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

the gold applique from the excavations at Ogus on the Dniepr (39). This
composition can only be explained as a multiplication of bird-heads, not as an
animal combat, nor as a " coq de mer " (40). We are here able to trace back
to the IV century B.C. the geometric transformation that took place at the Chi-
nese frontier about 500 A.D. The smooth piece (Pl. XI no. 15), also of about
500, again represents a vulture, but the drawing of the plumage on a contempor-
ary piece (Pl. XI no. 16) makes one rather think of an eagle or crow.
Birds seen full-face are no less richly varied than those in profile. Our exam-
ples are easily grouped one after the other. A tiny object (Pl. XI no. 17) uses
the Minussinsk piercing of the eye, but is so geometric in design that it must
be dated about 1000. The head, altrough simplified, is clearly that of a vulture.
There is another vulture's head placed on an oval background (Pl. XI no. 18)
which lacks perforations as well as clear proportions, and therefore also seems
to be of about 1000. This background has been altered into a halo of feathers
behind the eagle of Plate XI no. 19, of the same date. Plate XI no. 20 shows us once
more an owl's head of which we spoke when dealing with Chou bronzes. The
piercings are missing, but the surface is so well modeled that it would seem
possible to chose a date for it near the end of the Han period. We find the same
bird, here clearly feathered (Pl. XI no. 21), placed on a medallion, but so
conventionally stylized that it belongs to the end of the I millennium. Even the
transformation of the bird into some fabulous animal is not lacking after 1000
(Pl. XI no. 22). The large ears, spiral drawn as in the Altai, remind us of the
griffon. Only the curled crest, a usual attribute, in missing here, but may have
inspired the numerous notches of the edge.
f) Wild animals.
It is not always possible, even in Scythian art, to know just exactly what wild
animal is represented. The best known piece of the first western period, the
large gold plaque of Kelermes (41) has been called a tiger, a lioness and a panther.
At the Chinese frontier there are forms derived directly from Kelermes without
intermediary stations. Not only the general use, but also the details and the
ornamental form, come from western art of the VII-VI centuries B.C. This
strange phenomenon may be explained in several ways. Scythian smiths them-
selves may have migrated towards the east or perhaps only their work, bequeathed
by one generation to another, may have permitted a renaissance of ancient forms
in a neighbouring yet distant country. Let us call the Kelermes animal a tiger.
The beast of Plate XII no. 1 closely resembles it. Instead of oblique cuts separat-
ing various parts of the body, we find here a strong modeling, also typical of
gold Sarmatian pieces, emphasising the legs. There is a motive particularly
Scythian in the animals of a parade-axe also from Kelermes (42). It is the for-
mation by means of small round holes of the ears, the eyes, the nostrils, the paws,
and the ends of the tails. These holes in the east were often inlayed with