Scythian Culture - Preservation of The Frozen Tombs of The Altai Mountains (UNESCO)

Fig. 2 Bronze nail from
the sarcophagus lid of
the Berel’ 11 kurgan
showing steppe-style
crested griffin.
Fig. 3 Typical steppestyle
gilded wooden
horse pendant in the
shape of an elk with
lobed antlers from
the Berel’ 11 kurgan,
a motif transmitted
as far as China.
Photos: © Mission
Archéologique Française
en Asie Centrale (CNRS-
MAE) H.-P. Francfort.
hoods, these also being depicted in Achaemenid
reliefs and in finds made in Ak-Alakha and at the
Issyk burial site in Kazakhstan.
The climatic conditions of the Altai have
caused the freezing of organic materials in the
large and deep burials of the tombs, thereby
preserving a rich and colourful picture of
Scythian life and of the Scythians’ long-distance
relationships. The nomadic steppe tradition of
Altai art can be seen in the wooden, leather and
textile artifacts found in the tombs, as well as in
the mummies themselves and in their dress,
headgear and tattoos. Four iconographic motifs
particularly illustrate this tradition and the
specific character of Altai artistic expression.
These four motifs are the horned horse, the flying
“beaked” deer, the crested griffin and the elk
with lobed antlers.
The horned horse is an ancient, composite
image consisting of a horse with horns or antlers,
and it is found among ancient rock-art images
dating from the late Bronze Age, including those
found in the Altai. The bodies of real horses were
found in the Scythian burial sites, these wearing
masks with elaborate deer or elk antlers or ibex
horns (Fig.1). The motif of the flying “beaked”
deer is also an ancient image of the steppe, originating
in rock-art and stele engravings, the beaklike
feature being meant either as the beak of a
bird or as a sharp stylization of the animal’s
muzzle. Curiously, this motif is not used on artifacts,
but is found used in the tattoos on the bodies
of some Pazyryk individuals, where it features
what is clearly the beak of a bird of prey. Another
typical motif of the Pazyryk Culture is the crested
griffin, which originates in the images of birds
of prey that are so numerous in all steppe art
(Fig. 2). The elk with lobed antlers is another typical
image, this one also being adopted by other
cultures in north-western China (Fig. 3). These
observations confirm how deeply rooted Altai
nomadic culture was in common steppe tradition,
even as it developed its own individuality.
Steppe art is a local tradition, and the discoveries
made at Arzhan-1 and Arzhan-2 (Tuva),
together with the recent Chilikty finds from
Kazakhstan, confirm that during its early phase
from the early 1 st millennium bce (the Arzhan-
Maiemir phase, according to Gryaznov) to the
6 th to 5 th centuries this was a purely local art
concentrated in the Altai. However, during the
5 th and 4 th centuries bce changes took place that
led to enhanced exchanges with other cultural
and artistic traditions. These exchanges seem to
have increased further over subsequent centuries
owing to Achaemenid, Greek and Chinese expansion
in the steppes, as well as to the mobility of
the nomads themselves.
Nomadic cultures developed during the same
period on the Chinese side of the Altai and in
north-western China, Xinjiang, Gansu, Qinghai
and Inner Mongolia. It seems clear that iconographic
motifs found among such cultures were
inspired by the art of the Altai nomads. The elk
head with lobed antlers, for example, found in
Ningxia, was definitely derived from the Altai, as
was the typical association of a palmetto with two
flanking raptor heads, though, as we shall see,
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