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

and head are loose and can be added to the body by means of a short shaft,
but we do not know why they are removable. At first glance the head seems
well proportioned and well modeled. But if, however, we compare it with
bronzes of the Kurgan period at Minussinsk, we find that here the legs are
more detached. This stiffening in the shape of the legs has already been noticed
in the Jenissei valley. The head also lacks the finest traditions in modeling,
the animating perforations of the eyes are gone, only those of the nostrils remain.
A loop placed on the socket is as usual for ribbons. It is however significant
that in getting away from nature the tail has also become a loop. These details
all point towards the second period of those mentioned in Chapter V, that is
about 500 A.D.
We have already spoken of the use of the head of a bird of prey at Ulski
Aul. The Scythian type is a flat plaque with the animal in profile and repeated
three times along the rim. This, more than any other, has served as an orna-
mental motive. No examples in the round have been found in the Steppe region.
Pole-tops from the Chinese frontier, however, are quite different (Pl. VI nos. 3
& 4), in that they are as naturalistic and as much in the round as at Minussinsk.
Plate VI no. 3 is of an eagle as is shown by the arched and notched beak. The
ear instead of the eye is perforated.
The other example (Pl. VI no. 4), is in two parts. Above a tube topped with
a half ball, we find an eagle's head. Its short and round beak as well as its heavy
neck justifies such a zoological designation. It has been impossible to deter-
mine why the upper section is removable nor what was the purpose of the hollow
thus formed. Perhaps it was filled with small balls to serve as a rattle. All the
plasticity and artistic formation of pieces from Minussinsk are lacking here.
None of the characteristic perforations remain. The artist has worked indepen-
dently, using his own ideas. This thrusting aside of the usual artistic formulas
seems to me only possible at a relatively late date, that of about the middle of
the T'ang period. The hedgehog pole-top (Pl. VII no. 1), from the point of
view of style and date, seems close to that of the bird's head. Once more the
piercing has been replaced by lines limited to only the essential elements.
The same remarks are applicable to the mating pigs (P. VII no. 2). The hog's
jaws are slightly open, the sow is entirely one with the socket. A certain
living quality remains, although there is but little movement in the drawing.
Any connection with those elements of stylization that were indispensable at
Minussinsk as well as to the Scythians is completely lacking, and therefore points
towards a date of about 500 A.D.
The hedgehog is one of the family of sacred animals of Siberian schamanism
(10). The pig, on the other hand, belongs to the Chinese frontier, as since
earliest times it has been a domestic animal of China. The more or less
nomadic barbarians were only interested in the wild species, the game-animal.