Papers by Elena Stepanova
Problems of chronology and cultural genesis of ancient sedentary societies of Eurаsia (from the neolithic period through the Early Iron Age), 2019
Е. В. Степанова , А. И. Торгоев Комплекс с полужестким седлом из Кенкольского могильника // Археологические вести. Вып.34., 2022
While Kenkol burial in Talas valley excavated by Bernshtam in 1938-1939, is a famous enough monum... more While Kenkol burial in Talas valley excavated by Bernshtam in 1938-1939, is a famous enough monument, only a half of the proceeding of 1939 is published, and the ones from 1938 haven’t been published yet at all. In this article, a set of objects from the barrow 2 of Kenkol burial researched in 1939, is discussed. The objects from this burial, together with other materials from Kenkol were placed in The State Hermitage Museum. Field documents are situated in IIMK RAN archives.
The barrow 2 occupied a separate place in the burial and was situated at a distance from the main cluster of barrows of P-group. In T-shaped catacomb two adults, a man and a woman were buried. Despite the robbery, a lot of wooden objects preserved in the burial (the remains of a bow, arrow shafts, small wooden tables, a mug, pieces of wooden vessels, a walking stick and many fragments of some objects that couldn’t be identified).
The most interesting feature of this burial is the presence of horse equipment: bits, bridle straps’ buckles, and a wooden pommel and cantle of a semi-rigid saddle. For Kenkol culture’s burials the presence of horse equipment in the grave is not a ceremonial norm, and a semi-rigid saddle is a unique find for Middle Asia. Judging by the design of the pommel and the cantle, the saddle from the barrow 2 may be attributed to early semi-rigid saddles that had appeared at the turn of the eras. Specifically the details of horse equipment and a set of arrowheads suggest that the barrow 2 of Kenkol burial can be dated within the III century A.C. and is one of earliest in the burial.
Марсадолов Л.С., Степанова Е.В. Седла монгольского времени из Часовенной горы под Красноярском // Творец культуры. Материальная культура и духовное пространство человека в свете археологии, истории и этнографии: Сб. науч. ст. / Отв. ред. Н.Ю.Смирнов. Санкт-Петербург: ИИМК РАН, 2021. С.487-506, 2021
Marsadolov L.S., Stepanova E.V. Saddles of the Mongol period from Chasovennaya Gora near Krasnoya... more Marsadolov L.S., Stepanova E.V. Saddles of the Mongol period from Chasovennaya Gora near Krasnoyarsk // The creator of culture. Material culture and the human spiritual space in the light of archaeology, history and ethnography: Collection of scientific papers dedicated to the 80th anniversary of Professor D. G/ Savinov / Ed. N. Yu. Smirnov. (Proceedings of IHMC RAS. Vol. LVII)— St. Petersburg: IHMC RAS, 2021. P. 487-506
Archaeological sites of the Mongol period in Southern Siberia are so far not numerous. New materials on three saddles from the monument Chasovennaya gora situated near Krasnoyarsk and explored by S.A. Teplouhov in 1927, are briefly examined in this article. In each of the three burials a full set of horse tack including a bridle and a saddle was found. The design of saddle with silver plates was more thoroughly analyzed and a new reconstruction of the saddle was presented. A saddle with silver plates from grave No. 3 at the Chasovennaya Gora cemetery can serve as a standard of the elite Mongol saddles of the 13th–14th century, while it is reasonable to apply the notion of the Chasovennaya-Gora type of saddles only more narrowly to this group of saddles. Analysis of the horse gear from Chasovennaya Gora confirms the already previously expressed opinion that the site of Chasovennaya Gora belongs generally to the period of the Mongol expansion and the concluding stage of the existence of the state of the Yenisey Kyrgyzes. The horse equipment from Chasovennaya Gora, similarly to its main grave inventory, is of a mixed character. Only the saddle from grave No. 3 may be attributed to the Mongol type while the saddles from graves No. 2 and No. 1 are Kyrgyzian. Considering the features of the horse equipment, the site under consideration is datable to within the 13th century.
Elena V. Stepanova Saddles of the Hun-Sarmatian period // ‘Masters of the steppe: the impact of the Scythians and later nomad societies of Eurasia’. Proceedings of a conference held at the British Museum, 27-29 October 2017: Archaeopress. Oxford, 2020. Editors: St J.Simpson, S.Pankova. P.561-587., 2020
Equestrian equipment during the Hun-Sarmatian period was extremely diverse. Scythian-type pad sad... more Equestrian equipment during the Hun-Sarmatian period was extremely diverse. Scythian-type pad saddles maintained their popularity until the 2nd century but new types of soft saddles also appeared, both Parthian and Roman. Wooden saddlebows were invented at the end of the 1st century BC or beginning of the 1st century AD. The seats were furnished with the panels of
Scythian-type pad-saddles and the bows were attached to the tops of semi-circular supports. These saddles can be called ‘semirigid’, unlike rigid saddles which had a proper saddletree. The earliest saddlebows have been found in tombs of the Xiongnu of the 1st century BC (Tsaram, Noin-Ula), but semi-rigid saddles became the predominant type from the 3rd century onwards.
The most widespread were saddles with semi-circular bows. Wooden bows and models of such saddles, as well as depictions of them, are known from China, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Europe and North Africa. From the 4th to 6th centuries saddles with tall П-shaped bows and stirrups became popular in China, Korea and Japan. Their invention is attributed to the Xianbei kingdom.
These saddles usually had metal overlays on the bows and supports, and were used primarily in battle. It was difficult to mount with this type of saddle, so special mounting loops were invented and swiftly became used as stirrups. At the same time, civilians continued to use saddles with semi-circular bows without protective overlays or stirrups. European saddles of the early 5th to
early 6th centuries had sets of overlays similar to Asian saddles with Π-shaped bows. The first saddles with saddletrees, invented no earlier than the first half of the 6th century, were Turkic. They completely reproduced in wood the semi-rigid saddles of the preceding period. Thereafter, improved metal stirrups became an integral part of the saddle.
E. V. Stepanova
FELT CLOTHES FROM THE BARROWS OF THE PAZYRYK CULTURE OF ALTAI
The burial mou... more E. V. Stepanova
FELT CLOTHES FROM THE BARROWS OF THE PAZYRYK CULTURE OF ALTAI
The burial mounds (kurgans) of the Pazyryk culture, which existed in the Altai region during the 5th – 3rd centuries BC, contain numerous objects made of felt, well preserved due to the permafrost. These objects include thick felt mats and wall carpets, with complex applications, ring-shaped napkins for vessels, pillows, handbags and covers, as well as horse equipment, including blankets, saddle pads and decorative covers. Decorative covers for horse manes and horse masks, which turn horses into fantastic animals, also have a felt basis. Clothes were also manufactured from felt. Three categories of clothing items were made from felt: stockings, "raincoats" and hats. Skirts and shirts were sewn from fabrics, trousers made from fabric or leather, and winter coats and boots produced from leather and fur.
Felt stockings were found in the elite mounds, as well as in the burials of ordinary folk. They were worn by men and women. The most beautiful stockings found so far belonged to the local ruler and his wife buried in Barrow 2 of the Pazyryk burial field. Four pairs of stockings were made of thin white felt, decorated with multi-color felt applications. The ornament on one pair echoes the ornaments found on the ceramic tiles in ancient Susa (Iran). Six more pairs of stockings were found at other burial grounds of the Pazyryk culture: Ak-Alaha-3 (Barrow 1), Verkh-Kaldzhin-2 (Barrows 1 and 3), Berel (Barrow 11), and Ak-Alaha-1 (Barrow 1). Of these, only women’s stockings from Ak-Alakha-3 had a decorative strip of a red felt application. All stockings were made from two pieces: a main long piece shaped to the leg and assembled at the toe and a short sole. The main part is sewn with a seam up the back. The seam is made with small stitches over the edge. The second seam connects the sole to the upper part. The length of women’s stockings varies from 89 to 96 cm, men’s – from 68 to 99 cm. The soles are all about 20 cm long. The number and richness of the design of felt stockings in Barrow 2 of Pazyryk is related to the high status of the people buried in it. Long felt stockings are common among Asian nomads in the Scythian period. Stockings similar to those of Pazyryk can be seen, for example, among the offerings of the Saka nomads depicted in the palace relief from Persepolis or worn by the shooting horseman depicted on a bronze censer from the Almaty area. Felt stockings from the archaeological graveyards in Xinjiang synchronous with the Scythian period reveal a very similar cut. They also have a short attached sole, an assembly at the toe, and may have an ornamental strip in the upper part. The tradition of wearing their cut and design patterns have changed.
The original outerwear of the Pazyryk people are very voluminous felt “raincoats” with long wide sleeves and hoods that are worn over fur coats or other outerwear in inclement weather. Two such items sewn from two layers of white felt were found in Barrow 3 of Pazyryk. By material, size and cut, as well as by the presence of several characteristic details they are almost identical to the raincoats of Tuva called hevenek. First recorded in the burial of the Pazyryk culture dated to the 3rd century BC, this type of clothing later became widely disseminated among other nomadic peoples and far beyond the borders of Southern Siberia. Obviously, felt raincoats were originally used not only for hunting or for cattle grazing, but also in military campaigns, to protect weapons from adverse weather conditions. Interesting observations about the use of cavalry upper garments of felt with wide sleeves can be found, for example, in Maurice’s Stratégikon – Handbook of Byzantine Military Strategy – dated to the 6th/7th century AD. Functional and practical raincoats made of felt were used by mounted pastoralists in Kazakhstan, Mongolia and Tuva still at the beginning of the 20th century.
All known Pazyryk hats are either made of felt, or have a felt base, covered with cloth or leather. In addition, felt hats are always painted in shades of red, in contrast to unpainted white felt stockings and raincoats. The most complete hats belong to the monuments of the end of the 4th and beginning of the 3rd centuries BC. Women’s hats of this time have a high conical shape with narrow margins (e.g. Ak-Alaha-3, Barrow 1; Pazyryk, Barrow 2). They were worn by married women over complex head-wigs, apparently to protect them. In appearance, but not in construction materials, they have analogies with some finds in Xinjiang. Two types of Pazyryk men’s hats are known. The first has the form of a rounded hat-hood with ears, which could have different lengths and straps at the ends. These hats were apparently used as everyday clothing. They were made of two halves and were often double-layered (on the outside – leather, inside – felt). The second type differed from the first only by an elongated subtriangular top. Such hats were worn by the Black Sea Scythians, Central Asian Saka and Siberian nomads. The form of the top and the details of the design of these hats had ethnic specificity and changed over time. In the Pazyryk kurgans of the end of the 4th and beginning of the 3rd centuries BC such headdresses were designed as a comb-shaped bird-headed top, which could be made entirely from felt (e.g. Top-Kaldzhin-2, Barrow 3), from felt and wood (e.g. Olon-Kurin-Gol-10, Barrow 1), or entirely of wood (e.g. Ak-Alaha-1, Barrow 1; Pazyryk, Barrow 2). These hats were used at ceremonies and funerals. They could have additional decoration in the form of fantastic ungulates and eagles. Headdresses of both types were found in some mounds (for example, Verkh-Kaldzhin-2, Barrow 1; Pazyryk, Barrow 3).
One characteristic of the ancient felt clothing is the presence of tucks for a better fit on the leg or head. This feature is apparently due to the insufficient ductility of the felt in comparison with fabric, leather, and fur.
Спустя 70 лет после раскопок С.И. Руденко на Пазырыкском могильнике было признано необходимым пов... more Спустя 70 лет после раскопок С.И. Руденко на Пазырыкском могильнике было признано необходимым повторное исследование Пятого кургана. С 2017 г. проводятся работы по доследованию остатков внутримогильной конструкции, а также осуществляется изучение периферии кургана. В сезоне 2019 г. была полностью расчищена могильная яма, в заполнении и на дне которой выявлены различные предметы, оставшиеся после прежних раскопок: кости и части туш коней, куски берестяного покрытия сруба, фрагменты деревянных резных блях, обрывки золотой фольги и войлочных изделий, включая многочисленные фрагменты ковра и войлочных украшений снаряжения лошади. Внутри сруба и за его стенками обнаружены роговой заступ, деревянные лопата и колотушка, детали повозки, а также другие изделия. Проведена полевая консервация всех обнаруженных артефактов. В плане исследования внутримогильных конструкций извлечены и изучены внешний сруб погребальной камеры и остатки надсрубных сооружений. В полевых условиях произведена экспресс-реконструкция внешнего сруба с фотофиксацией и описанием его конструктивных и технологических особенностей. Сруб прямоугольный в плане, размером по нижнему периметру 7х4 м и высотой 2 м, имел форму усеченной пирамиды, что характерно и для других подобных сооружений пазырыкской культуры. Хорошая сохранность древесины обеспечила возможность проведения дендрохронологического анализа, для которого отобрано 40 образцов от различных конструктивных элементов. Все образцы относятся к лиственнице сибирской (Larix sibirica Ledeb.); возраст деревьев колеблется от 150 до 260 лет, максимальный диаметр стволов варьирует от 15 до 50 см. Зафиксирован один и тот же год валки деревьев, которая происходила в холодный период (осенью-зимой, либо ранней весной). Проведенное доследование кургана 5 показало перспективность повторного изучения раскопанных ранее царских погребений пазырыкской культуры, включая оставшиеся четыре больших кургана в урочище Пазырык.
Pazyryk culture, pad-saddle of the Scythian type, reconstruction of a Scythian saddle
The arti... more Pazyryk culture, pad-saddle of the Scythian type, reconstruction of a Scythian saddle
The article is devoted to the reconstruction of a saddle of the so-cold Scythian type, made in 2013, on the basis of the study of archaeological saddles from the Pazyryk collection of the State Hermitage. The scientific reconstruction of the Scythian time saddle has been performed for the first time. It was preceded by a long preparatory work, including measurements of all preserved saddles and their fragments of the Pazyryk collection (Bashadar, Tuekta and Pazyryk barrows). We studied the seams, peculiarities of gaskets and the padding of the saddle cushions, as well as characteristics of the fixing of the saddle belts, surcingle buckles and decorative elements.
Making a comparison of the saddles from early and late kurgans of the Pazyryk culture made it clear that the saddles differ mainly by the decor and accessories which have been changed, but kept continuity. Design of the saddle pillows themselves, sets (composition, integration) and the fixing of the truck straps, the shape of the coverings and saddle-cloths remained unchanged during the whole period of the Pazyryk culture.
One of the saddles from the 3rd Pazyryk barrow was chosen as a model for the reconstruction. The executed saddle has been tested on riding horses to identify its performances.
Replicas of the saddle and the bridle from the 3rd Pazyryk barrow have been exhibited at the exposition "The World of nomads" made by the State Hermitage Museum, in Vyborg (November 2013 - April 2014) as visual materials.
The reconstructed saddle provides additional opportunities for interpretation of a number of artistic sourses of the Scythian and Hun-Sarmatian time.
![Research paper thumbnail of Степанова Е.В. Реконструкция головного убора вождя из 2-го Пазырыкского кургана // V (XXI) Всероссийский археологический съезд [Электронный ресурс]: сборник научных трудов / отв. ред. А.П. Деревянко, А.А. Тишкин. – Барнаул: ФГБОУ ВО «Алтайский государственный университет», 2017 . С.986-987](https://attachments.academia-assets.com/54549544/thumbnails/1.jpg)
Reconstruction of the Male Headgear from the Pazyryryk Barrow 2
An amazing finial, the pearl o... more Reconstruction of the Male Headgear from the Pazyryryk Barrow 2
An amazing finial, the pearl of the archeological collection of the State Hermitage Museum comes from the Pazyryk barrow 2. The finial is in the shape of a head of a fantastic eagle holding a deer head in its beak. Full-length figures carrying geese are depicted either side of its neck. It was found in the burial chamber of Pazyryk barrow 2 at the head of the coffin, but S. I. Rudenko never commented on its possible function. After the discovery in some Ulandryk and Yustyd burial mounds of the crest-like wooden finials, the upper part of which resembled a bird’s head, V. D. Kubarev suggested a similar function for that from Pazyryk. More recent excavations on the Ukok plateau and in north-west Mongolia have added further examples.
Three complete headdresses have now been discovered at Ak-Alakha-1 (burial mound 1), Verkh-Kal’dzhin 2 (burial mound 3) and Olon-Kurin-Gol 10 (burial mound 1). All of the headdresses with crest-shaped finials use a standard set of decorative motifs of fantastic hoofed animals and eagles. The eagles are either three-dimensional or appliqued. The hoofed animals either appear as statuettes or in relief with separate heads, and their bodies resemble stylized horses, deer and rams, with separate – usually goat-like – horns, long tails and stylized birds’ heads. All may represent different versions of a hoofed griffin, more complete images of which have been found in Pazyryk tattoos. The bodies of the relief ‘deer’ (usually with goat’s horns) could have images of rams’ heads (on the rump) and saiga or goat (on the shoulder).
A comparative analysis of these headdresses allowed a reconstruction of that from the Pazyryk barrow 2. Such elements include two double symmetrical compositions of leather and wood, depicting fantastic eagles grappling with hoofed griffins. The headdress had them positioned symmetrically, one on either side. The animals’ bodies are made of thick leather with cut-in relief detailing. The wooden heads, added separately, have leather ears, with crests on the eagles and horns on the hoofed griffins. The details on the double compositions are stylistically similar to the finial images, and were surely made by the same craftsman. Although both compositions have sustained considerable damage, it is possible to reconstruct their appearance as they are symmetrical.
It seems curious that the craftsman had not planned for the hoofed character’s head to be made separately, and had positioned its front legs differently. In the original version (without the deer head) the composition is almost identical to that on a gold aigrette with the griffin-vulture with a goat in its talons. The details of the legs of the eagle, and the figure of the goat.
The contest scene was repeated five times, on the common Pazyryk headdresses this was only ever hinted at, and the figures of the hoofed animals and eagles were placed next to one another. All the details were covered in gold leaf and painted red. The finial was considerably larger than common warriors so the chieftain would have stood out among his army. The great height and weight of the finial, which would have been affixed to the felt hood-base, would have demanded substantial reinforcement when the headdress was being constructed. Apart from the ornamental elements, the burial mound contained fragments of the actual hood-headdress, which was made of reddish felt and finished on the outside with red madder-dyed plant-based textile. Vertical strips of the same material were sewn onto the inside of the hood. These secured long and narrow iron plates, 0.5 cm in width and 20 cm in length, three on either side. The chinstraps of the headdress were tied with leather cord.
On the whole, this headdress would have had a rather intimidating effect and may have been worn in the chieftain’s final battle. The heads of the eagle and hoofed griffin on the right-hand side of the headdress have been struck off with a single blow, and the eagle’s wing has been lost. This damage corresponds with the two pointed battle-axe wounds on the right side of the chieftain’s head and the severely disfigured left-hand scene coincides with the area of the third blow. All of the Pazyryk culture headdresses with finials are concentrated in the south-east Altai region, and are dated to the rather narrow period of the late fourth to early third century bc.
Distributors of Bridle Straps of the Scythian and Hun-Sarmatian Period
E. V. Stepanova
During re... more Distributors of Bridle Straps of the Scythian and Hun-Sarmatian Period
E. V. Stepanova
During recent years there is a tendency in the archaeology of South Siberia to shift the dating of the Scythian sites which have a number of analogues of the early Scythian period back to the turn of the 6th and the 5th century BC. At the same time, for the sites with Hun-Sarmatian analogues, a younger date i.e. that of the 2nd century BC is proposed. Meanwhile, the time span of the use of any group of artifacts is far from falling within the limits of a certain chronological stage.
Here an attempt is presented to discuss the above statement by the example of recently published finds from kurgans 2 and 5 at the burial ground of Chendek-6a (High Altai) excavated by S. M. Kireev in 1999. In terms of the burial rite and grave goods these sites belong to the Pazyryk culture (Киреев, Шульга, 2006). Items of the bridle and saddle accessories from kurgan 5 and saddle accessories from kurgan 2 are typical to the later sites of the Pazyryk culture such as e.g. kurgans 3-6 of Pazyryk and burials of Shibe and Karakol (Руденко, 1953; Степанова, 2006). However, in the horse gear from kurgan 2, a combination of late saddle with shield-like pendants, as well as of bridle with bronze dividers and links for criss-crossing straps have been first encountered (fig. 2, 1; 3, 12). The presence of the bronze distributors in the bridle set from kurgan 2 at Chenek-6a, gives us grounds to place the latter among the early sites of the Pazyryk culture with the date of the 6th century BC.
Distributors of bridle straps really are more typical for the early Scythian period. Nevertheless they continued in use later in the Scythian and Hun-Sarmatian Age although without their former diversity of forms and careful execution. Two main forms of late links for crossing straps are noteworthy: 1) cross-like ones with loops on the back side, and 2) those with a round shield (either hemispheric or flattened cone-shaped) and a square base (smaller than the decorative shield) with a lozenge-shaped slit.
Cross-like distributors with loops on the reverse side go back to the distributors in the form of crossing pipes of the 7th - 5th century BC – fig. 1, 1 – 4. Distributors with loops on the back side have been found in the Minusinsk Basin (a chance find), on the Oba River near Barnaul (Rogozikha-1 kurgan 2), in the Altai mountains (Yaloman-II, kurgan 51) and trans-Baikal region, and at the Xiongnu burial ground of Dyrestui (gave 5) – fig.1, 5 – 7. The bridle sets from Rogozikha are dated to the late 6th – early 5th century BC, whereas the date of those from Yaloman and Dyrestui cemetery is the 2nd – 1st century BC. Furthermore, along with the strap-distributors, the sets from Yaloman-II included two-hole iron cheek-pieces with round or “oar-like” terminals similar to the wooden cheek-pieces from the 1st, 3rd and 5th Pazyryk kurgans.
The strap-distributors from kurgan 2 of Chendek-6a (fig. 2, 1) belong to another late group with a round flattened-cone shield and a narrow base with a lozenge-shaped slit. In N. L. Chlenova’s opinion, such examples appeared in the Minusinsk Basin in the 5th century BC and continued in use until the Tashtyk period. In addition to chance finds they have been uncovered in the late Tagar barrows – the Bolshoy Tesinsky kurgan and kurgan 2 of the Beresh burial ground, as well as among the items of the Znamensky hoard (fig. 2, 2 – 4). For the Bolshoy Tesinsky kurgan, dates within the span of the 2nd – 1st century BC to 2nd – 1st century AD were proposed; kurgan 2 of the Beresh cemetery is dated to the 3rd century AD and the Znamensky hoard to the 2nd century BC – first centuries of the 1st millennium AD (Дэвлет, 1961; Вадецкая, 1999; Подольский, 2002; Пшеницына, 1992).
The dividers of cheek straps (B- or 8-shaped, either with a decorative shield or without it) became widely distributed in the Altai, Minusinsk Basin, in Kazakhstan and the Ural region in the late 6th – early 5th century BC. Moreover, some similar objects have been reported also for pre-Schythian times, e.g. those from the late Novocherkassk kurgan near v. Kvitki in Porosye (Иванчик, 2001. Fig. 106, 63 - 64). In the mid-6th – first half of the 5th century BC, 8-like dividers with a shield in the form of doubled hemispheric plaques were in use (Maima-19; Kaindu kurgan 7; Novyi Sharap-1, kurgan 19) – fig. 3, 1, 5, 9. During the same period, dividers devoid of a decorative shield appeared; these were either B-shaped or “eight-like”. Dated possibly to the 6th- early 5th century BC are the iron B-shaped divider from kurgan 63 in Southern Tagisken, B-shaped bone ones form kurgan 27 at the cemetery of Tytkesken-VI, B-shaped bone items and an iron 8-shaped divider from kurgan 93 near v. Turan, bronze 8-like examples from robber excavations at kurgans of the Vtoryye Pyatimary group (fig. 3, 3-4, 6 – 8). To the 6th – 4th century BC belong the bronze B-shaped dividers from the Smaller Tuekta kurgans (Киселев, 1951. Pl. XXVIII, 4, 7, 11, 18). In general, the bridle trappings from the barrows enumerated are typical to the sites close in time or directly precedent to the early Pazyryk kurgans (the 2nd Bashadarsk, 1st and 2nd Tuekta).
The dividers without a decorative shield were continuing in use even later. The bridle with bronze B-shaped dividers (fig. 3, 2) from grave 1 at the cemetery of Kuznetsk-1/5 is dated to the 4th – 3rd century BC. Iron 8-shaped dividers have been found among the horse gear at the Xiongnu burial ground of Ilmovaya Pad of the 1st century BC - 1st century AD (fig. 3, 16) where in addition complicated side-rein blocks characteristic of the late Pazyryk kurgans were uncovered (Степанова, 2006. Fig. 9, 16; Руденко, 1962. Pl. XXII, 5).
For the standard sites of the Pazyryk culture, even so early as the 2nd Bashadar or 1st and 2nd Tuekta, neither dividers nor other distributors of straps are typical, although in some ordinary barrows they indeed have been found. For instance, at the early Pazyryk sites of the 5th – early 4th century BC – kurgan of Taldur I and kurgan 26 of Kok-su 1, the bridle furnishings include bone distributors with a hemispherical shield and B–shaped dividers without decorative shield (fig. 3, 10, 11). The B–shaped bone divider from kurgan 17 of Kok-su 1 has a flat shield shaped as an “eight” (fig. 3, 13). In that barrow, a bone buckle of a one-piece clasp with a bill in the plane of its frame was preserved of the saddle – such buckles were used as girth fastenings since the 4th century BC.
Very interesting are the silver dividers from the Znamensky hoard. These three sets all have a flat shield in the form of doubled trefoils – fig. 3, 14 – 15.
Although there are no exact parallels to the bronze dividers from Chendek, noteworthy is their similarity to the late dividers – the bone example with a flat shield shaped like an “eight” from kurgan 17 at Kok-su 1 and the silver Znamensky ones which also have a flat shield and a loop of an analogous shape on the back side.
Although dividers and distributors for crossing straps are thus more typical for the early Scythian Age, some of their forms continued into the Scythian and Hun-Sarmatian periods. Moreover, while in some regions they went out of use completely, in other (particularly in the Altai) they remained. Bridle distributors from kurgan 2 of Chendek-6a have parallels both in the Pazyryk kurgans and at sites of the Hun-Sarmatian period (fig. 2, 1 – 4, 3, 13 – 15).
The possible belonging of the distributors from kurgan 2 of Chendek-6a to some other culture is suggested by the composition of their bronze – it is tin-containing in contrast to the dagger from the same barrow which was cast from arsenical bronze typical to the Pazyryk culture (Хаврин, 2007. P. 280). The belonging to another culture is also suggested by incompleteness of the set of distributors (only three items) in the unlooted burial. However, the incomplete assemblage may be connected also with the burial rite (Очир-Горяева, 2006. Р. 119). In any case, damaged or lacking items of horse gear among the grave goods are characteristic exactly of the late Pazyryk sites (Степанова, 2006 Р. 141 – 143).
According to the last dendrochronological and radiocarbon data of high precision, such early site as kurgan 1 at Tuekta was constructed in c. 442 BC, kurgans 1 and 2 at the Pazyryk burial ground – in c. 300 BC, and the Pazyryk kurgan 5 – about 250 BC. Most of the excavated ordinary barrows are dated to the late 4th – early 3rd century BC (Евразия в скифскую эпоху (Eurasia during the Scythian Age), 2005. P. 165 – 169).
Most of the grave offerings from kurgans 2 and 5 at Chendek-6a are peculiar to the Pazyryk culture in general. The horse gear from these sites is typical for the late Pazyryk.
Summarizing all that is stated above it seems that the most probable date for kurgans 2 and 5 of Chendek-6a is the 3rd century BC.
Ｓｉｔｅｓ ｏｆ ｔｈｅ Ｐａｚｙｒｙｋ ｃｕｌｔｕｒｅ ｈａｖｅ ｙｉｅｌｄｅｄ ｆａｉｒｌｙ ｆｅｗ ｅｘａｍｐｌｅｓ ｏｆ ｓｉｌｋ ｏｂｊｅｃｔｓ． Ａｌｌ ｏｆ ｔｈｅｍ ａｒｅ ｃｏ... more Ｓｉｔｅｓ ｏｆ ｔｈｅ Ｐａｚｙｒｙｋ ｃｕｌｔｕｒｅ ｈａｖｅ ｙｉｅｌｄｅｄ ｆａｉｒｌｙ ｆｅｗ ｅｘａｍｐｌｅｓ ｏｆ ｓｉｌｋ ｏｂｊｅｃｔｓ． Ａｌｌ ｏｆ ｔｈｅｍ ａｒｅ ｃｏｎｃｅｎｔｒａｔｅｄ ｉｎ ｔｈｅ ｙｏｕｎｇｅｒ ｋｕｒｇａｎｓ ｃｏｎｓｔｒｕｃｔｅｄ ｗｉｔｈｉｎ ｔｈｅ ｔｉｍｅ ｓｐａｎ ｏｆ ｔｈｅ ｔｈｉｒｄ ｃｅｎｔｕｒｙ ＢＣ． Ｔｈｅ Ｐａｚｙｒｙｋ ｃｏｌｌｅｃｔｉｏｎ ｏｆ Ｔｈｅ Ｓｔａｔｅ Ｈｅｒｍｉｔａｇｅ Ｍｕｓｅｕｍ ｃｏｍｐｒｉｓｅｓ ｏｎｌｙ ｆｉｖｅ ｓａｍｐｌｅｓ ｏｆ Ｃｈｉｎｅｓｅ ｓｉｌｋ． Ｔｈｅｓｅ ａｒｅ ａ ｂａｇ ａｎｄ ａ ｆｒａｇｍｅｎｔ ｏｆ ｏｒｎａｍｅｎｔａｌ ｓｉｌｋ ｆｒｏｍ ｔｈｅ Ｔｈｉｒｄ Ｐａｚｙｒｙｋ ｂａｒｒｏｗ， ａ ｐａｒａｄｅ ｓａｄｄｌｅ ｃｌｏｔｈ ａｎｄ ａ ｓａｄｄｌｅ ｃｌｏｔｈ ｄｅｃｏｒａｔｅｄ ｗｉｔｈ ｓｉｌｋ ａｐｐｌｉｃａｔｉｏｎｓ ｉｎ ｔｈｅ ｆｏｒｍ ｏｆ ｓｍａｌｌ " ｃｒｏｓｓｅｓ" ｆｒｏｍ ｔｈｅ Ｆｉｆｔｈ Ｐａｚｙｒｙｋ ｂａｒｒｏｗ， ａｎｄ ｆｒａｇｍｅｎｔｓ ｏｆ ａｐｐｌｉｑｕéｓ ｆｒｏｍ ｔｈｅ Ｆｉｒｓｔ Ｂａｓｈａｄａｒ ｂａｒｒｏｗ． Ａｌｌ ｔｈｅｓｅ ｂｕｒｉａｌ ｍｏｕｎｄｓ ｗｅｒｅ ｅｘｃａｖａｔｅｄ ｂｙ Ｓｅｒｇｅｙ Ｒｕｄｅｎｋｏ ｉｎ
Evolution of horse gear and the relative chronology of sites of the Pazyryk culture
This paper ... more Evolution of horse gear and the relative chronology of sites of the Pazyryk culture
This paper presents an analysis of assemblages of horse gear from typical kurgans of Pazyryk culture. The sampling examined included finds from 14 barrows at six burial grounds (table 1). These burials contained 129 horse skeletons; also parts of at least 85 saddles and 112 bridles were preserved. The sampling was based on 9 barrows with dendrochronological dates available for comparison. One of the kurgans (Pazyryk, barrow 2) was radiocarbon dated to a narrow range of 290-300 BC. In order to extend the sampling, considered were also finds from the barrows regarded by most of the researchers as the earlier (Bashadar, barrow 2, Tuekta, barrow 2) and younger (Shibe, Karakol) monuments of the Pazyryk culture. In addition, taken into consideration was the 6th Pazyryk kurgan dated by a mirror of the “Qin” type found in it to a period not earlier than 311 BC. The sites enumerated above are noted for the fine preservation of the organics enabling us to interpret reliably separate parts of the horse trappings. Moreover, they yielded fairly expressive typological series of the elements of gear which at ordinary sites are commonly represented only by single items. These facts allow us to regard the mentioned sites as the standard ones. Examination of the complexes of horse gear from these standard kurgans had enabled us to divide the latter into three chronological groups differing in the funerary rite of the horse burials (tables 2-7; figs. 4-7, 9-16, 18).
Features of the 1st chronological group.
1. Rich amounts of bronze furnishings and ornamental parts (table 2).
2. Two-piece saddle-girth fastenings are typical saddle furnishings These fastenings consist of a loop used as a pulley and buckles with a fixed bar bent inwards. They are represented by three varieties (figs 4-7; 12: 1-3; table 3). The “bronze loop-buckle” and ‘bone loop-buckle’ variants have been found only among group 1. Recorded exclusively in group 1 have been also bronze saddle-girth buckles with the bar bent outwards (used as the pulleys were the frames of the buckles) (figs 4: 1; 7: 1).
3. Characteristic of the horse burials is the presence of complete saddle sets including the saddle-girths with buckles.
4. The ornaments of the bridles and breast-plates are characterized by large wooden pendants in the form of asymmetrical leaves, palmettes, griffin heads, feline beasts of prey and elks. The base of the pendants is shaped like a circle or an elongated plank. The terminals of the cheek-pieces were decorated with the same motifs as the pendants.
5. Saddles typically had decorative coverings with flame-like edge, bladed pendants, felt “medallions” on semicircular projections in the front and rear part of the cushions, bunches of straps with pendants in the rear of the saddle, sets of plates (S-shaped, sickle-shaped, circular, shaped like commas or four-petalled rosettes).
Bronze two-piece girth fastenings and side-rein blocks from kurgans of group 1 have parallels at sites of the Early Scythian period (figs. 1, 2, 14: 1-5). Most of the analogues (bronze and iron bits with circular terminals, bronze pendants with asymmetrical leaves) come from sites of the end of the Early Scythian period in the Altai or nearby regions. At present these sites are dated to the second half of the 6th – beginning of the 5th century BC. However, furnishings (fig.3), bronze and iron bits with circular terminals, bronze fastenings of the throatlashes which in the 1st chronological group are already absent. Ornaments of the horse gear of group 1 reflect the evolution if only some of the elements represented at transitional sites (iron cramps and tablets with transversal cylinders plated with gold – imitations of the bronze spacer-rings and wooden comma-shaped plates-clasps). The S-shaped cheek-pieces with zoomorphic terminals from kurgans of group 1 have parallels at sites of the northern Black Sea area of the 5th century BC.
Features of the 2nd chronological group.
1. The use of bronze was limited to making bronze bits (about 8% of the sample).
2. Saddle-girth fastenings were mostly of bone with an outturned bar, however the combination type of two-piece fastenings with leather loops also continued in use (figs. 9; 12: 3, 4; 18: 1-2).
3. Most of the saddles from the burials have no girth fastenings (table 3).
4. In the decorations of the bridles and saddles, elements of the ornamentation both of groups 1 and 3 are combined suggesting the transitional character of the sites of group 2 ((figs. 15,16; tables 5-7).
The horse gear of the 2nd group lacks the elements of furnishings rooted back to the Early Scythian period. The replacement of the type of two-piece girth fastenings with the one-piece examples gives us a possibility to synchronize the sites of group 2 with those situated in other regions of the Eurasian steppes of the 4th century BC (fig.8).
Features of the 3rd chronological group.
1. The furnishings are close to those of group 2 in a number of characteristics: the limited use of bronze (bits, rods of the cheek-pieces, certain small parts of the ornaments), predominant use of one-piece bone girth fastenings, preservation of the variant of two-piece fastenings with leather loops (strengthened with bone mounts – fig.13), and the absence of fastenings on most of the saddles buried (figs. 9, 11, 5, 16; tables 2-7).
2. Saddle bracings and complicated side-rein blocks (fig. 14; 9-16) are found only at sites of this group.
3. Of the decoration of bridles and breast-plates characteristic are figured wooden plates while pendants were not used.
4. The main elements of the decoration of saddles were shield-like pendants and arched or lens-shaped mounts on the semicircular projections on the front and rear of the cushions of wood, bone and leather (fig.11).
The girth buckles and complicated blocks have analogues at sites of the Hunnic-Sarmatian period. Shield-shaped pendants similar to the Pazyryk ones are found at sites of the Qin and Western Han dynasties (late 3rd – 1st century BC) (fig.17). Numnahs with breast covers from kurgan 5 at Pazyryk are similar in their appearance to the ancient Iranian horse-rugs for riding which were used not later than the 3rd century BC (they are not found at sites of the Arshakid dynasty).
In horse burials of the 2nd and 3rd groups, damaging or lack of accompanying grave-goods has been noted: most of the saddles were buried without a saddle-girth into knots or cut out (table 3; figs. 11, 18).
Conclusions. The horse trappings from standard sites of the Pazyryk culture are dated by dendrochronological and absolute methods, as well as on the basis of the parallels mentioned above, to within the bracket of the 5th - 3rd centuries BC. The chronological groups of the horse gear distinguished within the culture in question may be tentatively dated as follows:
Group 1 – 5th (second half of the 5th) – beginning (first half) of the 4th – early 3rd century BC.
Group 2 - second half of the 4th – early 3rd century BC.
Group 3 – second quarter – the end of the 3rd century BC.
Special features of Scythian saddles and consequences of riding for horse and horseman in the Scy... more Special features of Scythian saddles and consequences of riding for horse and horseman in the Scythian time
The article deals with the influence of riding using pad-saddles on the health of both riders and horses in the Scythian time. There is a conclusion proved in the article concerning the fact, that this type saddles was quite adequate for solving a task of prevention mutual traumas of a man and a horse as well as for stable seat of a horseman.
O.G. Novikova, E.V. Stepanova, S.V. Khavrin
ARTICLES WITH CHINESE LACQUER FROM PAZYRYK
COLLECTION... more O.G. Novikova, E.V. Stepanova, S.V. Khavrin
ARTICLES WITH CHINESE LACQUER FROM PAZYRYK
COLLECTION OF THE STATE HERMITAGE
The Pazyryk collection of the State Hermitage has a significant group of Chinese qi-lacquer decorated
objects (vessels, items of clothing and horse equipment, shields). They are concentrated mainly in late
barrows (3rd century BC) and are predominantly represented by leather goods. The article describes
these items and the results of a comprehensive study of coatings using different methods of analysis
(microchemical, X-ray fluorescence, spectral, etc.).
A retrospective study of oriental lacquers and, urushiody (urushiol, and thitsiol, laccol) film formers
which are contained in the sap of some species of trees of the sumac family, revealed that all coatings
investigated by us consist of qi-lacquer, which is based on urushiol. Qi-lacquer is made from the sap of the
lacquer tree Rhus verniciflua, cultivated in China in ancient times.
Coatings of items from the Pazyryk barrows have characteristics, techniques, and trace elements
significantly different from the composition of materials of the first century AD from NoinUla (except
for a few items that can be attributed to Noinulinskaya group). Respectively marked differences may not
be temporary, but territorial. Judging by the inscriptions on the vessels from Noin-Ula, Han workshops,
located in the northern regions of China may have inherited the tradition of the northern arts center, still
existing in the 6th-5th centuries BC around the Jin principality. «Chinese» saddle ornaments of bone and
wine cups with handles from the same cultural region, for example - from the kingdom of Qin, could get
to Altai. Lacquered leather may have been manufactured in the south, in the kingdom of Chu. While small
items of clothing and decorative horse equipment, were most likely cut in place from imported leather by
the Pazyryk.
Keywords: the Pazyryk culture, Chinese lacquer, State Hermitage Museum, lacquer leather products,
wood and bone, saddlery, cups with handles («ears»), patent leather, paints based on urushiol, qi-lacquer,
physico-chemical methods, IR spectroscopy and X-ray analysis, varnishes from kingdoms of Chu and Qin.
Saddles Hun-Sarmatian time
Funeral Table From Scythian Time Burial Ground 1 of Tuekta
Studying of Scythian time wooden fune... more Funeral Table From Scythian Time Burial Ground 1 of Tuekta
Studying of Scythian time wooden funeral beds was conducted since the academician V.V. Radlov first excavation in 1865 at Katanda village in Altai. The funeral table on high legs with a narrow long table-top was found by S.I. Rudenko in burial ground of Tuekta sepulchral hole of a barrow in an internal felling near a block with buried differs the others not only in a form but also in manufacturing techniques. The special researches for a woodworking technology conducted this year gave us new additional data for replenishment of completeness of source information. The new functional mission of this subject at commission of ritual actions is revealed during a funeral ceremony.
Развитие снаряжения верхового коня на территории Китая в III в. до н.э.- III в. н.э. шло в русле ... more Развитие снаряжения верхового коня на территории Китая в III в. до н.э.- III в. н.э. шло в русле тенденций, характерных для степной зоны Евразии, о чем свидетельствуют находки седел, их изображений и моделей династий Цинь, Хань, Вэй и Западной Цзинь. В III-I вв. до н.э в Центральной Азии и Китае продолжали использоваться мягкие седла (pad-saddle) скифского типа с полукруглыми упорами (supports). Первые седла с луками известны в памятниках хунну I в. (Царам и Ноин-Ула, к.6), но их конструкция была несовершенна – луки помещались под наружную оболочку упоров. Роль полок (panel) выполняли подушки мягких седел. Такие седла можно назвать полужесткими. Во II в. в Китае мягкие седла еще используются, но уже в III в. в широкий обиход входят полужесткие седла более удачной конструкции - с полукруглыми луками, закрепленными поверх упоров. В IV-V вв. они сосуществуют с седлами с высокими П-образными луками, которые применяются, преимущественно, в тяжелой кавалерии. По-видимому, именно седла с полукруглыми луками послужили основой для тюркских седел с деревянным ленчиком (saddle-tree), изобретенных не позднее VI в. – уже во второй половине VI в. они появляются на китайских изображениях.
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Papers by Elena Stepanova
The barrow 2 occupied a separate place in the burial and was situated at a distance from the main cluster of barrows of P-group. In T-shaped catacomb two adults, a man and a woman were buried. Despite the robbery, a lot of wooden objects preserved in the burial (the remains of a bow, arrow shafts, small wooden tables, a mug, pieces of wooden vessels, a walking stick and many fragments of some objects that couldn’t be identified).
The most interesting feature of this burial is the presence of horse equipment: bits, bridle straps’ buckles, and a wooden pommel and cantle of a semi-rigid saddle. For Kenkol culture’s burials the presence of horse equipment in the grave is not a ceremonial norm, and a semi-rigid saddle is a unique find for Middle Asia. Judging by the design of the pommel and the cantle, the saddle from the barrow 2 may be attributed to early semi-rigid saddles that had appeared at the turn of the eras. Specifically the details of horse equipment and a set of arrowheads suggest that the barrow 2 of Kenkol burial can be dated within the III century A.C. and is one of earliest in the burial.
Archaeological sites of the Mongol period in Southern Siberia are so far not numerous. New materials on three saddles from the monument Chasovennaya gora situated near Krasnoyarsk and explored by S.A. Teplouhov in 1927, are briefly examined in this article. In each of the three burials a full set of horse tack including a bridle and a saddle was found. The design of saddle with silver plates was more thoroughly analyzed and a new reconstruction of the saddle was presented. A saddle with silver plates from grave No. 3 at the Chasovennaya Gora cemetery can serve as a standard of the elite Mongol saddles of the 13th–14th century, while it is reasonable to apply the notion of the Chasovennaya-Gora type of saddles only more narrowly to this group of saddles. Analysis of the horse gear from Chasovennaya Gora confirms the already previously expressed opinion that the site of Chasovennaya Gora belongs generally to the period of the Mongol expansion and the concluding stage of the existence of the state of the Yenisey Kyrgyzes. The horse equipment from Chasovennaya Gora, similarly to its main grave inventory, is of a mixed character. Only the saddle from grave No. 3 may be attributed to the Mongol type while the saddles from graves No. 2 and No. 1 are Kyrgyzian. Considering the features of the horse equipment, the site under consideration is datable to within the 13th century.
Scythian-type pad-saddles and the bows were attached to the tops of semi-circular supports. These saddles can be called ‘semirigid’, unlike rigid saddles which had a proper saddletree. The earliest saddlebows have been found in tombs of the Xiongnu of the 1st century BC (Tsaram, Noin-Ula), but semi-rigid saddles became the predominant type from the 3rd century onwards.
The most widespread were saddles with semi-circular bows. Wooden bows and models of such saddles, as well as depictions of them, are known from China, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Europe and North Africa. From the 4th to 6th centuries saddles with tall П-shaped bows and stirrups became popular in China, Korea and Japan. Their invention is attributed to the Xianbei kingdom.
These saddles usually had metal overlays on the bows and supports, and were used primarily in battle. It was difficult to mount with this type of saddle, so special mounting loops were invented and swiftly became used as stirrups. At the same time, civilians continued to use saddles with semi-circular bows without protective overlays or stirrups. European saddles of the early 5th to
early 6th centuries had sets of overlays similar to Asian saddles with Π-shaped bows. The first saddles with saddletrees, invented no earlier than the first half of the 6th century, were Turkic. They completely reproduced in wood the semi-rigid saddles of the preceding period. Thereafter, improved metal stirrups became an integral part of the saddle.
FELT CLOTHES FROM THE BARROWS OF THE PAZYRYK CULTURE OF ALTAI
The burial mounds (kurgans) of the Pazyryk culture, which existed in the Altai region during the 5th – 3rd centuries BC, contain numerous objects made of felt, well preserved due to the permafrost. These objects include thick felt mats and wall carpets, with complex applications, ring-shaped napkins for vessels, pillows, handbags and covers, as well as horse equipment, including blankets, saddle pads and decorative covers. Decorative covers for horse manes and horse masks, which turn horses into fantastic animals, also have a felt basis. Clothes were also manufactured from felt. Three categories of clothing items were made from felt: stockings, "raincoats" and hats. Skirts and shirts were sewn from fabrics, trousers made from fabric or leather, and winter coats and boots produced from leather and fur.
Felt stockings were found in the elite mounds, as well as in the burials of ordinary folk. They were worn by men and women. The most beautiful stockings found so far belonged to the local ruler and his wife buried in Barrow 2 of the Pazyryk burial field. Four pairs of stockings were made of thin white felt, decorated with multi-color felt applications. The ornament on one pair echoes the ornaments found on the ceramic tiles in ancient Susa (Iran). Six more pairs of stockings were found at other burial grounds of the Pazyryk culture: Ak-Alaha-3 (Barrow 1), Verkh-Kaldzhin-2 (Barrows 1 and 3), Berel (Barrow 11), and Ak-Alaha-1 (Barrow 1). Of these, only women’s stockings from Ak-Alakha-3 had a decorative strip of a red felt application. All stockings were made from two pieces: a main long piece shaped to the leg and assembled at the toe and a short sole. The main part is sewn with a seam up the back. The seam is made with small stitches over the edge. The second seam connects the sole to the upper part. The length of women’s stockings varies from 89 to 96 cm, men’s – from 68 to 99 cm. The soles are all about 20 cm long. The number and richness of the design of felt stockings in Barrow 2 of Pazyryk is related to the high status of the people buried in it. Long felt stockings are common among Asian nomads in the Scythian period. Stockings similar to those of Pazyryk can be seen, for example, among the offerings of the Saka nomads depicted in the palace relief from Persepolis or worn by the shooting horseman depicted on a bronze censer from the Almaty area. Felt stockings from the archaeological graveyards in Xinjiang synchronous with the Scythian period reveal a very similar cut. They also have a short attached sole, an assembly at the toe, and may have an ornamental strip in the upper part. The tradition of wearing their cut and design patterns have changed.
The original outerwear of the Pazyryk people are very voluminous felt “raincoats” with long wide sleeves and hoods that are worn over fur coats or other outerwear in inclement weather. Two such items sewn from two layers of white felt were found in Barrow 3 of Pazyryk. By material, size and cut, as well as by the presence of several characteristic details they are almost identical to the raincoats of Tuva called hevenek. First recorded in the burial of the Pazyryk culture dated to the 3rd century BC, this type of clothing later became widely disseminated among other nomadic peoples and far beyond the borders of Southern Siberia. Obviously, felt raincoats were originally used not only for hunting or for cattle grazing, but also in military campaigns, to protect weapons from adverse weather conditions. Interesting observations about the use of cavalry upper garments of felt with wide sleeves can be found, for example, in Maurice’s Stratégikon – Handbook of Byzantine Military Strategy – dated to the 6th/7th century AD. Functional and practical raincoats made of felt were used by mounted pastoralists in Kazakhstan, Mongolia and Tuva still at the beginning of the 20th century.
All known Pazyryk hats are either made of felt, or have a felt base, covered with cloth or leather. In addition, felt hats are always painted in shades of red, in contrast to unpainted white felt stockings and raincoats. The most complete hats belong to the monuments of the end of the 4th and beginning of the 3rd centuries BC. Women’s hats of this time have a high conical shape with narrow margins (e.g. Ak-Alaha-3, Barrow 1; Pazyryk, Barrow 2). They were worn by married women over complex head-wigs, apparently to protect them. In appearance, but not in construction materials, they have analogies with some finds in Xinjiang. Two types of Pazyryk men’s hats are known. The first has the form of a rounded hat-hood with ears, which could have different lengths and straps at the ends. These hats were apparently used as everyday clothing. They were made of two halves and were often double-layered (on the outside – leather, inside – felt). The second type differed from the first only by an elongated subtriangular top. Such hats were worn by the Black Sea Scythians, Central Asian Saka and Siberian nomads. The form of the top and the details of the design of these hats had ethnic specificity and changed over time. In the Pazyryk kurgans of the end of the 4th and beginning of the 3rd centuries BC such headdresses were designed as a comb-shaped bird-headed top, which could be made entirely from felt (e.g. Top-Kaldzhin-2, Barrow 3), from felt and wood (e.g. Olon-Kurin-Gol-10, Barrow 1), or entirely of wood (e.g. Ak-Alaha-1, Barrow 1; Pazyryk, Barrow 2). These hats were used at ceremonies and funerals. They could have additional decoration in the form of fantastic ungulates and eagles. Headdresses of both types were found in some mounds (for example, Verkh-Kaldzhin-2, Barrow 1; Pazyryk, Barrow 3).
One characteristic of the ancient felt clothing is the presence of tucks for a better fit on the leg or head. This feature is apparently due to the insufficient ductility of the felt in comparison with fabric, leather, and fur.
The article is devoted to the reconstruction of a saddle of the so-cold Scythian type, made in 2013, on the basis of the study of archaeological saddles from the Pazyryk collection of the State Hermitage. The scientific reconstruction of the Scythian time saddle has been performed for the first time. It was preceded by a long preparatory work, including measurements of all preserved saddles and their fragments of the Pazyryk collection (Bashadar, Tuekta and Pazyryk barrows). We studied the seams, peculiarities of gaskets and the padding of the saddle cushions, as well as characteristics of the fixing of the saddle belts, surcingle buckles and decorative elements.
Making a comparison of the saddles from early and late kurgans of the Pazyryk culture made it clear that the saddles differ mainly by the decor and accessories which have been changed, but kept continuity. Design of the saddle pillows themselves, sets (composition, integration) and the fixing of the truck straps, the shape of the coverings and saddle-cloths remained unchanged during the whole period of the Pazyryk culture.
One of the saddles from the 3rd Pazyryk barrow was chosen as a model for the reconstruction. The executed saddle has been tested on riding horses to identify its performances.
Replicas of the saddle and the bridle from the 3rd Pazyryk barrow have been exhibited at the exposition "The World of nomads" made by the State Hermitage Museum, in Vyborg (November 2013 - April 2014) as visual materials.
The reconstructed saddle provides additional opportunities for interpretation of a number of artistic sourses of the Scythian and Hun-Sarmatian time.
An amazing finial, the pearl of the archeological collection of the State Hermitage Museum comes from the Pazyryk barrow 2. The finial is in the shape of a head of a fantastic eagle holding a deer head in its beak. Full-length figures carrying geese are depicted either side of its neck. It was found in the burial chamber of Pazyryk barrow 2 at the head of the coffin, but S. I. Rudenko never commented on its possible function. After the discovery in some Ulandryk and Yustyd burial mounds of the crest-like wooden finials, the upper part of which resembled a bird’s head, V. D. Kubarev suggested a similar function for that from Pazyryk. More recent excavations on the Ukok plateau and in north-west Mongolia have added further examples.
Three complete headdresses have now been discovered at Ak-Alakha-1 (burial mound 1), Verkh-Kal’dzhin 2 (burial mound 3) and Olon-Kurin-Gol 10 (burial mound 1). All of the headdresses with crest-shaped finials use a standard set of decorative motifs of fantastic hoofed animals and eagles. The eagles are either three-dimensional or appliqued. The hoofed animals either appear as statuettes or in relief with separate heads, and their bodies resemble stylized horses, deer and rams, with separate – usually goat-like – horns, long tails and stylized birds’ heads. All may represent different versions of a hoofed griffin, more complete images of which have been found in Pazyryk tattoos. The bodies of the relief ‘deer’ (usually with goat’s horns) could have images of rams’ heads (on the rump) and saiga or goat (on the shoulder).
A comparative analysis of these headdresses allowed a reconstruction of that from the Pazyryk barrow 2. Such elements include two double symmetrical compositions of leather and wood, depicting fantastic eagles grappling with hoofed griffins. The headdress had them positioned symmetrically, one on either side. The animals’ bodies are made of thick leather with cut-in relief detailing. The wooden heads, added separately, have leather ears, with crests on the eagles and horns on the hoofed griffins. The details on the double compositions are stylistically similar to the finial images, and were surely made by the same craftsman. Although both compositions have sustained considerable damage, it is possible to reconstruct their appearance as they are symmetrical.
It seems curious that the craftsman had not planned for the hoofed character’s head to be made separately, and had positioned its front legs differently. In the original version (without the deer head) the composition is almost identical to that on a gold aigrette with the griffin-vulture with a goat in its talons. The details of the legs of the eagle, and the figure of the goat.
The contest scene was repeated five times, on the common Pazyryk headdresses this was only ever hinted at, and the figures of the hoofed animals and eagles were placed next to one another. All the details were covered in gold leaf and painted red. The finial was considerably larger than common warriors so the chieftain would have stood out among his army. The great height and weight of the finial, which would have been affixed to the felt hood-base, would have demanded substantial reinforcement when the headdress was being constructed. Apart from the ornamental elements, the burial mound contained fragments of the actual hood-headdress, which was made of reddish felt and finished on the outside with red madder-dyed plant-based textile. Vertical strips of the same material were sewn onto the inside of the hood. These secured long and narrow iron plates, 0.5 cm in width and 20 cm in length, three on either side. The chinstraps of the headdress were tied with leather cord.
On the whole, this headdress would have had a rather intimidating effect and may have been worn in the chieftain’s final battle. The heads of the eagle and hoofed griffin on the right-hand side of the headdress have been struck off with a single blow, and the eagle’s wing has been lost. This damage corresponds with the two pointed battle-axe wounds on the right side of the chieftain’s head and the severely disfigured left-hand scene coincides with the area of the third blow. All of the Pazyryk culture headdresses with finials are concentrated in the south-east Altai region, and are dated to the rather narrow period of the late fourth to early third century bc.
E. V. Stepanova
During recent years there is a tendency in the archaeology of South Siberia to shift the dating of the Scythian sites which have a number of analogues of the early Scythian period back to the turn of the 6th and the 5th century BC. At the same time, for the sites with Hun-Sarmatian analogues, a younger date i.e. that of the 2nd century BC is proposed. Meanwhile, the time span of the use of any group of artifacts is far from falling within the limits of a certain chronological stage.
Here an attempt is presented to discuss the above statement by the example of recently published finds from kurgans 2 and 5 at the burial ground of Chendek-6a (High Altai) excavated by S. M. Kireev in 1999. In terms of the burial rite and grave goods these sites belong to the Pazyryk culture (Киреев, Шульга, 2006). Items of the bridle and saddle accessories from kurgan 5 and saddle accessories from kurgan 2 are typical to the later sites of the Pazyryk culture such as e.g. kurgans 3-6 of Pazyryk and burials of Shibe and Karakol (Руденко, 1953; Степанова, 2006). However, in the horse gear from kurgan 2, a combination of late saddle with shield-like pendants, as well as of bridle with bronze dividers and links for criss-crossing straps have been first encountered (fig. 2, 1; 3, 12). The presence of the bronze distributors in the bridle set from kurgan 2 at Chenek-6a, gives us grounds to place the latter among the early sites of the Pazyryk culture with the date of the 6th century BC.
Distributors of bridle straps really are more typical for the early Scythian period. Nevertheless they continued in use later in the Scythian and Hun-Sarmatian Age although without their former diversity of forms and careful execution. Two main forms of late links for crossing straps are noteworthy: 1) cross-like ones with loops on the back side, and 2) those with a round shield (either hemispheric or flattened cone-shaped) and a square base (smaller than the decorative shield) with a lozenge-shaped slit.
Cross-like distributors with loops on the reverse side go back to the distributors in the form of crossing pipes of the 7th - 5th century BC – fig. 1, 1 – 4. Distributors with loops on the back side have been found in the Minusinsk Basin (a chance find), on the Oba River near Barnaul (Rogozikha-1 kurgan 2), in the Altai mountains (Yaloman-II, kurgan 51) and trans-Baikal region, and at the Xiongnu burial ground of Dyrestui (gave 5) – fig.1, 5 – 7. The bridle sets from Rogozikha are dated to the late 6th – early 5th century BC, whereas the date of those from Yaloman and Dyrestui cemetery is the 2nd – 1st century BC. Furthermore, along with the strap-distributors, the sets from Yaloman-II included two-hole iron cheek-pieces with round or “oar-like” terminals similar to the wooden cheek-pieces from the 1st, 3rd and 5th Pazyryk kurgans.
The strap-distributors from kurgan 2 of Chendek-6a (fig. 2, 1) belong to another late group with a round flattened-cone shield and a narrow base with a lozenge-shaped slit. In N. L. Chlenova’s opinion, such examples appeared in the Minusinsk Basin in the 5th century BC and continued in use until the Tashtyk period. In addition to chance finds they have been uncovered in the late Tagar barrows – the Bolshoy Tesinsky kurgan and kurgan 2 of the Beresh burial ground, as well as among the items of the Znamensky hoard (fig. 2, 2 – 4). For the Bolshoy Tesinsky kurgan, dates within the span of the 2nd – 1st century BC to 2nd – 1st century AD were proposed; kurgan 2 of the Beresh cemetery is dated to the 3rd century AD and the Znamensky hoard to the 2nd century BC – first centuries of the 1st millennium AD (Дэвлет, 1961; Вадецкая, 1999; Подольский, 2002; Пшеницына, 1992).
The dividers of cheek straps (B- or 8-shaped, either with a decorative shield or without it) became widely distributed in the Altai, Minusinsk Basin, in Kazakhstan and the Ural region in the late 6th – early 5th century BC. Moreover, some similar objects have been reported also for pre-Schythian times, e.g. those from the late Novocherkassk kurgan near v. Kvitki in Porosye (Иванчик, 2001. Fig. 106, 63 - 64). In the mid-6th – first half of the 5th century BC, 8-like dividers with a shield in the form of doubled hemispheric plaques were in use (Maima-19; Kaindu kurgan 7; Novyi Sharap-1, kurgan 19) – fig. 3, 1, 5, 9. During the same period, dividers devoid of a decorative shield appeared; these were either B-shaped or “eight-like”. Dated possibly to the 6th- early 5th century BC are the iron B-shaped divider from kurgan 63 in Southern Tagisken, B-shaped bone ones form kurgan 27 at the cemetery of Tytkesken-VI, B-shaped bone items and an iron 8-shaped divider from kurgan 93 near v. Turan, bronze 8-like examples from robber excavations at kurgans of the Vtoryye Pyatimary group (fig. 3, 3-4, 6 – 8). To the 6th – 4th century BC belong the bronze B-shaped dividers from the Smaller Tuekta kurgans (Киселев, 1951. Pl. XXVIII, 4, 7, 11, 18). In general, the bridle trappings from the barrows enumerated are typical to the sites close in time or directly precedent to the early Pazyryk kurgans (the 2nd Bashadarsk, 1st and 2nd Tuekta).
The dividers without a decorative shield were continuing in use even later. The bridle with bronze B-shaped dividers (fig. 3, 2) from grave 1 at the cemetery of Kuznetsk-1/5 is dated to the 4th – 3rd century BC. Iron 8-shaped dividers have been found among the horse gear at the Xiongnu burial ground of Ilmovaya Pad of the 1st century BC - 1st century AD (fig. 3, 16) where in addition complicated side-rein blocks characteristic of the late Pazyryk kurgans were uncovered (Степанова, 2006. Fig. 9, 16; Руденко, 1962. Pl. XXII, 5).
For the standard sites of the Pazyryk culture, even so early as the 2nd Bashadar or 1st and 2nd Tuekta, neither dividers nor other distributors of straps are typical, although in some ordinary barrows they indeed have been found. For instance, at the early Pazyryk sites of the 5th – early 4th century BC – kurgan of Taldur I and kurgan 26 of Kok-su 1, the bridle furnishings include bone distributors with a hemispherical shield and B–shaped dividers without decorative shield (fig. 3, 10, 11). The B–shaped bone divider from kurgan 17 of Kok-su 1 has a flat shield shaped as an “eight” (fig. 3, 13). In that barrow, a bone buckle of a one-piece clasp with a bill in the plane of its frame was preserved of the saddle – such buckles were used as girth fastenings since the 4th century BC.
Very interesting are the silver dividers from the Znamensky hoard. These three sets all have a flat shield in the form of doubled trefoils – fig. 3, 14 – 15.
Although there are no exact parallels to the bronze dividers from Chendek, noteworthy is their similarity to the late dividers – the bone example with a flat shield shaped like an “eight” from kurgan 17 at Kok-su 1 and the silver Znamensky ones which also have a flat shield and a loop of an analogous shape on the back side.
Although dividers and distributors for crossing straps are thus more typical for the early Scythian Age, some of their forms continued into the Scythian and Hun-Sarmatian periods. Moreover, while in some regions they went out of use completely, in other (particularly in the Altai) they remained. Bridle distributors from kurgan 2 of Chendek-6a have parallels both in the Pazyryk kurgans and at sites of the Hun-Sarmatian period (fig. 2, 1 – 4, 3, 13 – 15).
The possible belonging of the distributors from kurgan 2 of Chendek-6a to some other culture is suggested by the composition of their bronze – it is tin-containing in contrast to the dagger from the same barrow which was cast from arsenical bronze typical to the Pazyryk culture (Хаврин, 2007. P. 280). The belonging to another culture is also suggested by incompleteness of the set of distributors (only three items) in the unlooted burial. However, the incomplete assemblage may be connected also with the burial rite (Очир-Горяева, 2006. Р. 119). In any case, damaged or lacking items of horse gear among the grave goods are characteristic exactly of the late Pazyryk sites (Степанова, 2006 Р. 141 – 143).
According to the last dendrochronological and radiocarbon data of high precision, such early site as kurgan 1 at Tuekta was constructed in c. 442 BC, kurgans 1 and 2 at the Pazyryk burial ground – in c. 300 BC, and the Pazyryk kurgan 5 – about 250 BC. Most of the excavated ordinary barrows are dated to the late 4th – early 3rd century BC (Евразия в скифскую эпоху (Eurasia during the Scythian Age), 2005. P. 165 – 169).
Most of the grave offerings from kurgans 2 and 5 at Chendek-6a are peculiar to the Pazyryk culture in general. The horse gear from these sites is typical for the late Pazyryk.
Summarizing all that is stated above it seems that the most probable date for kurgans 2 and 5 of Chendek-6a is the 3rd century BC.
This paper presents an analysis of assemblages of horse gear from typical kurgans of Pazyryk culture. The sampling examined included finds from 14 barrows at six burial grounds (table 1). These burials contained 129 horse skeletons; also parts of at least 85 saddles and 112 bridles were preserved. The sampling was based on 9 barrows with dendrochronological dates available for comparison. One of the kurgans (Pazyryk, barrow 2) was radiocarbon dated to a narrow range of 290-300 BC. In order to extend the sampling, considered were also finds from the barrows regarded by most of the researchers as the earlier (Bashadar, barrow 2, Tuekta, barrow 2) and younger (Shibe, Karakol) monuments of the Pazyryk culture. In addition, taken into consideration was the 6th Pazyryk kurgan dated by a mirror of the “Qin” type found in it to a period not earlier than 311 BC. The sites enumerated above are noted for the fine preservation of the organics enabling us to interpret reliably separate parts of the horse trappings. Moreover, they yielded fairly expressive typological series of the elements of gear which at ordinary sites are commonly represented only by single items. These facts allow us to regard the mentioned sites as the standard ones. Examination of the complexes of horse gear from these standard kurgans had enabled us to divide the latter into three chronological groups differing in the funerary rite of the horse burials (tables 2-7; figs. 4-7, 9-16, 18).
Features of the 1st chronological group.
1. Rich amounts of bronze furnishings and ornamental parts (table 2).
2. Two-piece saddle-girth fastenings are typical saddle furnishings These fastenings consist of a loop used as a pulley and buckles with a fixed bar bent inwards. They are represented by three varieties (figs 4-7; 12: 1-3; table 3). The “bronze loop-buckle” and ‘bone loop-buckle’ variants have been found only among group 1. Recorded exclusively in group 1 have been also bronze saddle-girth buckles with the bar bent outwards (used as the pulleys were the frames of the buckles) (figs 4: 1; 7: 1).
3. Characteristic of the horse burials is the presence of complete saddle sets including the saddle-girths with buckles.
4. The ornaments of the bridles and breast-plates are characterized by large wooden pendants in the form of asymmetrical leaves, palmettes, griffin heads, feline beasts of prey and elks. The base of the pendants is shaped like a circle or an elongated plank. The terminals of the cheek-pieces were decorated with the same motifs as the pendants.
5. Saddles typically had decorative coverings with flame-like edge, bladed pendants, felt “medallions” on semicircular projections in the front and rear part of the cushions, bunches of straps with pendants in the rear of the saddle, sets of plates (S-shaped, sickle-shaped, circular, shaped like commas or four-petalled rosettes).
Bronze two-piece girth fastenings and side-rein blocks from kurgans of group 1 have parallels at sites of the Early Scythian period (figs. 1, 2, 14: 1-5). Most of the analogues (bronze and iron bits with circular terminals, bronze pendants with asymmetrical leaves) come from sites of the end of the Early Scythian period in the Altai or nearby regions. At present these sites are dated to the second half of the 6th – beginning of the 5th century BC. However, furnishings (fig.3), bronze and iron bits with circular terminals, bronze fastenings of the throatlashes which in the 1st chronological group are already absent. Ornaments of the horse gear of group 1 reflect the evolution if only some of the elements represented at transitional sites (iron cramps and tablets with transversal cylinders plated with gold – imitations of the bronze spacer-rings and wooden comma-shaped plates-clasps). The S-shaped cheek-pieces with zoomorphic terminals from kurgans of group 1 have parallels at sites of the northern Black Sea area of the 5th century BC.
Features of the 2nd chronological group.
1. The use of bronze was limited to making bronze bits (about 8% of the sample).
2. Saddle-girth fastenings were mostly of bone with an outturned bar, however the combination type of two-piece fastenings with leather loops also continued in use (figs. 9; 12: 3, 4; 18: 1-2).
3. Most of the saddles from the burials have no girth fastenings (table 3).
4. In the decorations of the bridles and saddles, elements of the ornamentation both of groups 1 and 3 are combined suggesting the transitional character of the sites of group 2 ((figs. 15,16; tables 5-7).
The horse gear of the 2nd group lacks the elements of furnishings rooted back to the Early Scythian period. The replacement of the type of two-piece girth fastenings with the one-piece examples gives us a possibility to synchronize the sites of group 2 with those situated in other regions of the Eurasian steppes of the 4th century BC (fig.8).
Features of the 3rd chronological group.
1. The furnishings are close to those of group 2 in a number of characteristics: the limited use of bronze (bits, rods of the cheek-pieces, certain small parts of the ornaments), predominant use of one-piece bone girth fastenings, preservation of the variant of two-piece fastenings with leather loops (strengthened with bone mounts – fig.13), and the absence of fastenings on most of the saddles buried (figs. 9, 11, 5, 16; tables 2-7).
2. Saddle bracings and complicated side-rein blocks (fig. 14; 9-16) are found only at sites of this group.
3. Of the decoration of bridles and breast-plates characteristic are figured wooden plates while pendants were not used.
4. The main elements of the decoration of saddles were shield-like pendants and arched or lens-shaped mounts on the semicircular projections on the front and rear of the cushions of wood, bone and leather (fig.11).
The girth buckles and complicated blocks have analogues at sites of the Hunnic-Sarmatian period. Shield-shaped pendants similar to the Pazyryk ones are found at sites of the Qin and Western Han dynasties (late 3rd – 1st century BC) (fig.17). Numnahs with breast covers from kurgan 5 at Pazyryk are similar in their appearance to the ancient Iranian horse-rugs for riding which were used not later than the 3rd century BC (they are not found at sites of the Arshakid dynasty).
In horse burials of the 2nd and 3rd groups, damaging or lack of accompanying grave-goods has been noted: most of the saddles were buried without a saddle-girth into knots or cut out (table 3; figs. 11, 18).
Conclusions. The horse trappings from standard sites of the Pazyryk culture are dated by dendrochronological and absolute methods, as well as on the basis of the parallels mentioned above, to within the bracket of the 5th - 3rd centuries BC. The chronological groups of the horse gear distinguished within the culture in question may be tentatively dated as follows:
Group 1 – 5th (second half of the 5th) – beginning (first half) of the 4th – early 3rd century BC.
Group 2 - second half of the 4th – early 3rd century BC.
Group 3 – second quarter – the end of the 3rd century BC.
The article deals with the influence of riding using pad-saddles on the health of both riders and horses in the Scythian time. There is a conclusion proved in the article concerning the fact, that this type saddles was quite adequate for solving a task of prevention mutual traumas of a man and a horse as well as for stable seat of a horseman.
ARTICLES WITH CHINESE LACQUER FROM PAZYRYK
COLLECTION OF THE STATE HERMITAGE
The Pazyryk collection of the State Hermitage has a significant group of Chinese qi-lacquer decorated
objects (vessels, items of clothing and horse equipment, shields). They are concentrated mainly in late
barrows (3rd century BC) and are predominantly represented by leather goods. The article describes
these items and the results of a comprehensive study of coatings using different methods of analysis
(microchemical, X-ray fluorescence, spectral, etc.).
A retrospective study of oriental lacquers and, urushiody (urushiol, and thitsiol, laccol) film formers
which are contained in the sap of some species of trees of the sumac family, revealed that all coatings
investigated by us consist of qi-lacquer, which is based on urushiol. Qi-lacquer is made from the sap of the
lacquer tree Rhus verniciflua, cultivated in China in ancient times.
Coatings of items from the Pazyryk barrows have characteristics, techniques, and trace elements
significantly different from the composition of materials of the first century AD from NoinUla (except
for a few items that can be attributed to Noinulinskaya group). Respectively marked differences may not
be temporary, but territorial. Judging by the inscriptions on the vessels from Noin-Ula, Han workshops,
located in the northern regions of China may have inherited the tradition of the northern arts center, still
existing in the 6th-5th centuries BC around the Jin principality. «Chinese» saddle ornaments of bone and
wine cups with handles from the same cultural region, for example - from the kingdom of Qin, could get
to Altai. Lacquered leather may have been manufactured in the south, in the kingdom of Chu. While small
items of clothing and decorative horse equipment, were most likely cut in place from imported leather by
the Pazyryk.
Keywords: the Pazyryk culture, Chinese lacquer, State Hermitage Museum, lacquer leather products,
wood and bone, saddlery, cups with handles («ears»), patent leather, paints based on urushiol, qi-lacquer,
physico-chemical methods, IR spectroscopy and X-ray analysis, varnishes from kingdoms of Chu and Qin.
Studying of Scythian time wooden funeral beds was conducted since the academician V.V. Radlov first excavation in 1865 at Katanda village in Altai. The funeral table on high legs with a narrow long table-top was found by S.I. Rudenko in burial ground of Tuekta sepulchral hole of a barrow in an internal felling near a block with buried differs the others not only in a form but also in manufacturing techniques. The special researches for a woodworking technology conducted this year gave us new additional data for replenishment of completeness of source information. The new functional mission of this subject at commission of ritual actions is revealed during a funeral ceremony.
The barrow 2 occupied a separate place in the burial and was situated at a distance from the main cluster of barrows of P-group. In T-shaped catacomb two adults, a man and a woman were buried. Despite the robbery, a lot of wooden objects preserved in the burial (the remains of a bow, arrow shafts, small wooden tables, a mug, pieces of wooden vessels, a walking stick and many fragments of some objects that couldn’t be identified).
The most interesting feature of this burial is the presence of horse equipment: bits, bridle straps’ buckles, and a wooden pommel and cantle of a semi-rigid saddle. For Kenkol culture’s burials the presence of horse equipment in the grave is not a ceremonial norm, and a semi-rigid saddle is a unique find for Middle Asia. Judging by the design of the pommel and the cantle, the saddle from the barrow 2 may be attributed to early semi-rigid saddles that had appeared at the turn of the eras. Specifically the details of horse equipment and a set of arrowheads suggest that the barrow 2 of Kenkol burial can be dated within the III century A.C. and is one of earliest in the burial.
Archaeological sites of the Mongol period in Southern Siberia are so far not numerous. New materials on three saddles from the monument Chasovennaya gora situated near Krasnoyarsk and explored by S.A. Teplouhov in 1927, are briefly examined in this article. In each of the three burials a full set of horse tack including a bridle and a saddle was found. The design of saddle with silver plates was more thoroughly analyzed and a new reconstruction of the saddle was presented. A saddle with silver plates from grave No. 3 at the Chasovennaya Gora cemetery can serve as a standard of the elite Mongol saddles of the 13th–14th century, while it is reasonable to apply the notion of the Chasovennaya-Gora type of saddles only more narrowly to this group of saddles. Analysis of the horse gear from Chasovennaya Gora confirms the already previously expressed opinion that the site of Chasovennaya Gora belongs generally to the period of the Mongol expansion and the concluding stage of the existence of the state of the Yenisey Kyrgyzes. The horse equipment from Chasovennaya Gora, similarly to its main grave inventory, is of a mixed character. Only the saddle from grave No. 3 may be attributed to the Mongol type while the saddles from graves No. 2 and No. 1 are Kyrgyzian. Considering the features of the horse equipment, the site under consideration is datable to within the 13th century.
Scythian-type pad-saddles and the bows were attached to the tops of semi-circular supports. These saddles can be called ‘semirigid’, unlike rigid saddles which had a proper saddletree. The earliest saddlebows have been found in tombs of the Xiongnu of the 1st century BC (Tsaram, Noin-Ula), but semi-rigid saddles became the predominant type from the 3rd century onwards.
The most widespread were saddles with semi-circular bows. Wooden bows and models of such saddles, as well as depictions of them, are known from China, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Europe and North Africa. From the 4th to 6th centuries saddles with tall П-shaped bows and stirrups became popular in China, Korea and Japan. Their invention is attributed to the Xianbei kingdom.
These saddles usually had metal overlays on the bows and supports, and were used primarily in battle. It was difficult to mount with this type of saddle, so special mounting loops were invented and swiftly became used as stirrups. At the same time, civilians continued to use saddles with semi-circular bows without protective overlays or stirrups. European saddles of the early 5th to
early 6th centuries had sets of overlays similar to Asian saddles with Π-shaped bows. The first saddles with saddletrees, invented no earlier than the first half of the 6th century, were Turkic. They completely reproduced in wood the semi-rigid saddles of the preceding period. Thereafter, improved metal stirrups became an integral part of the saddle.
FELT CLOTHES FROM THE BARROWS OF THE PAZYRYK CULTURE OF ALTAI
The burial mounds (kurgans) of the Pazyryk culture, which existed in the Altai region during the 5th – 3rd centuries BC, contain numerous objects made of felt, well preserved due to the permafrost. These objects include thick felt mats and wall carpets, with complex applications, ring-shaped napkins for vessels, pillows, handbags and covers, as well as horse equipment, including blankets, saddle pads and decorative covers. Decorative covers for horse manes and horse masks, which turn horses into fantastic animals, also have a felt basis. Clothes were also manufactured from felt. Three categories of clothing items were made from felt: stockings, "raincoats" and hats. Skirts and shirts were sewn from fabrics, trousers made from fabric or leather, and winter coats and boots produced from leather and fur.
Felt stockings were found in the elite mounds, as well as in the burials of ordinary folk. They were worn by men and women. The most beautiful stockings found so far belonged to the local ruler and his wife buried in Barrow 2 of the Pazyryk burial field. Four pairs of stockings were made of thin white felt, decorated with multi-color felt applications. The ornament on one pair echoes the ornaments found on the ceramic tiles in ancient Susa (Iran). Six more pairs of stockings were found at other burial grounds of the Pazyryk culture: Ak-Alaha-3 (Barrow 1), Verkh-Kaldzhin-2 (Barrows 1 and 3), Berel (Barrow 11), and Ak-Alaha-1 (Barrow 1). Of these, only women’s stockings from Ak-Alakha-3 had a decorative strip of a red felt application. All stockings were made from two pieces: a main long piece shaped to the leg and assembled at the toe and a short sole. The main part is sewn with a seam up the back. The seam is made with small stitches over the edge. The second seam connects the sole to the upper part. The length of women’s stockings varies from 89 to 96 cm, men’s – from 68 to 99 cm. The soles are all about 20 cm long. The number and richness of the design of felt stockings in Barrow 2 of Pazyryk is related to the high status of the people buried in it. Long felt stockings are common among Asian nomads in the Scythian period. Stockings similar to those of Pazyryk can be seen, for example, among the offerings of the Saka nomads depicted in the palace relief from Persepolis or worn by the shooting horseman depicted on a bronze censer from the Almaty area. Felt stockings from the archaeological graveyards in Xinjiang synchronous with the Scythian period reveal a very similar cut. They also have a short attached sole, an assembly at the toe, and may have an ornamental strip in the upper part. The tradition of wearing their cut and design patterns have changed.
The original outerwear of the Pazyryk people are very voluminous felt “raincoats” with long wide sleeves and hoods that are worn over fur coats or other outerwear in inclement weather. Two such items sewn from two layers of white felt were found in Barrow 3 of Pazyryk. By material, size and cut, as well as by the presence of several characteristic details they are almost identical to the raincoats of Tuva called hevenek. First recorded in the burial of the Pazyryk culture dated to the 3rd century BC, this type of clothing later became widely disseminated among other nomadic peoples and far beyond the borders of Southern Siberia. Obviously, felt raincoats were originally used not only for hunting or for cattle grazing, but also in military campaigns, to protect weapons from adverse weather conditions. Interesting observations about the use of cavalry upper garments of felt with wide sleeves can be found, for example, in Maurice’s Stratégikon – Handbook of Byzantine Military Strategy – dated to the 6th/7th century AD. Functional and practical raincoats made of felt were used by mounted pastoralists in Kazakhstan, Mongolia and Tuva still at the beginning of the 20th century.
All known Pazyryk hats are either made of felt, or have a felt base, covered with cloth or leather. In addition, felt hats are always painted in shades of red, in contrast to unpainted white felt stockings and raincoats. The most complete hats belong to the monuments of the end of the 4th and beginning of the 3rd centuries BC. Women’s hats of this time have a high conical shape with narrow margins (e.g. Ak-Alaha-3, Barrow 1; Pazyryk, Barrow 2). They were worn by married women over complex head-wigs, apparently to protect them. In appearance, but not in construction materials, they have analogies with some finds in Xinjiang. Two types of Pazyryk men’s hats are known. The first has the form of a rounded hat-hood with ears, which could have different lengths and straps at the ends. These hats were apparently used as everyday clothing. They were made of two halves and were often double-layered (on the outside – leather, inside – felt). The second type differed from the first only by an elongated subtriangular top. Such hats were worn by the Black Sea Scythians, Central Asian Saka and Siberian nomads. The form of the top and the details of the design of these hats had ethnic specificity and changed over time. In the Pazyryk kurgans of the end of the 4th and beginning of the 3rd centuries BC such headdresses were designed as a comb-shaped bird-headed top, which could be made entirely from felt (e.g. Top-Kaldzhin-2, Barrow 3), from felt and wood (e.g. Olon-Kurin-Gol-10, Barrow 1), or entirely of wood (e.g. Ak-Alaha-1, Barrow 1; Pazyryk, Barrow 2). These hats were used at ceremonies and funerals. They could have additional decoration in the form of fantastic ungulates and eagles. Headdresses of both types were found in some mounds (for example, Verkh-Kaldzhin-2, Barrow 1; Pazyryk, Barrow 3).
One characteristic of the ancient felt clothing is the presence of tucks for a better fit on the leg or head. This feature is apparently due to the insufficient ductility of the felt in comparison with fabric, leather, and fur.
The article is devoted to the reconstruction of a saddle of the so-cold Scythian type, made in 2013, on the basis of the study of archaeological saddles from the Pazyryk collection of the State Hermitage. The scientific reconstruction of the Scythian time saddle has been performed for the first time. It was preceded by a long preparatory work, including measurements of all preserved saddles and their fragments of the Pazyryk collection (Bashadar, Tuekta and Pazyryk barrows). We studied the seams, peculiarities of gaskets and the padding of the saddle cushions, as well as characteristics of the fixing of the saddle belts, surcingle buckles and decorative elements.
Making a comparison of the saddles from early and late kurgans of the Pazyryk culture made it clear that the saddles differ mainly by the decor and accessories which have been changed, but kept continuity. Design of the saddle pillows themselves, sets (composition, integration) and the fixing of the truck straps, the shape of the coverings and saddle-cloths remained unchanged during the whole period of the Pazyryk culture.
One of the saddles from the 3rd Pazyryk barrow was chosen as a model for the reconstruction. The executed saddle has been tested on riding horses to identify its performances.
Replicas of the saddle and the bridle from the 3rd Pazyryk barrow have been exhibited at the exposition "The World of nomads" made by the State Hermitage Museum, in Vyborg (November 2013 - April 2014) as visual materials.
The reconstructed saddle provides additional opportunities for interpretation of a number of artistic sourses of the Scythian and Hun-Sarmatian time.
An amazing finial, the pearl of the archeological collection of the State Hermitage Museum comes from the Pazyryk barrow 2. The finial is in the shape of a head of a fantastic eagle holding a deer head in its beak. Full-length figures carrying geese are depicted either side of its neck. It was found in the burial chamber of Pazyryk barrow 2 at the head of the coffin, but S. I. Rudenko never commented on its possible function. After the discovery in some Ulandryk and Yustyd burial mounds of the crest-like wooden finials, the upper part of which resembled a bird’s head, V. D. Kubarev suggested a similar function for that from Pazyryk. More recent excavations on the Ukok plateau and in north-west Mongolia have added further examples.
Three complete headdresses have now been discovered at Ak-Alakha-1 (burial mound 1), Verkh-Kal’dzhin 2 (burial mound 3) and Olon-Kurin-Gol 10 (burial mound 1). All of the headdresses with crest-shaped finials use a standard set of decorative motifs of fantastic hoofed animals and eagles. The eagles are either three-dimensional or appliqued. The hoofed animals either appear as statuettes or in relief with separate heads, and their bodies resemble stylized horses, deer and rams, with separate – usually goat-like – horns, long tails and stylized birds’ heads. All may represent different versions of a hoofed griffin, more complete images of which have been found in Pazyryk tattoos. The bodies of the relief ‘deer’ (usually with goat’s horns) could have images of rams’ heads (on the rump) and saiga or goat (on the shoulder).
A comparative analysis of these headdresses allowed a reconstruction of that from the Pazyryk barrow 2. Such elements include two double symmetrical compositions of leather and wood, depicting fantastic eagles grappling with hoofed griffins. The headdress had them positioned symmetrically, one on either side. The animals’ bodies are made of thick leather with cut-in relief detailing. The wooden heads, added separately, have leather ears, with crests on the eagles and horns on the hoofed griffins. The details on the double compositions are stylistically similar to the finial images, and were surely made by the same craftsman. Although both compositions have sustained considerable damage, it is possible to reconstruct their appearance as they are symmetrical.
It seems curious that the craftsman had not planned for the hoofed character’s head to be made separately, and had positioned its front legs differently. In the original version (without the deer head) the composition is almost identical to that on a gold aigrette with the griffin-vulture with a goat in its talons. The details of the legs of the eagle, and the figure of the goat.
The contest scene was repeated five times, on the common Pazyryk headdresses this was only ever hinted at, and the figures of the hoofed animals and eagles were placed next to one another. All the details were covered in gold leaf and painted red. The finial was considerably larger than common warriors so the chieftain would have stood out among his army. The great height and weight of the finial, which would have been affixed to the felt hood-base, would have demanded substantial reinforcement when the headdress was being constructed. Apart from the ornamental elements, the burial mound contained fragments of the actual hood-headdress, which was made of reddish felt and finished on the outside with red madder-dyed plant-based textile. Vertical strips of the same material were sewn onto the inside of the hood. These secured long and narrow iron plates, 0.5 cm in width and 20 cm in length, three on either side. The chinstraps of the headdress were tied with leather cord.
On the whole, this headdress would have had a rather intimidating effect and may have been worn in the chieftain’s final battle. The heads of the eagle and hoofed griffin on the right-hand side of the headdress have been struck off with a single blow, and the eagle’s wing has been lost. This damage corresponds with the two pointed battle-axe wounds on the right side of the chieftain’s head and the severely disfigured left-hand scene coincides with the area of the third blow. All of the Pazyryk culture headdresses with finials are concentrated in the south-east Altai region, and are dated to the rather narrow period of the late fourth to early third century bc.
E. V. Stepanova
During recent years there is a tendency in the archaeology of South Siberia to shift the dating of the Scythian sites which have a number of analogues of the early Scythian period back to the turn of the 6th and the 5th century BC. At the same time, for the sites with Hun-Sarmatian analogues, a younger date i.e. that of the 2nd century BC is proposed. Meanwhile, the time span of the use of any group of artifacts is far from falling within the limits of a certain chronological stage.
Here an attempt is presented to discuss the above statement by the example of recently published finds from kurgans 2 and 5 at the burial ground of Chendek-6a (High Altai) excavated by S. M. Kireev in 1999. In terms of the burial rite and grave goods these sites belong to the Pazyryk culture (Киреев, Шульга, 2006). Items of the bridle and saddle accessories from kurgan 5 and saddle accessories from kurgan 2 are typical to the later sites of the Pazyryk culture such as e.g. kurgans 3-6 of Pazyryk and burials of Shibe and Karakol (Руденко, 1953; Степанова, 2006). However, in the horse gear from kurgan 2, a combination of late saddle with shield-like pendants, as well as of bridle with bronze dividers and links for criss-crossing straps have been first encountered (fig. 2, 1; 3, 12). The presence of the bronze distributors in the bridle set from kurgan 2 at Chenek-6a, gives us grounds to place the latter among the early sites of the Pazyryk culture with the date of the 6th century BC.
Distributors of bridle straps really are more typical for the early Scythian period. Nevertheless they continued in use later in the Scythian and Hun-Sarmatian Age although without their former diversity of forms and careful execution. Two main forms of late links for crossing straps are noteworthy: 1) cross-like ones with loops on the back side, and 2) those with a round shield (either hemispheric or flattened cone-shaped) and a square base (smaller than the decorative shield) with a lozenge-shaped slit.
Cross-like distributors with loops on the reverse side go back to the distributors in the form of crossing pipes of the 7th - 5th century BC – fig. 1, 1 – 4. Distributors with loops on the back side have been found in the Minusinsk Basin (a chance find), on the Oba River near Barnaul (Rogozikha-1 kurgan 2), in the Altai mountains (Yaloman-II, kurgan 51) and trans-Baikal region, and at the Xiongnu burial ground of Dyrestui (gave 5) – fig.1, 5 – 7. The bridle sets from Rogozikha are dated to the late 6th – early 5th century BC, whereas the date of those from Yaloman and Dyrestui cemetery is the 2nd – 1st century BC. Furthermore, along with the strap-distributors, the sets from Yaloman-II included two-hole iron cheek-pieces with round or “oar-like” terminals similar to the wooden cheek-pieces from the 1st, 3rd and 5th Pazyryk kurgans.
The strap-distributors from kurgan 2 of Chendek-6a (fig. 2, 1) belong to another late group with a round flattened-cone shield and a narrow base with a lozenge-shaped slit. In N. L. Chlenova’s opinion, such examples appeared in the Minusinsk Basin in the 5th century BC and continued in use until the Tashtyk period. In addition to chance finds they have been uncovered in the late Tagar barrows – the Bolshoy Tesinsky kurgan and kurgan 2 of the Beresh burial ground, as well as among the items of the Znamensky hoard (fig. 2, 2 – 4). For the Bolshoy Tesinsky kurgan, dates within the span of the 2nd – 1st century BC to 2nd – 1st century AD were proposed; kurgan 2 of the Beresh cemetery is dated to the 3rd century AD and the Znamensky hoard to the 2nd century BC – first centuries of the 1st millennium AD (Дэвлет, 1961; Вадецкая, 1999; Подольский, 2002; Пшеницына, 1992).
The dividers of cheek straps (B- or 8-shaped, either with a decorative shield or without it) became widely distributed in the Altai, Minusinsk Basin, in Kazakhstan and the Ural region in the late 6th – early 5th century BC. Moreover, some similar objects have been reported also for pre-Schythian times, e.g. those from the late Novocherkassk kurgan near v. Kvitki in Porosye (Иванчик, 2001. Fig. 106, 63 - 64). In the mid-6th – first half of the 5th century BC, 8-like dividers with a shield in the form of doubled hemispheric plaques were in use (Maima-19; Kaindu kurgan 7; Novyi Sharap-1, kurgan 19) – fig. 3, 1, 5, 9. During the same period, dividers devoid of a decorative shield appeared; these were either B-shaped or “eight-like”. Dated possibly to the 6th- early 5th century BC are the iron B-shaped divider from kurgan 63 in Southern Tagisken, B-shaped bone ones form kurgan 27 at the cemetery of Tytkesken-VI, B-shaped bone items and an iron 8-shaped divider from kurgan 93 near v. Turan, bronze 8-like examples from robber excavations at kurgans of the Vtoryye Pyatimary group (fig. 3, 3-4, 6 – 8). To the 6th – 4th century BC belong the bronze B-shaped dividers from the Smaller Tuekta kurgans (Киселев, 1951. Pl. XXVIII, 4, 7, 11, 18). In general, the bridle trappings from the barrows enumerated are typical to the sites close in time or directly precedent to the early Pazyryk kurgans (the 2nd Bashadarsk, 1st and 2nd Tuekta).
The dividers without a decorative shield were continuing in use even later. The bridle with bronze B-shaped dividers (fig. 3, 2) from grave 1 at the cemetery of Kuznetsk-1/5 is dated to the 4th – 3rd century BC. Iron 8-shaped dividers have been found among the horse gear at the Xiongnu burial ground of Ilmovaya Pad of the 1st century BC - 1st century AD (fig. 3, 16) where in addition complicated side-rein blocks characteristic of the late Pazyryk kurgans were uncovered (Степанова, 2006. Fig. 9, 16; Руденко, 1962. Pl. XXII, 5).
For the standard sites of the Pazyryk culture, even so early as the 2nd Bashadar or 1st and 2nd Tuekta, neither dividers nor other distributors of straps are typical, although in some ordinary barrows they indeed have been found. For instance, at the early Pazyryk sites of the 5th – early 4th century BC – kurgan of Taldur I and kurgan 26 of Kok-su 1, the bridle furnishings include bone distributors with a hemispherical shield and B–shaped dividers without decorative shield (fig. 3, 10, 11). The B–shaped bone divider from kurgan 17 of Kok-su 1 has a flat shield shaped as an “eight” (fig. 3, 13). In that barrow, a bone buckle of a one-piece clasp with a bill in the plane of its frame was preserved of the saddle – such buckles were used as girth fastenings since the 4th century BC.
Very interesting are the silver dividers from the Znamensky hoard. These three sets all have a flat shield in the form of doubled trefoils – fig. 3, 14 – 15.
Although there are no exact parallels to the bronze dividers from Chendek, noteworthy is their similarity to the late dividers – the bone example with a flat shield shaped like an “eight” from kurgan 17 at Kok-su 1 and the silver Znamensky ones which also have a flat shield and a loop of an analogous shape on the back side.
Although dividers and distributors for crossing straps are thus more typical for the early Scythian Age, some of their forms continued into the Scythian and Hun-Sarmatian periods. Moreover, while in some regions they went out of use completely, in other (particularly in the Altai) they remained. Bridle distributors from kurgan 2 of Chendek-6a have parallels both in the Pazyryk kurgans and at sites of the Hun-Sarmatian period (fig. 2, 1 – 4, 3, 13 – 15).
The possible belonging of the distributors from kurgan 2 of Chendek-6a to some other culture is suggested by the composition of their bronze – it is tin-containing in contrast to the dagger from the same barrow which was cast from arsenical bronze typical to the Pazyryk culture (Хаврин, 2007. P. 280). The belonging to another culture is also suggested by incompleteness of the set of distributors (only three items) in the unlooted burial. However, the incomplete assemblage may be connected also with the burial rite (Очир-Горяева, 2006. Р. 119). In any case, damaged or lacking items of horse gear among the grave goods are characteristic exactly of the late Pazyryk sites (Степанова, 2006 Р. 141 – 143).
According to the last dendrochronological and radiocarbon data of high precision, such early site as kurgan 1 at Tuekta was constructed in c. 442 BC, kurgans 1 and 2 at the Pazyryk burial ground – in c. 300 BC, and the Pazyryk kurgan 5 – about 250 BC. Most of the excavated ordinary barrows are dated to the late 4th – early 3rd century BC (Евразия в скифскую эпоху (Eurasia during the Scythian Age), 2005. P. 165 – 169).
Most of the grave offerings from kurgans 2 and 5 at Chendek-6a are peculiar to the Pazyryk culture in general. The horse gear from these sites is typical for the late Pazyryk.
Summarizing all that is stated above it seems that the most probable date for kurgans 2 and 5 of Chendek-6a is the 3rd century BC.
This paper presents an analysis of assemblages of horse gear from typical kurgans of Pazyryk culture. The sampling examined included finds from 14 barrows at six burial grounds (table 1). These burials contained 129 horse skeletons; also parts of at least 85 saddles and 112 bridles were preserved. The sampling was based on 9 barrows with dendrochronological dates available for comparison. One of the kurgans (Pazyryk, barrow 2) was radiocarbon dated to a narrow range of 290-300 BC. In order to extend the sampling, considered were also finds from the barrows regarded by most of the researchers as the earlier (Bashadar, barrow 2, Tuekta, barrow 2) and younger (Shibe, Karakol) monuments of the Pazyryk culture. In addition, taken into consideration was the 6th Pazyryk kurgan dated by a mirror of the “Qin” type found in it to a period not earlier than 311 BC. The sites enumerated above are noted for the fine preservation of the organics enabling us to interpret reliably separate parts of the horse trappings. Moreover, they yielded fairly expressive typological series of the elements of gear which at ordinary sites are commonly represented only by single items. These facts allow us to regard the mentioned sites as the standard ones. Examination of the complexes of horse gear from these standard kurgans had enabled us to divide the latter into three chronological groups differing in the funerary rite of the horse burials (tables 2-7; figs. 4-7, 9-16, 18).
Features of the 1st chronological group.
1. Rich amounts of bronze furnishings and ornamental parts (table 2).
2. Two-piece saddle-girth fastenings are typical saddle furnishings These fastenings consist of a loop used as a pulley and buckles with a fixed bar bent inwards. They are represented by three varieties (figs 4-7; 12: 1-3; table 3). The “bronze loop-buckle” and ‘bone loop-buckle’ variants have been found only among group 1. Recorded exclusively in group 1 have been also bronze saddle-girth buckles with the bar bent outwards (used as the pulleys were the frames of the buckles) (figs 4: 1; 7: 1).
3. Characteristic of the horse burials is the presence of complete saddle sets including the saddle-girths with buckles.
4. The ornaments of the bridles and breast-plates are characterized by large wooden pendants in the form of asymmetrical leaves, palmettes, griffin heads, feline beasts of prey and elks. The base of the pendants is shaped like a circle or an elongated plank. The terminals of the cheek-pieces were decorated with the same motifs as the pendants.
5. Saddles typically had decorative coverings with flame-like edge, bladed pendants, felt “medallions” on semicircular projections in the front and rear part of the cushions, bunches of straps with pendants in the rear of the saddle, sets of plates (S-shaped, sickle-shaped, circular, shaped like commas or four-petalled rosettes).
Bronze two-piece girth fastenings and side-rein blocks from kurgans of group 1 have parallels at sites of the Early Scythian period (figs. 1, 2, 14: 1-5). Most of the analogues (bronze and iron bits with circular terminals, bronze pendants with asymmetrical leaves) come from sites of the end of the Early Scythian period in the Altai or nearby regions. At present these sites are dated to the second half of the 6th – beginning of the 5th century BC. However, furnishings (fig.3), bronze and iron bits with circular terminals, bronze fastenings of the throatlashes which in the 1st chronological group are already absent. Ornaments of the horse gear of group 1 reflect the evolution if only some of the elements represented at transitional sites (iron cramps and tablets with transversal cylinders plated with gold – imitations of the bronze spacer-rings and wooden comma-shaped plates-clasps). The S-shaped cheek-pieces with zoomorphic terminals from kurgans of group 1 have parallels at sites of the northern Black Sea area of the 5th century BC.
Features of the 2nd chronological group.
1. The use of bronze was limited to making bronze bits (about 8% of the sample).
2. Saddle-girth fastenings were mostly of bone with an outturned bar, however the combination type of two-piece fastenings with leather loops also continued in use (figs. 9; 12: 3, 4; 18: 1-2).
3. Most of the saddles from the burials have no girth fastenings (table 3).
4. In the decorations of the bridles and saddles, elements of the ornamentation both of groups 1 and 3 are combined suggesting the transitional character of the sites of group 2 ((figs. 15,16; tables 5-7).
The horse gear of the 2nd group lacks the elements of furnishings rooted back to the Early Scythian period. The replacement of the type of two-piece girth fastenings with the one-piece examples gives us a possibility to synchronize the sites of group 2 with those situated in other regions of the Eurasian steppes of the 4th century BC (fig.8).
Features of the 3rd chronological group.
1. The furnishings are close to those of group 2 in a number of characteristics: the limited use of bronze (bits, rods of the cheek-pieces, certain small parts of the ornaments), predominant use of one-piece bone girth fastenings, preservation of the variant of two-piece fastenings with leather loops (strengthened with bone mounts – fig.13), and the absence of fastenings on most of the saddles buried (figs. 9, 11, 5, 16; tables 2-7).
2. Saddle bracings and complicated side-rein blocks (fig. 14; 9-16) are found only at sites of this group.
3. Of the decoration of bridles and breast-plates characteristic are figured wooden plates while pendants were not used.
4. The main elements of the decoration of saddles were shield-like pendants and arched or lens-shaped mounts on the semicircular projections on the front and rear of the cushions of wood, bone and leather (fig.11).
The girth buckles and complicated blocks have analogues at sites of the Hunnic-Sarmatian period. Shield-shaped pendants similar to the Pazyryk ones are found at sites of the Qin and Western Han dynasties (late 3rd – 1st century BC) (fig.17). Numnahs with breast covers from kurgan 5 at Pazyryk are similar in their appearance to the ancient Iranian horse-rugs for riding which were used not later than the 3rd century BC (they are not found at sites of the Arshakid dynasty).
In horse burials of the 2nd and 3rd groups, damaging or lack of accompanying grave-goods has been noted: most of the saddles were buried without a saddle-girth into knots or cut out (table 3; figs. 11, 18).
Conclusions. The horse trappings from standard sites of the Pazyryk culture are dated by dendrochronological and absolute methods, as well as on the basis of the parallels mentioned above, to within the bracket of the 5th - 3rd centuries BC. The chronological groups of the horse gear distinguished within the culture in question may be tentatively dated as follows:
Group 1 – 5th (second half of the 5th) – beginning (first half) of the 4th – early 3rd century BC.
Group 2 - second half of the 4th – early 3rd century BC.
Group 3 – second quarter – the end of the 3rd century BC.
The article deals with the influence of riding using pad-saddles on the health of both riders and horses in the Scythian time. There is a conclusion proved in the article concerning the fact, that this type saddles was quite adequate for solving a task of prevention mutual traumas of a man and a horse as well as for stable seat of a horseman.
ARTICLES WITH CHINESE LACQUER FROM PAZYRYK
COLLECTION OF THE STATE HERMITAGE
The Pazyryk collection of the State Hermitage has a significant group of Chinese qi-lacquer decorated
objects (vessels, items of clothing and horse equipment, shields). They are concentrated mainly in late
barrows (3rd century BC) and are predominantly represented by leather goods. The article describes
these items and the results of a comprehensive study of coatings using different methods of analysis
(microchemical, X-ray fluorescence, spectral, etc.).
A retrospective study of oriental lacquers and, urushiody (urushiol, and thitsiol, laccol) film formers
which are contained in the sap of some species of trees of the sumac family, revealed that all coatings
investigated by us consist of qi-lacquer, which is based on urushiol. Qi-lacquer is made from the sap of the
lacquer tree Rhus verniciflua, cultivated in China in ancient times.
Coatings of items from the Pazyryk barrows have characteristics, techniques, and trace elements
significantly different from the composition of materials of the first century AD from NoinUla (except
for a few items that can be attributed to Noinulinskaya group). Respectively marked differences may not
be temporary, but territorial. Judging by the inscriptions on the vessels from Noin-Ula, Han workshops,
located in the northern regions of China may have inherited the tradition of the northern arts center, still
existing in the 6th-5th centuries BC around the Jin principality. «Chinese» saddle ornaments of bone and
wine cups with handles from the same cultural region, for example - from the kingdom of Qin, could get
to Altai. Lacquered leather may have been manufactured in the south, in the kingdom of Chu. While small
items of clothing and decorative horse equipment, were most likely cut in place from imported leather by
the Pazyryk.
Keywords: the Pazyryk culture, Chinese lacquer, State Hermitage Museum, lacquer leather products,
wood and bone, saddlery, cups with handles («ears»), patent leather, paints based on urushiol, qi-lacquer,
physico-chemical methods, IR spectroscopy and X-ray analysis, varnishes from kingdoms of Chu and Qin.
Studying of Scythian time wooden funeral beds was conducted since the academician V.V. Radlov first excavation in 1865 at Katanda village in Altai. The funeral table on high legs with a narrow long table-top was found by S.I. Rudenko in burial ground of Tuekta sepulchral hole of a barrow in an internal felling near a block with buried differs the others not only in a form but also in manufacturing techniques. The special researches for a woodworking technology conducted this year gave us new additional data for replenishment of completeness of source information. The new functional mission of this subject at commission of ritual actions is revealed during a funeral ceremony.