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

CHAPTER X

OBJECTS DERIVED FROM CHINA


This chapter-heading is justified when we deal with objects from the point
of view of use. It has, however, a provisory character since some day certain
objects may be found in Siberia, the inventory of which is far from having been
sufficiently studied.
1) The handles of horizontal poles.
An explanation of the probable use of Plate XLII nos. 2 & 3 is reached by
means of the decoration. The object is a combination of horizontal pole and
animal representation that cannot be understood when upright. Since the work
of Steppe artists was always more or less in keeping with nature, a vertical
position, that is, one that is unnatural, is impossible. The size of this piece
justifies us perhaps in considering it a shaft-end. I have published the Chinese
model of this type elsewhere (1). But this object also goes back alternatively
to the ancient Near East. It is only necessary to remember a bas-relief of the
VIII century B.C. from the Palace of Sargon (Louvre, Paris). Two eunuchs are
bearing a light chair, the shaft of which not only slightly curves and ends with
an animal-head, but has also below the head, a loop with a pompon attached (2).
China of the Han period also knew the S-shaped shaft-end (3). That of Plate
XLII nos. 2 & 3 is slightly wider at the end and considerably more important than
in Chinese examples. But the animal-head is not at all Chinese. Below the neck
is the loop common to Chinese shaft-ends and to the dagger handles of Minus-
sinsk and of the northern Chinese frontier (cf. Plate XXXVI). It represents
an ibex with curled horns. The chief characteristic of all local manifestations
in the Eurasiatic Steppes, from the Scythians down to Minussinsk, is the combin-
ation of naturalistic and stylised elements. Even in a region where naturalism
predominated as in the Jenissei valley, conventional elements were nevertheless
added, as for example the formation of the eyes (Plate V, no. 2). On the shaft-
end of Plate XLII nos. 2 & 3 only the horns appear stylised. They are remin-
iscent of those which we saw on knives and daggers (Plate XXXVI). But the
head reproduces only real elements. The surface is subtly and delicately modeled