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Taiyo Ltd.
2-11-9, KYOBASHI, CHUO-KU, TOKYO 104-0031 JAPAN.
TEL: 03-5524-6066 |
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Ornaments
Scythia, c. 4th century BC, bronze and gold leaf
Left: H-16 cm, Right: D-6.5 cm
The Scythians were nomadic people who migrated mainly in the steppes of Eurasia between the 9th and 4th centuries BC. At its peak, Scythian cultural influence stretched from the Carpathian Mountains in the west to Ordos on the Yellow River in the east, and southern Siberia. Conflicts between the nomadic tribes of Central Asia between the 2nd century BC and the 4th century AD triggered migration, and as a result, in the 2nd century BC the Scythians flowed into the northwestern and central parts of South Asia, including Sogdiana, Bactria, Gandhara, and Kashmir. In the 1st century BC, the Indo-Scythian kingdom was established in Gandhara and the Indus Valley, and later conquering the northwestern part of India expanded its territory, but at the beginning of the 1st century AD, the kingdom fell under the rule of the Kushan dynasty founded by the one of the nomadic tribes, Yuezhi.
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The Scythians, whose social organization consisted of clans and whose livelihood was based on hunting and breeding, brought symbolic meaning to the animals around them and worshipped them as objects of cult. A style called animal design, which uses animals as the subject of art, spans a wide area of the Eurasian steppes from where bronze and gold ornaments depicting animal motifs were unearthed.
These ornaments are a pin-shaped clothing fastener on the left, and a bracelet on the right. They are made of bronze with the decorative parts covered with gold foil. Both ends of the bracelet are in the shape of animal heads. The decorative part of the pin looks like a graceful pose of a bird with its beak pointing upwards and the tips of its wings on either side of it. The design of this object shows quite strong geometric stylization. It is left to the viewer to decide whether the animals used in the decoration were symbols of the clan or an expression of admiration, love and respect for them. |
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