groups.

Beside these symbolic arrows there are also some real ones. 5. D : 3 is a fragment of a reed arrow with three feathers lashed to the butt. This type is well known from the Han ruins along the Tun-huang limes (Stein 1921, Pl. LIII, T. XV. a. vi. o01) and at Edsen-gol in the still unpublished material found by me in 1931.

5: 113-114 (Pl. 7: io) are two stout arrows with a marked notch for the bow-

Fig. 16. Two bronze knives of the Ordos style. MFEA K. 12030 and K. 11225: 15. Half size.

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