The Steppes: Crucible of Eurasia - units.muohio.edu - Miami University

More documents

Recommendations

Info

artifacts within a larger leather pouch and had suffered severe damage while entombed. It captured my imagination and has held my interest for more than a decade. Prior to my first attempts at a reconstruction I pored over thoughts of the pouch again and again always with the question in mind, “How was this made?” With only three illustrations and several paragraphs of text from which I could draw information, its reconstruction has been a challenge. 2. Process I studied the three illustrations provided in the English translation of “Frozen Tombs of Siberia” by Rudenko as well as all the pertinent information I could glean from the text that referred to the construction of this and other like artifacts from the various barrows. Because there were no dimensions provided of this pouch, I used the illustration of the gilded copper ducklings which has a 1/1 ratio notation as my base “measurement”. I used it to gain an approximation of the actual size using the “reconstruction” illustration among the editions colour plates. After creating several mock-ups of the pouch I was satisfied with the similarity between my mock up and the illustrations, I moved on to reconstructing the pouch. Sable, which was found to have been used in other artifacts, rather than leopard fur was used. Cow and deer leathers were used for the excised decoration, pouch back and interior bag. Felt for the pouch was made from wool and dyed with madder and alum which according to my research are common dye stuffs of the time and area. A matrix was carved into a bronze plate for the copper figures. Deer sinew thread was used throughout the reconstruction process. 3. Conclusion Over the course of four attempts at reconstructing the pouch I learned new lessons. Real sinew is versatile and very strong, and not as difficult to make as my early research indicated; indeed, making it as fine as modern sewing thread is a simple task with practice. The creation of gilded copper ducks brought its own difficulties—experimenting with matrices, metal plaques and the gilding thereof. Even the process of discovering how to make a small piece of felt remotely comparable to those used in the period was a challenge. The levels of craftsmanship and artistry were exceptional among the people of the Pazyryk. They were highly skilled, influential and devoted artists and I find myself in awe of their ability to produce such stunning folk art. In my own endeavors, I continue to be inspired by their example. William Honeychurch, Department of Anthropology, Yale University (co-authors: James Lankton, Chunag Amartuvshin; william.honeychurch@yale.edu) Silk Roads or Steppe Roads: Gobi Evidence for Mediterranean Goods in the Xiongnu Polity Nomadic peoples of the Inner Asian steppe have long been credited with playing a role in facilitating exchange along the famous Silk Roads reaching across Eurasia. Steppe empires, including those of the Turks, Uighurs, and Mongols in cooperation with sedentary merchants, provided transport, protection, infrastructure, and in many cases negotiated access to some of the most prestigious Chinese goods traveling westward. However, since the historical record of the Silk Roads was written almost exclusively within sedentary, urban societies, the organizational role of nomadic groups and polities is often obscure. This is particularly true during the earliest period of Silk Road exchange contemporary with the Han Dynasty of China and the Xiongnu state (3rd c. BC - AD 2nd c.) of Mongolia. Some historians have argued that greater emphasis should be placed on the role of steppe nomadic groups in creating and sustaining the earliest forms of Silk Road exchange. Recent anthropological understandings of Inner Asian nomadic polities and steppe pastoralism suggest new possibilities for conceptualizing nomadic input to the 6
ise of the Silk Roads. In this paper, I explore historical and archaeological evidence for Xiongnu state interaction with Central Asia and with China and critique the long standing assumption that eastern steppe nomads were peripheral to or predatory upon exchange between East and West. I suggest that nascent Silk Road activities were likely a critical part of the political economy of the Xiongnu state and examine the possibility of nomads as early architects of Eurasian trade. Jean-Luc Houle, Department of Folk Studies and Anthropology, Western Kentucky University (jean-luc.houle@wku.edu) Empire and Domestic Economy: Continuity and Change in Mongolia’s Bronze and Iron Age Archaeological Landscape This paper addresses the issue of social and political change from the Bronze Age to the Iron Age Xiongnu period by investigating continuity and change in the domestic economy in the Khanuy region of north central Mongolia. My goal is to assess the nature and the degree of integration of ideology, economy and politics as the region’s populace shifted from a series of independent small-scale polities to part of an ‘imperial’ state. We now know that during the Late Bronze Age herders in Khanuy Valley were becoming increasingly complex largely as a result of local interaction (Houle 2010). Once incorporated into the Xiongnu imperial polity, political power became markedly more centralized and the political economy more extensive. In analyzing both pre Xiongnu and Xiongnu Period situations, I focus on the internal dynamics and the external links of production, distribution, and consumption. I am mostly interested here with the changes in daily life (or lack thereof) that came about when Khanuy Valley people were incorporated into a political system that was greater in scale and focused on relationships external to Khanuy Valley. As radical as some changes were under Xiongnu rule, the evidence is equally interesting for the economic continuities. Most importantly, households and communities apparently continued to be largely self-sufficient in their subsistence and utilitarian craft production. Trudy S. Kawami, Arthur M. Sackler Foundation, New York (tkawami@arthurmsacklerfdn.org) The Coiled Feline in the Iron Age Steppes: An Art Historical View The image of the coiled feline, considered a typical motif in Scythian art of the 7 th century BCE, is an art historical puzzle. It has no immediate antecedents in the art of the steppes, and the excavated examples, which range from the Crimea to northern China, are strikingly similar in style. Furthermore, they are not randomly distributed, but occur in specific regions. Even in these regions, the image is found only in elite graves and even then rarely. Objects bearing the coiled feline are not multiples like the belt and garment ornaments of the steppe peoples, but are singular works found on horses or associated with horse gear. The sudden appearance of this distinctive image, its restricted occurrence, and rapid spread across the steppes suggest that it was an intentionally created emblem associated with the horses of a limited though widespread elite. 7
Page 1 and 2: PROGRAM AND ABSTRACTS The Steppes:
Page 3 and 4: Saturday, December 1 9:30-10:00 a.m
Page 5: fox, and birds (Chang et al. 2003).
Page 9 and 10: came to the fore after M.I. Rostovt
Page 11 and 12: effects upon the geopolitics of the
Page 13: Robert S. Wicks, Miami University A

The Steppes: Crucible of Eurasia - units.muohio.edu - Miami University

Create successful ePaper yourself

Delete template?

Save as template?