The Scythians: nomad goldsmiths of the open steppes; The ...

Siberian art treasures
preserved in ice
for 2,500 years
Five centuries before the Christian Era, a nomad artist of the
steppes in the Altai region of Siberia (to the southwest of Lake
Baikal) sculpted this superb animal motif in wood. It depicts a
griffina mythical winged beast of prey -with a stag's head in its
jaws. The stag's horns and ears and the griffin's crest are
fashioned from leather, and on the mythical monster's neck two
tiny griffins are shown attacking a goose. This ornament
(35 cm. high) was discovered in a frozen tomb at Pazyryk, in the
Altai mountains, in 1949 (see article page 31).
Photo C Aurora Art Publishers, Leningrad