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

applique (Pl. XIV no. 2) we find the wild animal degenerated into a flat plaque
with geometric spiral ornaments and striped ribbons characteristic of a period
after 1000. In front of the jaws are two deer-heads, below the head and under
the belly, two ibex-heads. Such a composition where all is decoration and
where there is no natural connection between the motives, is impossible at
the beginning of the artistic production of the Steppes.

The invention of doubled heads connected with one body is typical of a
progressive stylization (Pl. XIV nos. 3 & 4). First we see striped ribbons in
spirals on a body drawn in an S-curve, ending in two heads of a wild animal
type, with a plant growth of some kind in front of each head. The second
example (Pl. XIV no. 4) shows us a flattened repliqua with weak drawing, an
altered plant design, and a change in the ornamentation of the ear and jaws.
Another piece must be added to this group (Pl. XIV no. 5) because of its sim-
plified and extremely weak form, the primitiveness of which shows it not to
be of the hesitating character of a beginning, but rather of the faltering quality
of an end (again II millennium).

Among tiny wild animal appliques there is a curious type to which I should
like to give the name of animals with pincers (Pl. XIV nos. 6 & 7). The larger
piece (Pl. XIV no. 6) may be derived from Minussinsk. The original form was
certainly of a tiger the coat of wich is represented by strong oblique stripe-like
lines. An example from the Jenissei valley will soon be published (48). A
distinct contribution from the Chinese frontier are the open jaws shaped like the
pincers of a crawfish, a local invention of what would seem to be about the II
millennium. In Plate XIV no. 7 the pincers are of extraordinary dimensions in
proportion to the rest of the animal. Perforations take the place of stripes and
are unlike those of Plate XI no. 6 in that they do not go through to the back.

g) Wild animal-heads.

Some heads, seen full-face, may perhaps come from Scythian art of the V
and IV centuries. This is particularly true of the tiger's head (Pl. XV no. 1).
By placing the emphasis on eyes and nose, a form of stylization, already found
on the sides of an openwork applique from Ogus (49), is continued to the end
of the I millennium. The latter has in the centre a bear's head with open, per-
forated jaws. The same general type has also been found at the Chinese frontier
with but unimportant changes, such as the ears being also pierced (Pl. XV no. 2).
This is of the same period as the head mentioned above, the repliqua of the other
part of the Ogus applique. In order to call with any authority the animal of
Plate XV no. 3 a lynx, we have only to compare it with a Minussinsk plaque (50),
but the Chinese frontier example seems also to have some connection with Han
tiger-masks. The ears and whiskers show a slight tendency towards a geometric
stylization which makes 500 the earliest possible date.

A fox-head of about the year 1000, very much stylized, is one of many similar