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

well as the cheeks and paws of the tigers, are rendered by ringed perforations,
a reminder of Minussinsk.

Openwork and geometric motives form part of the last phase of artistic
production. In the two examples from the Loo collection, the stylised transfor-
mation already prevents any clear understanding of the ornamentation (Plate XX
nos. 10 & 11). Both have some means of fastening them at the back. On Plate
XX no. 10 there is a horizontally placed tiger at the end of the hook. At the
beginning of the bar is a small shield flanked by circles and beaded ribbons, and
bearing roughly drawn animal-heads, perhaps those of horses. This design is
found, identical as far as technique and artistic conception is concerned, on
Christian seals that, thanks to Pelliot, can be dated between the XII and XIII
centuries (93). The same date may therefore be given to Plate XX nos. 10 & 11.
The other designs on the buckle section of the first piece are only distinguishable
in a horizontal position. On each side, with their backs toward the centre, are
two horses, one above the other. The hook Plate XX no. 11 bears two
rudimentary animals surrounding a Maltese cross. The openwork buckle is
decorated in two rows, each with three wild asses, heads turned back.
c) Hooks of uncertain use.

The small bronzes placed under this heading were probably never attached
to the belt. They may have been awls or bodkins used to undo knots and serve
many other useful purposes. In any case Tallgren groups similar objects from
the centre of the valley of the Volga with belt fasteners (94). Since small Scythian
objects have only been summarily published, we cannot know if this type was
familiar to the first metal artisans of the western Steppes. They were part of
the Ananino civilization (Pl. XX no. 12), at the latest of 200 B.C. (95), the
region near the centre of the Volga that borrowed nearly all of its forms from
the Scythians. The fragment (Pl. XX no. 13) is certainly a copy of the Ananino
piece reproduced here and also has a fantastic animal at the tip of the hook.
It differs from its prototype by a line-drawn rather than a plastic rendering. It
may have been created about 1000. A form that seems more likely to have been
put to the use suggested above appears on Plate XX no. 14 because of the curve
of the bar, and the end in the shape of a fantastic animal-head that has a perforation
under the jaws by which it may have been affixed. There seems to be no differ-
ence in period, to my mind, between this and the former example.

NOTES OF CHAPTER VI