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

(j) IMAGES OF TERRA-COTTA, CULTURE III.

Besides numerous ornamental and useful objects of bronze, stone, clay,
and bone, the middle strata of the South Kurgan have yielded numerous figures
in terra-cotta—representations of men and animals—in burnt and unburnt clay.
The greater part of the finds comes from terrace B, from the deeper layers of the
terrace, among the skeleton graves; from the level of the clay chest; and from
the layers of débris of the remains of buildings found there. In the upper digging
only three such finds were made between +25 feet 5 inches and +40 feet—two
clay idols and an animal figure (S.K. 57, 175, and 83).

Human figures.—Unfortunately, no perfectly preserved human figures were
found, though the fragments certainly show a praiseworthy attempt to express
the modeling of the human form. All the specimens in hand are in the round;
and they are clearly naked, female forms. S.K.
285 (plate 46, fig. 9) represents a small min-
iature-like figure, without indication of sex,
but certainly a shortened human form. Only
the trunk is represented; the stump-shaped
arms, of which the left one is broken off, being
raised and extended. Of the face only the
nose is represented by a projection and the
eyes by small depressions. In all the other
figures the female breasts, and in most of them
also the navel, are clearly expressed through
plastic forms. The position of the ears is bored in the frag-
ment (S.K. 174; plate 46, fig. 14). A modeled neck ornament
is shown on the torso (S.K. 286; plate 46, fig. 13). S.K.
313 (plate 46, fig. 11) shows the head of a larger figure, in
which the face is indicated only by a strong projection of the
nose, while in S.K. 57 the head is shrunken to a stump (plate 46, fig.
15). S.K. 252 (plate 46, fig. 12) was roughly kneaded of unburnt
clay and was found in the clay chest of terrace B. S.K. 339 (plate
46, figs. 10a and 10b) shows the greatest progress in the modeling
of forms and in the accentuation of detail. It is represented in front and rear.
Particularly striking is the strong development of the hips, while the legs run
together in a point. The private parts are brought out in a particularly realistic
manner by punch-marks, and the type of the whole figure differs from the other
examples in the pendant position of the arm.

Animal figures.—Figures of animals are much more numerous, even though
preserved only in fragments, in the above-mentioned layers of terrace B. Unfortu-
nately, however, the condition in which they reach us is so bad that their identifi-
cation with different animals is only rarely certain. In isolated cases we can
recognize horned animals, probably oxen, as in S.K. 327 (plate 47, figs. 1a and 1b).
In other cases, other animals may also be meant (S.K. 344; plate 47, fig. 3, and