National Institute of Informatics - Digital Silk Road Project
Digital Archive of Toyo Bunko Rare Books

disk (Pl. III, line IV, 3, no. 98). The circular perforations at the eyes and nostrils
and the slits at the ears on the two ass-heads, are typical of the art of the Jenissei.
The bar between the two muzzles holds the hook. The date, as in all cases where
the Minussinsk influence is very evident, is about 500 A.D.

For Plate XXX no. 2 we have reached a period at the end of the millennium
as is clearly shown by a comparison with the hook of Plate XX no. 9, the
ornamentation of which is identical. Even the loop on the tiger's back, made to
hold the chain, is not missing. Above the ram, and connected with a loop, is a
ring which, strangely enough, has a hook at the side. Joined to this ring by
another loop, is the part with which we are chiefly concerned here, the buckle.
As with the first example it is composed of the heads of two asses, one of
which has an inexplicable form added to it. This time the hook is not under,
but over the two heads. If we had not already the date of the lower section,
discussed in Chapter VI no. 3, a comparison of the two pairs of ass-heads would
suffice to reach a comparitively late date.

The general shape of such pieces is sometimes a circle, sometimes a square.
In order to fill this form the artist invented about the year 1000, groups of animals
which are not found so combined in other parts of the Steppes. Plate XXX no. 3
is principally composed of a bar and of a hook formed like a head, perhaps that
of a roe. The two arcs of the buckle end just before the hook in two backward
turned tiger-heads. A contemporary piece (Plate XXX no. 4) has added an upper
loop to the circle and hook. The general form is that of a tiger treated like
a coiled animal, a familiar Sarmatian motive and very similar to it, even in this
elongated form. This breaking down of the motive is characteristic of a period
between T'ang and the end of Sung, and agrees very well with the general
tendency of the art peculiar to the Chinese frontier. In Plate XXX no. 5, the
tiger has been doubled and between the two jaws, seen full-face, is the head of
a hare, the ears of which serve to form a loop. Plate XXX no. 6 is once
more square. The outline is composed of two transversal bars joined by two
S-shaped tigers (cf. Plate XVI no. 7). An unusual feature is that the bird-head
hook bends inward instead of outward. The combination of two tigers and a
hare is transformed into an interlaced motive (Plate XXX no. 7) similar to
Plate XVI no. 13. The victim is stretched full length between its enemies. A
protuberance is broken. Plate XXX no. 8 is of the same type but further
developed, for above the hare-head we can perceive another turned in the
opposite direction. The hook has again been changed into the head of a fabulous
animal. With this example we end the series of objects all very evidently of
the same type and of the same period. The date of these pieces is already
assured by the parallels to be found among the appliques.

The hook form of Plate XXX no. 9 connects it with the last examples. It
differs from them, however, by its nearly completely circular form, which