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

wrought metal were used as finials on the four poles bearing the baldachin
stretched over the body of a dead prince, and afterwards buried with him in
his tomb.

The use of pole-tops was indigenous to the entire Steppe circle. Rostovtzeff
believes, however, that they were unknown to the Sarmatians, the successors
of the Scythians in Southern Russia (5). But they are found in the Ural (6),
in the vicinity of Lake Baikal (unpublished), and, as we shall see, are very numer-
ous at Minussinsk, that is to say in a locality where much was adopted from the
Sarmatians.

The most simple form of pole-top is the animal head. In the vicinity of the
Black Sea we find, among others, the bird of prey of Ulski Aul and the roe
of Kelermes (7). An example of the latter left Russia with the Massonneau
collection and is now in the Bliss collection. (Pl. V no. 1). It is a typical example
of the way in which the Scythians combined stylization with naturalism. The
main characteristics are seemingly modeled from life, expressive in form and
design, but hardened into formulas. The process by which nature became
standardised and was transformed into ornamentation is particularly apparent
in the lanceolate drawing of the ears. The Kelermes roe head is treated in
exactly this way. The only different detail is the ring below the head from
which fluttering ribbons of felt or straw were probably hung. This piece,
lacking though it is in archeological data, is placed historically at the beginning
of the Scythian period, that is in the VII or VI century because of its artistic
character and its identification with a sure discovery.

Although this same object is quite often found in the extreme southeastern
sections of the Steppes, yet no specimen from this region can be given a date
near to that of the Scythians. Here, the ornamentation of the object borrowed
from the Scythians never has a Scythian appearance. As to the decoration of
Chinese frontier examples, we must rather turn to the Jenissei valley, at Minus-
sinsk. There, in the Kurgan period, the preference seemed to be above all
for the representation on pole-tops of soliped animals. The species that inhabits
the mountains has its " true to nature " aspect emphasised, by being placed upon
a half-egg shaped base (Pl. III, line no. IV, 2, no. 82) which makes the animal
appear to be standing upon a hilltop. The extent to which artists of the
Jenissei valley were moved to represent realistically a specific animal is shown
in the example from this famous group of excavations (Pl. V no. 2). The body
is a rattle. This transformation of animal bodies into rattles was known in the
most ancient Scythian art (8). The base, slit in four places, differs from the
usual crested type from the Jenissei valley. The head, the most important part,
has very distinctly the characteristics of the Saiga antilope, one of the favourite
game-animals of southern Siberia. A comparison with the zoological description
of this animal will show us how amazing is the accuracy of the artist's percep-