Tibetan Silver, Gold and Bronze Objects and the Aesthetics of Animals in the Era before Empire: Cross-cultural reverberations on the Tibetan Plateau and soundings from other parts of Eurasia 9781407354316, 9781407354354

Table of contents :
Front Cover
Title page
Copyright
Of related interest
Contents
List of Figures
List of Tables
Introduction
Overview
The contents of the study
Geographic scope
Chronology and localisation
Pursuant technical matters
Provenance
1. Two Tibetan silver bowls of the Late Prehistoric era: The spread of vessels in precious metals and lion art of West Asia to the Plateau
The silver bowls in the Pine collection
Other Tibetan silver and gold vessels and the lion
The cultural and historical origins of the silver bowls in the Pine collection
2. A Tibetan gold finial of the Late Prehistoric era: Transcultural movements discerned in the most incorruptible of metals
The gold finial in the Pine collection
Other Tibetan gold objects of the pre-Imperial era
The cultural and historical origins of the gold finial
3. Tibetan copper-alloy jars of the Late Prehistoric era: Tracing a northern arc of cultural connectivity through form and function
Tibetan copper-alloy bird-spouted jars in private collections
A bird-spouted ceramic jar from Iran
4. Tibetan copper-alloy trapezoidal plaques of the Late Prehistoric era: Tigers and geometric patterns in the interregional matrix
A trapezoidal plaque attributed to Tibet in the Pine collection
A Tibetan trapezoidal openwork plaque in a privateb collection
Other Tibetan trapezoidal openwork plaques and their cultural significance
5. To and from Iran: Scythic links with the north and east
The Achaemenid empire and its steppe connections
The Scythian carriers of culture in the eastern part of Central Asia
Saka agency in the expansion of zoomorphic art in North Asia
6. To Tibet: Bearers of the Eurasian Animal Style in
Northern Pakistan and North Inner Asia
Saka art in the Pamirs and Northern Pakistan
The Saka in the multicultural Tarim Basin
The Northern Zone connection
Cultural crosscurrents extending to the Eastern Steppe
7. In Tibet: Transfer of the Eurasian Animal Style to the Plateau and parallel processes affecting China
Eurasian Animal Style rock art in Tibet
Parallel developments in the east
Conclusion
Mechanisms of transmission in the Inner Asian network of exchange
Bibliography
Index
Back Cover

Citation preview

Tibetan Silver, Gold and Bronze Objects and the Aesthetics of Animals in the Era before Empire Cross-cultural reverberations on the Tibetan Plateau and soundings from other parts of Eurasia

John Vincent Bellezza B A R I N T E R NAT I O NA L S E R I E S 2 9 8 4

2020

Tibetan Silver, Gold and Bronze Objects and the Aesthetics of Animals in the Era before Empire Cross-cultural reverberations on the Tibetan Plateau and soundings from other parts of Eurasia

John Vincent Bellezza B A R I N T E R NAT I O NA L S E R I E S 2 9 8 4

2020

Published in 2020 by BAR Publishing, Oxford BAR International Series 2984 Tibetan Silver, Gold and Bronze Objects and the Aesthetics of Animals in the Era before Empire isbn  978 1 4073 5431 6 paperback isbn  978 1 4073 5435 4 e-format doi https://doi.org/10.30861/9781407354316 A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library © John Vincent Bellezza 2020 cover image A Tibetan silver bowl with high-relief lions on opposite sides. Jeremy Pine collection, Hong Kong. Photograph by Mark French. The Author’s moral rights under the 1988 UK Copyright, Designs and Patents Act are hereby expressly asserted. All rights reserved. No part of this work may be copied, reproduced, stored, sold, distributed, scanned, saved in any form of digital format or transmitted in any form digitally, without the written permission of the Publisher. Links to third party websites are provided by BAR Publishing in good faith and for information only. BAR Publishing disclaims any responsibility for the materials contained in any third party website referenced in this work.

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Acknowledgements I am deeply indebted to all those who have intellectually and materially aided my research work. The support I have received in organising and carrying out exploration in Tibet has been particularly crucial to the writing of this book. I would like to thank the many Tibetans who permitted me to photograph ancient artefacts in their possession and who provided me with a wealth of information about their history and cultures over more than three decades. A debt of gratitude is due to Christoph Cueppers (Kathmandu), who has sustained support of my work and my participation at international gatherings of Tibetan scholars through the Lumbini International Research Institute. I am also obliged to David Pritzker (Oxford) for his help, not least of all by covering expenses related to my accreditation from the University of Kent (UK). I would also like to thank Jonathan Mair, Miguel Alexiades and Daniela Peluso (all of University of Kent) for their good offices. I specially thank Rebecca C. Bellezza for taking the time and trouble of creating high-quality illustrations for this book. I also recognise the efforts of Tibetan artists contracted to furnish drawings for the work. I warmly acknowledge the help of friends and colleagues in collecting the materials needed to write this monograph. I heartily thank them all. Much of this work rests on the generosity of Jeremy Pine (Hong Kong), who kindly opened his collection of unusual Tibetan and Central Asian antiquities to me. Bob Brundage (Petaluma), an expert in Tibetan material culture, supported the digitisation of photographs related to this monograph and underwrote the cost of the editing service in the preparation of this book for publication. This is his latest bid to further my research activities and I thank him for it. Hans Weihreter (Augsburg), another collector and connoisseur of Tibetan antiques, generously supplied needed images from his publications. Moke Mokotoff (New York), an American collector of Tibetan antiques, gave me access to his acquisitions in an open-hearted manner. I would like to thank Bill Fitzhugh (Smithsonian) for introducing me to archaeologists working in Mongolia and other regions of North Inner Asia. Amy Heller (Nyon) kindly assisted me in tracking down and procuring permission to use a few images reproduced in this book. Bill Honeychurch (Yale University) helped me greatly by obtaining copies of a variety of publications otherwise unavailable to me. Similarly, John Mock (Yosemite) also took it upon himself to locate and send me copies of articles I could not obtain elsewhere. Emma Bunker (Wheatland) generously supplied me with pertinent pages from a catalogue she is compiling as well as other publications. I, too, fondly recall the various discussions on ancient art I had with her. Xiao Bo (Anthropology Museum of Guangxi) and Xiang Wang (Northwest University) shared images of petroglyphs recently discovered in Ser-shul, for which I am most grateful. I would also like to thank the following individuals for allowing me to reproduce images in this work that they either own or administer for various institutions: James Kohler (Cleveland Museum of Art), Svetlana Adaxina (The State Hermitage Museum), Esther Jacobson-Tepfer and Gary Tepfer (University of Oregon) and Ulrich von Schroeder (Weesen). I am very much appreciative of Quentin Devers (Annecy) and Viraf Mehta (Delhi) for unstintingly sharing with me their large image collections of Ladakh’s rock art. Their generosity has significantly enhanced my knowledge of ancient art on the Western Tibetan Plateau. Laurianne Bruneau (Paris) and Martin Vernier (Lausanne) have also been gracious in making their images of rock art in Ladakh available to me.

Contents List of Figures.................................................................................................................................................................... vii List of Tables..................................................................................................................................................................... xiii Introduction......................................................................................................................................................................... 1 Overview........................................................................................................................................................................ 1 The contents of the study............................................................................................................................................... 2 Geographic scope........................................................................................................................................................... 3 Chronology and localisation.......................................................................................................................................... 3 Pursuant technical matters............................................................................................................................................. 8 Provenance..................................................................................................................................................................... 9 1. Two Tibetan silver bowls of the Late Prehistoric era: The spread of vessels in precious metals and lion art of West Asia to the Plateau........................................................................................................................................ 17 The silver bowls in the Pine collection........................................................................................................................ 17 Other Tibetan silver and gold vessels and the lion....................................................................................................... 21 The cultural and historical origins of the silver bowls in the Pine collection.............................................................. 30 2. A Tibetan gold finial of the Late Prehistoric era: Transcultural movements discerned in the most incorruptible of metals............................................................................................................................................... 39 The gold finial in the Pine collection........................................................................................................................... 39 Other Tibetan gold objects of the pre-Imperial era...................................................................................................... 43 The cultural and historical origins of the gold finial.................................................................................................... 45 3. Tibetan copper-alloy jars of the Late Prehistoric era: Tracing a northern arc of cultural connectivity through form and function........................................................................................................................................ 53 Tibetan copper-alloy bird-spouted jars in private collections...................................................................................... 53 A bird-spouted ceramic jar from Iran........................................................................................................................... 57 4. Tibetan copper-alloy trapezoidal plaques of the Late Prehistoric era: Tigers and geometric patterns in the interregional matrix............................................................................................................................................. 59 A trapezoidal plaque attributed to Tibet in the Pine collection.................................................................................... 59 A Tibetan trapezoidal openwork plaque in a private collection................................................................................... 63 Other Tibetan trapezoidal openwork plaques and their cultural significance.............................................................. 66 5. To and from Iran: Scythic links with the north and east....................................................................................... 79 The Achaemenid empire and its steppe connections.................................................................................................... 79 The Scythian carriers of culture in the eastern part of Central Asia............................................................................ 82 Saka agency in the expansion of zoomorphic art in North Asia.................................................................................. 86 6. To Tibet: Bearers of the Eurasian Animal Style in Northern Pakistan and North Inner Asia........................... 91 Saka art in the Pamirs and Northern Pakistan.............................................................................................................. 91 The Saka in the multicultural Tarim Basin................................................................................................................... 96 The Northern Zone connection.................................................................................................................................. 103 Cultural crosscurrents extending to the Eastern Steppe............................................................................................. 113 7. In Tibet: Transfer of the Eurasian Animal Style to the Plateau and parallel processes affecting China......... 121 Eurasian Animal Style rock art in Tibet..................................................................................................................... 121 Parallel developments in the east............................................................................................................................... 142

v

Tibetan Silver, Gold and Bronze Objects and the Aesthetics of Animals in the Era before Empire Conclusion....................................................................................................................................................................... 147 Mechanisms of transmission in the Inner Asian network of exchange...................................................................... 147 Bibliography.................................................................................................................................................................... 151 Index................................................................................................................................................................................. 165

vi

List of Figures Map 1. Central Eurasia and subsidiary territories................................................................................................................. 5 Map 2. Inner Asia and subsidiary territories......................................................................................................................... 6 Fig. 1.1. Tibetan silver bowl with high-relief lions on two opposite sides......................................................................... 18 Fig. 1.2. A close-up view of the decorative pattern on the silver bowl............................................................................... 18 Fig. 1.3. A close-up of one of the two lion subjects adorning the vessel............................................................................ 18 Fig. 1.4. A view of the bottom of the bowl......................................................................................................................... 19 Fig. 1.5. Overhead view of the bowl................................................................................................................................... 19 Fig. 1.6. Detail of the endless knot engraved on the bottom of the bowl........................................................................... 19 Fig. 1.7. A close-up view of the base of the bowl marked with an engraved disc.............................................................. 19 Fig. 1.8. A larger Tibetan silver bowl with four lions......................................................................................................... 20 Fig. 1.9. A view of the base of the bowl with four lions..................................................................................................... 20 Fig. 1.10. A close-up view of one of the lions and two of the interposed arrow and lance motifs..................................... 21 Fig. 1.11. An overhead view of the interior of the bowl..................................................................................................... 21 Fig. 1.12. A figured jug, cup and rhyton made of silver with gilding, Tibet or North Inner Asia....................................... 23 Fig. 1.13. A silver flagon kept in the Jo-khang, Lhasa........................................................................................................ 23 Fig. 1.14. Two Tibetan copper-alloy plaques with lions..................................................................................................... 24 Fig. 1.15. A large silver cup with partial gilding, Tibet or North Inner Asia...................................................................... 25 Fig. 1.16. The bottom of the silver cup with partial gilding............................................................................................... 25 Fig. 1.17. A view of the interior of a solid gold footed cup, Tibet or China....................................................................... 26 Fig. 1.18. A possible component of a horse harness featuring a lion, Tibet....................................................................... 27 Fig. 1.19. A Tibetan squatting lion figurine of the thokcha class........................................................................................ 27 Fig. 1.20. A copper-alloy thokcha plaque with two confronted lions................................................................................. 27 Fig. 1.21. The famous lion sculpture in the ’Phyong-rgyas royal burial grounds, Tibet.................................................... 27 Fig. 1.22. Lions with elongated bodies on a bronze encased mchod-rten and fibula, Nepal and Tibet.............................. 29 Fig. 1.23. A pre-Achaemenid silver bowl with rounded body and crenation..................................................................... 33 Fig. 1.24. A footed silver cup enwrapped in repoussé petal motifs from Sogdiana............................................................ 34 Fig. 1.25. A feline thokcha with large attachment loop...................................................................................................... 35 Fig. 1.26. A thokcha of four feline heads arrayed around a hub with three concentric diamonds...................................... 36 Fig. 1.27. A simple Tibetan ring fibula crowned by a pair of feline heads and flanked by addorsed bird heads................ 36 Fig. 1.28. A thokcha of three interconnected rings, each with a feline protome................................................................. 37 Fig. 1.29. A Tibetan fibula ornamented with a feline protome........................................................................................... 37 Fig. 2.1. A Tibetan arched finial lavishly embellished with animals, made in gold........................................................... 40 Fig. 2.2. The reverse side of the same gold finial............................................................................................................... 40 vii

Tibetan Silver, Gold and Bronze Objects and the Aesthetics of Animals in the Era before Empire Fig. 2.3. A view of the underside of the gold finial............................................................................................................. 40 Fig. 2.4. A peacock thokcha, head regardant...................................................................................................................... 41 Fig. 2.5. Two Tibetan ring fibulae with pairs of peacocks.................................................................................................. 42 Fig. 2.6. Cast gold objects excavated by Chinese archaeologists in Sna-dkar-rtse, Tibet.................................................. 43 Fig. 2.7. Gold plaque in the form of a horse from Sna-dkar-rtse, Tibet............................................................................. 43 Fig. 2.8. A pair of gold earrings, Sna-dkar-rtse, Tibet........................................................................................................ 44 Fig. 2.9. A gold torque from the Khokhlatch kurgan, Russia............................................................................................. 46 Fig. 2.10. A Tibetan fibula with a pair of standing lions and a pair of confronted peacocks.............................................. 47 Fig. 2.11. Five smaller Tibetan copper-alloy ring fibulae................................................................................................... 48 Fig. 2.12. A bronze harness ring, Iran................................................................................................................................. 49 Fig. 2.13. A Tibetan ring fibula with two central anthropomorphic figures........................................................................ 50 Fig. 2.14. An openwork bronze pinhead with pairs of carnivores flanking a master or mistress of animals, Luristan...... 52 Fig. 3.1. A probable Tibetan copper-alloy jar with false spout in the form of a bird.......................................................... 53 Fig. 3.2. A close-up of the spout on the jar......................................................................................................................... 53 Fig. 3.3. An overhead view of the bird-spouted vessel....................................................................................................... 53 Fig. 3.4. The duck-spouted jar portrayed next to a Tibetan miniature bird-spouted jar..................................................... 54 Fig. 3.5. Another Tibetan miniature bird-spouted jar.......................................................................................................... 54 Fig. 3.6. The opposite side of the vessel in Fig. 3.5............................................................................................................ 54 Fig. 3.7. A miniature copper cauldron, Tibet...................................................................................................................... 55 Fig. 3.8. The bottom of the cauldron.................................................................................................................................. 55 Fig. 3.9. Two copper-alloy cauldrons excavated in Gur-gyam, Tibet................................................................................. 55 Fig. 3.10. Copper cauldron with tripod legs, Xinyuan, Xinjiang........................................................................................ 56 Fig. 3.11. A burnished ceramic jar with bird-headed spout, Iran........................................................................................ 56 Fig. 3.12. A burnished ceramic jar with bird-headed spout and three rows of incised triangles on the shoulder............... 57 Fig. 4.1. A large Tibetan copper-alloy plaque with a modified trapezoidal form............................................................... 60 Fig. 4.2. The back of the plaque in Fig. 4.1........................................................................................................................ 60 Fig. 4.3. A close-up of the tigers surmounting the plaque.................................................................................................. 61 Fig. 4.4. Band patterns on Chinese bronze vessels recovered from tombs in Hou-ma and Liu-li-ko................................ 61 Fig. 4.5. Two spiralling geometric subjects from lower Ladakh........................................................................................ 61 Fig. 4.6. A copper-alloy mirror engraved with interconnected volutes, Tibet.................................................................... 62 Fig. 4.7. The back of the mirror in Fig. 4.6......................................................................................................................... 63 Fig. 4.8. A Tibetan trapezoidal openwork copper-alloy plaque.......................................................................................... 64 Fig. 4.9. The reverse side of the plaque in Fig. 4.8............................................................................................................. 65 Fig. 4.10. A small trapezoidal openwork copper-alloy plaque from Tibet......................................................................... 66 Fig. 4.11. The reverse side of the plaque in Fig. 4.10......................................................................................................... 67 Fig. 4.12. A Tibetan trapezoidal openwork copper-alloy plaque with bird heads.............................................................. 67 Fig. 4.13. The back of the plaque in Fig. 4.12.................................................................................................................... 67 Fig. 4.14. A trapezoidal openwork copper-alloy plaque with a carnivore predation scene from Tibet.............................. 68 viii

List of Figures Fig. 4.15. The reverse side of the plaque in Fig. 4.14......................................................................................................... 68 Fig. 4.16. A bronze belt buckle with a tiger devouring a kulan, Northern Zone................................................................ 69 Fig. 4.17. Another trapezoidal openwork copper-alloy plaque from Tibet......................................................................... 70 Fig. 4.18. Tiger and tigrine rock carvings from the Western Tibetan Plateau and Mongolia............................................. 74 Fig. 4.19. Tiger rock carving in Ru-thog, Far Western Tibet.............................................................................................. 74 Fig. 4.20. Tiger rock carving in Ladakh.............................................................................................................................. 74 Fig. 4.21. Tiger rock carving of the Tagar culture, Southern Siberia.................................................................................. 75 Fig. 4.22. Tiger petroglyph, Mongolian Altai..................................................................................................................... 75 Fig. 4.23. Tiger petroglyph, Inner Mongolia...................................................................................................................... 75 Fig. 4.24. Tiger petroglyphs, Xinjiang................................................................................................................................ 75 Fig. 4.25. Tiger carving on wooden coffin from Kurgan 2, Bashadar, Russian Altai......................................................... 76 Fig. 4.26. A large rock carving of a tiger in Ser-shul, North-east Tibet.............................................................................. 77 Fig. 5.1. Two patterned agate beads recovered from a burial in Tagisken, Uzbekistan...................................................... 87 Fig. 5.2. A crown ornament from Tillya-Tepe, Afghanistan............................................................................................... 87 Fig. 5.3. An ibex petroglyph with three volutes ornamenting the body, Kyrgyzstan......................................................... 88 Fig. 5.4. A deer petroglyph with branching antlers and S-shaped body motif, Kazakhstan............................................... 88 Fig. 6.1. Top: copper jar with false spout in form of an equid head, Northern Pakistan; bottom: copper-alloy jar with false spout in the form of a raptor head, Tajikistan..................................................................................................... 91 Fig. 6.2. Eurasian Animal Style bronze plaque of an ibex purchased in Northern Pakistan.............................................. 92 Fig. 6.3. Eurasian Animal Style bronze plaque of an ibex, Tajikistan................................................................................ 93 Fig. 6.4. A running or recumbent stag rock carving, Northern Pakistan............................................................................. 93 Fig. 6.5. Petroglyph of two ibexes from Northern Pakistan............................................................................................... 94 Fig. 6.6. Deer carved on one side of a wooden vessel, Xinjiang........................................................................................ 99 Fig. 6.7. Deer carved on the other side of same wooden vessel, Xinjiang......................................................................... 99 Fig. 6.8. Carving of a deer with branched V-shaped antlers and scroll motif, North-west Tibet....................................... 99 Fig. 6.9. A copper-alloy ram’s head, Xiangbabai, Xinjiang.............................................................................................. 101 Fig. 6.10. A copper-alloy bell-like thokcha....................................................................................................................... 104 Fig. 6.11. Copper-alloy bell-like objects excavated from tombs in the Northern Zone................................................... 105 Fig. 6.12. A thokcha button with radiating lines near the edge......................................................................................... 105 Fig. 6.13. The reverse of the button in Fig. 6.12............................................................................................................... 105 Fig. 6.14. Semi-spherical buttons recovered from the Northern Zone............................................................................. 105 Fig. 6.15. Copper-alloy button-like objects. Top row: Tibetan thokcha; bottom three rows: Slab Grave culture............ 106 Fig. 6.16. Xiongnu and Xianbei copper-alloy objects in the form of flowers, Northern Zone......................................... 107 Fig. 6.17. A thokcha with four concentric circles arrayed around an equally sized central concentric circle.................. 107 Fig. 6.18. The reverse side of the object in Fig. 6.17........................................................................................................ 107 Fig. 6.19. Quatrefoil ornaments from Inner Mongolia, the Ordos and the Russian Altai................................................. 108 Fig. 6.20. Copper-alloy openwork plaques with ‘endless knot’ design, Tibet and the Northern Zone............................. 109 Fig. 6.21. Copper-alloy ornaments in the shape of frogs from the Northern Zone and Tibet.......................................... 109

ix

Tibetan Silver, Gold and Bronze Objects and the Aesthetics of Animals in the Era before Empire Fig. 6.22. Copper-alloy ornaments in the shape of frogs, Iran and China........................................................................ 110 Fig. 6.23. S-shaped Eurasian Animal Style objects with animal heads, Tibet and the Northern Zone............................. 110 Fig. 6.24. Tibetan copper-alloy pectoral ornament in the form of a yak...........................................................................111 Fig. 6.25. The reverse side of the object in Fig. 6.24.........................................................................................................111 Fig. 6.26. Bronze buckle in the form of a bull or yak, Northern Zone..............................................................................111 Fig. 6.27. The reverse side of the buckle in Fig. 6.26........................................................................................................111 Fig. 6.28. Copper-alloy felines in the Eurasian Animal Style, Tibet................................................................................ 112 Fig. 6.29. Deer stones of Mongolia and the Sayan-Altai.................................................................................................. 114 Fig. 6.30. Eurasian Animal Style stag petroglyph from Mongolia................................................................................... 116 Fig. 6.31. Petroglyph of two stags in the Eurasian Animal Style, Southern Siberia......................................................... 117 Fig. 6.32. Petroglyph of wild ungulates and feline in the Eurasian Animal Style, Southern Siberia............................... 118 Fig. 6.33. Rock carving of stag in the Eurasian Animal Style, Southern Siberia............................................................. 118 Fig. 6.34. Zoomorphic rock carvings in the Eurasian Animal Style from Southern Siberia............................................ 118 Fig. 6.35. Petroglyph of stag in the Eurasian Animal Style being pursued by two carnivores, the Mongolian Altai...... 118 Fig. 7.1. Rock carvings of an antelope and stag rendered in the Eurasian Animal Style, North-west Tibet.................... 124 Fig. 7.2. A wild yak petroglyph in the Eurasian Animal Style, North-west Tibet............................................................ 125 Fig. 7.3. A Eurasian Animal Style petroglyph of a feline chasing a stag, North-west Tibet............................................. 125 Fig. 7.4. A stag rock carving in the Eurasian Animal Style from Ladakh........................................................................ 126 Fig. 7.5. A wild yak rock carving in the Eurasian Animal Style, Ladakh......................................................................... 127 Fig. 7.6. A Eurasian Animal Style petroglyph of a feline pursuing a stag, Ladakh.......................................................... 127 Fig. 7.7. A Eurasian Animal Style petroglyph of an equid in Ladakh.............................................................................. 128 Fig. 7.8. A stag in the Eurasian Animal Style of North-west Tibet................................................................................... 129 Fig. 7.9. Two deer in the Eurasian Animal Style, central Ladakh.................................................................................... 129 Fig. 7.10. Eurasian Animal Style stag and birds from the Ladakh Byang-thang.............................................................. 130 Fig. 7.11. Stag in the Eurasian Animal Style pursued by a predator, North-west Tibet................................................... 131 Fig. 7.12. Stag in the in the Eurasian Animal Style in Zanskar, Ladakh.......................................................................... 131 Fig. 7.13. Stag in the Eurasian Animal Style, North-west Tibet....................................................................................... 132 Fig. 7.14. Two stags in the Eurasian Animal Style, lower Ladakh................................................................................... 132 Fig. 7.15. Two stags in the Eurasian Animal Style, Yul-shul, North-east Tibet................................................................ 133 Fig. 7.16. Eurasian Animal Style caprid, North-west Tibet.............................................................................................. 133 Fig. 7.17. Eurasian Animal Style caprid, lower Ladakh................................................................................................... 134 Fig. 7.18. Eurasian Animal Style equid, North-west Tibet............................................................................................... 134 Fig. 7.19. Two equids in the Eurasian Animal Style and other figures, upper Ladakh..................................................... 135 Fig. 7.20. Eurasian Animal Style wild carnivore, North-west Tibet................................................................................. 135 Fig. 7.21. Eurasian Animal Style wild carnivore, upper Ladakh...................................................................................... 136 Fig. 7.22. Tiger chasing a stag in the Eurasian Animal Style, North-west Tibet.............................................................. 136 Fig. 7.23. Tiger pursuing two stags in the Eurasian Animal Style, upper Ladakh............................................................ 137 Fig. 7.24. Peacock in the Eurasian Animal Style, lower Ladakh...................................................................................... 137 x

List of Figures Fig. 7.25. Copper-alloy plaque with opposing peacocks, Western Tibetan Plateau......................................................... 138 Fig. 7.26. Wooden jug with a painting of confronted peacocks, Chu-’thag, North-west Tibet........................................ 138 Fig. 7.27. Figures of felines and deer from Chinese bronze and pottery vessels.............................................................. 142 Fig. 7.28. Deer in the Eurasian Animal Style rock art of North-west Tibet...................................................................... 143

xi

List of Tables Table 1. Toponyms employed in this book........................................................................................................................... 4 Table 2. Chronological scheme............................................................................................................................................. 8

xiii

Introduction Overview

groups) before the advent of Buddhism and literature.2 They prefigure the Tibetan cosmopolitanism of early historic times promoted through the spread of the Buddhist ideas, art and craft from abroad. Most importantly, the silver, gold and bronze objects and rock art of this study are markers of relationships between Tibet and her neighbours. In-depth analysis of the interregional transactions reflected in these materials uncovers a web of communications pulsating across much of Eurasia. This web enabled a fusing of indigenous innovation with foreign inventiveness, a synthesis of disparate ideas, aesthetics and technologies in the objects and rock art presented.

This archaeological and art-historical survey is woven around the ancient material culture of the Tibetan Plateau. At the heart of the study is a remarkable group of portable objects made of silver, gold and copper alloys. These objects are examined in tandem with complementary classes of rock art, a cultural legacy dating to the time of the Roman and Gupta empires and other important polities like them. The objects and art selected in this book have much to tell us about cultural and technological progress made in ancient Tibet. These materials highlight the impressive accomplishments of the Tibetan forebears and aid in restoring their homeland to its rightful place in world history and culture.

The first half of the work is devoted to a study of portable metallic objects attributed to the Tibetan Plateau and assigned to the pre-Buddhist era. Made of precious and sacred metals and adorned with captivating zoomorphic designs, these objects embody an artistic Zeitgeist that was widely diffused in Eurasia in that time. Assigned primarily to the Late Prehistoric era (ca. 1300 BCE to 600 CE), they include silver bowls and gold ornaments, as well as spouted jars, trapezoidal plaques and a variety of other copper-alloy figures and wares. The second half of the book is given over to an investigation of the ultimate sources and geographic lines of transmission of these objects. Rock carvings with similar animal art serve as beacons in tracing the cultural inspiration for the Tibetan articles and industries described to various quarters of the Central Eurasian continental mass. Unlike easily movable things whose origins are in question, rock art is a fixed feature of the landscape, supplying reliable information on the spread of cognate art forms. The analysis of Tibetan mobile and immobile assets focuses on their diverse sources of artistic inspiration and technological capabilities, shedding light on their transcultural dimension. Many metallic items and rock art from territories adjoining the Plateau are also investigated, with a mind to placing Tibetan examples in a comprehensive cultural and chronological framework.

In this book, ‘Tibet’ is shorthand for the Tibetan Plateau, the largest elevated land mass on the planet outside Antarctica. Now divided up between several modern states,1 this distinctive territory is home to one of the Old World’s great civilisations. Although Tibet is well placed in popular imagination and academic enquiry, there is surprisingly little information available on the origins and development of her civilisation. For most people, Tibet remains synonymous with the Buddhist religion. However, long before the principal introduction of this faith in the seventh century CE, the Tibetan Plateau was home to a thriving cultural, social and technological order of much complexity, constituting a unique civilisation. In many ways, Tibet was just as highly developed as other civilisations in India, Persia and China, etc. While no single book can do justice to the vastness and profundity of human endeavour in early Tibet, the art and technology featured in this work provides the reader with a window on the region that few have yet taken the occasion to look through. Of much beauty and rarity, the metallic vessels and ornaments of this monograph are focal points of art appreciation and connoisseurship; so too for much of the rock art presented. However, the significance of these art resources, most of which have never been published before, extends well beyond the aesthetic and modern rites of admiration. These allied objects and images contribute much to an understanding of culture and technology in ancient Tibet, speaking highly of the character of her civilisation (composed of various cultural and linguistic

In addition to an examination of the archaeological and artistic significance of the Tibetan metallic vessels and ornaments and corresponding rock art chosen for inclusion in this study, scrutiny of the intricate series of human interactions involved in their creation lends the work its thematic integrity. The fundamental thesis of the book revolves around the participation of a wide array of a number of major cultures, languages and polities on the Tibetan Plateau before the Imperial period (ca. 600–850 CE). These included entities such as Zhang Zhung (Western Tibetan Plateau), Sum-pa (north central Tibet), Spu-rgyal bod (Central Tibet), A-zha (north-eastern Tibet), Minyag (far north-eastern Tibet), Ljang (south-eastern Tibet), and Mon (southern Tibet). Correlation of this historical lore with actual material remains and the comprehensive division of the Tibetan Plateau into various archaeological cultures is still under development.

Including the PRC, Pakistan, India, Nepal and Bhutan. It is important to keep in mind that the Tibetan Plateau did not and does not support a monolithic culture; to the contrary, it constitutes a civilisational order of a multicultural and multilinguistic character. For an essay on this subject see (Bellezza) May 2014 Flight of the Khyung. According to a prevalent historical view in Tibetan literature, there were

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Tibetan Silver, Gold and Bronze Objects and the Aesthetics of Animals in the Era before Empire a single society, polity or self-represented culture of the past.

peoples and regions in the conception and execution of interrelated Tibetan objects and rock art. By being bound up with the creative potential of others, inhabitants of the Tibetan Plateau were able to parlay some of the most useful and influential trends in Late Prehistoric Eurasia to their own advantage. Indeed, borrowing and sharing was the norm among many constituent groups of Eurasia in the Late Bronze Age (ca. 1300–700 BCE) and Iron Age (700–100 BCE). Interdependence was the cornerstone of that exchange, contacts of various kinds its currency. In situating the Tibetan silver, gold and bronze objects and rock art of this monograph within a dynamic network of communications interlacing ancient Eurasia, the nature and extent of the Plateau’s outreach to other peoples becomes a good deal clearer.3

In this work, the term ‘ethnic’ (var. ethnicity, ethnos) is defined as the self-represented set of genealogical and hereditary characteristics of a cultural, social and/or linguistic group which distinguish their perceived visceral and racial qualities from others. This autogenous notion of ethnicity may be correlatable (to varying degrees) to a spectrum of biological and molecular traits. ‘Language’ (and constituent dialects) denotes the mutually intelligible spoken and written communications of a group of people. An ethnographic culture may have more than one language (the elite versus the common parlance, mainstream idiom versus an argot etc.). An archaeological culture may also reflect the use of one or more languages, a correlation between ancient physical remains and what was spoken by those who left them often being difficult, if not impossible, to ascertain.

A word on how the interrelated categories of ‘culture’, ‘ethnicity’ and ‘language’ are applied in this work is in order. This triad of terms have variable meanings depending on the disciplinary and ideological lens through which they are viewed. In this monograph they are articulated within a modern anthropological and archaeological framework. Yet, even within this narrower purview, culture, ethnicity and language have a host of connotations and implications. In this work it is assumed that each term refers to phenomena subject to change and redefinition over time. I view culture, ethnicity and language from a constructivist perspective, as being largely self-identified categories invested with their full complement of meaning and significance by those who hold and practise them.

The contents of the study This monograph is divided into seven chapters. The first four chapters are dedicated to the objects upon which this work rests, and the last three chapters to tracing their cultural and geographic sources. The conclusion to the work offers a novel perspective on interactive forces responsible for the intercommunication contributing to the formation of the objects and art of the study. Chapter one presents two splendid silver bowls in the Jeremy Pine collection. These vessels are unique among known Tibetan objects for their great age and unusual form. Their ornamentation is comprised of lions and geometric motifs carved in high relief, which are subject to cultural and historical comparisons with kindred art in various media found both inside and outside Tibet. The silver bowls of the Pine collection are contrasted with silver and gold vessels from Tibet, Central Asia and China dating to the Imperial period. The artistic, cultural and historical origins of the silver bowls are then explored. These point to West Asia and conveyance to Tibet through convoluted geographic channels and mediation by intermediary agents of transfer. Tibetan textual references to early metallurgy and the ritual use of silver vessels are also reviewed. An appraisal of the age of the two silver bowls in the Pine collection is approached through a combined analysis of their aesthetic, historical and comparative traits.

In ethnographic terms, culture is the sum total of the material production and abstract expression characterising a self-defined social, ethnic and/or linguistic community. Its physical manifestations include all technologies, industries, art, architecture and other goods and concrete symbols produced by those who perceive themselves as constituting a discrete population. Abstract culture encompasses the entire spectrum of shared knowledge (behaviours, beliefs, information, skills, customs, traditions etc.) articulated through collective systems of social organisation, economic activity and political regulation. In an archaeological context, culture (often referred to as ‘material culture’) denotes an interrelated body of empirical evidence (physical and biological remains) and the social, economic, political and environmental processes incumbent in it, which belong to a specified time and place. An archaeological culture may represent one or more groups of people that were bound by interrelated social, ethnic and linguistic factors and even by those who may have had little in common with one another. Thus, an archaeological culture does not necessarily correspond to

Chapter two is devoted to another item in the Pine collection, a gold finial. This impressive object was originally part of a larger assembly that may have constituted a crown, standard or ritual implement. In order to assess its cultural and technological significance, other Tibetan gold ornaments of the Late Prehistoric era are surveyed. The finial is adorned with a central zoomorph, birds and other creatures, furnishing an excellent point of comparison with small Tibetan copper-alloy objects known as ‘primordial metal’ (thokcha; Tibetan: thog-

Aldenderfer and Yinong (2004: 48) observe that although bronze and iron technologies did not originate on the Tibetan Plateau, models of long-range demic inflows and diffusive processes affecting the already settled inhabitants of the Tibetan Plateau have been overlooked. This monograph addresses this matter directly, the second work of the author dedicated to the role of Eurasian cultural and technological interchange in the metallurgy of ancient Tibet. For the companion work, see February and March 2016 Flight of the Khyung. See also Bellezza 2020b, ch. 7.

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Introduction intersection between Central Asia and the Tibetan Plateau was the Tarim Basin. This entrepôt was instrumental in negotiating intercourse between west and east Asian peoples in the Bronze Age and Iron Age. Through grave goods and skeletal remains, pathways leading from the Tarim Basin to the Western Tibetan Plateau are charted, along which the abstract and material wherewithal for the objects of this study may have moved. Lines of communications and the dispersal of materials in the eastern portion of Xinjiang (East Turkestan) and the Northern Zone of China are then considered. These flows of information, goods and peoples are implicated in the progression of northern customs and traditions to North-east Tibet, the other major portal of interchange between the steppe, alpine and desert tracts of North Inner Asia and the Plateau. The final part of chapter six reconnoitres the formative role of the Eastern Steppe in enriching exchanges between the Tarim Basin, eastern Xinjiang and the Tibetan Plateau. The various conduits of interaction delineated in this chapter amply demonstrate that models of dispersal dependent on linear trajectories are inadequate in addressing mutability in the reticulated relations in which Tibet was once entwined.

lcags). The age and cultural pedigree of the finial are also evaluated through bronze objects from western Iran and a gold torque discovered in the steppes. Chapter three focuses on a copper-alloy bird-spouted jar of very fine workmanship of probable Tibetan production owned privately, as well as a cognate jar in a museum collection. Miniature Tibetan versions of this vessel are also inspected, suggesting that this kind of object was relatively well known in Tibet. The larger vessels in particular have strong affinities with a bird-spouted ceramic jar recovered from the Ziwiye hoard in north-western Iran. These metallic and ceramic jars are excellent examples of how artistic and technical communications travelled widely, transcending cultural, ethnic and linguistic divides to reappear in entirely different geographic settings. Chapter four assesses copper-alloy trapezoidal plaques decorated with birds, wild ungulates, tigers, snakes and geometric designs. One of these plaques is in the Pine collection and is embossed with tigers and spiralling geometric patterns. These motifs are the subject of a comparative analysis that draws from both bronze art and rock art. The group of intricate trapezoidal openwork plaques also featured in this chapter comprise a distinctive class of Tibetan copper-alloy objects of unclear ritual and/ or ceremonial function. They mostly appear in private collections but one specimen was obtained in a controlled archaeological excavation and is currently housed in a museum in China. Special attention is paid in this chapter to the tiger in Tibetan art and its relationship with tigrine depiction and symbolism in adjoining territories in the Late Prehistoric era.

Chapter seven brings the journey of the creation and recreation of the ideologies, art and technologies that infused Tibetan objects of this study full circle. In this chapter, examples of Tibetan rock art in branches of the Eurasian Animal Style are probed, delimiting cultural intercourse with northern territories in the Iron Age. This rock art is emblematic of a zone of contacts stretching across the breadth of Inner Asia. The allied zoomorphic rock art called the Eurasian Animal Style is the most thoroughgoing element of transcultural dispersion documented to date. These findings strongly suggest that the transmission of this cognate rock art contributed to the abstract and material effusion giving rise to objects central to this study. The final part of chapter seven augments the scope of this network of exchange to encompass parallel processes of transference between Inner Asia and the Central Plains (Han China) in the Iron Age. This sets the stage for the psychocultural model of interregional exchange presented in the Conclusion.

Chapter five carries forward the task of tracing the ideological, artistic and technological inspiration behind the objects showcased in the first four chapters. The chapter begins with a review of the intermingling of pre-Achaemenid and Achaemenid Iranians and mobile pastoralist groups emanating from northern regions. An analysis of cultural links between Iran and Tibet is undertaken, concluding that by the Achaemenid period these ties were already attenuated. The role of the so-called Scythians and Saka as intermediaries in the circulation of objects and ideas from Iran to Tibet is weighed. The influential artistic legacy of these mainly pastoralist tribes is adjudged to be significant, paving the way to an investigation of the international art phenomenon called the Eurasian Animal Style (EAS). Through objects and rock art belonging to these allied modes of zoomorphic art, geographic conduits between Iran and points east are identified. In this chapter, the reconnaissance of routes to Tibet brings us as far as the Pamirs.

Geographic scope A number of toponyms are employed in this work, each with a specific geographical space in mind. Some of these terms may vary somewhat in territorial scope from their use in other scholarship and in popular discourse. For the benefit of the reader, a table of the compass of these terms is provided (Table 1), together with Maps 1 and 2. Chronology and localisation The methods for gauging the age of the metallic objects and rock art upon which this study is built are set forth here. With few exceptions, these archaeological arthistorical materials have not been subject to absolute dating techniques. To compensate for this lack of chronometric data, I have devised a system of non-direct methods to

Chapter six resumes the search for ideological, artistic and technological channels leading from the west to Tibet. Northern Pakistan as a nexus of communications coupling the Pamirs and other western regions to the Tibetan Plateau are audited through both portable objects and rock art. Another territory culturally and geographically at the 3

Tibetan Silver, Gold and Bronze Objects and the Aesthetics of Animals in the Era before Empire Table 1. Toponyms employed in this book. Central Asia

The five Central Asian republics, including Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan, as well as north-eastern Iran and northern Afghanistan

Central Eurasia

Parts of Eastern Europe (including European Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, eastern Hungary, eastern Romania, eastern Bulgaria, Moldova), Turkey, Caucasus, West Asia, Central Asia, northern Iran, northern Afghanistan, north-western fringes of the Indian Subcontinent, Xinjiang, Tibetan Plateau, Mongolia, Russian Altai, Southern Siberia and north-western regions of the Peoples Republic of China (PRC; including Inner Mongolia, western Gansu, northern Shaanxi, northern Shanxi, northern Hebei, and adjacent areas to the north-west)

Central Plains

Henan, southern Hebei, southern Shanxi, southern Shaanxi, western Shandong, north-western Jiangsu, northern Anhui and northern Hubei in the PRC

Central Steppe

Western and central Kazakhstan, western and central Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan and Kyrgyzstan, extending south to contiguous deserts and basins

Central Tibet

The Dbus and Gtsang regions, now incorporated in parts of the Lhasa (Lha-sa), Shigtase (Gzhis-ka-rtse) and Lhokha (Lho-kha) prefectures of the Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR)

Eastern Steppe

Eastern Kazakhstan, Xinjiang north of the Tian-Shan, Mongolia, the Altai and Southern Siberia

Eastern Tibet

The Khams and A-mdo regions, now incorporated in the Chamdo (Chab-mdo) prefecture of the Tibet Autonomous Region and extending into adjacent regions of the Chinese provinces of Sichuan, Qinghai and Gansu where Tibetic and Gyalrongic languages are spoken

Far Western Tibet

The Ngari (Mnga’-ris) prefecture and Ru-’thor and Bar-yangs in Shigatse prefecture of the TAR

North Inner Asia

Eastern Kazakhstan, eastern Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, north-eastern Afghanistan, Xinjiang, the Altai, Mongolia, Southern Siberia, western Gansu, western Inner Mongolia and northern Ningxia

Northern Pakistan

Chitral, Gilgit, Hunza-Nagyr, Baltistan, Indus Kohistan, Astor, Deosai Plains and Kalam Kohistan. These regions mostly fall under the Gilgit-Baltistan (Northern Areas) administrative territory but also extend into the northern extremities of the provinces of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and the Punjab, as well as Pakistancontrolled Kashmir

North-east Tibet

Tibetan-speaking areas of Qinghai and Gansu provinces and the northern part of Sichuan province

Northern Zone

Northern China, including Inner Mongolia, western Gansu, northern Shaanxi, northern Shanxi, northern Ningxia, northern Hebei, as well as the northern and western fringes of the provinces of Liaoning, Jilin and Heilongjiang

North-west India

Gilgit-Baltistan, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, northern Punjab and Kashmir in Pakistan; and Jammu-Kashmir, Punjab, Himachal Pradesh, and Uttarakhand in India

North-west Tibet

Ru-thog in the TAR and Aksai Chin in Xinjiang

Southern Siberia

The Altai, Minusinsk Basin, Tuva and the western part of Transbaikal in Russia

South Inner Asia

The Tibetan Plateau (covering approximately 2,400,000 km²) and the north-western fringes of the Indian Subcontinent

South-west Tibet

Gu-ge, Sgar, Pu-rang, and the headwaters region of the Gtsang-po (Brahmaputra) river in ’Brong-pa

Tibetan Plateau

All of the TAR, Qinghai province except the northernmost tier, far west southern Gansu, western Sichuan and extreme north-western Yunnan in the PRC; Baltistan in Pakistan; Ladakh and Spiti in India; and Humla, Dolpo and Mustang in Nepal. In this work, ‘Tibet’ and just ‘Plateau’ are used as equivalents for the Tibetan Plateau

Upper Tibet

The Transhimalayan parts of Tibet north and west of Lhasa (including Gnam-mtsho, Gnam-ru, G.yag-pa, Nag-tshang and Mnga’-ris) and the upper Tsangpo river valley west of Sa-dga’ (’Brong-pa and Hor-pa), all of which are incorporated into the TAR

West Asia

The Levant, Arabian Peninsula, Turkey, Caucasus region, Iraq, Iran and western Afghanistan

Western Steppe

The Pontic–Caspian steppe, extending from east of the mouth of the Danube to the southern Urals

Western Tibetan Plateau

The Transhimalayan parts of Tibet north and west of Lhasa and the upper Tsangpo (Gtsang-po) river valley west of Sa-dga’ in the TAR; Baltistan in Pakistan; Ladakh and Spiti in India; and Humla, Dolpo and Mustang in Nepal

assess their age. These methods are founded upon a visual and tactile inspection of the physical characteristics of the materials presented, to construct a relative chronology. This permits an understanding of what things are older in relation to others. The regimen employed yields provisional chronological values of limited resolution and unverified accuracy. As most of the chronological attributions provided in this work have not been checked

through more objective testing methods, they must be viewed as suggestive rather than prescriptive of the age of the materials discussed. Also, the relative dating furnished in this work is open to adjustment should new findings warrant it. In relative dating methods, the age of metallic objects and rock art are inferred through an appraisal of their intrinsic 4

Introduction

Map 1. Central Eurasia and subsidiary territories (all gray-coloured background). Map by Brian Sebastian and John V. Bellezza.

and acquired qualities. Intrinsic qualities of archaeological and art-historical materials are those they were produced with, including their original style and form, techniques of manufacture and structural elements. Acquired qualities include signs of prolonged use, degradation and other alterations that have transpired since the production of metallic objects and rock art (e.g. build-up of patinas, mineral encrustations and corrosion products, wear, fracturing, fading etc.).

trapezoidal plaques and other objects featured in this work have not been determined with any surety. The unprovenanced status of these objects is a formidable obstacle in setting parameters for their analysis, adding a level of uncertainty to what is meant by the label ‘Tibetan’. Until archaeological excavation and testing provide a clearer understanding of metallurgical traditions and their nuclei of production in ancient Tibet, tendering hypotheses on where objects discussed might have been made must suffice. For a host of technical, economic and political reasons, a regimen of high-quality systematic excavation has been slow to start up on all parts of the Tibetan Plateau. Thus, the main objects under examination are nominally attributed to the Tibetan Plateau. To provide more specificity, based on collateral evidence, I do suggest areas in this vast territory where it appears likely that certain things were produced. Attribution to the Tibetan Plateau of metallic objects in this study is made using one or more of the following identifications:

Chronological values assigned to the metallic objects of this study are made using the following criteria: • Analysis of the style and form of objects • Assessment of the identity and functions of objects • Appraisal of the techniques used in the manufacture of objects • Inspection of the colour, texture, lustre and density of metals • Observation of ornamentation comparable to Tibetan rock art • Identification of objects associated with particular historical contexts in textual sources • Palaeographic assessment of objects with Tibetan inscriptions • Comparison of objects with materials obtained from archaeologically secure contexts on the Tibetan Plateau • Cross-cultural comparison of objects with those from other territories that have been dated, directly or indirectly

• Objects that form part of a larger class of materials regularly found on the Tibetan Plateau, which differ in form and design from those attributed to other territories • Objects with artistic and technical elements recalling materials regularly found on the Tibetan Plateau, which are not characteristic of adjoining territories • Comparison of objects with materials obtained from archaeologically secure contexts on the Tibetan Plateau • Objects with ornamentation comparable to Tibetan rock art • Objects (ritual, ceremonial, symbolic and utilitarian) tied to the Tibetan cultural and historical scene in textual sources

The loci of manufacture and original spheres of usage of the silver bowls, gold finial, copper-alloy spouted jar, 5

Tibetan Silver, Gold and Bronze Objects and the Aesthetics of Animals in the Era before Empire

Map 2. Inner Asia and subsidiary territories (all grey-coloured background). Note that Inner Asia extends eastward beyond the bounds of this map to include the eastern half of Mongolia and the remainder of western Inner Mongolia. Map by Brian Sebastian and John V. Bellezza.

• Stylistic and thematic categorisation of motifs, subjects and scenes • Appraisal of the general characteristics of the contents of sites • Gauging ecological conditions depicted in rock art • Assessment of the techniques used in carving and painting • Examination of the degree of erosion and re-patination (chemical alterations to rock surfaces) of carvings and the degree of browning and ablation of pigments • Determination of the placement of palimpsests • Identification of elements of rock art associated with particular historical contexts in textual sources • Palaeographic assessment of Tibetan inscriptions accompanying rock art

• Objects of the historic era with Tibetan inscriptions Although progress has been made in the absolute dating of rock art, a widely accepted protocol has not yet been established. A variety of methods are being developed to objectively determine the age of rock art, but corroboration of their efficacy and reliability is still pending.4 The relative chronology here devised for rock art is based on the following criteria:5 On recent advances in the absolute dating of rock art worldwide, see Ruiz and Rowe 2014; David and McNiven 2019. On methods of direct dating attempted in the PRC (Tibetan Plateau included), see Bednarik 2015; Bednarik and Li 1991. 5 On relative dating, see also Bellezza 2008, pp. 162, 163; 2017c, pp. 70– 72; 2020b; December 2013, July 2015, July 2016 and April 2017 Flight of the Khyung; Bruneau and Bellezza 2013. 4

6

Introduction The inductive methods used to estimate the age of archaeological resources in this study belong to two interrelated systems of analysis: typology and seriation. Dating through typological analysis relies on an assessment of the physical attributes of objects and rock art. Composed of their intrinsic and acquired qualities, the properties of these materials are assumed to have changed in fairly consistent ways over time. A morphological component of typology dating pertains to analyses of variations within the structural arrangements and methods of fabrication of objects. These are also inferred to be related to the passage of time. Dating through seriation incorporates both typological and morphological data to organise assemblages of metallic objects and rock art into sequences according to their physical properties and the manner and frequency in which these occur.6 Provided that serial changes are distinguished from functional factors,7 categories of archaeological materials ordered in this manner reflect a chronological progression. When sample sizes are large enough, the seriation of objects and rock art facilitates a grasp of their chronological development. Periodisation through seriation contributes to a better understanding of the changing social, economic and political relationships reflected in archaeological resources.

• In determining the validity of an analogy, the nature and extent of the similarities present must be weighed against differences observed therein; • In drawing conclusions, multiple analogies are stronger than a single analogy. Analogies predicated on objective criteria (e.g. structural metrics, manufacturing techniques etc.) tend to be more reliable than those based on more subjective criteria (e.g. form, style, imputed function etc.). Moreover, analogies made between archaeological materials with demonstrable spatio-temporal links are more robust than those where causal relations have not been identified. Adhering to a basic set of analogical principles aids in systematising and validating cross-cultural comparative approaches. Furthermore, the identification of analogies in the rock art, metallic objects and monuments of different regions helps to diagnose the cultural, demographic, economic and political interactions to which they were subjected. The comparative approach promoted in this work musters archaeological materials from the Tibetan Plateau and from outside the territory. Another approach exploited in this study is the cultural and historical comparison of metallic objects and rock art with complementary textual and ethnographic accounts. Historical and anthropological instruments are applied to archaeological and art-historical materials discovered on the Tibetan Plateau and from other territories to facilitate an understanding of their chronological framework, as well as the ideological, practical and symbolic functions they may have fulfilled.

The relative dating of Tibetan archaeological and arthistorical materials based on typology and seriation employs comparative analyses to check and refine chronological values obtained through an examination of their intrinsic and acquired qualities. The comparison of Tibetan metallic objects and rock art featured in this study with analogous classes of materials fixed in time through both relative and absolute methods adds considerable weight to typological dating. Determining how and to what degree archaeological assets are aesthetically and technically alike is derived through analogical reasoning. As to the major principles of analogical reasoning adhered to in this work, they can be summarised as follows:

Relying on the above methods and criteria, metallic objects and rock art of the Tibetan Plateau are assigned to specific chronological categories in this work. Due to the methodological shortcomings spotlighted, time frames are defined in broad terms only. Although this chronological scheme is designed specifically for archaeological research conducted on the Tibetan Plateau, it utilises nomenclature in accordance with the designation of analogous periods in other parts of Eurasia, particularly that of North Inner Asia. Chronological categories pertaining to the Historic era are applied both to archaeological and historical phenomena in this work. When germane to historical matters, text-related evidence (e.g. palaeography, grammar, orthography, syntax, semantics, rhetorical content etc.) underpins the formulation of chronological categories.

• The more similarities there are between the art, objects and monuments being compared, the stronger the analogy; • The more that is known about the age, source, transfer and function of similar archaeological materials, the stronger the analogy; Seriation works best across the full gamut of classes of objects, rather than among subgroups of them. Unlike that of the large assemblages of ceramics and stone tools that exist in many archaeological contexts, the seriation of the relatively small classes of Tibetan rock art, metallic objects and monuments currently available for study does not lend itself to the application of formal statistical tools. Atemporal changes in Tibetan archaeological materials further complicate the use of statistical methods for postulating chronological values. 7 Chronological seriation is complicated by functional factors unrelated to the periodisation of archaeological assets. The personal proclivities of artists and builders, variable economic allocations of time and resources, and disparate social forces may all contribute to the more rapid adoption or abandonment of specific physical attributes of rock art, metallic objects and monuments. Anomalies that defy seriation operate within specific geographic areas and/or among specific groups of people. Uneven influences exerted on the constellation of traits making up an art form, object or monument can skew or obscure changes ordained by time. 6

To enhance the rigour of the relative dating of the rock art, metallic objects and monuments in this study, a wide array of archaeological, cultural, artistic and historical data is examined in order to better ascertain their spatiotemporal characteristics. While no amount of informed enquiry into the objects and art featured can address many questions regarding age and provenance, it does allow for contextualisation in accordance with the physical characteristics, cross-cultural affinities and propagative forces characterising the origins and evolution of these materials. The analyses propounded in this work help set the agenda for subsequent enquiry by embedding 7

Tibetan Silver, Gold and Bronze Objects and the Aesthetics of Animals in the Era before Empire Table 2. Chronological scheme.

Pursuant technical matters

Late Bronze Age (ca. 1300–700 BCE) Late Iron Age (ca. 700–100 BCE) Prehistoric era Protohistoric period (ca. 100 BCE to 600 CE)

This monograph lays out the aesthetic features, cultural settings and web of interregional transmission for each of the main artefacts featured: two silver bowls, a golden finial and copper-alloy spouted jars and trapezoidal plaques etc. The findings, regimen of analysis and conclusions of this monograph comprise a foundation on which archaeometallurgical testing can add further qualitative means of investigation.

Historic era

Early Historic period (ca. 600–1000 CE) i. Imperial period (ca. 600–850 CE) ii. Post-Imperial period (ca. 850–1000 CE) Vestigial period (ca. 1000–1300 CE)

A chief objective of archaeometallurgy is to obtain an accurate picture of the structure and chemical composition of ancient metal objects and other metallic remains. In qualifying the physical and chemical constituents of ancient metals, an objective assessment of their properties is obtained, which can be examined against similar sets of characteristics in other metallic objects. The composition of metals is often indicative of their geographic sources and methods of refinement. The data so assembled can be used to build a profile of metal objects that characterise an archaeological culture or specific region. In correlating metal artefacts with geographical and chronological information, mines, centres of production and systems of exchange are potentially identifiable. For example, the precise measurements of variations in the abundance of isotopic copper and lead in silver objects can be exploited to possibly trace the source of the parent materials.

Tibetan archaeological resources in a comprehensive methodological template. This should continue to prove useful even when absolute dates are secured for a wider range of these physical entities. Relying on the chronological criteria set forth above, the Tibetan objects and rock art of this study can be assigned provisional dates according to the scheme in Table 2. This chronological scheme has been devised specifically for archaeological research conducted on the Tibetan Plateau. The values given for the Late Bronze Age and Iron Age are more or less in accordance with those used for the same periods in other parts of Eurasia, especially North Inner Asia. A period discussed in the context of other regions of Eurasia is the (developed) ‘Bronze Age’ (ca. 2500–1500) BCE. Another chronological category commonly applied outside Tibet is styled the ‘Early Iron Age’, which refers to overlapping time spans. The Early Iron Age ranges from ca. 1000 BCE to 200 BCE, according to the region to which the term is applied. The chronological categories listed as part of the Early Historic period are particular to the historico-cultural circumstances on the Tibetan Plateau.8

Archaeometallurgy focuses on ascertaining the age of ancient metal objects and associated remains through radiocarbon, accelerator mass spectrometry, archaeomagnetic and thermoluminescence analyses etc. Archaeometallurgical techniques such as the ones outlined below each have their own merits and limitations. Once these tools are suitably and systematically applied, they should add significantly to our knowledge of ancient metallurgy in Tibet.

Acutely aware that the objects and rock art of this study float quite freely in space and time, I have attempted to compensate for this by marshalling a wide array of archaeological, cultural, artistic and historical materials to better gauge their spatio-temporal characteristics. While no amount of informed enquiry into these materials can definitively address many questions of age and provenance, it does allow for contextualisation of these materials according to their physical characteristics, artistic affiliations, cross-cultural affinities and the propagative forces involved in their formation. The detailed picture of the objects and rock art given in this study should prove a useful point of departure when more of it finally undergoes laboratory testing and analysis. In a work such as this in which hitherto unknown objects form the core of study, some revision of its findings and conclusions may prove necessary once more information concerning their age and provenance becomes available.

The major properties of metals germane to archaeometallurgical enquiry are hardness, density, ductility, lustre, tensile strength, conductivity etc. Also, an assessment of the melting point of metals can aid in reconstructing ancient smelting processes (techniques used to extract metals from ore, involving heating above its melting point so that the metal can be separated from waste products). Metallography, the science of determining the structure and physical properties of metals, relies heavily on the examination of prepared samples (often through polishing and etching) by reflected-light microscopy. Metals are morphous substances, in that they possess crystalline structures. The constituent particles of metals are made up of atoms and molecules arranged in repeating three-dimensional configurations, known as crystals or grains. Each crystal or grain represents the alignment of atoms and molecules in a particular directional matrix. Most pure metals have a crystalline structure consisting of repeating units in the form of cubes or hexagons. Metal alloys often have

It is also acceptable to refer to the Protohistoric period in Ladakh and Baltistan as an ‘early historic period’ because of the occurrence there of non-Tibetic inscriptions predating the seventh century CE. However, in the interests of uniformity and simplicity, the same chronological scheme for the Tibetan Plateau is maintained throughout this work. On criteria used to date ancient monuments in Upper Tibet, see Bellezza 2014a, pp. xv–xix; 2020b, pp. 20, 21.

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Introduction crystalline structures distinguished by more complex atomic and molecular arrangements.

archaeological progress in the contemporary period, greater even than political and ideological constraints. The grave state of affairs in the PRC is summed up in a UNESCO report:

The chemical analysis of metals and their patinas (surface layers formed by reaction with the environment over time) is another key qualitative tool of archaeometallurgy. There are a variety of techniques used to identify the composition of metals and alloys in ancient artefacts. The most relied-upon techniques include several types of spectrography. Other state-of-the-art tools for determining the chemical makeup of metals include X-ray diffraction, X-ray fluorescence and atomic absorption analysis etc.

In recent years, driven by huge profits, illegal excavations of ancient culture sites and ancient tombs have occurred time and again and become increasingly professional, violence-oriented and intelligent, causing serious damage to not only sites and monuments themselves but also their historical settings and posing severe challenges on the safety of cultural relics. Recurrent illegal excavations happened primarily due to following reasons: 1) a great wealth of underground cultural relics resources widely distributed around the country have posed huge difficulty on protection work; 2) higher profits but lower risks brought by illegal trade of cultural relics have pushed criminals to run ahead into danger; 3) infrastructure to guarantee the safety of cultural relics is still inadequate and safety prevention conditions of cultural relics entities have yet to be fundamentally improved.10

As the chemical composition of most objects featured in this study has not been determined, cuprous metals are referred to as ‘copper alloy’. This designation potentially includes objects made of pure copper (with trace metals), bronze (alloys of copper and tin), leaded bronze, arsenical copper alloys and brass (alloys of copper and zinc).9 Provenance As this work contains many ancient metallic objects and even entire classes of articles that have never been published before, it is imperative that questions surrounding their provenance and suitability for publication be addressed head-on in the introduction. Many of the objects featured are in the hands of private collectors, some of whom wish to remain anonymous, raising questions concerning legitimacy and transparency. Even the holdings of wellknown museums, like those mentioned in this monograph, are not above scrutiny. Questions concerning acquisition and rightful ownership of antiquities loom large in today’s world, and with good reason. Renfrew and Bahn (2016: 549) observe that through construction, reclamation, intensification of agriculture, looting, tourism and war, ‘more ancient remains have been looted in the last two decades than ever before in the history of the world’. This statement is no mere hyperbole but that of two highly respected archaeologists who are well placed to assess the destruction of fixed sites, the theft of artefacts and the international trade in antiquities that are rife in the world today.

Fortunately, there is growing political pressure to strengthen international conventions and the statutory regimes of individual states to better regulate the legal protections afforded Tibetan antiquities. Given the scope of the problem worldwide, there are some archaeologists who advocate for the outlawing of the international trade in antiquities. The harsher voices among them call for a complete ban on the private ownership of all ancient objects and measures instituted to return them to their original countries. The moral outrage behind such sentiments is readily understandable. However, a total ban on the ownership and exchange of ancient things is likely to be just as ineffective as the periodic proscription of other social phenomena that might be perceived as harmful, like prostitution and recreational drug use. Individuals have been collecting, studying and exchanging antiquities since the days of ancient Greece and Rome, and antiquarian interest has continued uninterrupted to the present day. Legal remedies to eradicate the illicit trade in antiquities, while essential, are in themselves insufficient. Recognition that a more comprehensive approach to the problem is required is gaining ground worldwide.11

It cannot be stressed enough that irreparable damage is being done by looting, vandalism, encroachment and the dismantling of Tibetan archaeological sites. These activities seriously compromise or even make impossible the conduct of much archaeological research, drastically reducing (often irrevocably) what can be known about ancient societies on the Plateau, their ways of life and their true impact on today’s world. Next to the outright destruction of the Tibetan sites themselves, the unregulated movement of artefacts from damaged archaeological structures is the greatest impediment to

See ‘People’s Republic of China National Report on the Implementation of the 1970 Convention on the Means of Prohibiting and Preventing the Illicit Import, Export and Transfer of Ownership of Cultural Property. 2011–2015’: www.unesco.org/new/fileadmin/ MULTIMEDIA/HQ/CLT/pdf/Rapport_Chine.pdf. On recent measures to ameliorate the many threats to cultural property in one province of China, see Lawler 2009. 11 In the Introduction and Conclusion to her book, Waxman (2008) makes and excellent case for transparency, with museums being more open about how and where their objects were obtained and about any controversies associated with them. Waxman calls for collaboration between countries, museums and cultural institutions, the rich ones aiding the poor ones and the poor ones honestly assessing their capability to conserve and safeguard repatriated antiquities. Furthermore, Waxman argues that institutional finance stoppage would not halt the trade in antiquities but rather drive it underground. I propose extending the principle of 10

9 For a spectrographic analysis of Tibetan copper-alloy objects known as thokcha (thog-lcags), see John 2006, pp. 203–28. In this analysis of 44 diverse objects, the majority were determined to be composed of lead-tin bronze and zinc-lead-tin bronze, while only two of the tested objects are of a tin bronze (ibid., 217).

9

Tibetan Silver, Gold and Bronze Objects and the Aesthetics of Animals in the Era before Empire sidestepped by noble intentions. For this reason, the featured objects and their transfer from the Tibetan cultural world to their current owners must be vetted as thoroughly as possible. In doing so, fundamental questions concerning how these objects might have reached collectors are raised. The discussion that follows is the product of my expertise in Tibetan studies and archaeology as well as my observations in the field for the last 35 years. Nevertheless, regarding the legal status of the ancient objects displayed in this work, I am unqualified to make judgements that carry weight in any jurisdiction. Neither am I able to determine the applicability of specific provisions in international law to the objects of this study. Rather than attempting to fix the legal footing of the featured objects, the aim of this investigation is to present the rudiments of a case history that justifies their publication. The analysis furnished should prove useful in qualifying the challenges affecting the suitability for publication of other Tibetan antiquities.

By spotlighting the cultural significance and artistic value of selected objects and their role in interregional exchange, this study makes some contribution to mitigating the ignorance and opacity surrounding the export of Tibetan antiquities. It is in the interests of transparency and the willingness to share with others that the collectors of the artefacts featured in this study wish to take part (insofar as these collectors are still alive). In staging their ancient objects here, materials crucial to the elucidation of the cultural makeup of ancient Tibet are brought to the fore of archaeological enquiry and to the attention of a much larger public audience. Hopefully, this will augment an appreciation of the rich civilisation and cultural feats of the Tibetan peoples. It is only by considering new materials and ideas that advances in our understanding of the archaeology, culture and art of Tibet can be achieved. I oppose the point of view that advocates for research to never be conducted on objects coming from private collections. It is precisely because of the cloak of secrecy surrounding such things that Tibetan tombs have been looted with impunity for several decades.12 While this type of publication might stimulate further interest in collecting Tibetan silver, bronze and gold objects, that collecting continued unabated prior to its publication and there is no reason to believe that had it not been published the desire to possess these wares would have somehow diminished. An unquantifiable pool of Tibetan artefacts is now dispersed throughout the world (mostly in wealthy countries, including the PRC), many of which are unpublished and unaccounted for, precluding an assessment of their current whereabouts, scientific value, cultural relevance and legal status. Efforts to conserve, restrict the movement of and recover such properties are hardly possible in this environment. By shedding light on the kinds of objects produced in ancient times and their significance to the study of Tibet, this work helps set the course for a more informed discussion about how they might best be safeguarded for posterity.

There are no indications whatsoever that any of the Tibetan artefacts privately owned and featured in this work were obtained through theft, extortion or other immoral means. All collectors (some noted by name, others remaining anonymous) whose objects are discussed in this work aver purchasing them in good faith. To the best of my knowledge, none of the antiquities featured in this work are the object of a warrant or lien issued by the legal authorities of any sovereign state. I am unable to offer comment on the details of procurement of objects in other publications or in museums discussed and illustrated in this work. It is can only be presumed that due diligence was exercised in obtaining and publishing these things. In fixing the provenance of archaeological and art historical materials it is helpful to categorise their origins and pedigree as part of an in situ, museological or oral tradition.13 In situ materials are fixed features in the landscape, such as tombs and other ancient monuments, portable objects in their original find contexts, and frescoes and rock art. Museological materials are monuments and objects housed in museums and other cultural institutions, which are frequently seen as their lawful custodians. Most structures and portable objects in museums are translocated materials, many of which have moved across international borders to their current locations. The level of care and attention that the staff of museums exercise in how acquisitions are obtained varies in rigour as per the historical circumstances surrounding acquisition, institutional customs and policies and the competence and moral integrity of individual curators. The nature of holdings, how they were acquired and their relative placement in the wider collections of a museum constitute a body of evidence for determining the provenance of individual objects. An initiative is now under way worldwide to establish widely agreed-upon collecting

However, matters concerning the legitimate status of the various artefacts used in this monograph cannot be transparency to individuals by the creation of an international registry of all ancient items, however minor or redundant. Recent advances in communication and information capabilities now make such a worldwide inventory technically feasible. I envision the creation of an environment in which every person would be legally bound to divulge the identity of all cultural artefacts in their possession. A one-time amnesty could be instituted so that all antique items would remain with their present owners, so long as those items are shown not to have been stolen within a set period. In that way, a comprehensive picture of the world’s ancient heritage could be built up, previously unknown collections opened for study, and provision made, where desirable, for the public acquisition of private holdings. Ultimately, the security of the world’s ancient heritage may depend on the creation of such an ambitious partnership between governments, institutions and individuals. The tragic loss to fire of the National Museum of Brazil in Rio de Janeiro in 2018 brings home the fact that caching the world’s cultural heritage in large, centrally run repositories is insufficient to ensure their continued existence. 12 On the wholesale destruction and looting of ancient sites in Upper Tibet, see April 2015 Flight of the Khyung. This article is based on a lecture delivered at the Conference of Tibet Archaeology, History and Culture held at Sichuan University in 2011. For unknown reasons, the paper submitted to the hosts of that conference was not published.

My classification of archaeological and art-historical materials in a threefold scheme benefitted from conversations with Katherine Anne Paul, Curator, Arts of Asia, the Newark Museum of Art.

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10

Introduction protocols and ethical standards that museums and other cultural institutions can follow.14

So exceptional is the degree of preservation of many Tibetan metallic objects showcased in this monograph that the calibration of scientific testing methods to adjust for the absence of corrosion products significantly penetrating their surfaces has yet to be undertaken (see p. 59 n. 145). The extremely high and dry conditions of the Tibetan Plateau may also retard the degradation of silver and copper-alloy objects that were deliberately buried in tombs or through happenstance. Nevertheless, in non-aureate objects, telltale signs that they have come into contact with the ground include verdigris, rust, mineral encrustation and pitting. These and other forms of deterioration come about through electrochemical reaction with the surrounding environment.

It is the oral tradition obtained from sellers, collectors and Tibetans in general that concerns us most in this study. The oral tradition applies to artefacts that are the object of verbally transmitted reports and popular traditions concerning aspects of provenance. When the oral tradition furnishes consistent information on geographic sources and the succession of ownership, it is an important tool for assessing the pedigree of ancient objects. This type of approach to understanding the provenance of artefacts is essentially anthropological in nature. It relies on methods enabling the gathering of oral records and the correlation of multiple accounts containing the same information to assess widely held beliefs and perceptions about the recent possession, transfer and sale of artefacts. Beyond the bounds of living memory, the oral tradition potentially provides congruous information on the origins and longstanding use of culturally active artefacts. The oral tradition can be employed in tandem with empirical means to corroborate its veracity as well as to pinpoint its limitations.

The highly conserved and traditionally curated Tibetan copper-alloy objects known as thokcha were not pilfered from tombs or otherwise obtained from subterranean locations. Most objects in this book quite self-evidently belong to that group of non-excavated objects. The physical state of a few objects in the study may suggest that they came from tombs or other underground sources at some point in time, although there is no conclusive evidence to indicate that they actually did. In only one case does a copper-alloy object featured in this work (Figs. 4.8, 4.9) exhibit the heavy degradation associated with deposition in the ground for extended periods of time. As of 2018, this trapezoidal openwork plaque remained in a private collection in the PRC, where I was able to photograph it. Traditionally, Tibetans avoid disturbing tombs and excavating in general. There are well-articulated religious customs in place that prohibit tampering with the earth and the spirits believed to reside in it. While these cultural inhibitions to digging are hardly sufficient to dissuade modern looting, they explain the preference for inherited artefacts.

Many of the objects of this study, including vessels, fibulae, pendants, pectorals and other articles, are part of an extensive Tibetan oral tradition. Most of these objects are regarded by Tibetans as being thokcha, objects believed to have fallen from the sky (for more details, see p. 25 n. 40). The mythologisation of Tibetan antiquities establishes a framework for understanding their cultural value. Certain ancient things are thought to have been the property of the demigods, which eventually came into the possession of lucky individuals and families. The conviction that many thokcha have been handed down for generations is supported by their remarkable physical condition. Although highly worn, these objects show little or no signs of corrosion, confirming that they were carefully conserved for long periods of time. Multigenerational conservation was enabled through the wearing of smaller objects, enshrining them in tabernacles and deposition in secret places for religious purposes. The heirloom quality of many lovingly polished copper-alloy objects in the Tibetan cultural world sets them apart from those in most other Eurasian territories. In other locations, artefacts of comparable age were frequently buried and exhibit significant levels of degradation. Ancient copperalloy objects handed down as talismans and ornaments also occur in the Mongolian cultural world, but this phenomenon is not as commonplace there as it is in Tibet.

The pristine condition of the silver vessels illustrated in the first part of chapter one indicates that they are very unlikely to have been recovered from underground. Other sources for these vessels must be considered. Tibetan monasteries have a long history of collecting valuable textiles, vessels and other wares obtained through donation. Although there is little archival information still available, it appears that older and richer religious institutions in Tibet regularly kept objects acquired over many centuries. The storage of valuable goods parallels the keeping of books and manuscripts, some of which are known to have been in monastic collections for hundreds of years. Tibetans hold that their major monasteries were repositories of vast wealth, a source of civic pride that reflects the piety and devotion of the people. Unfortunately, with the desecration and razing of most monasteries (as well as the palaces and fortresses) in Tibetan regions incorporated into the PRC, many inventories of valuable articles were lost, along with the objects themselves. Starting in 1959, much of this fabulous Tibetan wealth was expropriated or destroyed by the Chinese Communist regime. However, some items of value resurfaced with the liberalisation of Chinese politics beginning in 1979. This period marks the revival of an

The International Council of Museums (ICOM) has developed a set of minimum ethical standards for museums that cover all aspects of acquisition, conservation, protection and disposal of art and antiquities. In Section 2.3 (‘Provenance and Due Diligence’), it states that, ‘Every effort must be made before acquisition to ensure that any object or specimen offered for purchase, gift, loan, bequest, or exchange has not been illegally obtained in, or exported from its country of origin or any intermediate country in which it might have been owned legally (including the museum’s own country). Due diligence in this regard should establish the full history of the item since discovery or production.’ See: https:// icom.museum/en/standards-guidelines/code-of-ethics/.

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11

Tibetan Silver, Gold and Bronze Objects and the Aesthetics of Animals in the Era before Empire realm, some silver and gold objects were overlooked by the revolutionary forces. Others were hidden away. I have received many credible reports that, in order to elude crusading elements in Mao Tse-tung’s regime, religious icons and other valuable objects were buried, thrown into lakes, deposited in caves, or spirited out of the country during the Cultural Revolution.

open and vibrant domestic trade in antique objects that continues today. The sale and exchange of culturally valuable objects in Tibetan cultural regions is nothing new. In the premodern era, commodities as well as antiques, curios and relics were frequently bartered, reducing reliance on currencies. In particular, smaller objects (such as beads and metallic amulets) were worn or alternatively displayed by Tibetans and traded and gifted regularly. Tibetan residents of the Tibetan Autonomous Region (TAR) and other Tibetan regions in the PRC, as well as Tibetan-speakers in Baltistan, Ladakh, Himachal Pradesh, Nepal, Sikkim, Bhutan and Arunachal Pradesh, have long been regarded for their entrepreneurial skill, trade being a key part of the economy of these austere, high-elevation lands. In the 1930s, the Tibetologist Giuseppe Tucci (1935, 1973) readily assembled a collection of ancient copper-alloy objects purchased or otherwise received from traders, monks, government officials and ordinary people. While the sale for profit of scrolls and statutes depicting the Buddha or other enlightened figures was and still is frowned upon, Tibetans appeared to have far fewer compunctions regarding the disposal for profit of pre-Buddhist artefacts as well as smaller, less conspicuous religious and utilitarian items. Tibetan Buddhist leaders I have queried on the subject are unanimous in maintaining that property rightfully held can be sold so long as it has not undergone formal consecration (rab-gnas). This prohibition precludes the sale of ritually empowered statues and painted scrolls. Many other classes of artefacts including thokcha are also endowed with religious value and are perceived as culturally, historically or personally significant. While it may not strictly be considered a sin (sdig-pa) in Lamaism to dispose of such things, most modern Tibetans do not engage in the sale of antiques, or do so only occasionally.

I am unaware of any official statistics kept by the Chinese government regarding the many hundreds of individual entrepreneurs actively buying and selling antiquities and other old things in Lhasa (Lha-sa), Shigatse (Gzhis-kartse), Xining (Zi-ling), Labrang (Bla-brang) and in dozens of more minor prefectural and county markets across the Plateau. Many of these marketplaces are still viable today, and trade continues to be conducted by Tibetan entrepreneurs openly. Beginning in 1984, when travel to Tibetan cultural regions in the PRC became far less restrictive, commercial centres were financially invigorated by foreign tourists shopping for souvenirs and mementos. In some cases, these foreigners were uninformed as to the age and status of the things they were purchasing. Petty dealers and collectors from abroad also began patronising Tibetan antique markets in the PRC in the mid-1980s. These commercial centres were not only tolerated by the authorities but accorded the full range of municipal services. In turn, dealers paid for rental spaces and other fees levied by cities and municipalities.16 This remains the current state of affairs across the PRC. For instance, on any normal business day in Beijing, its extensive antiques markets are frequented by thousands of persons, including foreigners from many different countries. Over the last 40 years, there has been a huge outpouring of Tibetan cultural relics to Hong Kong and Kathmandu, the major international hubs for ongoing international trade. The volume of Tibetan antiquities reaching these entrepôts appears to have been greatest in the 1980s and 1990s, with a gradual tailing off of the supply over the first two decades of this century. The reduction in the amount of culturally valuable articles reaching Hong Kong and Kathmandu in recent years appears to be largely due to a diminution of

Religious and cultural restrictions notwithstanding, the liberalisation of politics in Tibetan regions of the PRC in the aftermath of the Chinese Cultural Revolution led to the reawakening of a large and vibrant commercial sector centred around artefacts. This trade spread throughout Tibetan cultural areas as well as in major cities in mainland China, including Lanzhou, Chengdu and Beijing. Commerce was made possible by the large stores of ancient things that were not confiscated during the Cultural Revolution that remained with their Tibetan owners. While gold and silver were routinely rounded up by marauding Red Guards, other things like thokcha and patterned agate beads were seen as essentially worthless, and largely ignored. That these supposedly inconsequential objects were left untouched provided much grist for the commercial mill once trade resumed in the late 1970s.15 Moreover, in a territory as vast as the Tibetan cultural

How the open sale of Tibetan antiquities to PRC citizens and foreigners alike in the marketplaces of the PRC over the last 40 years squares with the legal regime in that state is a subject to be taken up by qualified scholars (see below). According to the UNESCO report entitled ‘People’s Republic of China National Report on the Implementation of the 1970 Convention on the Means of Prohibiting and Preventing the Illicit Import, Export and Transfer of Ownership of Cultural Property. 2011– 2015’, ‘Legal dealers of cultural goods in China include cultural relics shops and cultural relics auction houses. As of December 31, 2013, there had been 71 antique shops in China, with a total annual turnover of 874 million RMB yuan. The number of antique auction houses had added up to 382, registering an annual transaction volume of 27.354 billion RMB yuan’. See: www.unesco.org/new/fileadmin/MULTIMEDIA/HQ/CLT/ pdf/Rapport_Chine.pdf. Chai and Li (2019: 138) write that, ‘Judging from the repeated revision of the content of the Law of the People’s Republic of China on the Protection of Cultural Relics over the past few years, China’s legislation on the protection of cultural relics presents a trend of expanding local government autonomy and guaranteeing gradual market activity. Of course, this trend is accompanied by regulations that are specific to the actual development of the society, but overall, it is still a legal change in the law for the diversification of cultural relics protection and the rationalization of use of cultural relics.’

16

15 It is alleged by a number of people that I have spoken to about the matter that some confiscated gold and silver objects were not melted down during the Cultural Revolution but were disposed of in the international market, with Hong Kong acting as a primary outlet. I am unable to provide documentary evidence to either support or discredit this allegation.

12

Introduction available sources in Tibetan cultural areas. Since around 2010, Chinese nationals have also become keen collectors of Tibetan antiques. It may be no exaggeration to state that the bulk of Tibetan artefacts are now in mainland China and other countries. As the trade has been tolerated with seemingly little governmental interference, there are few records available that could be used to accurately judge the quality and quantity of Tibetan-produced ancient objects that now lie outside the Plateau.

1970’ and the complementary instrument known as the ‘1995 UNIDROIT Convention’. While I am unqualified to pass judgement on issues affecting the legal status of ancient objects in this study, as contained in the articles of the two named international conventions, my remarks may serve as a useful starting point on the matter.  Hereinafter, the ‘Convention on the Means of Prohibiting and Preventing the Illicit Import, Export and Transfer of Ownership of Cultural Property – 1970’ will simply be called the ‘UNESCO Convention’, and ‘1995 UNIDROIT Convention’ the ‘UNIDROIT Convention’. The UNESCO Convention came into effect on 24 April 1972, and was ratified by the State Council of the People’s Republic of China on 25 September 1989. The UNESCO Convention was the first comprehensive international initiative to address the growing problem of illicit trafficking in cultural objects (including antiquities). It provides a legal framework for securing the return of stolen cultural objects to their countries of origin. The UNIDROIT Convention was devised at the behest of UNESCO and came into force on 1 July 1998.17 The articles of this convention complement the UNESCO Convention by more effectively formulating rules for the uniform restitution of illicitly acquired cultural property.

Matters of provenance are further complicated by the fact that the material culture of the Tibetan Plateau is far from being confined to the PRC. It also extends to Plateau regions in Pakistan, India, Nepal and Bhutan. Thus, ancient objects attributed to Tibet fall under five different sovereign jurisdictions, internal provincial, state and district administrations within the jurisdictional purview of these states notwithstanding. From observations I made in Pakistan, India and Nepal in the 1980s and 1990s, it appears that markets for antiquities in those countries were exposed to public scrutiny and operated with a minimum degree of interference from the authorities. Furthermore, markets in Pakistan, India and Nepal were often housed in facilities supported by municipal services. As in the PRC, the antiques markets in these three countries appear to have been receptive to the participation of foreign buyers. Nevertheless, the primary source country for Tibetan antiquities is the PRC, which claims jurisdiction over approximately 85 per cent of the Tibetan Plateau.

The UNESCO Convention requires State Parties to take action in three main fields: preventative measures (monitoring international trade and imposition of penal and administrative sanctions); restitution provisions (appropriate steps to recover and return imported cultural property and payment of compensation to innocent purchasers who have valid title to that property); and an international cooperation framework (designed to strengthen cooperation between State Parties).18 These measures are laid down in 26 articles.19

The ancient objects that appear exclusively in this work are reported by foreign owners to have been purchased in Nepal, Hong Kong and in Western countries, mostly in the 1980s. I was informed by these collectors that their holdings were obtained from petty dealers who provided little documentation to buyers. It appears that multiple agents were usually involved in the transfer of the antiquities presented in this book from their owners in Tibetan cultural regions up the chain of trade from itinerant dealers to regional markets and international commercial hubs. So standard and widespread has the international trade in Tibetan antiquities become in the last 40 years, that acquiring them had become little more difficult than obtaining modern Tibetan handicrafts and other specialised commodities.

UNIDROIT is an independent intergovernmental organisation headquartered in Rome. According to the UNESCO website, ‘Its purpose is to study needs and methods for modernizing, harmonizing and coordinating private and, in particular, commercial law between States and groups of States … The UNIDROIT Convention covers all stolen cultural objects, not just inventoried and declared ones and stipulates that all cultural property must be returned.’ See: www.unesco.org/new/en/culture/themes/illicit-trafficking-of-culturalproperty/1995-unidroit-convention/. 18 ‘Convention on the Means of Prohibiting and Preventing the Illicit Import, Export and Transfer of Ownership of Cultural Property – 1970’: www.unesco.org/new/en/culture/themes/illicit-trafficking-of-culturalproperty/1970-convention/. 19 Of special interest to this study is Article 1 of the UNESCO Convention, which defines the term ‘cultural property’ as ‘being of importance for archaeology, prehistory, history, literature, art or science’, including, but not restricted to ‘products of archaeological excavations (including regular and clandestine) or of archaeological discoveries’, ‘antiquities more than one hundred years old, such as inscriptions, coins and engraved seals’, and ‘objects of ethnological interest’. Furthermore, Article 7 of the UNESCO Convention directs State Parties to ‘take the necessary measures, consistent with national legislation, to prevent museums and similar institutions within their territories from acquiring cultural property originating in another State Party which has been illegally exported’; ‘to prohibit the import of cultural property stolen from a museum or a religious or secular public monument or similar institution in another State Party’; and ‘at the request of the State Party of origin, to take appropriate steps to recover and return any such cultural property imported after the entry into force of this Convention in both States concerned, provided, however, that the requesting State shall pay just 17

Although we can be reasonably assured that none of the Tibetan antiquities in private collections highlighted in this monograph were procured using nefarious means, there are other considerations germane to their current legal status in international law. This is an exceedingly complex subject and only international legal experts can offer definitive comment. Nevertheless, professional archaeologists, cultural historians and art experts in the twenty-first century can no longer turn a blind eye to questions of legitimacy concerning objects in private collections and museums they study and publish. To this end, I will examine how the objects of this study might relate to the ‘Convention on the Means of Prohibiting and Preventing the Illicit Import, Export and Transfer of Ownership of Cultural Property – 13

Tibetan Silver, Gold and Bronze Objects and the Aesthetics of Animals in the Era before Empire on 28 October 2002.22 In their work on the evolving status of legal and administrative measures for the protection and conservation of cultural relics, Chai and Li (2019: 136) characterise this law as the foundation for Chinese legislation on ensuring the security of cultural relics. According to a UNESCO report on progress made in the implementation of the UNESCO Convention in China, it describes the same law as providing ‘detailed articles on the system of cultural property entry and exit, including qualification of exit examination bodies and their staff, exit examination procedures, items to be examined, issuance of exit permit, use of exit logo, and legal consequences of exit permission’.23

The UNIDROIT Convention essentially deems that, ‘When a museum has reason to believe that a cultural object has been illegally exported from its country of origin, it is prevented from buying it by the ICOM Code of ethics. If the object in question is bought on the international art market by a person or institution acting in good faith, the country of origin presently has no option but to buy it back.’20 The UNIDROIT Convention (Articles 3, 10) ensures that neither the original owner nor the good-faith buyer of a cultural object is unduly penalised. This is accomplished by enjoining buyers to check that any such item was being lawfully traded and requiring its return in the event it was illicitly trafficked. Original owners may be required to provide compensation to buyers who can prove that they purchased an object with due diligence. As pertains to market sellers and private and public collections, the payment of such compensation is widely accepted as providing them with a measure of legal security.21

Markets operating in the public sphere and the hearty welcome of outside players and their cash in the PRC do not necessarily signify that foreign collectors and dealers are accorded protection under the laws of that country. The Law of the People’s Republic of China on the Protection of Cultural Relics was adopted by a meeting of the Standing Committee of the Fifth National Peoples Congress on 19 November 1982 and revised by the same governing body

It behoves us to scrutinise articles of the Law of the People’s Republic of China on the Protection of Cultural Relics that pertain directly to the exchange of what are called ‘cultural relics’, which presumably includes at least some of the antiquities of this study that may have originated in Tibetan regions of the PRC. Article 2, Law of the People’s Republic of China on the Protection of Cultural Relics states, ‘The State places under its protection the following cultural relics within the boundaries of the Peoples Republic of China: sites of ancient culture, ancient tombs, ancient architectural structures, cave temples, stone carvings and murals that are of historical, artistic or scientific value …’; and ‘valuable works of art and handicraft articles dating from various historical periods’. Article 4 notes that, ‘All cultural relics remaining underground or in the inland waters or territorial seas within the boundaries of the People’s Republic of China shall be owned by the state.’ Article 5 allows that, ‘Ownership of memorial buildings, ancient architectural structures and cultural relics handed down from generation to generation which belong to collectives or individuals shall be protected by state laws.’ According to Article 25, ‘The resale of cultural relics in private collections at a profit shall be strictly forbidden, and so shall be the private sale of such relics to foreigners’; and Article 28 declares that, ‘It shall be prohibited to take out of the country any cultural relics of significant historical, artistic or scientific value, with the exception of those to be shipped abroad for exhibition with the approval of the State Council.’ Furthermore, Article 30, Section 3 of the Law of the People’s Republic of China on the Protection of Cultural Relics states that persons involved in ‘selling cultural relics in private collections to foreigners without permission … shall be fined by the departments for the administration of industry

compensation to an innocent purchaser or to a person who has valid title to that property’. See the UNESCO website: www.unesco.org/new/en/ culture/themes/illicit-trafficking-of-cultural-property/1970-convention/ text-of-the-convention/. 20 See ‘Overview – UNIDROIT Convention on Stolen or Illegally Exported Cultural Objects’ (2014): www.unidroit.org/overviecp/english. 21 See ‘Overview - UNIDROIT Convention on Stolen or Illegally Exported Cultural Objects’ (2014). Furthermore, the UNIDRIOT Convention provides legal security to public and private collections by the provision of a relatively short limitation period of three years from the time a claimant becomes aware of the location and possessor of a cultural object.

22 See the English-language website of the State Council of the People’s Republic of China: http://english.www.gov.cn/archive/laws_regulations/2014/08/23/ content_281474982987444.htm. For the full text, see ‘Laws of the People’s Republic of China’, on the website AsianLII: www.asianlii.org/ cn/legis/cen/laws/pocr304/#1. 23 See ‘People’s Republic of China National Report on the Implementation of the 1970 Convention on the Means of Prohibiting and Preventing the Illicit Import, Export and Transfer of Ownership of Cultural Property. 2011–2015’: www.unesco.org/new/fileadmin/MULTIMEDIA/HQ/CLT/ pdf/Rapport_Chine.pdf.

Although I am unable to provide ex officio comment, in light of the provisions set forth in the UNESCO Convention and UNIDROIT Convention, as detailed above, the objects featured in this monograph obtained by collectors with due diligence do not appear to be in contravention of international agreements between State Parties. Furthermore, these owners can be construed as possessing valid title to that property. In the event that a State Party undertakes to reclaim any such objects, these collectors would probably be eligible for fair rates of compensation for that property, as determined by a legal process in conformance with the two international conventions discussed. The provisions of these conventions appear to justify on ethical grounds the publication of the objects featured in this work. Nevertheless, the conclusions reached in this study do not imply that any remedy under international agreements regarding these properties has been achieved. Furthermore, the rights and responsibilities of individual collectors under the laws of their home countries have not been addressed.

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Introduction and commerce, and the cultural relics in question and the illegal earnings derived therefrom may be confiscated’.24

a large spectrum of buyers and sellers suggest that criteria for determining what is a ‘cultural relic’ and which of these are deemed ‘significant’ might not be fully addressed in the existing legislation. Thus, some marketplace activities may possibly fall into a grey area, permitting a wider selection of ancient goods to be traded than is intended by the law. Muddying the waters still further is the fact that around half of the Tibetan cultural area in the PRC known as the TAR was a de facto independent entity until 1951 (Goldstein 1989). The implications of this historical situation continue to have a profound effect on Tibetan perceptions and attitudes towards the legal structures of the PRC.

The Law of the People’s Republic of China on the Protection of Cultural Relics avows that all ancient monuments defined as cultural relics as well as portable cultural relics contained in the ground or bodies of water in the territory of the PRC belong to the State. Legal provision is made for cultural relics under private ownership handed down over the generations. These are not permitted to be disposed of for profit or sold to foreigners. Moreover, the export of cultural relics of ‘significant historical, artistic or scientific value’ is not allowed. However, the transfer of ownership of cultural relics to foreigners is legally sanctioned under special (but not well-specified) conditions in Article 30 of the legislation. That the sale of cultural relics to foreigners is not completely banned provides a legal rationale in particular cases for their direct or indirect participation in the antiquities trade of the PRC. The manner in which markets selling antiquities function in the PRC and their relationship to legislation regulating the protection and transfer of cultural artefacts in the PRC indicate that the acquiring of such items by foreigners exercising due diligence may establish that they enjoy valid title. While offering comment on the legality of individual artefacts in this work or those contained in museums and other private collections outside the PRC is beyond the purview of this study, there is cause to believe that in certain circumstances these cultural relics were acquired with tacit recognition of the fact that they were destined for export from China, if not in a manner entirely consistent with the letter and spirit of the law as it stands in PRC.

However legal conventions and provisions governing the export of antiquities from the PRC and the other four nations from which Tibetan antiquities originate evolve in the future, it is certain that restitution is impossible to contemplate for the majority of significant ancient objects, for the very reason that they are hardly known to any but their owners. In this regard, the publication of a selection of ancient Tibetan objects in this work makes a small but not insignificant step towards ensuring transparency. In the long run, it is only by bringing Tibetan cultural artefacts, wherever they may lie above ground, into the public light that informed decisions pertaining to their provenance, ownership and protection can be made.

Despite furnishing lawful pathways to the export of cultural artefacts, the interpretation of Chinese laws and how they are to be applied to the sale of antiquities in the PRC raises many unresolved questions. China is still in the process of developing a fully modern legal system, and there is some evidence to suggest that the law may not have fully caught up with established market activities.25 The public nature of the markets and the participation of Another major piece of legislation governing the ownership and exchange of cultural relics in the PRC is that entitled Rules for the Implementation of the Protection of Cultural Relics, which was promulgated on 5 May 1992 and revised in 2003. Article 2 of this law affirms that, ‘Cultural relics such as memorial objects, works of art, handicraft articles, revolutionary documents, manuscripts, ancient or old books and materials, and typical material objects are classified into valuable cultural relics and ordinary cultural relics. Valuable cultural relics are classified into Grades One, Two, and Three.’ For the text of this law, see ‘Laws of the People’s Republic of China’ on the AsianLII website: www.asianlii.org/cn/legis/cen/laws/rftiottpocr671/. The most recent key legislation designed to safeguard cultural relics in the PRC is called the Law of the People’s Republic of China on Protection of Cultural Relics (2015 Amendment). For the text of this law, see the Zhejiang Gongshang University website: http://orcp.hustoj.com/law-ofcultural-relics-2015-amendment/. 25 According to the ‘People’s Republic of China National Report on the Implementation of the 1970 Convention on the Means of Prohibiting and Preventing the Illicit Import, Export and Transfer of Ownership of Cultural Property. 2011–2015’, ‘China’s cultural heritage departments have yet to conduct comprehensive surveys of private collection of cultural relics and have only obtained data about cultural relics auctioned within China and entering and exiting China.’ 24

15

1 Two Tibetan silver bowls of the Late Prehistoric era: The spread of vessels in precious metals and lion art of West Asia to the Plateau The silver bowls in the Pine collection

of elite social activities; or possibly to contain libations for use as ritual offerings, a counterpart to the phialae of classical antiquity. Libations of various kinds known as skyems/skyem are listed in Old Tibetan-language ritual texts, often in non-Buddhist or archaic religious contexts.29 As with silver vessels made in other regions of Eurasia, the two bowls of the Pine collection may have been used to consume fermented beverages such as wine and beer.

The magnificent footed silver bowl in Fig. 1.1 (details, Figs. 1.2–1.7) is reported by the collector to have been obtained in Nepal in the 1980s.26 In terms of the effects of its shape and decoration, it achieves a very high degree of balance and harmony.27 The sophisticated manufacture of the vessel demonstrates that it is the product of a mature metalworking tradition. It can be identified as originating on the Tibetan Plateau because of the distinctive lion art, and by the impression of a popular Tibetan symbol, the ‘endless knot’. Analysis and comparison furnished below indicate that other decorative features as well as the form of this bowl, while occurring in related styles elsewhere, are attributable in this instance to the Tibetan Plateau. Well designed and proportioned, this smooth-walled silver vessel compares favourably with ancient counterparts from other parts of Eurasia. Nonetheless, the Tibetan example exhibits unique artistic features, setting it apart from those made in other areas and cultures. Taken as a whole, its artistic lexicon is unexampled. The style and spatial arrangement of the figures and the mix of motifs composing them, as well the vessel’s technical qualities, are material proof of a heretofore unknown tradition of Eurasian bowl-making and metalworking.

Lions are a well-known ancient symbol in Eurasia of royalty and sovereign might, as well as signifying the allconquering nature of Buddhism. In Tibet, lions (sengge) are also an attribute or embodiment of deities, both Buddhist and non-Buddhist. The matching lions on the silver bowl in Fig. 1.3 are typical of much Tibetan leonine art, in that they are depicted not as ferocious animals but as rather pleasant, almost whimsical creatures. Gracile in form, the pair of lions appear to be shown in repose. The front legs are tucked just below the head and the rear legs spread underneath the arched body. The four legs of the lion are flexed and there are four claws on each of the feet. The head is exaggeratedly large and triangular, as are the ears. The mane is represented by hatched lines extending across the flat crown of the head and atop the neck to the wall of the vessel. The large eyes and eye sockets of the lion are almond-shaped. A long, thin nasal bridge divides the upper portion of the head into two parts. The bridge ends in a large, almost quatrefoil muzzle with prominent nostrils and a wide, simpering mouth. The thin S-shaped tail has a large rudder-like tuft embellished with a series of parallel lines. This tuft confirms the identity of the animals as lions rather than other types of felines.

This silver vessel in the Pine collection is in remarkably good condition, having suffered only minor damage to the foot. The vessel possesses a typical ‘bowl’ shape and is of moderate depth, with uniform, curving sides, an everted rim and a slightly flattened bottom. It appears to be made of hammered sheets of silver to which various exterior carved decorations were added by soldering.28 As its weight indicates, the bowl is of robust construction and very stable when set down on a flat surface. Due to its relatively large size (likewise that of a second vessel in the Pine collection, on which see below, pp. 19–21), its original function is unclear. The two silver bowls of the Pine collection may have been used as drinking cups by individuals in ceremonial or banqueting contexts as part

The sides of the silver bowl are ornamented with a unique array of interlinked curved lines terminating in florallike motifs that encircle the pair of lions (Fig. 1.4). These decorations endow the vessel with bold lineaments and a stark gracefulness. The raised lines or ridges of silver limn four equally spaced, inverted heart-shaped fields, which occupy about half the height of the bowl (sans the foot). Two of these cordate fields are filled with the lions, while the opposite two are more sparsely ornamented with a pair of cuneate, bract-like motifs (Fig. 1.2). The ridges forming these two heart-shaped fields are linked to other raised lines circumscribing open-ended figures of eight.

Silver is a white-coloured metallic element that is very ductile and malleable, and is one of the noble elements that does not oxidise when heated in air. Silver was usually obtained in ancient times by the cupellation of lead ores, although it was also sometimes extracted directly from silver sulphide deposits. 27 This and a second Tibetan silver vessel (see below, pp. 19–21) may have functioned as cups or goblets, but because of their size, shape and uncertain usage they are referred to in this work as ‘bowls’. 28 Typically, in ancient times, soldering and brazing on precious metals was accomplished with solder composed of silver-gold, copper-silver, and silver-gold-copper alloys. 26

For a libations myth of origin in an Old Tibetan funerary text of the Gathang Bumpa (Dga’-thang ’bum-pa) collection, with its highly expressive references to gold and beer, see April 2011 Flight of the Khyung. For reference to libations in silver bowls in Pt 1060, see Bellezza 2008, p. 524 n. 584.

29

17

Tibetan Silver, Gold and Bronze Objects and the Aesthetics of Animals in the Era before Empire

Fig. 1.1. A Tibetan silver bowl with high-relief lions on opposite sides. This bowl measures 8.5 cm in height, 20 cm in diameter, with a foot 10 cm in diameter. Its weight is 829 g. Pre-Imperial era (pre-seventh century CE). Jeremy Pine collection, Hong Kong. Photograph by Mark French.

Fig. 1.2. A close-up view of the decorative pattern on the silver bowl in Fig. 1.1, consisting of interconnected ridges forming an inverted heart-shaped field, with added florallike motifs reminiscent of fronds and bracts and a band of hemispherical lobes above. Photograph by Mark French.

Fig. 1.3. A close-up of one of the two lion subjects adorning the vessel. These lions were fashioned from solid silver. Photograph by Mark French.

The lower half of the loops overlaps the cordate fields with cuneate motifs but only touches upon the opposite fields with the lions. The upper half of the loops terminates in frond-like motifs nearly reaching as high as the top of the heart-shaped fields. A band of small hemispherical lobes is interposed between the trailing ridges and the slightly enrolled rim. These lobes appear to be of solid (or almost solid) silver.

An endless knot (dpal-be’u) consisting of eight cells was engraved inside the bottom of the silver bowl (Figs. 1.5, 1.6). This symbol probably served as an inventory mark or sign of ownership made sometime after the fabrication of the vessel. An assessment of the style of endless knots in Tibetan art can often be exploited as an indicator of their age, but the engraved example here is too rudimentary in form to be of much value in this regard. 18

Two Tibetan silver bowls of the Late Prehistoric era

Fig. 1.4. A view of the bottom of the bowl. Note the high relief of the lions. These carved animal subjects appear to have been soldered onto the bowl. They protrude a maximum of 2 cm from the body of the vessel. Photograph by Mark French.

Fig. 1.6. Detail of the endless knot engraved in the bottom of the bowl. Photograph by Mark French.

Fig. 1.7. A close-up view of the base of the bowl, marked with an engraved disc. Note the wear on the bottom of the beaded band, indicating that the vessel had sustained usage. Photograph by Mark French.

Fig. 1.5. Overhead view of the bowl. Note the everted rim. An engraved endless knot was placed in the upper right quadrant. Photograph by Mark French.

to the specimen examined above. It also has a similar decorative pattern. This leaves no doubt that the two vessels belong to the same cultural and metalworking tradition. The bowl in Fig. 1.8, however, is considerably larger than the other one in the Pine collection. Provided that this vessel had the same type of broad foot as the smaller bowl, its total weight must have been around 1800 g. Three gashes and a groove circumscribe the area to which the foot was attached. There is also now a hole (approximately 3 cm in length) below the rim of the bowl.

On the bottom of the base of the bowl, a disc divided into 13 pie-shaped sectors was engraved (Fig. 1.7). There is an inner circle in the middle of the disc and short, flaring lines along the outer edge. This mandala-like motif also appears to have been carved after the manufacture of the bowl. The spectacular Tibetan silver bowl in Fig. 1.8 (details, Figs. 1.9–11) is of a comparable form, function and age 19

Tibetan Silver, Gold and Bronze Objects and the Aesthetics of Animals in the Era before Empire

Fig. 1.8. A larger Tibetan silver bowl, now missing the foot. This bowl boasts four matching lions, symmetrically arrayed around the exterior of the body. In this image, two of the lions and one of the intervening dart-and-lance motifs are visible. Dimensions: 7.8 cm in height, 25 cm in diameter and 1310 g in weight. Tibetan, pre-Imperial era (pre-seventh century CE). Jeremy Pine collection, Hong Kong. Photograph by Mark French.

The vessel features four lions, as well as radiating linear patterns. There is also a band of small hemispherical lobes just below the everted rim. As with the smaller silver bowl, each of these lobes is made of solid or nearly solid silver. As on the small bowl, each of the four lions of the bigger vessel (Fig. 1.9) is enclosed within an inverted heart-shaped field, which is formed by two parallel ridges instead of one. These medallion-like fields rest on a large octogram whose eight points spread around the entire vessel. This eight-pointed star is formed by two parallel ridges. The four smaller points merge with the cleft at the base of the four cordate fields, whereas the four larger intervening points create peaks between the fields. Each of the peaks is surmounted by an arrow-like feature studded with a circular boss in the middle. Two other bosses are cradled underneath the bowed base of this acuminate motif. Below the apex of the four larger points of the octogram, a single ridge splits to form a forked pattern. These bifurcating lines terminate in lanceolate tips that link to the upper portion of each cordate field. The lanceolate tips are reminiscent of similarly shaped leaves. However, it is not clear if a floral theme or something else was intended by this representation.

Fig. 1.9. A view of the base of the bowl, in which all four lions, intervening decorations and an encompassing octogram can be seen. The carved appliqué lions protrude more than 2 cm from the walls of the vessel. The blemishes and gashes forming a circular pattern in the middle of the bowl’s underside flag the former presence of a wide conical foot. Photograph by Mark French.

Although they share many traits in common, the four lions of the larger vessel (Fig. 1.10) are somewhat different in style from the two lions ornamenting the smaller bowl. Like the felines on the smaller bowl, this quartet of lions have pointed ears, flat-topped triangular heads, splayed muzzles with conspicuous nostrils, and rudder-shaped tails segmented by parallel lines. The eyes of the four lions, however, are smaller and less prominent than

those on the smaller bowl. The lions on the bigger bowl also have bulkier bodies, yet they still do not evince a particularly ferocious demeanour. The mane is portrayed as a series of indistinct lines curving over the head and neck which terminate in a small spiral, confirming the identity of the creatures. The rounded front and rear 20

Two Tibetan silver bowls of the Late Prehistoric era

Fig. 1.10. A close-up view of one of the lions and two of the interposed arrow-and-lance motifs. These appliqué decorative features were worked in solid silver. Photograph by Mark French.

The somewhat chimerical form of the lions on both Pine bowls contrasts with more realistic leonine depictions in West Asia and India. The unreal qualities of the Tibetan lions suggest that the inhabitants of the Plateau were not as familiar with this animal as peoples in those territories where the Asian lion once ranged.

quarters of the animals are emphasised by the deeply drawn-in belly. A comma-like decorative volute was traced on the rear haunch of each of the four lions. This volute and the orbicular anterior and posterior halves of the lions emphasise the curvilinear presentation of the animals. As is discussed in later chapters, the sinuous outline of the lions pulls them within a constellation of zoomorphic art prevailing in Eurasia in the first millennium BCE and early first millennium CE (in this work, it is called the Eurasian Animal Style). Like the two lions on the smaller bowl, those on the larger vessel have four toes and claws on each paw. Nonetheless, in keeping with the heavier form of these animals, their feet are more massive.

As noted, the two Tibetan silver bowls featured in this work are virtually unique. No other Tibetan silver vessels attributed to the Late Prehistoric era appear to have been studied or published. Tibetan silver vessels from the Imperial period, however, are well known. In order to identify artistic, cultural and technical traits that may be linked to the bowls in the Pine collection, the Imperial period variants warrant scrutiny. Nevertheless, as shall be shown, the genetic relationship between the two silver bowls of the pre-Imperial era and examples dating to the Imperial period is minimal. Silver and gold vessels attributed to the Tibetan empire are very different in form, decorative treatment and technical expression, as might be expected of objects made centuries after the Pine silver bowls. Affinities between our bowls and silver vessels produced in the Imperial period are confined to more general artistic and technical features.30 Other Tibetan silver and gold vessels and the lion While the two bowls in the Pine collection contrast with those produced in all surrounding regions and farther afield, the same cannot be said for silver vessels made in the Imperial period. Those of Central Asia, Imperial Tibet and T’ang China show much evidence of crossfertilisation, which extends to vessel forms, decorations and manufacturing techniques. In many cases, this ‘international style’ complicates attribution of vessels made

Fig. 1.11. An overhead view of the interior of the bowl and its concave bottom. Photograph by Mark French.

30 For a review of the repertoire of objects produced in precious metals in the Imperial period, see Heller 2013.

21

Tibetan Silver, Gold and Bronze Objects and the Aesthetics of Animals in the Era before Empire indicating that it was either made in Tibet or for the Tibetan market.33 Carved on the body of the cup are three rampant lions with foliate decorations, sporting among floral flourishes consisting of leaves, stalks and palmettes. One of these muscular but unferocious lions has a pair of horns.34 Carter (loc. cit.) observes that the lions are distinct from T’ang examples and that the shape of the cup is not of Chinese origin, while cups with ring handles and guards are known in Central Asia in the same period. These lions, with their snub noses and rosette front paws, are also very different in style from those on the Pine silver bowls. Nevertheless, the large teardrop-shaped tuft marked by a series of curved lines at the end of curling, cord-like tails are reminiscent of the rudder-shaped tails of the lions on our silver bowls. Also, the volute on the rear leg of the lions on the cup bears some resemblance to the volute on the rear haunches of the lions on the larger bowl in the Pine collection.

in precious metals to a specific culture or region, for none of the Tibetan specimens available for study were discovered in a secure archaeological context. Nevertheless, a mural painting in Dunhuang cave 159 depicting the Tibetan emperor (btsan-po) holding a silver cup with a ring handle, and painted banquet scenes on wooden coffin panels from Dulan with silver cups, ewers and platters, leaves no doubt that sumptuous vessels were very much part of the high culture of Tibet (Heller 2013: 260, 261). Tibetan carved, hammered and engraved decorations on gold and silver articles demonstrate a very high level of craftsmanship and artistic skill in the time of the empire (cf. Heller 2002, citing Schafer). These vessels were shaped, decorated and finished through a combination of hammering, carving, chasing, engraving and burnishing. On artistic and epigraphic grounds, all Imperial-period vessels presented in this study reserve a strong claim to having been made in Tibet or in their vassal territories, significantly expanding the geographic realm in which they may have been produced. The empire period was a time on the Tibetan Plateau when the output of vessels in precious metals, religious articles, thokcha, armour and armaments, costumes and many other things was greatly amplified.

The silver jug in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection (Fig. 1.12; illustrated in Carter 1998: 26 (Figs. 4a, b), 27 (Figs. 5a–d)) has an ovoid body, a form known in China since the sixth century CE, when it may have been introduced from Central Asia (ibid., 26, 27). This vessel has a relatively narrow neck, a trumpet-like mouth and a body ornamented with repoussé medallions of vines and bunches of grapes, as well as a roaring lion with a curled tongue, a birdman with turban and coat, a twisted dragon with a long snout, and four flying birds. The birdman appears to be an example of the hybrid creature known to Tibetans as shang-shang. The only element of this jug resembling an element on the more ancient pair of silver bowls central to this work is the short, soldered foot, particularly the beading around the base. We will return to

The three gilt silver vessels of the Cleveland Museum of Art in Fig. 1.12, including a vase-like jug, cup and rhyton, are stylistically related to one another. Moreover, all three vessels have gold applied on thin sheets of silver set into the relief background (Carter 1998: 32). They are estimated to date to the mid to the late seventh or eighth century CE (ibid., 22, 23).31 Nonetheless, I think it is prudent to extend the potential date of manufacture of these vessels through the entire Imperial period (mid-seventh to midninth century CE). A seriation of vessels attributed to Tibet has not been established, and the suggested chronology stands on inconclusive cross-cultural data. Carter opines that Tibetans drank wine from silver vessels, stating that although viniculture was known in Tibet and is mentioned in Tibetan texts, Tibetans of the imperial period, like the Chinese, probably associated grapes with Central Asian cultures such as the Sogdians (ibid., 32–35).32 Similarly, the two silver bowls in the Pine collection may have been used to imbibe or offer grape wine. Nevertheless, the most popular alcoholic beverage and libation in Tibet was and is barley beer (chang).

33 Carter and Heller have identified the inscription as designating the possession of a princess or other noble-born individual named Panshing. These two authors suggest that this individual may be identified as Princess Wen-cheng (died 683 CE), the wife of King Srong-btsan sgam-po. See Carter 1998, pp. 21, 23, 24; Heller 2002 n. 38. Revisiting the cup in a later work, Heller reviews alternative readings suggested by other scholars (Heller 2013: 277, 278), none of which are viable. On palaeographic and grammatical grounds this inscription can be assigned to the Imperial period. It appears to be a dedication to the owner or recipient of the cup, and reads: phan shĭng gong skyes gyi sug byad (‘[This cup] serves as the stable foundation of benefit and the arising of the very best’). The word sug often refers to the feet and legs of humans and animals, but in this inscription, it carries a more metaphorical and old-fashioned meaning: ‘stable foundation’, ‘secure basis’ or ‘firm foothold’. For example, in the Ladakhi dialect we find the following expression: sug gu tshugs song (‘a firm basis was established’). In this context, sug can signify a root (rtsa-ba), a foundation (rmang), firmly planted feet (rkang) etc. 34 A horned lion deity called hor-mu (sic) is one of eight zoomorphic spirits with horns born from eggs (six of which are birds), which are endowed with demon-destroying powers unleashed during the conduct of post-mortem rites in a Yungdrung Bon funerary text composed after 1000 CE. See Bellezza 2008, pp. 445, 446. The name of the horned lion includes the word hor, which often denotes peoples and lands of Central Asia. This etymological association is in line with the origins and concentration of horned lion and griffin art in Western and Central Asia. Horns are a typical addition to lions and griffins in Achaemenid art (see Kantor 1957, pp. 5, 8 n. 43, 21). A horned lion head also occurs on a seal from Ur (ibid., 8, 9). On the symbolic and decorative features of the horned and winged lion in the art of Tibet and adjoining territories in the Imperial period, see Pritzker 2017, pp. 111, 112.

The silver cup in the Cleveland Museum of Art (Fig. 1.12) is flat-bottomed and has a double-ring handle complete with thumb guard, and a band of beading below the rim (illustrated in Carter 1998, 24, 25 (Figs. 3a–3c)). On the bottom of the cup is an inscription in Old Tibetan, 31 For a preliminary study of these three silver vessels in the Cleveland Museum of Art, see Czuma 1993. See also Melikian-Chirvani 2011, pp. 101–03. 32 Grapes are also cultivated in lower parts of western Ladakh and in various regions of Northern Pakistan and are used traditionally to make wine. For early Tibetan textual references to grape wine (rgun-chang/ rgun-skyems), see Bellezza 2008, pp. 336, 406 n. 153; 2005, pp. 208, 356, 358.

22

Two Tibetan silver bowls of the Late Prehistoric era

Fig. 1.12. A figured jug, cup and rhyton made of silver and with gilding. North Inner Asia or Tibet, ca. late seventh or eighth century CE. Maximum height: 22.9 cm. The Cleveland Museum of Art, purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund 1988.67. Photograph: Cleveland Museum of Art, open access image: www.clevelandart.org/art/1988.67.

the silver rhyton in the Cleveland Museum of Art in due course.35 As Carter remarks (1998: 31), the zoomorphic imagery of the three silver vessels in the Cleveland Museum is distinctly non-Chinese in flavour. She traces the rampant lions with foreleg raised on the cup to a gold vessel from the Oxus treasure of the Achaemenid era, but notes that the Tibet variant is whimsical and unthreatening. The less robust lions of the two silver bowls in the Pine collection are even more pacific in demeanour. Carter also discusses vegetal forms, the one-horned deer, dragon and other animals depicted on the silver vessels in the Cleveland Museum, which are also common to Central Asia and China, seeing in them distinctive Tibetan modes of artistic expression among a range of cosmopolitan strains (ibid., 34, 35). She considers the possibility that Tibetans may have pressed or lured skilled artisans from various countries into service during their Imperial expansion, including Sogdians, Turks, Chinese and Iranians (ibid., 36, 37). Probably the most famous silver vessel in Tibet is the pictured jug kept in the Jo-khang cathedral, Lhasa (Fig. 1.13). As Carter advises, it is not known if this jug with a mouth in the form of an animal head was produced in Lhasa, in another location of Tibet, or in another area of the Tibetan empire (Carter 1998: 39). Heller, in her study of this and other Tibetan silver vessels, dates the jug to the Imperial period, coinciding with Tibet’s vigorous participation in a trade network linking the Mediterranean 35 In her article, Carter (1998) also considers a gilt silver platter with a half-animal, half-human creature in the centre, surrounded by winged pairs of deer and caprids and floral motifs, attributed to Imperial-period Tibet. It is housed in the Miho Museum, Japan. See ibid., pp. 34, 35 (Fig. 11). For a detailed description of this platter, see Hajime n.d. For an analytical study of this and another platter (both of which have Tibetan inscriptions), consult Heller 2013, pp. 268–72.

Fig. 1.13. A silver flagon kept in Chos-rgyal Srong-btsan sgam-po chapel, Jo-khang/Gtsug-lag-khang, Lhasa. Imperial period. Photograph courtesy of Ulrich von Schroeder. See Schroeder 2001, 794 (Pl. 190B).

23

Tibetan Silver, Gold and Bronze Objects and the Aesthetics of Animals in the Era before Empire world with China (Heller 2002: Figs. 1–7).36 Associated with King Srong-btsan sgam-po in Tibetan folk tradition, the jug is filled daily with offerings of beer (ibid.). This vessel is decorated with gilded heart-shaped repoussé medallions and three scenes of Central Asian figures in dress typical of Tibet at that time, which was related to contemporaneous costumes of Central Asia and China (ibid.).37 Some of the decorative motifs were soldered to the body of the vessel (ibid.). Appliqué decorative components were added to silver vessels by both Sasanians and Tibetans (ibid.; Denwood 1973: 121 n. 3). The Lhasa jug shares certain decorative motifs in common with a cast silver jug in the Ashmolean museum (Heller 2002: Fig. 32) and has the same proportions as a silver jug in the Pritzker collection (adorned with three hybrid creatures and birds with entwined necks).38

of fabrication and decoration were not just emulated but adapted to Tibetan technical and aesthetic sensibilities. The adaptation by the Tibetan elite of the art and technologies of surrounding territories to their own tastes is most conspicuous in the toreutics of sumptuary vessels (Pritzker 2017: 105). In form, decoration and technique, the Lhasa jug and the two jugs of Heller’s 2002 study bear little similarity to the silver bowls in the Pine collection. It can be concluded that these two groups of vessels belong to different stages in the artistic and artisanal development of the Tibetan Plateau. The Lhasa jug and other silver vessels considered are manifestations of a transregional style that engulfed Central Asia and China between the fifth and eighth centuries CE. As we shall see, our two silver bowls owe aspects of their origins to West Asian models of the Iron Age.

In her analysis of the Lhasa silver jug, Heller (2002) holds that its decorative features were adopted from the Sogdians and T’ang Chinese, but with the addition of Tibetan motifs such as the style of dress. Heller adds that the Lhasa jug differs from Sogdian workmanship, and the costumes depicted are not standard Sogdian and Sasanian ones. Heller believes that one of the figures on the jug, a dancer with a Chinese lute slung over his shoulder, is of Tibetan conception (ibid.). The decorative scheme of the two bowls in the Pine collection suggests that the heart-shaped medallions on the jug may also be of Tibetan inspiration. Like Carter, Heller characterises the style of the Lhasa jug and other silver vessels appraised in her article as an amalgamation, in which foreign techniques

The plaque on the left in Fig. 1.14 portrays two rampant lions, forelegs raised, which are remarkably like the pair of lions on the silver cup described above (Fig. 1.12). The cavorting lions flank a central scene comprised of a figure riding on what appears to be a Bactrian camel, sword raised and poised to strike a lion gnawing into the rear quarters of the mount. The camel also appears to be biting the lion. This very thin and finely made bronze(?) plaque is attributable to Tibet (it was reportedly obtained in Tibet). The attack scene is one of the very few depictions of overt violence that I have observed in thokcha (thog-lcags),39 a heterogenous class of small copper-alloy objects produced

Fig. 1.14. Two copper-alloy plaques with lions and other subjects reflecting the art of Tibetan silver vessels of the Imperial period. Private collection. The openwork plaque on the left measures 8.8 cm × 6.5 cm; the one on the right measures 7.5 cm × 6 cm. This same article with minor variations is published in Heller 2003b. For a comparison of Tibetan costumes, ornaments and coiffures with those of Persia and Central Asia in the Protohistoric period and Imperial period, see Stoddard 2009. 38 On this jug in the Pritzker collection, see Heller 2002, Fig. 35; 2003a, pp. 62, 63 (Fig. 16); 2013, pp. 274–76. On the bottom of this vessel is a Tibetan inscription including the words: g.yung-drung brtan-pa’i dkor (ibid., 275), which denotes that this possession (dkor) is of a perfectly stable and secure nature (g.yung-drung brtan-pa), implying steadfast control and ownership. 36 37

A rectangular plaque belonging to the same class of objects dating to the Imperial period features two battle scenes of an identical style (they are mirror images of one another). It is on display in the Mtsho-sngon bod kyi rig-gnas rten-mdzod-gling museum, Xining. For a much earlier example of a Tibetan animal combat scene on an openwork plaque, see March 2016 Flight of the Khyung, Fig. 1; Figs. 4.14, 4.15 in this volume.

39

24

Two Tibetan silver bowls of the Late Prehistoric era in various regions of the Tibetan Plateau from the Late Bronze Age to medieval times.40 The aggression expressed in this plaque is related to artistic themes commonly seen in North Inner Asia and other parts of Central Eurasia, dating from the Iron Age to post-classical times. The plaque on the right in Fig. 1.14 has two confronted lions with their paws resting on a round, shield-like central subject. This object has a heraldic appearance, not unlike a coat of arms. Accordingly, it may have functioned as military or political insignia. This object is part of a group of Tibetan thokcha of the same form (with minor decorative variations) and function dating to the Imperial period. Thus, it can be attributed confidently to Tibet or Tibetan territories. The copper-alloy objects in Fig. 1.14 and others like them help substantiate attribution of silver vessels of the Imperial period described in this work to Tibet.41

Fig. 1.15. A large silver cup with partial gilding, published in Heller 2002, Fig. 42. Tibet or Xinjiang, Imperial period. Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Accession Number: 2001.628. Photograph: Metropolitan Museum of Art (public domain).

Heller also examines four silver bowl-shaped cups with carved designs assigned to Imperial-period Tibet (2002, Figs. 40–43). Like the silver bowls of the Pine collection, these cups are broad and fairly shallow. They also have a ring of beading around the foot, but other design features (beading around the upper body, ring handles with thumb guard, short round foot and plain rim) are alien to the two vessels central to our study. One of these cups (14 cm in diameter), belonging to a private collection, has hammered and repoussé decorations of dancing lions and floral motifs (ibid., Fig. 43). The largest of the four, illustrated in Figs. 1.15 and 1.16, a gilt silver cup (14.9 cm Thog-lcags can be glossed as ‘primordial metal’ or ‘thunder iron’, which underscores the celestial origins of this highly diverse group of objects in Tibetan folklore. An alternative name for these objects is thog-rde’u, as reported by Tucci (1973: 34). Thog-rde’u means ‘little thunder stone’ or ‘primordial little stone’. Tucci (loc. cit.) also provides the epithet mtho-lding (‘high-flying’) for thokcha. In an earlier work, Tucci (1935: 105, 106) uses a corrupt spelling thog ldi in his discussion of these artefacts as evidence for ancient civilisation in Far Western Tibet. In a phonetic rendering of the term, Huo Wei (2016: 91) states that ton ti (sic) ‘means an object that has been dropped from the sky’, but this is an incorrect gloss, although it does sum up the significance of the term. Huo Wei’s definition better fits a related group of objects known as gnam-lcags (‘celestial iron/sky metal’). Huo Wei (ibid., 94) claims that very few thokcha were made as amulets, while most are ornaments and utilitarian objects. In fact, a considerable portion of these object appear to have been designed with talismanic value in mind (cf. Anninos 1998: 94, 95). As Tucci explains (1935: 106, 110), thokcha are considered objects of the gods, originating in thunderbolts that fell to earth, lending them a sacred character. He adds that they are classified in three types: body, speech and mind of deities (ibid., 106, 108). For more on the lore and function of thokcha, see Bellezza 2005, pp. 177, 178; 1998; John 2006, pp. 21–83; Anninos 1998, p. 93. 41 For examples of thokcha conforming to the cosmopolitan style of art seen on Tibetan gold and silver vessels, a fairly diverse group of objects in function and appearance, consult Lin 2003, p. 145 (top left): pendant with rampant lion, forelegs raised; p. 103 (bottom right): circular pendant with pair of horned creatures. See also John 2006, p. 121 (Fig. 246): plaque with two rampant lions; Fig. 247: plaque with confronted lions and a pair of addorsed animals; p. 131 (Fig. 303): pendant with a pair of animals in fantastical aspect; p. 139 (Fig. 348): unidentified object with two confronted eagle-like birds; Fig. 349: unidentified object with a pair of confronted animals; p. 196 (Fig. 821): plaque with two confronted lions shown in the aspect of running or pouncing, and floral motifs. Heller (2002, Fig. 37) illustrates a circular pendant with a pair of birds, necks entwined, dating to the Imperial period. Weihreter (2002a: 53 (Fig. 35); 1988: 257 (Fig. 206) presents what may be a horse harness component with a single rampant lion. For a silver gilt medallion from a bridle assembly in the Pritzker collection, featuring two rampant lions typical of the Imperial period (muscular, broad-chested, gaping mouths), see Heller 2003a, p. 59 (Fig. 9b). 40

Fig. 1.16. The bottom of the silver cup with gilding published in Heller 2002, Fig. 42. Photograph: Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (public domain).

in diameter), is distinguished by a plain, short foot and entwining leaf tendrils alternating with floral designs (Heller 2002, Fig. 42; 2013: 278, 279).42 Heller, while noting that the Metropolitan Museum of Art attributes this cup to Xinjiang, treats it as Tibetan (2003b: 227 (Figs. 24, 25), 228). The same assignment to a foreign source might be considered for the other silver cups considered by Heller, but this seems less likely given their decorative treatment and Tibet’s ancient reputation for advanced metallurgy. The interlinking tendril design of the cup in Figs. 1.15 and 1.16 recalls the winding ridges of our silver vessels, but in the case of the former, the pattern is more ornate, and embellished with finely segmented floral 42 This cup has a Tibetan inscription in the bowl, reading: ka. Heller (2013: 279) sees this inscription as perhaps a method of numbering. Indeed, I believe that this letter is an inventory mark, as seen on various kinds of objects and texts in later times as well.

25

Tibetan Silver, Gold and Bronze Objects and the Aesthetics of Animals in the Era before Empire motifs characteristic of the Imperial period.43 Again, it can be concluded from this survey of silver vessels belonging to the Imperial period presented in works by Heller and Carter that they bear little likeness to the two bowls in the Pine collection. The bowl-shaped cup of exceptional workmanship in Fig. 1.17 may have been specially fabricated by Chinese artisans for Tibetan demand or for another region of Inner Asia. However, production in Tibet itself remains a distinct possibility.44 Highly celebrated Tibetan expertise in the working of gold may possibly have contributed to the industry in T’ang China (Heller 2013: 259, 260, citing Schafer).45 Yet, like other vessels of the Imperial period presented in this work, the provenance of the gold drinking bowl in the Royal Tang-Tubo collection is not assured. The definitive localisation of gold and silver vessels as belonging to Tibet proper, Tibetan territorial holdings or Tibetan imitative styles is still to be achieved. This task would be greatly aided by discoveries of objects in archaeologically secure contexts and by spectrographic testing and other scientific methods of analysis.

Fig. 1.17. A view of the interior of a solid gold, footed cup, probably made for wine-drinking. Dimensions: 4.1 cm in height, 8.25 cm in diameter and 127.4 g in weight. The exterior surface of the bowl is granulated and interspersed with filigree-work consisting of gambolling deer, flying geese, bunches of grapes, acanthus motifs, interlinked vines, as well as a ring of teardrops around the top of the flaring foot. A winged lion, one paw raised and set against a granulated background, forms the omphalos of the cup. Tibet or T’ang China. Royal Tang-Tubo collection, Hong Kong. Photograph by Mark French.

The lion subject in the bottom of the bowl in the Royal Tang-Tubo collection is of a form that can be associated with interior areas of Asia. Its aspect and style are related to lion thokcha. In particular, the volutes on the front haunch, raised mane and curling bushy tail resonate with certain lion thokcha, as in the example pictured in Fig. 1.18.46 There are many lion thokcha as well as lions in the rock art of Ladakh and Spiti with one front leg raised, which on stylistic, technical and comparative grounds are also assignable to the Early Historic period.47 While none of these artistic affinities ensures that the lion-embellished golden cup is Tibetan, they do chart the spread of connate lion figuration in different media on the Tibetan Plateau in the Imperial period.

There are also thokcha featuring lions that are unusual or idiosyncratic in conception and design, best classified as representative of indigenous artistic models.48 A common and distinctive group of lions in a Tibetan indigenous style consists of heavily stylised squatting figures, which can be dated to the Early Historic period and Vestigial period. A typical example of this type of figurine, exhibiting a nondescript head, extended front paws and curvilinear motifs on the crouching body is illustrated in Fig. 1.19. These types of figurines also occur less commonly in silver and a white metal (tong). Fig. 1.20 depicts a pair of lions that for all intents and purposes are Tibetan in style. What diffuse influences from abroad are discernable have been submerged into a leonine form emblematic of Tibet. This plaque may have been made originally as a military insignia. Other examples of this kind of plaque (with

A larger bowl (16.4 cm in diameter) in contrast to the four aforementioned cups inspected by Heller has a slightly everted rim, foot with caryatids as supports typical of Nepalese sculptures of the Imperial period, and a body ornamented with flying geese interspersed among medallions with floral motifs set between tetrahedral knobs (Heller 2002, Fig. 44). As part of an alternative tradition of silversmithing, this unusual bowl is very differently designed and chased from others in the Heller article. The birds and floral subjects are simply but boldly rendered, perhaps representing an artistic lineage stemming from the Pine bowls. The shape of the bowl, four medallions set between zoomorphic subjects, beading around the base of the foot, and band of large beads below the enrolled rim also recall the two silver bowls of the Pine collection. My initial assessment of this vessel studied by Heller is that it belongs to a vernacular style from the Tibetan Plateau. With so little to compare this bowl to, the possibility that it somewhat predates the Imperial period must be contemplated. 44 Horse medallions with granulated gold surfaces were discovered at a burial site in Sna-dkar-rtse, Central Tibet. See Heller 2003a, pp. 55, 56; 2013, p. 274. These, however, appear to have been produced at a much earlier date (see chapter two). 45 For a gold cup with a ring handle and crenated shoulder and Tibetan inscription, see Heller 2013, pp. 272–74. The crenated shoulder is traced back to pre-Achaemenid West Asia. 46 For this image, see also December 2014 Flight of the Khyung, Fig. 9. For another thokcha whose form is reminiscent of the lion subject on the gold bowl in Fig. 1.17, see John 2006, p. 120 (Fig. 237). 47 For a lion in this aspect in the rock art of Spiti, see October 2015 Flight of the Khyung, Fig. 18.12; for a Ladakhi example, see Bruneau 2010b, Pl. 91. 43

48 For leonine thokcha in styles peculiar to Tibet, see, for example, Lin 2003, pp. 96, 97; Weihreter 2002a, pp. 57 (Figs. 46–49), 58 (Fig. 50); 1988, p. 233 (Fig. 160), 235 (Figs. 167–70); John 2006, pp. 117 (Fig. 228), 118 (Figs. 250–52), 121 (Figs. 248–53), 122 (Figs. 254–72); Bellezza 1998, pp. 52 (Fig. 7), 57, 59 (Fig. 55, five specimens in upper right); Anninos 1998, p. 97 (Figs. 12–15). See also the large ring fibula (14 cm × 11 cm) with three or four pairs of confronted and addorsed lions (two pairs of which have upturned noses) in Weihreter 2002a, pp. 244, 245; 2002b: 1573 (Fig. 4); 1988, pp. 244, 245 (Fig. 187); Anninos 1998, p. 96 (Fig. 11). Weihreter dates this object of highly adroit workmanship and superb modelling to the seventh or eighth century CE. The central figure on the top of the fibula is a bird swooping down with spread wings. Tibetan horned eagles (khyung) are often depicted in this aspect. Central figures on Tibetan ring fibulae in the form of a standing khyung with spread wings are also known. See an example in Anninos 1998, p. 95 (Fig. 7).

26

Two Tibetan silver bowls of the Late Prehistoric era

Fig. 1.18. A Tibetan thokcha featuring a lion (4.2 cm × 3.8 cm). Originally, this object may have been a component of a horse harness. Imperial period. Private collection. Note: Each block in the accompanying scale is 1 cm in length.

Fig. 1.20. A copper-alloy thokcha plaque with two confronted lions in the centre (6.1 cm × 6.3 cm). This object was designed to be worn. Note the heavy wear on the attachment loop and rich patina. Tibet. Imperial period. Moke Mokotoff collection.

Fig. 1.19. A squatting lion figurine of the thokcha class made for wearing on one’s person, as indicated by the highly worn attachment perforations, front and back. This object measures 5.8 cm × 3 cm. Tibet. Early Historic period or Vestigial period. Moke Mokotoff collection.

minor variations) are known.49 Also, smaller thokcha with just a single lion in the middle of a ring in comparable styles are fairly common. The lion sculpture in Fig. 1.21 is an example of another genre of leonine art produced in the Imperial period.50 The sculpture must have been installed on the tomb as a mortuary guardian with noble overtones.51 It is variously Fig. 1.21. The famous stone lion sculpture of the ’Phyongrgyas royal burial grounds of the Spu-rgyal kings, Central Tibet.

Another lion thokcha of the same type but of finer form and workmanship is illustrated in Lin 2003, pp. 2, 21. The pair of opposing lions on this plaque are depicted with an almost flat crown and a nearly triangular upper portion of the head, prominent pointed ears, and little discernable mane. These features evoke parallel ones in the two lions on the small silver bowl in the Pine collection. 50 On the stele of King Khri-srong lde-brtsan at ’Phyong-rgyas there are lion and dragon carvings, but the lion is carved in low relief and is no longer very visible. See Richardson 1963, pp. 82 (Fig. 5), 86. 51 For a thokcha figurine of a standing lion with many traits in common with the ’Phyong-rgyas specimen, see March 2011 Flight of the Khyung, Figs. 19, 20. For other lion thokcha with certain comparable features, see Weihreter 1988, pp. 232, 233 (Fig. 161): lion depicted in profile, back legs heavily flexed; John 2006, p. 121 (Fig. 243). 49

associated with the tombs of the btsan-po Khri-gtsug lde-btsan (died ca. 841 CE), Khri-srong lde-btsan (died ca. 797 CE) and Khri-lde gtsug-btsan (died ca. 754 CE; Hazod 2015: 193). Protective gods and symbols for the dead in the shape of lions are noted in archaic funerary rituals of the Yungdrung Bon religion (Bellezza 2008: 27

Tibetan Silver, Gold and Bronze Objects and the Aesthetics of Animals in the Era before Empire be viewed in the context of the large corpus of leonine art established in Tibet in the Imperial period.

441, 446, 450, 453, 457, 465–68, 477). According to Richardson (1963: 82–85), this lion displays minimal Indian, Nepalese or Chinese influence; rather, it appears to be derived from Persian models transmitted through Central Asia. However, in a more recent article, originally published in 1987 and later incorporated in a volume of his collected works, Richardson expresses doubt over the artistic origins of the ’Phyong-rgyas lion (Richardson 1998: 271, 272). Complicating the picture further, Tucci summarily labels the ’Phyong-rgyas lion an imitation of Chinese models (Tucci 1973: 195 (Fig. 47)).

The lion with a long, slender body, raised S-shaped tail with a tuft on the end, and broad chest turned to face the viewer shown in Fig. 1.22 (left) is arrayed with other decorative motifs on a bronze mchod-rten (stūpa). It is attributed by Tucci to Nepalese workmanship but said to point to the Iranian cultural world (Tucci 1973, Fig. 167, p. 180). Tucci provides no information on the provenance of this mchod-rten. Its lion subject is probably datable to the Imperial period. While the origins of Tibetan lion art beckon westward, the imprint of Iranian culture upon the lion on the bronze mchod-rten in Tucci’s work is minimal indeed. A much closer artistic relationship is evinced by Tibetan ring fibulae boasting lions. Comparable longbodied lions depicted in profile crown Tibetan ornamental copper-alloy fibulae. They occur in addorsed pairs, often with heads regardant and some with S-shaped tails.54 It is not clear whether the fibula of this kind pictured on the right in Fig. 1.22 is datable to the Imperial period or to a later phase of the Protohistoric period. Tibetan ring fibulae range in age from the Protohistoric period to the Vestigial period, but a reliable seriation of these objects has still to be developed.

Heller (2007) and Hazod (2015) reexamine the lion sculpture from ’Phyong-rgyas as well as a pair of stone lion sculptures from the Khrom-chen burial grounds near Lha-rtse in Gtsang, and a pair found in Dulan, all of which seem to date to the Imperial period. The tomb at which the Khrom-chen lions were discovered bore an inscribed stele dated to the reign of Khri-gtsug lde-btsan (ca. 815–41 CE; Hazod 2015, citing Wangdu). These mortuary statues appear to have been stationed near the most important tombs of burial sites (Heller 2007: 55). The lions exhibit varying motifs, forming a coherent group of art in broad terms only. The tail passes between the left rear leg and flank in all the stone lion figures; however, the deeply inset eyes and mane of the Khrom-chen and Dulan examples contrast with the bulging eyes and rows of curls of the ’Phyong-rgyas lion (loc. cit.). Heller sees these stone lions as possessing some Iranian artistic influence (ibid., 59 n. 7). She also compares the Dulan pair (with closed mouth and a mane of two lines of wavy locks that run down the neck but do not frame the face) with repoussé lion decorations on the gilt silver cup and rhyton of the Cleveland Museum of Art collection (loc. cit.). Another pair of stone lions now sits at ’Chad-kha monastery in Mal-gro but originally came from a nearby cemetery, the third such burial site with lion sculptures documented in Central Tibet (Hazod 2015).52

Although lion art of the Imperial period discussed in this work cannot be directly related to our two silver bowls, this animal was part of a long cultural and artistic lineage in Tibet, which persisted during the time of the empire and subsequently too. While trends in lion art ebbed and flowed during the Imperial period, as Central Asia, Tibet and China borrowed from one another, this was accomplished with the goal of enhancing the cultural and political standing of each respective territory, not in conformance to the aesthetic and ideological traditions of the other.55 What is obvious from the various examples of lion art in the Imperial period audited in this work is that Tibet had achieved the thorough indigenisation of this animal subject, synthesising it in a wide range of forms and aspects. As I shall show below, this naturalisation of leonine art was stationed upon early examples on the Tibetan Plateau such as that displayed on the two silver bowls in the Pine collection.

In the greater historical scheme of things, ascribing Iranian influences to mortuary lion sculptures of Tibet is sound. Nevertheless, palpable Iranian artistic inputs are not easy to isolate in the lion mortuary sculptures. Similarly, these lions share certain elements of form and presentation with lion sculptures of T’ang China, another recipient of artistic inflows from Central Asia.53 What amounts to dilute foreign artistic qualities in Tibetan lion mortuary sculptures must

In addition to the silver and gold vessels attributed with varying degrees of confidence to Tibet of the Imperial period described in this book, there are no less than a dozen other examples of sumptuary wares in these metals I am aware of in private collections around the world which are still to be published. They need not concern us here

Hazod (2013: 199 n. 41) reports that several other pairs of stone lions have recently surfaced in Central Tibet. The varying styles of these lions suggest that extant examples were part of a relatively large fund of such prestigious funerary sculptures in the Imperial period. 53 Although Tong acknowledges that the pair of stone lions from Dulan (Kaoxiaotu cemetery) is in a Tibetan style, he writes, ‘The provenance of the stone lions in Tubo territory was clearly Tang China’ (2008: 104, 344 (Fig. 6.2.6-1)). His assertion betrays a fundamental lack of understanding concerning the nature of Tibetan civilisation in the Imperial period. Both Tibet and China intensively interacted with Persian Central Asia in that time, a world in which the lion had enjoyed a long cultural and artistic legacy. Even if Tibet appropriated mortuary guardian sculpture from T’ang China, which remains a possibility, it was done through a differing artistic and eschatological lens. The lions of Kaoxiaotu are also illustrated in Tong 2013, Fig. 6.2-15. 52

For illustrations of these fibulae, see Tucci 1973, Fig. 3 (pictured upside down); Bussagli 1949, p. 337 (Fig. 6); John 2006, pp. 96 (Fig. 90), 97 (Figs. 93, 96). Weihreter attributes the same type of fibula with a pair of addorsed lions possibly to pre-Buddhist antiquity but more probably to early Buddhist times in Tibet (Weihreter 2002a: 67 (Fig. 72); 1988, pp. 242, 243 (Fig. 185)). 55 For the influence of Central Asian silver vessels on Chinese ceramic designs and on their silver industry in the T’ang period, see Rawson 1991. 54

28

Two Tibetan silver bowls of the Late Prehistoric era

Fig. 1.22. Left: a cast lion ornamenting a bronze mchod-rten attributed to Nepalese craftsmanship (Tucci 1973, Fig. 167). Right: A pair of lions regardant forming the top of a large Tibetan copper-alloy ring fibula (John 2006, p. 96 (Fig. 90)). In between the lions is what appears to be a ritual vase. Drawing by Rebecca C. Bellezza.

though, as they too are distant relatives of the two silver bowls in the Pine collection.56

Tibetan involvement in this broad geographical region acted as a catalyst for intellectual, artistic, technological and commercial exchanges with surrounding peoples. It was in that environment Tibetans became acquainted with sumptuary articles manufactured abroad. This exposure led to an enrichment of Tibetan metalworking capabilities and the objects and artistic themes produced. One result of advances in Tibetan metalworking traditions was the adoption of cosmopolitan forms and styles, the mixing of various cultural idioms that occurred during the Imperial period. As we have seen, this cosmopolitanism is evident in Tibetan vessels made of precious metals.

Before we examine the historical and cultural origins of the silver bowls in the Pine collection further, a review of the artistic climate of Tibet in the Imperial period and the political and economic factors affecting it is in order. This will set the stage for exploring the earlier epoch and parallel processes of trade, manufacture and intellectual intercourse. The Tibetan empire marks the dawn of the Historic era on most of the Plateau, serving as a divide between the composition of Tibetan written records and the creation of objects like our silver bowls in the Late Prehistoric era.

Carter concludes that Tibetan vessels made of silver and gold in the Imperial period represent the marriage of various vernacular traditions with an international style that spanned Central Asia and China (Carter 2002: 39). This observation gains much pertinence when viewed through the two silver bowls of the Pine collection. Tibetans enjoyed a long-established metalworking tradition as well as international cultural links on which they could build, as they encountered peoples, cities, manufacturing centres and trade marts in the Tarim Basin, the Northern Zone and China during their Imperial expansion. Moreover, Tibetans used their formidable technological prowess to their diplomatic advantage. T’ang records indicate that Tibetan gold and silver vessels were highly prized in the Chinese court. One of these accounts relates that to win a princess for the Tibetan emperor (btsan-po), Tibetan military leaders made many gifts of gold to the Chinese, including a suit of gold armour (Bushell 1880: 414, 413). According to the T’ang annals, during peace negotiations in 736 CE, Tibetans sent hundreds of gold and silver vessels and precious ornaments of extraordinary design and manufacture to the Chinese (ibid., 469).57 Among various gifts of gold made by Tibetan emissaries to the Chinese recorded in T’ang records, the most dramatic was probably a gold vessel in the form of goose with a capacity of approximately 40 L and standing 2 m in height

Tibet was at the zenith of its political power in the time of the empire, a period that lasted for two centuries. As with other great Eurasian empires, Tibetans projected their might and influence well beyond the confines of their core cultural, ethnic and linguistic territory. At the height of Tibetan expansion, the empire stretched from Wakhan and the Arab caliphate in the west to T’ang China in the east. 56 A shallow silver drinking bowl was obtained by the Tibetologist David Snellgrove from a Lhasa aristocratic family. Denwood (1973) suggests that this vessel came to Tibet during the Imperial period. It appears to be one of the few bowls of definite western manufacture to come out of Tibet in recent decades. It is characterised by a calotte shape, a low ring foot and an exterior surface encircled by a band of bosses, below which are alternating human figures and trees, probably produced individually by hammering into a form from behind, while subsidiary parts of figures are made from separate pieces of silver with additional details chiselled (maximum relief of figures is 9  mm; ibid., 121). Denwood observes that this decorative scene is reminiscent of a Greek libation ceremony, which he associates, albeit not very convincingly, with an episode from the Iliad (ibid., 122, 125, 126). Denwood understands that although this silver bowl belongs to a Central Asian tradition, its function is traceable to phialae of the Hellenistic Greeks and Achaemenid Iranians (ibid., 123). Denwood proposes that the bowl was produced in the Iranian cultural sphere (potentially encompassing the Seleucids, Parthians and Kushans, as well as peripheral areas like Sogdiana and Choresm), and can be dated from the time of Hellenistic impact in the region (late fourth century BCE) to as late as the early Sasanian period (late third century CE; ibid., 125 126). Carter questions Denwood’s dating of the bowl, seeing it more plausibly as belonging to the fourth or fifth century CE (2002: 40, 41). I concur with Carter’s chronological assignment of the bowl. On this same bowl, attributed to Bactria, see MelikianChirvani 2011, pp. 97–99.

Carter (1998: 36, 37) reviews monumental objects made of silver and gold that the Tibetans presented to the Chinese as diplomatic gifts. See also Heller 2013, pp. 265, 266.

57

29

Tibetan Silver, Gold and Bronze Objects and the Aesthetics of Animals in the Era before Empire He specifically mentions the gold mines of Thok Jalung in Gu-ge (Tucci 1935: 114, 115).61

(ibid., 445, 446).58 In trade with China via Mtsho-sngon and Silk Road links, Tibetans provided musk,59 wool, yak tails, armour, weapons, salt and horses and received silks and spices (Heller 2002). Textiles, silver objects and gold coins found in North-east Tibet also indicate a flourishing trade with the west (Tong 2008).

The fabrication of silver vessels in Tibet in the Imperial period clearly benefited from technologies and artistic traditions introduced from Central Asia and China. However, the two silver bowls in the Pine collection strongly suggest that this industry was not solely dependent on foreign sources for its technological development. These bowls raise the prospect that production in the Imperial period was a carryover of earlier Tibetan cultural models and industries. A formidable obstacle in assessing historical and cultural links between silver vessels of the pre-Imperial era and Imperial period is the lack of a secure provenance for any of the vessels documented. Not knowing precisely where and when these vessels were produced beclouds geographic and cultural factors that may help explain variations in their style and form.

A crucial factor in the development of the Tibetan metalworking tradition in the Imperial period was the abundance of native deposits of gold and silver. A T’ang account describing the geography and customs of the Tibetans states that the country was rich in gold, silver, copper and tin (Bushell 1880: 441, 442). Far Western Tibet has a long history as a major gold-bearing region. In his discussion of traditional gold-mining in Far Western Tibet and Northern Pakistan, Tucci (1977: 18–20) equates Southwest Tibet and its many gold mines with the Indian fabled lands of Suvarnabhūmi and Suvarṇagotra, and with the Gser-rigs of the Tibetan text La dwags rgyal rabs.60 Tucci (loc. cit.) speculates that the gold of South-west Tibet was traded with regions to the west such as Kargil and perhaps with the Pamirs and extending to the Achaemenid empire.

The cultural and historical origins of the silver bowls in the Pine collection We cannot rule out a historical disjuncture in the production of silver vessels, those of the pre-Imperial era having been utterly forgotten by the time of the Tibetan empire and its receptivity to the creative and productive capacities of other peoples. One might argue that the makers of vessels in the Imperial period may not have had any direct knowledge of our silver bowls or others like them. After all, the forms and decorative regimen of Tibetan silver and gold vessels belonging to the Imperial period bear little correspondence to the two silver bowls of the Pine collection. The large cultural and technological gulf that existed between metalworking in prehistory and the Imperial period is indicative of disparate traditions with few if any direct artistic links between them. Nonetheless, there was no complete cultural break with the past, the Tibetan metallurgical industry and its decorative traditions evolving over a very long time.

A gold vessel in the form of a goose (gser gyi ngang-mo) filled with molasses laced with silver (bu-ram nyug (Classical Tibetan = smyug) chu dang / rngul (C.T. = dngul) gyĭ la btab), a silver vessel (rngul-mo gyi ngang-mo) filled with grain beer (cang, C.T.= chang) and a copper vessel in the form of a goose (zangs gyĭ ngang-mo) filled with yak yogurt sweetened with honey (’brĭ zho gnyug (C.T. = snyug) ’brang (C.T. = sbrang)) figure in an Old Tibetan funerary ritual text written ca.  850– 1000 CE (Bellezza 2013: 170, 171). For a Han dynasty (206 BCE to 220 CE) vessel used to pour wine (zun) in the form of a goose in the Brooklyn Museum collection (29.2 × 15.7 × 44.5  cm), see Accession Number 54.145a-b: www.brooklynmuseum.org/opencollection/ objects/3605. As Old Tibetan sources suggest for Tibet, the use of vessels in the form of geese had a long history in China. 59 Musk was the most notable Tibetan product traded with the west mentioned by Arab writers, and was reputed to be of the best quality. It was traded through Indian middlemen and also directly from western Tibet via Badakshan and Wakhan to Muslim Central Asia. See, as above, Beckwith 1977, pp. 100, 101. 60 The Greco-Roman historian Ptolemy (second century CE) refers to the country of Suvarṇagotra (Gold Patriline). According to a compilation of scholarly opinions made by Zeisler (2009–10: 416), Lindegger suggests that this country might be the upper Sutlej, while Stein equates it with Ladakh, Denwood with Ru-thog or Nubra, Thomas with Hunza-Nagar, and Beckwith with Kargil. Zeisler suggests that the descriptions of Suvarṇagotra in the accounts of Hyecho and Xuanzang may refer to Spiti or Gu-ge (2009–10: 417). She further speculates, based on Greek associations of gold production with Darada, that Suvarṇagotra could be Gilgit-Hunza, but on Ptolemy’s testimony she settles for the upper Sutlej valley, conflating Darpa and Darma with Darada (ibid., 420–27). There does not appear to be any etymological connection between Darada and Darpa and Darma. Darada is not associated with Himalayan lands south of Kashmir, a region rather identified with the Kirāta in Sanskrit literature. Moreover, the toponyms Darpa and Darma do not occur in the upper Sutlej drainage. Darma is a well-known valley in Kumaon inhabited by one of the seven so-called Bhotia tribes. At least one place called Darpa is a village in the subtropical belt of Mandi district, Himachal Pradesh, and lies within the Beas drainage. However, the Dar-pa most relevant to our concerns is probably located in western Tibet, as it is associated with the Zhang-zhung king or line of kings who occupied the castle known as Khyung-lung rngul-mkhar. In an Old Tibetan manuscript from Dunhuang containing a list of principalities (Pt 1286: ln. 7), we read: ‘The lord of Zhang-zhung Dar-pa was Lig-snya-shur. The two ministers were Khyung-po ra-sangsrje and Stong lom-ma tse.’ The same king and ministers in a similarly phrased passage are associated with a region called Dar-ma in Pt 1290 (cf. Martin 2010: 21 n. 43), and these two toponyms may well refer to the same place or pair of places. Zeisler conjectures that the term Suvarṇagotra may have to do with Scythian and Saka influences and their migration to India (2009–10: 419 n. 56). Here she may be on firmer ground. 58

As for silver vessels attributed to Tibet, there are significant differences in the material and aesthetic lineaments of small copper-alloy objects or thokcha of the Late Prehistoric era and Imperial period. Nevertheless, the sheer numbers of these prehistoric and historic objects and their various permutations indicate that metallurgical traditions flourished in Tibet over the long arc of time. Tibetan rock art furnishes another example of momentous technical and aesthetic changes that took place within a continuously practised mode of artistic expression.62 The same can be said of Tibetan architecture: construction techniques and structural designs changed considerably from the Late Prehistoric era to historic times, but there is no evidence For a review of Tibetan and European historical accounts of goldmining in Far Western Tibet, see Zeisler 2009–10: 438–41. See also Heller 2013, pp. 266, 267; 2018, p. 8 n. 1. 62 For a survey of changing styles and techniques in the production of cognate subjects and themes in the rock art of Upper Tibet, see, for example, May, June, September and October 2016, and December 2017 Flight of the Khyung. 61

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Two Tibetan silver bowls of the Late Prehistoric era to suggest that the building of large monuments stopped completely or that architects of the Imperial period had no knowledge or regard for what was being built in earlier centuries.63 Moreover, despite dramatic changes in the form and style characterising Tibetan silver bowls, thokcha, rock art and architecture in the Late Prehistoric era and Imperial period, there are also defining iconic and structural qualities that endured, embedding these evolving material forms in the same Tibetan cultural ground. The lion in silver bowls and thokcha, the horned eagle (khyung) in rock art and thokcha, and herring-bone courses of masonry in architecture, to name but a few, are examples of persistent ideological and artistic packages endowing prehistoric and historic Tibet with a degree of cultural continuity.

gold and silver ore were discovered and smelted with charcoal (Haarh 1969: 121, 122). A cognate account is also found in the Rgyal rabs gsal ba’i me long (Sørensen 1994: 146). Although these Buddhist tales of the origins of metalworking cannot be historicised with any assurance, the kings noted are best associated with the second and third centuries CE. This period is of course too late to explain the genesis of metallurgy on the Tibetan Plateau, betraying the text’s intended purpose of raising the stature of the Spu-rgyal dynasty by connecting it to the foundations of civilisation in Tibet. A Yungdrung Bon description of the making of early metallic goods is found in the renowned biographical text Dri med gzi brjid (fourteenth century CE, Bellezza 2008: 239–43). The metals said to be worked in Tibet in prehistory include gold (gser), silver (dngul), copper (zangs), iron (lcags), brass (ra-gan), bronze (li), bell metal (mkhar = ’khar), white metal (tong-tse) and steel (zhun-dkar lcags). The periodisation of this Gzi brjid list of metals is highly questionable, for it appears to hinge on a source dating to the Imperial period. Nevertheless, it does give us an inkling of the broad range of metals familiar to Tibetans during the time of empire. The material-cultural record tells us that most if not all of these metals were also known in the Late Prehistoric era.

The dating of the two silver bowls in the Pine collection is addressed below in the discussion of cross-cultural influences. These bowls, in whatever part of the Tibetan Plateau they may have been made, belong to a metallurgical tradition of significant maturity and sophistication. In addition to silver, metalworking in prehistoric Tibet extended to copper, copper alloys, iron and gold.64 I trace the origins of bronze metallurgy in Tibet to the Late Bronze Age (see March 2016 Flight of the Khyung), but attribution to an earlier period cannot be ruled out. Iron wares and their probable manufacture in Tibet can be traced back to 2000 to 2500 years ago.65

The mention of gold, silver, copper and iron in prehistoric contexts occurs in many Tibetan texts to describe places, people, gods and objects; as a colour adjective; and as metaphors for great value, prestige, strength and sanctity. Most of these sources, however, are mytho-ritual or quasihistorical in nature. The earliest such texts were composed in the Early Historic period, but the majority belong to later times. Although references to metals in Tibetan literature encapsulate early times and technologies, any bid at chronologising them remains elusive for a lack of independent means of corroboration.

Tibetan literary sources ascribe the origins of metallurgy to the Late Prehistoric era, but these mythic, ritual and quasi-historical texts are not very germane to the empirical evidence collected thus far. Moreover, these sources only provide abbreviated accounts of the early metallurgical industry in Tibet. The famous Buddhist histories (Chos’byung) La dwags rgyal rabs and Deb ther dmar po tell us that in time of Gri-gum btsan-po (eighth king of Tibet) and Spu-de gung-rgyal (ninth king of Tibet) iron, copper,

An intriguing but enigmatic reference to a silver vessel is found in an Old Tibetan funerary ritual text (Pt 1060) best dated to the Imperial period, which details 13 psychopomp horse lineages. In the horse lineage of the kingdom of Zhang-zhung, it states, ‘to pay back the love given them, by the silver [bowl] of libations (skyems), the gods (lha) of Zhang-zhung, Mu-rgyung and Stang-rgyung, are disposed to pay back the love given them.’66 In an Old Tibetan funerary ritual text for women who died in childbirth, Rnel drĭ ’dul ba’i thabs sogs (composed ca. 850–1000 CE), the archetypal bon priest Ya-ngal gyim-khong uses a silver vessel full of libations among other ritual instruments to rescue the dead from hell.67 In the same text, a prehistoric female figure of the archetypal Phywa lineage named Skar li-byin dressed in a white silk go-zu, in what may be an Upper Tibet location, helps perform a funeral by offering

63 Marked morphological contrasts characterise the architecture of Upper Tibet in the pre-Imperial and Imperial periods. For a detailed exposition of this subject, see Bellezza 2008; 2014a; 2014b; 2014c. However, certain older architectonic traits were retained in the Imperial period, such as the tiering of shrines, fine random-rubble wall fabrics, use of entablatures and niches in cave dwellings, stone corbelling etc. 64 On the scant but growing amount of archaeological art and historical data available for the study of prehistoric metallurgy on the Tibetan Plateau, see Huo Wei 2016; Bellezza 2020b, ch. 7; November 2011, November and December 2013, December 2014, February and March 2016 Flight of the Khyung. 65 A tomb in the Dindun (Sdings-zlum) burial ground, Gu-ge, excavated by Huo Wei and Mark Aldenderfer, yielded a calibrated date of 400– 100 BCE; it contained small iron objects, ceramics and other things (Aldenderfer and Zhang 2004: 43). Iron objects including a knife blade and arrowheads were also discovered in the Rgya-gling thang cemetery in Gu-ge (Far Western Tibet), in the Chaggya Gou cemetery in Sna-dkarrtse (Central Tibet) and in a stone cist grave in Go-’jo (Khams, Eastern Tibet), heralding Tibet’s entry into the Iron Age (Huo Wei 2016: 92, 93 (Fig. 5)). The Rgya-gling thang burial ground is assigned to around the same period as nearby Dindun (both are in the Phyi-dbang-Dung-dkar valley). On the Phyi-dbang and Dung-dkar sites and their iron objects, see Bellezza 2008, pp. 114 n. 117, 115. The discovery of an iron nail from the upper burial cave at Chokhopani, Mustang, in which a birchbark vessel was radiocarbon dated to ca. 600 BCE, may suggest an Iron Age orientation for that site (ibid., p. 113 n. 112, citing Simons). See also Bellezza 2020b, ch. 7.

66 Pt 1060, lns. 69, 70: skyems pa rngul gang gyĭs / lha thugs cags gyĭ thugs lan na’ / zhang zhung gyĭ lha mu rgyung dang stang rgyung thugs cags gyĭ thug lan /. The translation provided is rather freely rendered. Stang-rgyung has been identified as the name of a mountain god in Nagtshang, Upper Tibet. See Bellezza 2008, p. 524 n. 583, 584; 2013, p. 44 n. 65. 67 Skyem-pa rngul-gang (C.T. = skyems-pa dngul-gang). See Bellezza 2013, pp. 121, 122.

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Tibetan Silver, Gold and Bronze Objects and the Aesthetics of Animals in the Era before Empire but rather part of a complex web of transmission and transformation involving multiple cultural agents.

a golden pot (gser gyĭ yol-go) with grain libations (’brasskyems; Bellezza 2013: 176). These references indicate that silver and gold vessels had essential ceremonial uses in Tibet in antiquity, not a surprising revelation when seen against the refinement of the two silver bowls in the Pine collection. The textual association of vessels crafted in precious metals with death should not be construed as characterising their total function; they are likely to have been used in a much wider circle of life-cycle milestones and other observances. Although death is a major preoccupation of extant Old Tibetan mytho-ritual materials, these texts reflect seminal cultural functions more broadly. In an account of his travels in the greater region in 726 or 727 CE, the Korean pilgrim Hyecho reports that when a chieftain in Yang-t’ung (Zhang Zhung, on the Western Tibetan Plateau) dies, the viscera and nose are replaced with gold ones and the teeth with silver imitations, before the body is disposed of in a cave or on a cliff (Zeisler 2009–10: 405, 406, citing Fuchs). This is one of the oldest literary accounts of gold- and silver-working in Upper Tibet, indicating that the industry extended to mortuary traditions.68

Many Achaemenid bowls were handleless vessels apparently designed primarily for drinking wine. In addition to ceramic ones, glass, bronze, silver and gold-plated bowls in various forms are known. Achaemenid metal bowls have been excavated in Iran, Syria, the Levant and the Urals (Dusinberre 1999: 101, 102). The Achaemenid bowl that concerns us most is a less shallow version with a flaring neck above a carination, and a shallow omphalos or flat bottom. Some of these vessels are decorated with vertical and horizontal fluting and protruding tear-shaped lobes, and an everted rim occasionally with a sharp ledge or a simple engraved line (ibid., 176; Hamilton 1966).71 Achaemenid drinking vessels were manufactured widely in the Near East, Greece, Anatolia, the north coast of the Black Sea and in Iran, with some changes in form over the course of the empire discernable (Dusinberre 1999: 82–90). The silver bowls of interest to us are related to a long line of vessels with everted rims found in south-east Anatolia, Mesopotamia and Iran in the early to mid-first millennium BCE (ibid., 176).72 The oldest known depiction of this type of vessel is found on reliefs from the time of Tiglath-Pileser III (ca. 745–727 BCE), which were commonly made of ceramics in the eighth and seventh centuries BCE (ibid., 76, 77). There are also pre-Achaemenid (eighth to sixth century BCE) silver cups with a flaring foot.73

The international streams of art coursing through Tibetan metalware of the Imperial period was the culmination of many centuries of technological and cultural development on the Plateau and other parts of Eurasia. Eurasian cultural inputs are also evident in the more ancient silver bowl production of Tibet. To plumb the origins and development of the two silver bowls in the Pine collection, it is necessary to look westward. These two silver bowls and their lion subjects parallel the development of silver vessels and leonine art in West Asia beginning in the Iron Age.69 More specifically, the Achaemenid empire (ca.  550–330 BCE) appears to have served as a prime source of technical inspiration for the Pine bowls. As Carter observes (1998: 32), from the Achaemenid era to the time of T’ang China, artisans of Central Asia assimilated, transmitted and preserved western artistic elements.70 The movement of the silver bowl technological and artistic heritage to Tibet, however, is not likely the result of the direct importation of Achaemenid objects or ideas to the Tibetan Plateau,

There are four major traits that pre-Achaemenid and Achaemenid silver bowls have in common with the two specimens in the Pine collection. These include a band of lobes on the upper body, an everted rim, decorative ridges in geometric configurations and a flaring conical foot. None of these features are necessarily evidence for genetic links between silver vessels made in Persia and Tibet. They are, however, formative design and artistic traits that reappear in evolving forms in various cultures and places in Inner Asia and other parts of Central Asia during the first three quarters of the first millennium CE. At one or more junctures in their spatio-temporal diffusion eastward, these four fundamental traits of West Asian vessels appear to have been carried to the Tibetan Plateau and reimagined in the forms and patterns seen on the

68 On the use of gold and silver replacement parts for corpses in Yangt’ung (Zhang-zhung) cave burials noted in T’ang sources, see Bushell 1880, p. 527 n. 9; Haarh 1969, pp. 345, 347; Bellezza 2008, p. 556. On human remains recovered from a cave burial in Upper Tibet AMS dated to the Protohistoric period (ca. 370–470 CE), see Bellezza 2104b, p. 515. In the main, the inhabitants of Zhang-zhung and other Late Prehistoric polities of Upper Tibet appear to be directly related to contemporary populations in the region. As Aldenderfer (2018: 140) observes, there is no archaeological evidence for large-scale migration into Far Western Tibet after 500 BCE. However, studies of the molecular and isotopic evidence preserved in ancient inhumations are required to verify this supposition. 69 There were also silver vessels manufactured in the Bronze Age in West Asia. For example, see a cylindrical silver cup of uncertain cultural identification depicting a spotted feline chasing three ibexes, dated ca. late third or early second millennium BCE (Hajime n.d.: 41). 70 Echoes of Achaemenid silver vessels with a crenated shoulder, flaring neck and everted rim are found as late as the fifth century CE in heavily decorated Sasanian silver vessels displaying acanthus leaf clusters and busts discovered as far east as Shaanxi. See Johnston Laing 1995, p. 12 (Figs. 15a–16b). However, these vessels have little to do with the Pine bowls.

71 There are other kinds of Achaemenid silver bowls. For example, the silver phiale of the Achaemenid king Artaxerxes, a shallow bowl of an entirely different form with a cuneiform inscription. See Gunter and Root 1998. 72 On three Achaemenid-style silver and bronze bowls with crenation and flaring neck from Anatolia and Armenia, see Melikian-Chirvani 1993, pp. 119 (Figs. 10, 11), 126 (Figs. 19, 20). Persian cultural influence in Anatolia during the Achaemenid empire led to transformations in Lydian metal and glass tableware, textiles, wall decorations, couches etc. (Dusinberre 1999: 98–100). The assemblage of silver bowls, rhyta and silver gilt amphorae from Thrace in the Achaemenid era exhibit strong Near Eastern influences and are not directly relevant to a study of Tibetan bowls. On these Thracian vessels, see Zournatzi 2000. 73 For four early Iranian silver cups distinguished by a hemispherical body, ear-shaped strap handle and flaring foot, which are assigned to the end of the second millennium BCE, see Shepherd 1966, pp. 38, 39 (Figs. 1, 2), 40. Three of the vessels are ornamented with hunting scenes and one with just wild caprids in differing styles of art. Two of these cups have lions exhibiting Hittite artistic features (ibid., 41), which are unrelated in form to the lions on the two silver vessels in the Pine collection.

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Two Tibetan silver bowls of the Late Prehistoric era two silver bowls of the Pine collection. As a whole, the iconographic traditions and aesthetic sensibilities of the Achaemenid and Tibetan vessels are so different that their direct transfer to the Tibetan Plateau is highly unlikely. This is reinforced by the lack of evidence for silver vessels from the Iron Age in intermediate regions such as the Pamirs, Xinjiang and north-western Transhimalayan tracts. Had a process of incremental change unfolded over a long geographic trajectory, silver vessels with variable but related technical and artistic qualities should exist in these contiguous territories, but no such vessels have been reported to date.

patterning as a whole of the western and Tibetan vessels are different; the austerity of the Tibetan examples is offset by the enlivening supplement of well-disposed lions. The placement of lion subjects on silver vessels was a defining feature of artisanal production in the Achaemenid empire. Yet, as with the shapes and linear decorative markings of the vessels, the lions of West Asia contrast with those dignifying the bowls of the Pine collection. Achaemenid and related Assyrian lion iconography is characterised by fierce creatures with gaping mouths, often bared fangs and claws and rippling musculature, and variously standing on two legs, winged and horned.76 Although they possess a regal quality, the lions of the two silver bowls in the Pine collection are of a very different artistic universe than western types. They are not aggressive creatures poised to attack, but milder, almost imaginary figures at ease. As with the shapes of West Asian bowls and other aspects of their decorative bequest, the lions represented are only distantly related to those on our silver bowls.

Of all the pre-Achaemenid and Achaemenid bowls that have come to my attention, the example in Fig. 1.23 best captures the bold decorative presentation and stark lines of the Pine collection bowls. Other pre-Achaemenid silver vessels with a similar arched pattern and ancillary motifs are known (some with lids, handles and spouts), firmly rooting this decorative tradition in Iran. Thick ridges creating an arched pattern wrap around the preAchaemenid silver vessel pictured. Each of the spaces under the six arches is bisected by thinner ridges tracing a pedestal-like structure, surmounted by a crest overarching a helmet-like motif embellished with etched lines. The identity of the striking decorative pattern on the vessel is obscure. The bowl is also incised under the rim, according to the description given.74 The stern spirit of the linear ornamentation on the Pine bowls and the pre-Achaemenid vessel illustrated in Fig. 1.23 originated in an Iron Age aesthetic tradition in which martial preoccupations may have been paramount.75 Nevertheless, the decorative

The enigma of when the two Tibetan bowls were produced is only intensified by the lack of clear parallels in silver vessels fabricated after the collapse of the Achaemenid empire. The Hellenised communities of North Inner Asia and other parts of Central Asia in the late first millennium BCE and early first millennium CE occupied a large territory stretching from eastern Iran to North-west India, Xinjiang and Southern Siberia. At the centre of this vast region were Bactria, Margiana and Parthia, boasting a vibrant tradition of figurative art created in precious metals, which drew its inspiration from many different quarters. Bearing the imprint of classical subjects and designs, the art of silver bowl-making in northern territories stands in contrast to the Tibetan vessels of the Pine collection. Later, in the fourth to sixth century CE, Choresmian and Sasanian silver plates, ewers and bowls, also heirs to an Achaemenid artistic legacy,77 bear very little resemblance to our silver bowls. Lion figures on Sasanian silver vessels and reliefs frequently share forms, stylistic elements and narrative scenes derived from the Achaemenids.78 Shallow bowls made in the Parthian and Sasanian periods often occur as stereotypic props in banqueting scenes (Denwood 1973: 125). Sasanian greater Iran was a major hub of trade and exchange between East Asia and West Asia, at a time in which extravagance in feasting, hunting, 76 On Assyrian and Achaemenid lion iconography in vessels, mirrors and other kinds of objects, see Hamilton 1966, pp. 9–15. An excellent source for Achaemenid lion art in various media is Kantor 1957. As Kantor’s survey demonstrates, most lion depictions in the various cultures that came under Achaemenid auspices are ferocious in appearance. 77 Pritzker (2017: 106, 110, 111, 116) characterises a large gold ewer with scrolled roundels of horned lions and winged unicorns dated on stylistic grounds to second half of the seventh century CE in the Pritzker collection as being of Tibetan design and fashioned by a Sogdian craftsman. Pritzker (ibid., 107, 108) traces the transformation of the Iranian ewer form and ornamentation as it shifted eastwards to be appropriated by the Tibetans with their predilection for the heavy use of gold and turquoise and prolific animal imagery. On the narrative and allegorical qualities of animals on Tibetan sumptuary vessels, see ibid., p. 114. 78 On lions in Sasanian art, see Shepherd 1964.

Fig. 1.23. A pre-Achaemenid silver bowl with spheroidal body, carinated shoulder, flaring neck and everted rim. Persian cultural world (11 cm in diameter), ca. sixth century BCE. Christie’s Sale 7325: London, 25 October 2006. Private collection. Photograph: Christie’s Images / Bridgeman Images. Photo published in this work under license. 74 For the attribution of this bowl, see: www.christies.com/lotfinder/Lot/ a-pre-achaemenid-silver-bowl-circa-6th-century-4790165-details.aspx. 75 On cultural influences from abroad in the ancient martial traditions of Tibet, see Bellezza 2020b, chh. 7–9.

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Tibetan Silver, Gold and Bronze Objects and the Aesthetics of Animals in the Era before Empire sporting, gaming and the production of sumptuary articles reached a crescendo. Regarding silver vessels, this cultural dynamic may have acted as an engine for the transfer of technological and artistic knowledge to Tibet prior the Imperial period. As we have seen, the Cleveland Museum of Art has a rhyton in its collection that appears to be of Tibetan manufacture (Fig. 1.12; Carter 1998: 28 (Fig. 6a), 29 (Fig. 6b), 30 (Figs. 9a, b), 31 (Fig. 9c)). It is composed of a single sheet of silver soldered together and covered in repoussé decorations consisting of running vines and palmettes, a winged lion, a fantastic bird and a birdman, while its spout is in the form of a one-horned deer. Carter (ibid., 27–29) observes that rhyta probably reached Central Asia with the Achaemenids or in the Seleucid-Parthian period and persisted in Sogdiana until the seventh and eighth centuries CE. Carter (loc. cit.) adds that the Tibetan rhyton is tusk-shaped like those of Hellenistic influence, a form that apparently fell out of favour after the Parthian era (the Tibetan specimen has the head of an animal on the bottom, whereas Parthian and many other types have animal or human protomes). Nevertheless, a rhyton in a similar style to the Tibetan one is depicted on a Sasanian silver lobed bowl dated to the fifth century CE (ibid., 27, 28 (Fig. 7)).

Fig. 1.24. A footed silver cup enwrapped in repoussé petal motifs. Sogdiana, Central Asia, ca. sixth century CE. Dimensions: 7 cm in height, 14.9 cm in diameter. Metropolitan Museum of Art, Accession Number: 1998.223. Photograph: Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (public domain).

flaring foot and sparse decorative pattern of the Sogdianassigned cup are three traits shared in common with the silver bowls of the Pine collection. These features are hardly persuasive evidence, though, of a genetic relationship between these respective vessels. Nevertheless, it is revealing that the Sogdian bowl in the Met collection is the closest in form and aesthetic sparseness I have been able to locate from the period. As with Achaemenid silver vessels, those of Central Asia made nearly a millennium later may have affected the design of the Pine bowls in diffuse or indirect ways, provided the Tibetan specimens date from such a late period. It can be concluded that the two vessels of the Pine collection represent a distinctive artisanal and artistic tradition from the Tibetan Plateau not directly dependent on silver vessel production in west and central Asia. The unique composition of these two silver vessels makes them even more remarkable.

The manufacture of silver rhyta is a puissant sign of transcultural interaction over much of the breadth of Eurasia in antiquity. These ceremonial vessels were produced by Greeks, Thracians, Greco-Scythians, GrecoParthians, Parthians, pre-Achaemenids, Achaemenids, Sasanians and Sogdians. Probably originating from the drinking horn, conical ceramic rhyta go back to Bronze Age Minoa and Mycenae. Chinese ceramic and jade rhyta were made by the T’ang Chinese and continued to be produced in the Ming and Qing dynasties. The rhyta of each region and people exhibit altered forms and decorative constitutions and were endowed with varying ensembles of cultural interpretation and symbolism. That Tibet was no exception in the uptake of this truly cosmopolitan object documents her participation in a web of intellectual, artistic, technological and economic exchanges stretching over a vast area. It is through these same pathways of silver rhyton manufacture, use and display that certain technologies, aesthetic conceptions and cultural traditions associated with the two silver bowls of the Pine collection may have reached the Tibetan Plateau.

The two silver bowls of the Pine collection permit us to speak of a fundamentally native cultural and technological legacy shaped by developments in art, design and industry in lands to the west and north. The inheritance of the four major Achaemenid traits delineated above (band of lobes on the upper body, everted rim, decorative ridges and flaring conical foot) by the Tibetans was transformed so thoroughly that the resulting silver vessels are radically different from others in Eurasia. Simply put, the two Pine silver bowls are a stunning manifestation of the uniqueness of Tibetan cultural and technological prowess.

The silver cup supported by a high flaring foot in Fig. 1.24 has a beaded band around the inner rim. According to the Metropolitan Museum of Art catalogue, such vessels were part of the luxury tableware of Central Asian courts as portrayed in Sogdian mural paintings.79 The bowl shape,

cup. Silver cups and bowls of Roman inspiration do not share the same decorative tradition; thus, they are unlikely to be the source for this cup. The flaring conical foot of the Sogdian vessel is as close in form to the foot on the intact silver bowl of the Pine collection as it is to Roman ones. The radiating petal motif was already known in bowls attributed to Lydia or Phrygia and dated to the eighth to sixth century BCE. For example, see Met Accession Number: 66.116. The decorative pattern on the Sogdian cup is reminiscent of the teardrop-shaped lobes on silver phialae of the Elamites and Achaemenids, and these may have influenced its design. It is not impossible that the foot of the Sogdian bowl was influenced by countercurrents coming from the Tibetan Plateau; however, the petal motif probably reached Sogdiana through Parthian sources.

79 See www.metmuseum.org/toah/works-of-art/1998.223/. According to the Metropolitan Museum of Art online catalogue, the artistic wherewithal for the vessel in Fig. 1.24 probably originated from the Roman Mediterranean, arriving in Iran and Central Asia during a period when international trade flourished, ca.  fifth century CE. However, I contest the attribution of Roman influence on the Sogdian-assigned silver

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Two Tibetan silver bowls of the Late Prehistoric era Now that I have laid out the indigenous cultural fabric, cross-cultural relations, as well as economic and technological matters related to the silver bowls in the Pine collection, it is time to address the question of when they were created. In short, there is no definitive answer. It has already been discussed how the two Pine bowls differ greatly from those manufactured in Tibet in the Imperial period. This is circumstantial but quite convincing evidence for their production prior to that time. As noted, these two vessels embody an Iron Age aesthetic tradition, but this is insufficient evidence in itself to confidently assign them to that period. Even if such vessels were first made on the Tibetan Plateau during the Iron Age, it is no assurance that the two extant examples were. It is possible that the Pine bowls are later examples of an older tradition faithfully reproduced on the Plateau for centuries after being first introduced. More likely, however, is that although these bowls exhibit Iron Age qualities of pre-Achaemenid and Achaemenid silver vessels, these came through later Central Asian intermediaries and did not arrive in Tibet until sometime in the Common Era. On these indications, our two silver bowls can be dated between 500 BCE and 500 CE. Nevertheless, making an allowance for their geographic transfer through indirect channels and in cognizance of their archaic decorative regimen, I assign the two bowls to ca. 200 BCE to 400 CE, a period straddling the divide between the Iron Age and Protohistoric period in Tibet. Whenever they were actually fashioned, the two Pine bowls are a resounding testimony to the refined artistic and technical skills of Tibetans in the Late Prehistoric era. On their own merits, these silver vessels and other objects we shall explore in this work demand a reassessment of the cultural and technical stage of development reached on the Tibetan Plateau before the time of Buddhism.

The assertion by Carter (1998: 34, 35) that Tibetans of the Imperial period were probably indebted to Central Asia for the lion requires reevaluation. This is borne out by leonine thokcha, which on stylistic and technical grounds can be assigned to the pre-Imperial era. The existence of early thokcha with felines, including lions, demonstrates that the lions of the Pine bowls constituted a well-established artistic subject on the Tibetan Plateau by the Protohistoric period. Rather than an exception to the bestiary of archaic Tibet, the lion was an integral part, depicted in different styles and attitudes. Lions of the Late Prehistoric era occur full-bodied, as protomes, and limited only to the head. Nonetheless, thokcha portraying lions do not become common until the Imperial period. Similarly, lions in the rock art of the Western Tibetan Plateau predating the Imperial period are rare. The lion not being native to the Tibetan Plateau helps account for the less than wholehearted embrace of this magnificent animal before the time of imperial outreach to western and northern lands in which the lion was a chief symbol of regal splendour and military might. None of the thokcha with feline and feline-like subjects illustrated in Figs. 1.25–1.29 closely matches the style and form of the lions on the two silver bowls of the Pine collection. The specimens selected for inclusion in this work, however, do share certain graphic affinities with the lions on our silver bowls. The copper-alloy pendant or possibly clasp or buckle in the Tucci collection depicted in Fig. 1.25 shares several stylistic traits with the lions bedecking the Pine silver bowls.81 The almost wedge-shaped head, large deep-set

To further assay the cultural character and age of the two silver bowls in the Pine collection we return to the lion, but this time in a pre-Imperial-period context. Hazod opines that battle standards with lions representing the horns (ru) of military organisation in Imperial Tibet can possibly be traced to the prehistoric principalities of Tibet (rgyalphran) and are probably attributable to older Central Asian models going back to the Xiongnu (Hazod 2015: 197, 198). Evidence from the rock art record of the Western Tibetan Plateau confirms the deep antiquity of the use of standards in martial contexts (Bellezza 2020b, 385–90). Bussagli believes that a lion with a turquoise mane (seng-ge g.yu yi ral-pa-can, sic) was known to pre-Buddhist Tibetan mythology (Bussagli 1949: 333). While this zoomorphic warrior spirit (dgra-lha/sgra-bla) and others like it are held in the Yungdrung Bon religion to long predate Buddhism in Tibet, the available literary and archaeological evidence is inadequate to confirm this. The claim, however, has considerable historico-cultural merit.80

Fig. 1.25. This feline thokcha with large attachment loop for hanging or buckle frame for hooking is part of the Tucci collection (1935: 109 (Fig. 13)). Protohistoric period or Early Historic period. Drawing by Rebecca C. Bellezza. 81 The Tucci collection of thokcha assembled in the early 1930s was gathered in western and central Tibet in places like Miang, Shangs-rtse, Sgar-thog and Toshang Ri, but these objects traditionally circulated widely (Tucci 1973: 37, 38; 1935: 108). Tucci appreciated that thokcha were of variable functions, but was uncertain of their age (ibid.; 1973: 35, 38). Tucci attributes a hemispherical openwork object dominated by a row of four or five felines with head turned back to face the body to the so-called ‘animal style’ (1935: 109 (Fig. 10), 112). However, this fairly common type of thokcha does not predate the Imperial period.

80 For evidence strongly suggesting that zoomorphic warrior spirits originate from the pre-Buddhist religious matrix of Tibet, see Bellezza 2005, pp. 379–418; 2014d, pp. 170–73; 2015, pp. 22, 23, 28–37; 2020b, ch. 4.

35

Tibetan Silver, Gold and Bronze Objects and the Aesthetics of Animals in the Era before Empire

Fig. 1.26. A thokcha of four feline heads arrayed around a hub with three concentric diamonds (3.9 cm × 4 cm). There is a long pin moulded to the middle of the back of the object, which was used to securely attach it to something else. Iron Age or Protohistoric period. Private collection.

Fig. 1.27. A simple Tibetan ring fibula crowned by a pair of feline heads and flanked by addorsed bird heads (2.6 cm × 2.7 cm). Protohistoric period or Early Historic period. Late Shang Nyima collection, Lhasa and Kathmandu.

to assimilated (Yungdrung) Bon.84 Bussagli understood that thokcha are part of a wider Eurasian heritage which manifested itself in the cultural framework of early Tibet, but his insistence on ultimate origins in West Asia does not hold up to scrutiny in most cases. He was writing in a time in which so-called ‘animal style’ (Eurasian Animal Style) art was thought by many Western and Soviet scholars to be traceable to the Near East. Bussagli considers the Tucci objects to date to a time before there were Tibetan literary records (ibid., 331). In fact, some pieces in the collection are common forms dating to the Historic era. For his part, Tucci (1973: 34) remarks that thokcha as a class of objects have close ties to Central Asia, and that Tibet, particularly Far Western Tibet, had contacts with Iranian cultures since ancient times.

eyes and prominent pointed ears of the face are comparable to the pair of lions on the smaller silver bowl and, to a lesser extent, with the lions on the larger vessel. The socalled thokcha in Fig. 1.25 is ascribed to a Chinese style by Tucci (1935: 112); however, the object type as well as the animal form belong to well-defined classes of thokcha.82 The animal depicted is decidedly feline in appearance, but it also possesses traits of the mythical creature known as tse-pu or grags-pa’i bzhin-ras (kīrtimukha), a kind of auspicious monster adorning mchod-rten (stūpa), temples and all manner of ornamental objects in Tibet and Nepal. Most relevant to our discussion are Tibetan copper-alloy scripture-bundle (dpe-cha) buckles with the face of a tsepu, a common genre of utilitarian objects produced from no later than the ninth or tenth century CE to the present day.83 Like the object in Fig. 1.25, the tse-pu on some of these buckles have large, curling eyebrows, pointed ears and a broad nose and mouth.

The original function of the Tibetan copper-alloy object shown in Fig. 1.26 is unclear. Very few thokcha have been found in secure archaeological contexts, complicating any attempt at placing them in a sound chronological and geographical scheme. The identity of the four identical

According to Bussagli (1949: 331–33), the bronze objects collected by Tucci are of diverse origin, some being survivals of art from West Asia that passed through the steppes and were affected by shamanism, a substrate for religious inputs from Bru-sha and Zhang-zhung transmitted

84 Similarly, according to Ebbinghouse and Winsten (1988: 47, 51), a substantial body of evidence suggests that certain highly developed etched agate beads (gzi) were produced in prehistoric Tibet and may have been products of Zhang-zhung civilisation, in Far Western Tibet. They do concede, however, that the dating of these beads remains uncertain. Attribution to Zhang-zhung of stone beads and metallic objects from Far Western Tibet dating to the Late Prehistoric era is predicated on a traditional view of the antiquity of this culture, language and polity. On questions regarding the chronological depth and localisation of Zhangzhung and the use of this label in an archaeological nomenclature, see Bellezza 2018. See also June 2013 Flight of the Khyung.

82 For another example of the same style of animal head from Dulan (Shangsunjiazhai, tomb M115), see Tong 2008, p. 293 (Fig. 4.4.1-4, no. 10). Classified as horse tack, this feline subject has pointed ears on either corner of a flat head and almond-shaped eyes. 83 For these book buckles, see Bellezza 1998, p. 63 (Fig. 75); John 2006, pp. 190–92; Lin 2003, pp. 85, 86.

36

Two Tibetan silver bowls of the Late Prehistoric era

Fig. 1.28. A thokcha of three interconnected rings, each of which is connected to a feline head by a short shaft (4.6 cm × 2.7 cm). Protohistoric period or Early Historic period. Private collection. Photograph courtesy of Hans Weihreter.

Fig. 1.29. A Tibetan fibula ornamented with a feline protome (6 cm × 3.5 cm). Protohistoric period. Private collection. Photograph courtesy of Hans Weihreter.

animal figures is also ambiguous. They are fine examples of what appear to be feline subjects in the early metallurgy of the Tibetan Plateau. Lions, tigers, leopards or an entirely different creature may have been intended. The flat-topped tapering head, ear placement, almond-shaped eyes and long nose bridge of the felines in Fig. 1.26 find correspondence in the lions on the silver bowls of the Pine collection.

lions on the two Pine vessels.87 The three rings are thick and arched, and on either side of the central ring there is a diamond-shaped motif. The original use of this Tibetan object is unknown. It may possibly have been a part of a horse harness. The broad face, prominent ears and round eyes of the feline depicted in Fig. 1.29 have some correspondence with the lions on the bigger bowl of the Pine collection.88 Weihreter (2002a: 49) dates this object between the second century BCE and second century CE, identifying it as a probable ringlet or ring fibula.89 He attributes it to Mongolia or Eastern Tibet, but it was probably manufactured somewhere on the Tibetan Plateau as late as the fifth or sixth century CE. As Weihreter observes (loc. cit.), it is not clear whether a lion or a tiger is represented on the object. The stripes on the front of the body recall the tiger, while the arched neck or mane (with parallel lines) is that of a

The thokcha in Fig. 1.27 is part of a large and diverse group of ring fibulae ranging from the Protohistoric period to the Vestigial period.85 These objects are regularly discovered by herders in Upper Tibet, alluding to their manufacture in that region and possibly Ladakh too. The large pointed ears placed on either side of the feline heads, prominent nose bridge and bulging nostrils have parallels in the lions ornamenting the silver bowls in the Pine collection.86 The three animal heads of the thokcha shown in Fig. 1.28 exhibit broad noses, flat heads and manes designated by a series of vertical lines on top of the head, just like the

87 For this specimen, see Weihreter 2002a, p. 59 (Pl. 52). A similar object published by Weihreter (ibid., 60 (Pl. 53)) has a row of four thick upper rings connected to four feline heads with prominent pointed ears and brows curving around to link with the nose, facial features seen in the lions on the Pine vessels as well. Below the feline heads on this thokcha is a plate with four lance-like extensions. As Weihreter observes (loc. cit.), it is not clear whether this object predates or postdates the principal introduction of Buddhism in Tibet. Another example consists of three feline heads each set below a ring with chased curvilinear patterns. See Tucci 1973, Fig. 32, lower left side (heads pictured upside down). For another published specimen, see John 2006, p. 121 (Fig. 245). 88 Lions also ornament belt-hook frames with a short stem attached to a rectangular eye that must have received a toggle or buckle chape to produce a clasp, but this type of thokcha does not predate the Early Historic period. For examples, see Bellezza 1998, p. 55 (Fig. 36); John 2006, p. 186 (Figs. 734, 735). The prominent ears and triangular upper part of the heads of the lions of these objects are reminiscent of the ears and the heads of lions on the Pine silver bowls. See also the same type of object but with a different style of lion in Weihreter 1988, pp. 232, 233 (Fig. 160). 89 See also Weihreter 1988, pp. 226, 227 (Fig. 157).

For a fibula of probable Protohistoric antiquity with what appears to be a pair of addorsed lions on top (highly worn and of a rudimentary form), see John 2006, p. 96 (Fig. 92). From their form and iconography, Weihreter understood that these kinds of ring fibulae are Tibetan and were made before and after the introduction of Buddhism. He sees them as affording protection against sorcery but primarily as having a symbolic character, with the guardian animals on early examples subsequently transformed into Buddhist figures. See, as above, Weihreter 2002a, pp. 60, 61, 65; 1988, p. 95. As with virtually all thokcha, the ring fibulae came to assume twin apotropaic and good-fortune-bestowing properties for their wearers. The notch inside the outer ring of many specimens was designed to accommodate a pin for fastening the fibula onto an article of clothing or other object. 86 For similar examples of Tibetan ring fibulae, see Lin 2003, p. 93 (lower right); John 2006, p. 97 (Fig. 104). 85

37

Tibetan Silver, Gold and Bronze Objects and the Aesthetics of Animals in the Era before Empire lion. Weihreter sees a broad collar around the neck of the animal, but this may just be a stylised anatomical feature. An examination of the back of the object suggests casting by the lost wax technique (loc. cit.).90 That lion art was created in Tibet possibly as early as the Iron Age, as suggested by the silver bowls in the Pine collection and thokcha, is a robust sign that this zoomorphic paragon was not merely an import of the Imperial period but had already impregnated the Tibetan cultural fabric. The lion had effectively become an indigenous animal and symbol, not a creature dependent on extraneous sources for cultural attribution and political legitimisation. Tibet, no less than China, was on its own accord able to select aspects of foreign traditions for adoption in the domestic political, artistic and artisanal arenas of the Late Prehistoric era and Imperial period. A formative role for the lion in Tibet is mirrored in the many toponyms and personal names that include the word ‘lion’ (a study beyond the purview of the present work). Silver bowls and lions are just two cultural emblems that signal the incorporation of the Tibetan Plateau into a large sphere of transcultural interactivity. As we shall see in the next chapter, a variety of birds, wild ungulates and other creatures and anthropomorphs embellishing Tibetan gold and copper-alloy objects also chart the transmission of ideas and icons across Inner Asia and beyond.

90 A standing feline figurine with bared teeth, long neck and mane in the Tucci collection is compared without specific reference to objects from Inner Mongolia. See Tucci 1973, Fig. 28, p. 37. However, I consider this small copper-alloy figurine to belong to Tibet, as does Bussagli (1949: 335 (Fig. 1)). The head of the figure has only a faint resemblance to the lions of our two silver vessels. This figurine was produced no later than the Imperial period. The Tucci specimen is quite close in form and shares decorative motifs with a bronze figurine of a lion said to have been obtained in Kabul and attributed to the Kushano-Sasanian cultural milieu (Tanabe 1989: 68, 78 (Fig. II-b)). Weihreter (2002a: 49 (Fig. 22)) dates a different style of feline head apparently disgorging jewels to ca. second to fourth century CE. I believe, though, that this object is not as early as Weihreter supposes.

38

2 A Tibetan gold finial of the Late Prehistoric era: Transcultural movements discerned in the most incorruptible of metals The gold finial in the Pine collection

these reasons, it is best identified as a Tibetan production. As for where it was manufactured on the Tibetan Plateau, this is not at all clear. The two most likely regions of production are North-east Tibet and Far Western Tibet (but other areas cannot be ruled out). As I shall show through a variety of archaeological materials and processes in the course of this work, these opposite ends of the Plateau acted as junctures of interaction with North Inner Asian and other Central Eurasian cultures, particularly in the Late Bronze Age and Iron Age.92

The spectacular article shown in Figs. 2.1–2.3 was obtained by the collector in Hong Kong in the 1990s. It is the heaviest Tibetan gold artefact of the Late Prehistoric era published to date. For the purposes of this monograph it will be referred to as a ‘finial’. However, its original purpose remains unknown. Although it is an integral fixture, this object appears to have been part of a larger assemblage of components. It possibly served as the crowning device on a headdress, standard or ritual ensemble. Whatever the intended task, the zoomorphic subjects comprising the decorative and semantic arrangement on the finial are benign in appearance, intimating it was not chiefly meant to convey aggressive or vengeful cultural signals. The walls of the finial are up to 1 cm in thickness, lending it a solid feel. It has sustained only minor damage, a remarkable feat given the age and weight of this object. The finial appears to have been fashioned in parts with forming tools before being assembled into its current form. The yellow ochre colour of the gold seems to suggest that it contains trace metals, which potentially might include silver, lead, antimony, tin, arsenic and/or zinc.

The flattened tubular arc forming the lower half of the finial (14 cm in length) is traversed by a line of decorative braiding and the ends are circumscribed by three or four bands. Reposing on the apex of the arched base is a single creature, displayed frontally. This zoomorph has a charming, almost cherubic countenance. The central figure is characterised by big rounded ears, a long body and paws that appear to be joined at the waist. It is squatting on its haunches, lending the animal a hare-like or monkey-like appearance.93 The highly stylised treatment of the central figure, however, precludes positive identification. Rather than a monkey or hare, it could possibly be the likeness of another species (such as the Tibetan brown bear) or even a fantastical creature. Over the chest of the central figure is a disc adorned with a braided ring encircling a central perforation. The round eyes are also formed through perforation of the object. The unthreatening aspect of this

The golden finial has the earmarks of an object made on the Tibetan Plateau.91 The animals adorning it are forthrightly postured, and are endowed with a robust physique and display a naive realism. These pictorial qualities define much zoomorphic representation in both rock art and copper-alloy objects of the thokcha class belonging to the Iron Age and Protohistoric period. This circle of Tibetan artistic traits contrasts with the poised, supple and lightsome forms of many figures in the Eurasian Animal Style (EAS) of other parts of Central Eurasia dated to the first millennium BCE. Nevertheless, the animal subjects on the finial share the vibrancy, anatomical enhancement, fanciful arrangement and keen sense of balance of EAS art in other territories.

For a review of the nature and direction of these transcultural and transregional interactions through varied facets of Tibetan culture, see Bellezza 2008, pp. 196–99; 2010, pp. 71, 72; 2014c, pp. 80, 81, 158, 171, 182, 194–98; 2020b, chh. 7–9; February 2015 (‘Early Agriculture in Tibet: A Review of a recent scientific paper by d’Alpoim Guedes et al.’), March 2016 and January 2017 Flight of the Khyung. 93 The hare (ri-bong) is one of nine wild animals (the other eight are ungulates) belonging to a traditional group of Tibetan animals known as ri-dags spun-dgu. The depiction of the hare nevertheless is quite rare in early Tibetan copper-alloy objects (see p. 112). Thokcha in the form of squatting monkeys (spre’u) are better known. Belonging to the historic epoch, these miniature figurines have hands positioned in front of long bodies; otherwise they are different in appearance from the central figure of the gold finial. For a typically styled monkey of this thokcha group purchased by Giuseppe Tucci in Far Western Tibet in the 1930s, see Tucci 1973, Figs. 17, 18, p. 39; Bussagli 1949, p. 335 (Fig. 3). Tucci (ibid., 220) was unable to suggest a date for this object. Bussagli (1949: 334) notes that the monkey pendant in the Tucci collection is identical to one in Salmony 1933, Pl. 35 (Fig. 9). On information provided by Salmony, Bussagli (loc. cit.) attributes this object to the Minusinsk Basin, when in fact it is from the Tibetan Plateau. Bussagli (ibid., 334, 336) observes that sitting monkeys are known in the ancient art of West Asia, the Mediterranean, the Indian Subcontinent and Central Asia, even in places where they do not live, presupposing a religious identity for the figure. For two more squatting monkeys of the same type, see Lin 2003, p. 48. Both these examples are not well cast and have oddlooking features, calling into question their age. A determination of their authenticity, however, cannot be made solely through the photographs provided in Lin’s book. 92

The finial, with its thick walls and bulkiness, is of solid construction, a general property of many kinds of Tibetan ornamental objects, both early and late. Furthermore, as we shall see, the decorative regimen of the gold finial is comparable to that of Tibetan copper-alloy ring fibulae. For 91 Gold is one of the least reactive substances and has one of the higher atomic numbers for a naturally occurring element. It is often found in nature in its elemental or native form but mixed with some silver and copper. Traditionally, cupellation was employed to isolate gold from alloys containing copper, but this technique was not effective in removing silver. The heating of gold with acid and salts in a technique known as parting was used in ancient metallurgy to remove silver from gold. By its colour and lustre, however, it does not appear that the gold used to cast the finial underwent parting.

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Tibetan Silver, Gold and Bronze Objects and the Aesthetics of Animals in the Era before Empire

Fig. 2.1. A Tibetan arched finial lavishly embellished with animals made in gold. Dimensions: 10 cm in height, 13 cm in width, 183 g in weight. Probably Iron Age. Jeremy Pine collection, Hong Kong. Photograph by Mark French.

Fig. 2.3. A view of the underside of the gold finial. Note the construction of the tubular base, with its six crossbars. The openings reduced the weight of the object while the crossbars preserve its structural integrity. Photograph by Mark French.

introduction of Buddhist origin. Indeed, I have observed a Tibetan copper-alloy figurine of a monkey riding a horse that appears to date to the Protohistoric period. In archaic ritual materials preserved in Yungdrung Bon documents written down after the tenth century CE, the monkey, badger and bat form a triad of funerary ritual animals with apotropaic functions called the ‘three blocker brothers’ (thub-chod spun-gsum; Bellezza 2008: 381, 382, 390, 405, 411). This tradition highlights a place for the monkey in the ritual life of Tibetans that appears to reach back to the Imperial period and perhaps even earlier. Of course, even if the monkey is intended as the central figure, the

Fig. 2.2. The reverse side of the gold finial in Fig. 2.1. Note the absence on this side of the braiding and ribbing constituting decorative details on the obverse side. Photograph by Mark French.

creature is consonant with the pacific temperament of other zoomorphic subjects on the gold finial. As observed by Bussagli (1949: 334, 336), although the monkey is popular in Tibet as a bodhisattva ancestor, it is known to the Ch’iang and other peoples living in border regions and should not be seen simply as an Indian 40

A Tibetan gold finial of the Late Prehistoric era gold finial may embody an alternative cultural role for this primate.

are recognisable in this thokcha. These include the round crests, amygdaliform bodies, splayed tails and abbreviated legs. The iconography of the peacock must have diffused to the Tibetan Plateau from India, where it is the most storied and splendid of birds.96 Knowledge of the peacock in the ancient world spread widely, reaching the Israelites and Greco-Romans. Peacocks have long been part of zoomorphic depiction in the art of the Tibetan Plateau as well. Among the earliest examples are seen in the rock art of Ladakh. Thokcha pendants in the form of peacocks are also common.97

The central figure of the finial is flanked by a pair of birds with open beaks and slim, almond-shaped bodies. The heads and bodies of the birds are circumscribed by an S-shaped braided line. With their mouths they grasp onto a protuberance on each side of the head of the central figure. The large circular bird eye is created by a hole that runs completely through the finial. The head of each avian figure is surmounted by a crest consisting of twin circles.94 The feet of the birds merge with what seem to be the paws or hands of the central figure. The tail of each of the birds is rendered as a small circle (one has become deformed) with an inset centre. Perhaps the insets and apertures on the gold finial were once filled with semi-precious stones. The salient features of the avian pair recall the peacock (rma-bya). This species identification is strengthened by the rendering of parts of the crest and tail of peacocks in EAS rock art and objects from the Western Tibetan Plateau as a series of circles (see pp. 134, 137–139).95

Pairs of opposing peacocks are an important theme in Tibetan copper-alloy fibulae.98 The two ring fibulae pictured in Fig. 2.5 are of a well-known form. Tibetan fibulae typically have embossed designs only on the front side. Such objects are closely associated with the Far Western Tibetan Plateau. The two fibulae illustrated are estimated by Lin (2003: 93) to date to the sixth to eighth century CE, but attribution to the Protohistoric period may be better indicated. The upper specimen (6 cm × 5.5 cm) boasts two pairs of peacocks, the upper pair flanking a motif recalling rudimentary tiered shrines that commonly appear as subjects in the rock art of the Tibetan Plateau and Northern Pakistan. The outer ring and top of the fibula are stamped with eight circlets known in Tibetan as ‘eyes’ (mig).99 The smaller inner ring is unadorned. The lower fibula (4 cm × 3.3 cm) only has a single pair of peacocks, but these are better modelled than in the upper specimen. They are set on either side of a pair of feline-like heads in a style we are already acquainted with (see Figs. 1.25–1.27).

The object in Fig. 2.4 has no loop for attachment and therefore may have been affixed to a rigid object. Elements of the form of the two birds on the gold finial

96 Aspects of the elementary form of the birds on the gold finial are already present in the pictographs of Bhimbetka and terracotta figures of peacocks from Mohenjo-Daro. See Kadgaonkar 1993. 97 Circular copper-alloy pendants with a pair of confronted peacocks, heads regardant, attributable to the Imperial period, are pictured in Heller 2002, Fig. 38; Anninos 1998, p. 94 (Fig. 5). For a peacock figurine dating no later than the Imperial period, see Weihreter 1988, pp. 252, 253 (Fig. 200); 2002, p. 40 (Fig. 7). Weihreter (loc. cit.) identifies this animal as a rooster, but this is unlikely, because cockerels appear to be absent in the art of most of pre-Buddhist Tibet, particularly in central and western regions of the Plateau. A pendant consisting of two pairs of similarly styled peacocks is also known (Tucci 1973: 21; 1935: 110 (Fig. 16); Goldman 1961: 175 (Fig. 8)). While Tucci states that this object is unmistakably Tibetan (1935: 114), Tucci (1973: 36, 37) and Goldman (1961: 175) identify the birds as roosters. In stylised art, such as the forms being considered here, the peacock is easily confused with the cock. For other Tibetan copper-alloy peacock-shaped ornaments (a common thokcha form), see John 2006, p. 138 (Figs. 322–28); Weihreter 2002, p. 56 (Figs. 40–44). 98 For a peacock, head regardant, gracing a Tibetan copper-alloy fibula assigned to the Protohistoric period, see Bellezza 2013, p. 97 (Fig. 8). For another ring fibula with two pairs of confronted peacocks dating to the Protohistoric period, see Bellezza 1998, p. 62 (Fig. 68, bottom). For two ring fibulae I attribute to the Imperial period, see John 2006, pp. 96 (Fig. 89), 97 (Fig. 107). There are other published ring fibulae of varying age with pairs of birds that are probably peacocks, but these figures are too highly worn or stylized to be positively identified. See also below, pp. 47, 48. In the era of Buddhist domination (post-1000 CE), the peacock became a highly favoured artistic subject and religious symbol in Tibet. 99 This motif is seen on many thokcha predating the Vestigial period, on patterned agates known as gzi and on copper-alloy mirrors, both ancient and contemporary. It is also found on contemporary slings braided from sheep wool and yak and goat hair, in a design known as ‘nine interconnected water eyes’ (chu-mig dgu-sgril). The eye motif is frequently associated with water (chu-mig) and is likened to the eyes of deities and sacred animals. It is said to function as a good luck and cosmological symbol.

Fig. 2.4. A peacock thokcha, head regardant (2.8 cm × 2.7 cm). Tibet, probably Early Historic period. Moke Mokotoff collection.

94 Crested and horned raptors are well distributed in the rock art of Upper Tibet and date as far back as the Late Bronze Age. Crested birds also appear as thokcha in the Late Prehistoric era. This avian rock art sets a precedent on the Tibetan Plateau for the crests on the pair of birds adorning the gold finial. The ubiquity of these ornithic subjects demonstrates that they were an integral part of the Tibetan bestiary since early times. A comprehensive survey of birds in Upper Tibetan rock art will appear in a forthcoming book. Psarras (1998–99: 56) notes that horned and crested bird subjects on Chu bronzewares of the Eastern Zhou (including the Spring and Autumn (770–480 BCE) and Warring States (480–221 BCE) periods were adopted from non-Chinese northern or western sources. As with many other artistic traits borrowed and adapted by the Chinese, Northern Zone sources and mediators are indicated. 95 For peacocks of this type in the rock art of Ladakh, see Vernier and Bruneau 2017, p. 325 (Fig. f); Bruneau and Vernier 2010, p. 35 (Fig. 13); Fig. 7.24 in this volume. These specimens date to the Iron Age and possibly the Protohistoric period. Peacocks of the Late Prehistoric era have been documented in the rock art of Upper Tibet, which otherwise admits of very little influence from India.

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Tibetan Silver, Gold and Bronze Objects and the Aesthetics of Animals in the Era before Empire upper two pairs are deeply folded in a U-shaped contour, as if they are sitting on their haunches. A braided decorative line loops across these four figures. The lowermost pair of animals on the outer edge of the finial seems to consist only of the head and is aligned at right angles to the heads in the two matching pairs of figures. The bottom pair of heads each have a large ear absent in the other two pairs, perhaps indicating that they are the same species of creature as the centrepiece zoomorph. For added strength, these two ears are joined to the base of the finial by tiny braces. The identity of the three pairs of animals on the outer edge of the bottom half of the finial is ambiguous. Alongside features characteristic of monkeys or even birds, the crests on the heads are somewhat suggestive of the horns of wild sheep.101 The two pairs of animals below the monkey-like heads on the outer edge of the final are avian in character. They appear to be aquatic birds such as ducks (ngur-ba) or geese (ngang-pa).102 These birds have folded teardrop-shaped wings, and large eyes formed by apertures in the body of the finial. The wings double as the legs of the two complementary pairs of monkey-like figures whose heads rise above the birds. Likewise, the S-shaped braided line is an interchangeable adornment. The bills of the pair of ostensible waterfowl immediately below the peacocks disgorge the tail of the lower pair of birds or the posterior of the monkey-like creatures, which are one and the same form. The lower pair of aquatic birds disgorges ribbed tubular forms attached to the lowermost pair of heads on the finial. These may possibly simulate

Fig. 2.5. Two Tibetan copper-alloy ring fibulae with pairs of confronted peacocks in the upper section of each object. Drawing by Rebecca C. Bellezza, after Lin 2003, p. 93.

The two heads share three prominent triangular ears, lending them the appearance of a crown. The single ring of the lower fibula is ribbed. Roosters had little place in the non-Buddhist religious and economic life of the Tibetan Plateau (save for the southeastern fringes), whereas the bird with royal connotations is the peacock. In the Tibetan textual arena, there are tales of spirits and adepts attired in peacock-feather robes (rma-bya’i thul-pa) set in early times. Another sign of distinction said to be conferred on the worthy by the kings of ancient Tibet was the peacock parasol (rmabya’i gdug).100 Generally speaking, birds in Tibet have been long connected to the celestial realm (gnam, dgung) and its resident spirits, such as the lha, gsas and dmu. Personal, protective and ancestral spirits often come in the guise of heavenly birds (lha-bya), traditions that appear to stem from the distant past. Archaic Tibetan rituals are noteworthy for the use of bird feathers, wings, claws and bones, which serve as magical instruments and offerings.

At least three species and subspecies of wild sheep are known in Tibet: Himalayan blue sheep (gna’, Pseudois nayaur), argali (gnyan, Ovis ammon) and Marco Polo sheep (Ovis ammon polii). For two small Tibetan wild sheep figurines of the thokcha class exhibiting somewhat similar anatomical features to the caprid-like pairs of animals on the gold finial, see Bellezza 2001, p. 343 (Fig. 10.49, lower row, far left and far right); 2004, Fig. 3d (far left and middle right specimens): www. asianart.com/articles/vestiges/3d.html. These two figurines represent either blue sheep or argali sheep. They can be assigned to the Iron Age (far left specimen) and Protohistoric period (middle right specimen). The middle right figure is of a type with a crossbar joining each pair of legs regularly found by pastoralists (these figurines also appear in the form of antelopes, onagers and boars). For another example, see John 2006, p. 131 (Fig. 307). The geographic locations of many of these finds is reported to be Upper Tibet, suggesting that the zoomorphic figurines with crossbars originated in that region. These objects have counterparts in the figurines of fawns and does (hornless) identified as yoke ornaments and ibex ornaments from the Northern Zone (mostly attributed to Inner Mongolia). The Northern Zone specimens tend to be considerably larger than the Tibetan variants, and the pairs of legs are not always joined by a bar. On these objects, see, for example, Bunker et al. 1997, pp. 232, 233. Like birds, wild ungulates have a cardinal place in ancient Tibetan myths, rituals and beliefs (I have written about these topics quite extensively in previous publications). Wild ungulates are associated with spirits of both the celestial and intermediate realms. The argali sheep appears to be named after a popular class of protective and ancestral spirits of the mountains and rocks in Tibet, called gnyan. Blue-sheep horns (rna-ru) are an ancient ritual receptacle and weapon mentioned in Yungdrung Bon texts. One type of magic bomb known as a tso used to dispatch enemies comes in the form of a blue-sheep horn (Bellezza 2005: 179). The tso is thought to be of Zhang-zhung origins. 102 Waterfowl, particularly geese, are storied birds in Tibet, appearing in rituals, songs, folktales, myths and historical accounts. In Upper Tibet there are many toponyms that include the word ‘goose’ (e.g. Nganglung, Ngang-pa do). Deities, especially water spirits (klu), appear in the guise of ducks and geese. These birds also act as the mounts of various divinities. For example, see Bellezza 2005, p. 144 n. 133, 149); 1997, pp. 113, 315. In one Old Tibetan funerary text, geese serve as protective spirits of women (Bellezza 2013: 144, 145, 147, 164). 101

Below the pair of probable peacocks on the tubular arc of the gold finial are five more pairs of interconnected animals, arrayed in a curious manner. The bulk of four of these pairs of animals are merged, so that there are four and not eight individual bodies in total, creating an optical illusion. From one perspective, two birds can be seen, but viewed from another, two other creatures appear. The three animal pairs along the outer edge of the bottom half of the object have matching heads, with a crescentshaped crown, rounded muzzle, and eyes represented by holes piercing the entire girth of the finial. The bodies of the On the peacock robe, see Bellezza 2005, p. 320; for a warrior spirit in the guise of a peacock, see ibid., p. 404; for the peacock parasol, see ibid., p. 231; Bellezza 2008, pp. 221, 448. For peacocks in the Tibetan archaic funerary ritual setting, consult Bellezza 2013, pp. 22, 72. On the peacock in the sumptuary art of Tibet, see Pritzker 2017, pp. 113, 114.

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A Tibetan gold finial of the Late Prehistoric era the discharge of water, rather than being the bodies of the bottom pair of monkey-like figures. While we cannot be certain what the selection and ordering of animals on the gold finial signified to its makers and users, there is little question that this ornamentation was situated in a highly evolved mythic, ritual and symbolic cultural matrix. This ideological content informed its conception, design and function through specific customs and traditions. The pictorial complexity and technological sophistication of the gold finial is indicative of a relatively advanced culture, with significant manufacturing capabilities. This complexity is heightened by the melding of figures and the pictorial and symbolic complementarity it bespeaks.

Fig. 2.6. Cast gold objects excavated by Chinese archaeologists near Meiduo village, Sna-dkar-rtse, Central Tibet. They include (from left to right) a plaque featuring a horned ungulate, with granulated surface, a probable drop earring with thick upper loop and three-quarters circular form, and a finger ring with a bezel of concentric circles and a flattened shank. The dimensions of these objects are unrecorded but they are comparable in size to analogous objects in Heller 2003a. Protohistoric period. Photograph courtesy of the Lhasa Municipal Cultural Relics Bureau, TAR.

Other Tibetan gold objects of the pre-Imperial era To gain more insight into the versatility of goldsmithing in early Tibet and the kinds of objects produced by that industry, we shall examine other gold objects produced there. As noted in chapter one, Tibet (especially western regions) has a long reputation for the mining and trading of gold. It is not surprising, therefore, that the working of this precious metal reached a high standard of proficiency on the Tibetan Plateau in the Late Prehistoric era, as seen in our finial and the items discussed below. Documented Tibetan gold objects predating the arrival of Buddhism indicate that this material was used mainly for the creation of ornaments with sacred connotations. Like the finial of the Pine collection, other Tibetan gold articles exhibit zoomorphic and geometric patterns of considerable complexity, reflecting the well-developed cultural mantle surrounding them.

same region. In an article devoted primarily to gilt silver objects found in tombs in the Dulan region (dating to the Imperial period),104 Heller (2003a) describes four almost identical gold plaques (each 4.4 cm × 2.4 cm) featuring a caparisoned horse as the main decorative subject, which were unearthed from one of the burial sites in Sna-dkarrtse (Heller ibid., 55 (Fig. 1), 56, citing Kaogu). Heller (2003a: 55, 56) notes that these plaques (one of which is illustrated in Fig. 2.7), the first recorded finds of gold objects from Central Tibet, appear to be bridle trappings. The horse was pivotal to the pastoral way of life, as well as being a military asset and a principal guide of the deceased to the afterlife.105 The horse plaques were dated by Chinese archaeologists to ca. first century CE, but because of the granulated treatment of surface, as well as a comparison of ceramic vessel fragments and tomb architecture, Heller

There were two or more burial sites excavated in Snadkar-rtse, near the south-eastern tip of the large holy lake of Yar-’brog g.yu-mtsho, ca. 2000.103 A clear delineation of these burial grounds by name and location is not clear in the Chinese publications released to date. The object on the left in Fig. 2.6 represents a wild ungulate (cervid, antelope or caprid). A loop with a spiral pattern over the head doubles as the horn of the animal. There are two other loops above the body, an indication that this object was made for suspending (thus, it can be classed as a pendant). The middle object in Fig. 2.6 has arrow-like projections on three sides, a small inner circle and line bisecting the body, and a braided border. The finger ring on the right in Fig. 2.6 is strongly reminiscent of copper-alloy rings of the thokcha class. Indeed, had the three pictured objects been cast in copper, bronze or brass, they would fall into the large corpus of items referred to as thokcha.

Fig. 2.7. Gold horse plaque with granulated surface (4.4 cm × 2.4 cm). Recovered from a burial site in Sna-dkar-rtse. Drawing by Rebecca C. Bellezza, after Heller 2003a, p. 55 (Fig. 1). On gold and silver objects from tombs in Dulan such as belt ornaments, vessels, caskets and jewellery with motifs such as honeysuckles, winged lions, deer and phoenixes, see Tong 2008, pp. 109–29. Some of these items as well as others are on display at the Mtsho-sngon bod kyi rig-gnas rten-mdzod-gling museum, Xining. On the phoenix in decorative arts of the Imperial period, see Pritzker 2017, p. 111. Turquoise is often used as an inlay in these objects, a tradition of ornamentation that carries on in Tibet to the present day. Many of the artefacts depicted in Tong’s study have Sasanian affinities; however, detailed comparative work is still to be carried out. 105 On the introduction and socio-political significance of the domestic horse in early Tibet, see Bellezza 2020b, ch. 7. 104

The objects pictured in Fig. 2.6 are not isolated occurrences of gold-working in Central Tibet. They are part of a larger assemblage of artefacts excavated in the On this site and its burial structures and goods, including a summary of Chinese archaeological reports, see Bellezza 2008, p. 110 n. 103; July 2010 Flight of the Khyung.

103

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Tibetan Silver, Gold and Bronze Objects and the Aesthetics of Animals in the Era before Empire (2016: 92 (Fig. 3), 95, 96), matching my assessment of their age. In Heller’s survey (2003a: 56 (Fig. 3)), she discusses a pair of earrings in the Newark Museum that she places in the Imperial period. In this case, Heller’s dating is well indicated. Of beaten gold, these ornate earrings are of a more sophisticated construction, and their entire front surface is covered in inlaid turquoise (some of these stones are now missing). Perplexingly, Heller says that the earrings in the Newark Museum are like those found in Sna-dkar-rtse (loc. cit.). In fact, these respective earrings are of a different artistic and technical presentation. An important class of gold and gilt objects to come to light in recent years are death masks recovered from tombs in Far Western Tibet and the adjoining regions of Malari in Kumaon and Bsam-rdzong in Mustang.108 Dating from ca.  first century BCE to fifth century CE, at least three distinctive styles of death masks have been documented.109 These Tibetan-Himalayan masks are different in appearance to counterparts in other regions of Eurasia. Two gilt examples from the burial grounds of Gur-gyam and Chu-thags/Chu-’thag, in Gu-ge, Southwest Tibet, and three from Mustang are almost flat, with an angular outline, and of simple construction and ornamentation. These five masks relied on the application of red ochre to detail facial features. The upper plate of a larger and more elaborate repoussé gold mask discovered in Chu-thags is decorated with wild caprids, birds and tiered shrines. A third style of gold funerary mask comes from a burial in Malari, Uttarakhand, India. This wellcrafted example depicts facial features unlike any of the other masks from the Tibetan Plateau and Himalayan rimland. Another style of gold death mask that appeared in the international art and antiquities market also seems to have originated from Tibet (see December 2014 Flight of the Khyung).

Fig. 2.8. A pair of drop earrings with a granulated border and central band. Recovered from a burial site in Sna-dkarrtse. Drawing by Rebecca C. Bellezza, after Heller 2003a, p. 56 (Fig. 2).

suggests that the horse plaques belong to the Imperial period (loc. cit.). However, Heller does not illustrate or describe the supporting material evidence she has in mind. Heller (ibid., 56 (Fig. 2), citing Kaogu) also dates a pair of gold drop earrings with a partial granulated surface from same burial site to the Imperial period (Fig. 2.8). These earrings have a three-quarters circular outline with three pointed extensions (two of which support the ear-piercing hoop), and a lanceolate tip at the bottom. They are of the same type as the earring pictured in Fig. 2.6 (with minor differences in form and decorative motifs). Heller holds that the plaques and earrings are made of beaten gold, but the earrings appear to have been cast. These are distinctly Tibetan objects unlike horse trappings from North Inner Asia like those produced by the Xiongnu, Scythians and pastoralist cultures of the Northern Zone.106 Assessing the design (austere), style (elementary but bold zoomorphic and geometric patterns) and technique (onepiece construction) of the wild ungulate pendant, horse plaques and earrings, I assign all of these gold objects to the Protohistoric period. The assignment of the earrings discovered in Sna-dkar-rtse to the Protohistoric period is borne out by comparative study.107 Similarly, the stolid form of the animals on the gold pendant and plaques is in keeping with the zoomorphic iconography of the Late Prehistoric era. Referring to two of the horse plaques and the pair of earrings studied by Heller, coming from a cemetery he calls Chaggya Gou, Huo Wei attributes them and other gold articles from the site to the Xianbei and Xiongnu periods

The presence of Tibetan-Himalayan gold and gilt funerary masks in Far Western Tibet, Malari and Mustang strongly suggests that their conception and deployment resonated between peoples of these regions. It does not appear, On the locations, functions and chronology of these masks and their wider cultural affinities, see October and November 2011, November and December 2013, and June and November 2017 Flight of the Khyung; Bellezza 2014c, pp. 157, 158; 2013, pp. 157–59. On the masks of Mustang, see also Aldenderfer and Eng 2016; Massa et al. 2019. On the mask from Malari, see Bhatt et al. 2008–09. 109 Tong and Li (2016: 85, 86) provide a detailed description of the funerary masks from Gu-ge, which they unearthed in 2012 and 2013. The radiocarbon dating of animal bones in the same burial as the elaborate funerary mask of Chu-thags suggests that it was made in the second or first century BCE (loc. cit.). According to Tong and Li (ibid., 88), the use of textile shrouds attached to some burial masks (including the elaborate Chu-thags specimen) can be traced to the Mediterranean and Parthia in the beginning of the first millennium BCE; these shrouds, as well as textile eye-covers used in burials in the Caucasus and Crimea in the second half of the first millennium BCE, made their way to Central Asia, and thence to Xinjiang and China. Tong and Li (ibid., 89) see the Tibetan-Himalayan gold death masks as springing from a Eurasian wellspring of interrelated funerary traditions. This is clearly so. On the gold masks of Chu-’thag and Gur-gyam see also Heller 2018. On the diffusion of funerary masks in North Inner Asia, see also Stark 2013. Huo (2016) reviews Tibetan-Himalayan gold and gilt silver (?) death masks, mislabelling examples from Malari and Mustang. 108

106 Heller (2003a: 56) briefly describes other objects found at the Snadkar-rtse site. In another article, Heller (2013: 279–81) discusses gold belt components and a gold fragment from a saddle with Tibetan inscriptions dating to the Imperial period. 107 A broken gold ring ornamented with a Bactrian camel with turquoise incrustations and a gold earring featuring an animal and human with inset pieces of turquoise, carnelian and jasper are attributed to the Wusun culture of the north-west Tian-Shan and dated ca. second century BCE to first century CE. See Stark 2012, pp. 128, 133 (Fig. 7-31, 7-32). These ornaments are very different in form and style from Tibetan examples, but probably of comparable age. The modelling of figures on the objects from the Tian-Shan is not as adept as that of the Tibetan gold objects examined in this study. However, the thick hoops of the Wusun gold earrings and others from Eurasia of the same time frame are also a design attribute of the Tibetan specimens discussed.

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A Tibetan gold finial of the Late Prehistoric era however, that the burials of Gu-ge, Malari and Bsamrdzong were made by the very same culture, anticipating the rich ethnographic mosaic still present in the greater region. Variations in rock art and mortuary architecture in the three locations also underline some degree of cultural gradation. That the masks appear to have been made over a period of around 600 years also suggests that cultural variations were at play, as embodied in their disparate forms. Although Mustang and Malari enjoyed economic and cultural links to the Subcontinent, the funerary masks chronicle the absorption of northern influences embracing Tibet and North Inner Asia more broadly. An affiliation between Upper Tibet and Xinjiang in the first millennium BCE and first half of the first millennium CE is seen in grave goods (ceramics, metallic tools and ornaments) and rock art, spotlighting interregional ties that appear to have also extended to gold funerary masks as well (more on these interregional links in chapter six). As with other classes of cognate metal objects surveyed in this monograph, a web of cultural and technological interactions accounts for the use of funerary masks in Eurasia in the Iron Age and Protohistoric period.110

fibulae (see Fig. 2.13). However, with so few other Tibetan gold objects to view it against, attribution of the finial to the Late Bronze Age or even the Protohistoric period must also be entertained. The Protohistoric period was an anachronistic extension of the Iron Age on much of the Tibetan Plateau.112 Through cross-cultural comparison, the Sarmato-Alanian gold torque pictured in Fig. 2.9 helps set the course for the stylistic and chronological analysis of the Tibetan gold finial. This neck ornament has two interconnected rows of felines with bird heads and perhaps another type of animal head. The rear and forward quarters of each animal are teardrop-shaped and inlaid with turquoise, coral and glass of the same shape. The teardrop-shaped motif and inlay are also known in many other Scythic-influenced (Sarmatian, Saka etc.) gold objects. This decorative feature evokes the teardrop-shaped composite wing and body motifs of the gold finial of the Pine collection. On the torque there are fantastic birds of prey, and on the finial, peacocks and waterfowl, highlighting a major thematic contrast in zoomorphic art of the steppes and the Tibetan Plateau. In the former territory fabulous and aggressive animals abound; in Tibet natural species and those with a less aggressive demeanour predominate. As we have seen, these same distinctions are recognisable in the zoomorphic art of both regions in the Imperial period, the outcome of longestablished cultural norms. The animals on the Sarmatian torque are fluidly modelled upon a curvilinear schema. The animals of the Tibetan finial are presented in a less pliant manner.113 Furthermore, zoomorphic art of so-called Scythic peoples tends to be more intricately designed than Tibetan counterparts. Yet, despite these typological and technical disparities, it appears that the decorative scheme of the Tibetan finial was informed by gold objects of the Eurasian steppes and the so-called Eurasian Animal Style more broadly. Steppe influences are also manifested in the zoomorphic portrayals and geometric motifs of early thokcha. The mechanisms of contact between the Tibetan Plateau and other regions of Eurasia in antiquity are vetted in the later chapters of this monograph.

I associate the gold and gilt Tibetan-Himalayan funerary masks with the tradition of the ‘golden visage’ (gser-zhal) recorded in Tibetan archaic funerary rites.111 This ritual object functioned to enshrine and protect the soul of the deceased during evocations held at the funeral venue, as a prelude to its mystic rehabilitation and valediction. In archaic ritual texts composed in the Early Historic period and Vestigial period, the golden visage is conserved in a modified form, one of a number of funerary customs of probable prehistoric origins referred to in this literature. As with other Tibetan gold objects surveyed here, the scarcity of death masks intimates that they were esteemed cultural and social symbols reserved for individuals and groups of higher stature. The cultural and historical origins of the gold finial Having reviewed a small but diverse group of Tibetan gold objects attributed to the Late Prehistoric era, I now turn to the dating of the gold finial in the Pine collection. As would be expected, the closest analogues in form and spirit to this object lie in other metallic articles. Somewhat matching examples of zoomorphic art in thokcha argue for an Iron Age cultural and artistic context, dating it to ca. 700–100 BCE. This is buttressed by cross-cultural comparison with Eurasian Animal Style objects of the first millennium BCE. Composite animals as well as animals disgorging others are a hallmark of this art in various parts of Central Eurasia, as also seen in the gold finial. Animals spewing out other animals is also a theme in Tibetan ring

The robust qualities and stolid presentation of many animals on Tibetan objects are distinguishing lineaments of early art on the Plateau, setting them apart from the more sinuous figurative designs of the Northern Zone. The bulkier forms of Tibetan cognates and other zoomorphic art presented in this monograph mirror the tough The material and abstract cultural hallmarks of the Iron Age and Protohistoric period in Tibet are still undergoing formulation. A major distinction between the two periods is that the Iron Age is characterised by formative contacts with other Central Eurasian peoples, while most of Tibet in the Protohistoric period appears to have become more isolated from the cultural and political rumblings of North Inner Asia. The only rock inscriptions on the Tibetan Plateau dating to the Protohistoric period have been discovered in Ladakh and Baltistan. An evolution of artistic forms between the Iron Age and Protohistoric period are discernable in rock art and thokcha. Nevertheless, charting the development of this art is impeded by an uncertain chronology. 113 For a signature example of these fundamental differences in style and form, see the raptor-headed cheekpieces of Tibetan and Scythic cultures in March 2016 Flight of the Khyung, Figs. 30, 31. 112

110 The earliest gold funerary masks have been discovered in Egypt and Mycenae, circa 1500 BCE. They were also used in the Balkans and Greece in the middle of the first millennium BCE. In closer proximity to Tibet, gold funerary masks have been discovered in Kyrgyzstan (fifth to sixth century CE) and the Tarim Basin (fifth to sixth century CE). Golden burial masks in North Inner Asia were made by the Khitans as late as the eleventh century CE. 111 See Bellezza 2013, pp. 156–59. See also Karmay 2018.

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Tibetan Silver, Gold and Bronze Objects and the Aesthetics of Animals in the Era before Empire

Fig. 2.9. A gold torque (17.8 cm in diameter) from the Khokhlatch kurgan, near Novocherkassk, Rostov region of Russia. Sarmato-Alanian culture, first century CE. The State Hermitage Museum collection, St Petersburg, Russia, inventory no. 2213-1. Photograph copyright The State Hermitage Museum and published here with express permission of the owner. Photograph by Vladimir Terebenin.

environmental conditions of the high-altitude Plateau. The animal subjects of the Tibetan silver, gold and copper-alloy objects of this study possess both an elemental vigour and quaintness, the handiwork of peoples who actively drew from an atavistic cultural patrimony.

in the first millennium BCE spread to the Northern Zone, silver vessel-making evidently did not. The occurrence of both silver bowl and gold article production on the Tibetan Plateau reflects its closer proximity to western centres of civilisation. By contrast, early China had neither industry.115

In regions like the Ordos and western Sichuan, gold enjoyed high status among various pastoralist peoples and was widely used to make objects for the living and dead in the Eastern Zhou period (770–255 BCE) (Bunker 1993: 27, 35). Many gold artefacts have been discovered in the Ordos, including ornate headdresses, earrings, beads, garment appliqués, belt plaques, scabbard covers, necklaces, bridle fittings and other objects associated with mobile pastoral groups in the late Eastern Zhou period, which have affinities to artefacts in the Altai of the same period (ibid., 36).114 Bunker (ibid., 37–44) delves into a wide range of gold objects of diverse types, styles and technologies recovered in the Eastern Steppe and north-west and south-west of the Central Plains of China. However, the art and forms of these articles do not chime with the gold finial of the Pine collection. It appears that regions north and east of the Tibetan Plateau had little direct effect on the production of Tibetan gold objects in the Iron Age and Protohistoric period. The few Tibetan gold items from those times we have for study are representative of parallel artistic, cultural and technological processes. Although not closely linked stylistically, the gold-working industry from which the finial came was in step with the production of gold articles in the Eurasian steppes and Northern Zone. As with the silver vessels of the Pine collection, the fabrication and use of gold articles on the Tibetan Plateau in antiquity aligns it with neighbours to the west and north. Although the creation of gold objects

The use of gold for fashioning ornaments and talismans, cult items and political and military insignia was widespread in the Mediterranean, West Asia and the Eurasian steppes in the first millennium BCE. Gold was a prime symbol of prestige and incorruptibility for the social elite in many ancient cultures of Central Eurasia. Tibet was no different in this regard, adopting gold as a marker of social position and political distinction in the first millennium BCE. However, the gold objects of peoples to the north and west of China were more than just status symbols: personal ornaments and harness fittings reflected mythological beliefs, clan membership and rank (Bunker 1993: 48). Although Bunker here is speaking specifically of the Northern Zone and 115 The elite functions of gold revolving around status and wealth in Central Eurasia were largely taken up in ancient China by jade and bronze, and even after gold assumed comparable qualities in the second millennium CE, these substances continued to be held in very high regard (Bunker 1993: 27, 29). Early Chinese dynastic peoples did not use gold jewellery or adorn the dead with gold until after Han times, although gold was used as a subsidiary material to decoratively enhance various objects (as in gilding; ibid., 27, 31). Even after the eighth century BCE, gold remained an exotic material, not least of all because the advanced metallurgical production techniques already perfected in China were not amenable to gold-working (Rawson 2018: 109, 115, 117). Interaction between the Chinese of the Central Plains and surrounding peoples in the first millennium BCE encouraged the application of gold as an adjunct decorative feature on various kinds of objects, as the use of gold became increasingly Sinicised (Bunker 1993: 47). Rawson (2018) reviews the status of gold objects and gold-working in the Northern Zone in the second and first millennium BCE and its role in the introduction of gold to the Central Plains in the first millennium BCE. Sources of silver are not plentiful in China, and this metal was almost unknown in the Central Plains until the Warring States period; it did gain much prominence in the manufacture of decorative objects until the T’ang, Liao and Song periods. Both Buddhism and Tibet appear to have played a role in the Chinese adoption of a silver industry. See, as above, Bunker 1994.

114 Rawson (2018: 113, 114) reviews evidence for the increased use of gold in the Northern Zone in the fifth to third centuries BCE, along with the increased prosperity of the region as well as the apparent increase in contact with the steppes.

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A Tibetan gold finial of the Late Prehistoric era The central figure linking the lions appears to be a flower of eight petals (me-tog dab-brgyad), a common subject in thokcha. Most of the surface of the fibula is covered in punctates, a decorative flourish. In the middle of the eight-pointed star is a circular opening surrounded by a disc accented with 16 nubs and eight circular perforations. Although this fibula appears to have been made much later than the gold finial, they can both be placed in the same spectrum of Tibetan metalworking traditions.

Eastern Steppe, her observations are valid for the Tibetan Plateau as well. The Tibetan gold finial, pendant, earrings, plaques and finger ring we have examined surely reflect multifarious social and cultural operations. No other finials comparable to the specimen in the Pine collection have come to my attention. Like the two silver bowls in the same collection, this gold article is at present unique. The group of Tibetan artefacts most closely resembling the gold finial are copper-alloy ring fibulae, which were introduced in chapter one. Many larger examples of these fibulae have a central figure flanked by pairs of animals on the outer ring. Tibetan fibulae come in several major types and with numerous combinations of zoomorphic and anthropomorphic subjects. As already observed, they appear to have been produced on the Western Tibetan Plateau.

Tibetan fibulae portray zoomorphic subjects (lions, birds and wild caprids), but also anthropomorphic figures, flowers and geometric motifs.116 The intricate ornamentation of larger fibulae was laden with literal and symbolic significance, most probably with political and social overtones (i.e., emblems of rank, prestige and accomplishment). Tibetan ring fibulae often depict birds in superior positions, reflecting the two-tiered universe of the native cosmology. In many early Tibetan myths and rituals, the binary cosmology appears as a trope or organising principle. Each of the two spheres has animal emblems. The upper or celestial sphere (yar) is frequently represented by birds, and the lower or chthonic sphere (’og/yog) by aquatic creatures such as frogs, fish and crocodiles. This vertical arrangement of species is adhered to in other kinds of thokcha as well.117 Moreover, it occurs in Tibetan rock art, where the carvings and paintings of birds rise above wild ungulates and other animals, imparting a cosmological dimension to compositions (the theme of an upper and lower sphere is widespread in world cultures). However, there are many exceptions to this ordering of animals in Tibetan art, as seen in the fibula in Fig. 2.10, where ostensible felines are positioned above the birds.

The fibula in Fig. 2.10 has been chosen for comparative purposes because of its pair of peacocks and the way in which the two upper subjects resembling reposing lions are connected to a midpoint figure through bar-like extensions. We see these design features on the gold finial, although this is where the similarities between the two objects end.

Figure 2.11 imparts some idea of the richness of styles, subjects and motifs characterising Tibetan ring fibulae. All five specimens pictured are well represented in Tibet, indicating that they were once widely known objects with clearly articulated identities and functions. The wear and patina assumed by these objects reflects sustained usage. On the far left of Fig. 2.11 is an ovoid fibula of just one ring, with two wing-like protuberances and a triangular tab at the bottom, in which there is a notch probably for 116 For a circular fibula with a band of concentric circles between ridged bands, which may be of Iron Age antiquity, see Tucci 1935, pp. 107 (Fig. 1), 114. Tucci acknowledges its Scythic affinities. Another thokcha Tucci identifies as a swastika with the ends broken off (ibid., 114 (Fig. 17)), but this is not at all likely. 117 The theme of two confronted birds in an upper position occurs in a Tibetan copper-alloy plaque obtained by Tucci in Taklakot (Stag-la mkhar), in South-west Tibet (Bussagli 1949: 345, 346). The two lower figures on this object are opposing deer. The top of the plaque is broken, and the two upper figures fragmentary. Bussagli thinks they are birds, which accords well with the remaining pictorial evidence and confronted birds on comparable Tibetan plaques. Heller (2018: 9, 10 (Fig. 2)) characterises the pair of birds on this plaque (3.9 cm × 2.9 cm) as resting on the antlers of the deer. This placement recalls the transformation of the tines of the stag antlers into birds well known in various decorative objects of the so-called Scytho-Siberian cultures. Bussagli (loc. cit.) sees animals on the Taklakot plaque as representative of a widespread mythic theme of the embodiment of atmospheric and terrestrial forces. There is an attachment ring on the reverse. This object in the Tucci collection can be attributed to the Protohistoric period.

Fig. 2.10. A Tibetan fibula crowned with what appears to be a pair of lions reposing on a forked extension rising above the two main rings (16 cm × 11 cm). Along the outer ring there are seven evenly spaced ringlets. A pair of confronted peacocks stand upon the uppermost ringlets of the fibula, directly below the leonine creatures. In the centre of the fibula there is an eight-pointed star. Possibly Imperial period, but perhaps somewhat earlier. Private collection.

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Tibetan Silver, Gold and Bronze Objects and the Aesthetics of Animals in the Era before Empire

Fig. 2.11. Five smaller Tibetan copper-alloy ring fibulae (the specimen on the far right is approximately 7.5 cm in height). Probably Protohistoric period and Early Historic period. Jeremy Pine collection. Photograph courtesy of Jeremy Pine.

receiving the end of a pin as a closure device (the few still connected to Tibetan fibulae are made of iron).118 There is also a small ring on top for suspending. How the loop and notch may have been used in concert in unclear. The diamond-shaped fibula second from the left is adorned with flower-like motifs on each of its four sides.119 As with many Tibetan fibulae, there is a notch in the inner ring to accommodate a pin. The middle fibula is highly worn, so decorative details are hardly discernable. From others of this kind I have observed, the central figure is an animal head.120 This head is flanked by two birds, and below them, on the upper ends of the inner ring, there is a pair of crocodile-like creatures known as chu-srin. The second ring fibula from the right has a broad outer ring ornamented with nubs and two larger circles with inset centres near the top. It is crowned by an indeterminate motif, and there are five symmetrically arrayed lugs projecting from the outer ring. The fibula on the far right is bedecked by a single jewel motif in the top centre of the object, with confronted peacocks on either side.121 In certain other specimens of this type the identity of the birds and jewels is unmistakable. There is an attachment loop on the opposite side of the single ring.

Caucasus, and more specifically Luristan (Lorestan) (Goldman 1961: 171, 172, Figs. 1, 2). Nevertheless, these two fibulae are neither Iranian nor Italian, but common Tibetan types. The fibula in Fig. 1 of Goldman’s article has two concentric rings, with a central animal head facing directly towards the viewer framed by two birds on the outer ring, but it has worn smooth, losing most of its surface detail. Goldman’s Fig. 2 is a more complex type, with three concentric rings, quadrupeds, floral motifs and braided patterns. It has two lions atop the outer ring. This fibula has also worn smooth. Goldman (ibid., 172, Fig. 3) compares these two fibulae to a bronze harness ring from Luristan with bird heads flanking a central ibex head and a feline on either side of the single ring.122 He also relates the lugs on the outer ring of one of the Tucci fibulae to a similar feature on a bronze pin from Luristan (ibid., 175, Fig. 7). Goldman goes so far as to claim that elements of fibulae in the Tucci collection are sufficiently familiar to be considered part of the ‘Luristan style’, but leaves open the prospect of whether they were made in Luristan or of local production (ibid., 174, 175). He thinks that the more stylised animals of the Tucci pieces probably indicate that they postdate Luristan bronzes. Goldman (ibid., 176, 178) also suggests that the open-ended outer ring of Tibetan fibulae is a representation of the double-animal motif in West Asia, whereas the inner ring reveals in schematic form a remote memory of the hero archetype found in the centre of Luristan bronzes.123 Tucci (1973: 34, 35) partially endorses Goldman’s reading of his fibulae, but qualifies

It has been claimed that two circular fibulae in the Tucci collection are of an order of bronze objects found as far west as Etruria, but belonging to the region south of the 118 For other specimens of this type, see John 2006, p. 97 (Fig. 106); Weihreter 2002a, p. 62 (Fig. 54); Bussagli 1949, p. 339, no. 50; Tucci 1973, Fig. 4. For the use of iron pins on ancient Tibetan fibulae, which is said to have functional parallels with small, round ring fibulae still in use in the Wakha valley, Ladakh, see Weihreter 1988, p. 95. On the method of closure, see also Anninos 1998, p. 95 (Fig. 9), citing Mūller and Rauning. 119 On this type see also John 2006, p. 97 (Figs. 102, 103); Weihreter 2002a, p. 63 (Figs. 58, 59); 1988, pp. 246, 247 (Figs. 190, 191); Bussagli 1949, p. 339, no. 7; Tucci 1935, p. 7 (Fig. 3); 1973, Fig. 5. 120 For an example of this genre with the decorative details intact, see Weihreter 2002a, p. 68 (Fig. 73). 121 For another specimen of this type the author identifies as a tortoise, see Lin 2003, p. 117.

Harness rings depicting a mouflon sheep on top and two crouching felines on the sides are a conventional class of Luristan bronze objects (Munn-Rankin 1967: 1). For typical harness rings with one or two animals on each side of the ring and a central ibex figure (and one with an anthropomorph), see, for example, ibid., Fig. 1; Verdier 1986, p. 42 (Figs. 20, 21). 123 The second half of Goldman’s article (1961) is devoted to an analysis of Luristan bronzes. It is coloured with stereotypic interpretations of motifs dominated by the notion of an animal master or mistress. On the animal mistress and her cultural and iconographic permutations in Near Eastern art, see Davis-Kimball 2000. 122

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A Tibetan gold finial of the Late Prehistoric era as Goldman surmised, Luristani and Tibetan objects were manufactured in different eras, the former in the first half of the first millennium BCE and the latter possibly in the second half of the first millennium BCE, but mostly in the first millennium CE. Despite overshadowing Tibet with the umbrella of Iranian origins, Goldman was the first scholar to spell out affinities between Luristan and Tibet bronzes.

his assent by observing that a major influence on thokcha was the art of the steppes.124 In the period Goldman was writing, far less was known about Tibetan ring fibulae than today. Many strides in understanding the bronze metallurgy of Luristan have also been made since that time. Luristan bronzes constitute an idiosyncratic but diverse body of bronze metalwork in western Iran dating to the first half of the first millennium BCE.125 They are comprised of a large fund of stylised animal and human forms ornamenting finials, standards, horse cheekpieces, harness attachments and weapons. Antecedents of zoomorphic imagery seen in Luristan cast bronze objects can be found in western Iran, ca. 2000 BCE (Moorey 1971: 119, 120). The ethno-linguistic affiliations of the producers of Luristan bronzes are still unclear. The economic system and settlement patterns of Luristan in the first millennium are also not well understood. Unlike in Tibet, gold and silver were not used to produce wares in Luristan. The large quantity of horse tack and weapons among Luristan bronzes coincides with introduction of the riding horse, an increasingly nomadic way of life, and the ascendancy of a warrior aristocracy in the region (Moorey 1982: 95). The horse and possibly chariots were important military assets in Luristan, suggesting a well-developed political structure and warlike tendencies.

The harness ring in Fig. 2.12 is one object in a sizable collection of Luristan bronzes housed in the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the photographs of many being freely available on their easy-to-use website. Adorned with just two birds, the specimen in Fig. 2.12 is an elementary type of Luristan bronze.128 The birds may possibly represent an aquatic species. The position of the confronted birds near the top of the ring sets the tone for the positioning of birds on the gold finial of the Pine collection and anticipates the pairing of birds on Tibetan fibulae centuries later. These birds are shown in profile on Luristani and Tibetan fibulae and have a formal countenance and heraldic aspect. However, birds on the gold finial and Tibetan fibulae invariably flank a central subject, which is always shown head-on. Even small Tibetan ring fibulae have one or trio of tiered shrines, one or duo of animals, an anthropomorphic head, flower, vase (bum-pa) or jewel (nor-bu) as the centrepiece. This arrangement is seen on two of the small fibulae in Fig. 2.11. Tibetan fibulae are

Goldman’s characterisation of Tibetan fibulae as belonging to the ‘Luristan style’ is misleading, for it implies that Tibetans owed this form of metalwork to a region 3000 km to the west. When seen in aggregate, Luristan bronzes and Tibetan fibulae constitute unique groups of copper-alloy objects artistically and technically, mirroring substantial differences in the cultural, environmental and ethnolinguistic complexion of these far-flung territories.126 It is very unlikely, therefore, that Luristan bronzes were physically or conceptually delivered directly from south-western Iran to the Tibetan Plateau to serve as the prototype for the fashioning of fibulae there.127 Moreover, Another study holds that Tibetan fibulae have affinities with European fibulae of the Iron Age and may possibly have reached Tibet from West Asia. See Ackmann and Koenig 1982. The resemblance between Tibetan and European examples is quite slim, and likely to be the result of functional correspondences rather than a genetic relationship. Phrygian bow-type fibulae in bronze and gold from west-central Anatolia (eighth to sixth century BCE) are very different in form. It is only farther east with the fibulae of Luristan that artistic reverberations reached the Tibetan Plateau in any discernable fashion. 125 A great deal has been published on Luristan bronzes since the 1930s. For an up-to-date synopsis of the cultural history of these objects, see ‘Bronzes of Luristan’, in Encyclopædia Iranica: www.iranicaonline.org/ articles/bronzes-of-luristan (accessed on November 12, 2017). 126 Anninos (1998: 95) opines that rather than synchronous links between the fibulae of Tibet and Luristan, they may possibly represent a common heritage. In a sense this may be correct: Bronze Age cultural antecedents in Central Asia having found fertile ground in both Iran and Tibet. 127 Melikian-Chirvani (2011: 90–92) notes stylistic and typological similarities between thokcha in the Tucci collection and bronze objects from Luristan, observing, though, that they clearly belong to different traditions. Unfortunately, the author does not furnish illustrations in his work to support the various comparisons drawn. Melikian-Chirvani (ibid., 92–94) favours direct transmission of bronze types from Luristan to Tibet, but does not supply convincing evidence to support his stance (he relies solely on correspondences in object forms and references to Tibet in Persian geographic texts of the Islamic era). 124

Fig. 2.12. A typical bronze harness ring (3.2 cm in diameter), Luristan, Iran; ca. 1000–650 BCE. Los Angeles County Museum of Art collection (M.76.174.88). Photograph: Los Angeles County Museum of Art, public domain. See: https:// collections.lacma.org/node/174181. 128 For two more small rings from Luristan (one with a pair of birds and one with a bicephalous creature), see Tucci 1973: Figs. 7 (lower Pl.), 36.

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Tibetan Silver, Gold and Bronze Objects and the Aesthetics of Animals in the Era before Empire Tibetan ring fibulae (although they are often effaced).130 It has an oval outline and two bands across the forehead that probably depict headgear. The round eyes, nose and mouth of this figure are also discernable. The circles on either side of the head appear to be large hoop earrings.131 This visage and others like it probably represent guardian deities and cosmological figures, but their exact identity is unclear. When these faces are found on Buddhist fibulae of the Early Historic period (often distinguished by ritual thunderbolt (rdo-rje) motifs), they are likely to represent the patron deity of Tibet, Thugs-rje chen-po, a form of Lokeśvara (Lord of the World).

planar objects, with decorative details only on the obverse side. Luristan rings, openwork pins etc. mostly have threedimensional subjects, producing mirror images back and front. The mix of scenes, subjects and motifs and their modes of depiction on Luristan bronzes and Tibetan fibulae also varies significantly, forming discrete bodies of cultural work with minimal artistic crossover.129 The important fibula in Fig. 2.13 was discovered by a reincarnate lama in a stone chamber on the summit of a mountain associated with the discovery of Tibetan treasure texts called Byang-gter (Bellezza 2014c: 201). Of the dozens of Tibetan fibulae I have observed, I have seen none like it. It has been chosen for inclusion in this work because of the two anthropomorphic subjects in the centre. The lower face is of a type commonly seen on

Also, facing straight ahead, the full anthropomorphic figure directly above the head on the fibula in Fig. 2.13 is most peculiar. This anthropomorph has a keystone-

Fig. 2.13. A Tibetan ring fibula with two central anthropomorphic figures above the inner ring, three pairs of interconnected (10.8 cm × 8.1 cm) animals forming the intermediate ring, and what appears to be a pair of tiered shrines along the upper part of the knurled outer ring. There is also ostensibly a tiered shrine on the very top of the object, as well as two smaller inner rings. Probably Protohistoric period. Private collection. 129 The corrosion affecting many Luristan bronzes is the result of burial for long periods of time. Many Tibetan fibulae have acquired a soft, lustrous patina, as heirlooms with sacred and talismanic properties, passed down over the generations. The superb condition of numerous thokcha alludes to a historico-cultural continuity less intruded upon than in most other regions of Eurasia, which suffered periodic dislocation and catastrophe.

130 For fibulae with this style of head, see Bellezza 1998, p. 62 (Fig. 68, upper); John 2006, pp. 96 (Fig. 89), 97 (Figs. 97, 98, 109, s.v. rear cover); Weihreter 2002a, p. 65 (Fig. 65). 131 For a pictographic figure (1.1 m in height) of a non-Buddhist priest/ sage with large hoop earrings, see Bellezza 2017a, p. 24 (Fig. 15).

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A Tibetan gold finial of the Late Prehistoric era shaped head with a concentric circle in the middle, as if it is one-eyed. Indeed, all animal pairs on the fibula have their eyes rendered in the same fashion. The broadshouldered anthroporph has two shortened arms that hang down before curling up at the ends to meet the snouts of the flanking pair of animals. Another concentric circle punctuates the middle of the chest of this anthropomorph. Below its narrow waist a pair of truncated legs are spaced fairly widely apart. The iconography of this character is highly unusual. I have not pinpointed comparable figures in rock art, dough moulds (zan-par),132 other thokcha, sculptures, or in any other Tibetan art form hosting elementary anthropomorphs. The striking form, one eye and powerful body bespeak a divine or mythic identity.

The narrative and cult significance of the juxtaposition of animals and human-like forms on Tibetan fibulae is unclear, for such information does not appear to be recorded in Tibetan literature or in the oral tradition. There is, however, a vast body of Tibetan folktales, rituals and myths that speak of an intimate relationship between humans and animals. This relationship is summed up in my 2008 volume (p. 205) and requires no reframing: The archaic cultural ethos appears to have revolved around the deeply rooted belief that human beings and the gods came from the same primal cosmic source. Furthermore, their interactions continue in this world and that of the hereafter. An interrelationship with the animal kingdom in which certain species of animals are closely identified with humans is also postulated. We therefore meet with a situation in which deities, humans and animals share the same ontological continuum, their outer forms and consciousnesses continually undergoing a process of reconstitution. Divinities appear in both anthropomorphic and zoomorphic forms, and humans in turn assume the guise of gods and animals. This ontological mutuality is at odds with Buddhism, which maintains that gods, animals and humans exist as separate categories of sentient life.

All animals on the fibula in Fig. 2.13 are depicted in profile. The two animals flanking the full-bodied anthropomorph on the top of the intermediate ring possess what appears to be a horn and bird’s beak, possibly echoing the birdheaded cervids well known in the art of the Eastern Steppe (see chapter six). Yet, like other animal pairs on the fibula, these creatures are stylised with a minimum number of anatomical details. The pair of animal heads directly below the lower anthroporphic head are situated on the upper ends of the two inner rings of the fibula. They appear to represent a crocodiloid creature (chu-srin), a very popular subject in Tibetan and Nepalese art from the Early Historic period onward. There may also be animal protomes emerging from the mouths of the crocodiloid heads, but details are scant. Below these figures on the intermediate ring are two standing animals, whose rear quarters are being spewed out by the lowest pair of creatures. The disgorging of animals has aleady been encountered on the gold finial. The standing figures are supported on their two hind legs and have bird-like heads. Their upper pair of legs extends towards the outer ring. The aspect of this pair of creatures resembles the central figure of the gold finial, save that they are shown in profile instead of head-on. The identity of the lowermost pairs of animals on the fibula is likewise uncertain, but their form is carnivore-like. They appear to have long tails that merge with the larger of the two inner rings of the object.

Beyond these generalities one could construct any number of hypotheses regarding the meaning of animals and human-like figures on the copper-alloy fibulae and gold finial, but I see no profit in doing so. More important for understanding wider transcultural phenomena is that a similar arrangement of figures occurs on Luristan and Tibetan bronzes. These objects have a central anthropomorphic figure surrounded by birds and felines. The middle figure in Luristan bronzes is commonly referred to as a ‘master of animals’ or ‘mistress of animals’, an elemental deity who regulates the natural world, including the animal kingdom. This interpretation in a general sense fits the figurative scheme on Tibetan fibulae.135 However, the notion of animal masters and mistresses does not possess much cultural specificity, the concept being applicable to many different mythic and cultic settings in antiquity. Psarras (1998–99: 68–70) notes that the iconography of animal masters flanking

The three tapering subjects segmented in multiple layers on the upper portion of the outer ring of the fibula strongly resemble elementary tiered shrines, which are common in the rock art of the Western Tibetan Plateau and Northern Pakistan.133 These subjects occur quite regularly on Tibetan fibulae and other thokcha.134

Mock (1998: 407, 408) relates the ‘mistress of animals’ trope to parī (fairies, nymphs), which act as owners of wild sheep and goats, particularly ibex, in the Pamirs, the Hindu Kush and across the Iranian plateau to the Caucasus. On the historical development of the word pari / peri in Iranian languages, see ‘Pairikā’, Encyclopædia Iranica: www. iranicaonline.org/articles/pairika (accessed on March 12, 2018). Mock associates parī with the ma-mo of Ladakh that also serve as owners of ibex (loc. cit., citing Dollfus). These ma-mo of Ladakh appear to be etymologically related to ma-mo in Old Tibetan, which can probably be glossed as ‘female’ or ‘woman’ (Bellezza 2008: 227). The Old Tibetan sense of the word (as opposed to the Classical Tibetan association with fierce tantric divinities) appears to be preserved in the archaic names of a few Tibetan goddesses. However, the main Tibetan counterparts to the mistress of animals in western territories are the sman, a prototypic class of female spirits, who complement the lha (prototypic male spirits). Their ancestral, supportive and protective functions are recorded in both Old and Classical Tibetan literature. The sman are frequently identified with lakes, mountains, meadows etc. and are thought to control, own or regulate wild animals within their territorial ambit.

135

The fibula in Fig. 2.13 juxtaposes anthropomorphs with zoomorphs, which is indicative of a close symbolic relationship between these personalities, one that is likely to have had well-articulated mythic and religious overtones. The centrality of the two anthropomorphs indicates that they play a dominant role among the ensemble of figures. On these dough moulds, see Bellezza 2017b. On these shrines, see Bellezza 2020a; 2002; 2001 etc. 134 See John 2006, pp. 97 (Figs. 97–99, 105), 139 (Fig. 338); Weihreter 2002, pp. 65 (Fig. 65), 67 (Fig. 71); Lin 2003, p. 25. 132 133

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Tibetan Silver, Gold and Bronze Objects and the Aesthetics of Animals in the Era before Empire carnivorous animals and birds on Luristan bronzes was adopted by the art of the Eastern Zhou. As I shall show in due course, in the case of Tibet this is not the consequence of an artistic and ideological package faithfully delivered from south-western Iran to the Tibetan Plateau, but evidence for plexuses of uptake, transfer and transformation that characterised the multifaceted adoption of material-cultural elements in Central Eurasia during the first millennium BCE. The openwork Luristan bronze shown in Fig. 2.14 has as its midpoint the full form of an anthropomorph. This ostensible deity wears a horned headdress or crown, anticipating the use of horned headgear as a KushanoSasanian royal symbol.136 According to Yungdrung Bon sources, bird-horned crowns were also an emblem of kingship in Zhang-zhung, a pre-Imperial period kingdom centred in Upper Tibet. Horned figures attributed to the Iron Age and Protohistoric period are found in the rock art of the region, indicating at least faint correspondence with textual accounts that recount the Late Prehistoric era.137 Moreover, bird-horn crowns are also associated with psychopomp horses in Old Tibetan funerary literature of the Early Historic period (Bellezza 2008; 2013). I have written extensively on these subjects and will not repeat myself here. The Tibetan bird-horn crown appears to be related to crested griffins that embellish horse harnesses in Scythic cultures and to horned equestrian headdresses found in so-called Scytho-Siberian burials, both of which are of Iron Age antiquity.138 Nonetheless, horned bronze helmets are known as far afield as Celtic Europe. The wide occurrence of the horned crown or headdress as an actual object, artistic motif and literary trope furnishes a set of coordinates demarcating one stream of transcultural flows in Iron Age Eurasia.

Fig. 2.14. An openwork bronze pinhead with three pairs of carnivores flanking a ‘master’ or ‘mistress’ of animals figure (10 × 9.1 cm). Luristan, Iran, ca. 1000 BCE. Los Angeles County Museum of Art (M.76.97.190). Photograph: Los Angeles County Museum of Art (public domain). https:// collections.lacma.org/node/225956.

open ring. These three pairs of zoomorphs have beak-like extensions to their muzzles, recalling a similar feature in the Tibetan fibula illustrated in Fig. 2.13. These thematic features and alignments common to Tibetan fibula and Luristan pinhead design seem to track ideological reverberations across two distant territories. Nevertheless, the style of art and system of manufacture as well as the function of Luristan pinheads and Tibetan fibulae are a study in contrast. This contraposition is also true of the gold finial in the Pine collection, a solid indication that any beliefs, symbolism, customs or rituals percolating to Tibet from Luristan did so along protean cognitive contours.

The two pairs of complete felines on the Luristan bronze in Fig. 2.14 are portrayed as subsidiary to the central figure, supporting the ‘master’ status of the latter. Similarly, another pair of animals appears from the two ends of the On ram-horned crowns and headdresses depicted on KushanoSasanian silver vessels, see Tanabe 1989, pp. 53, 55, 58. See also Martin 1991, pp. 134–36. 137 For these figures, see August and September 2014 and November 2017 Flight of the Khyung. 138 On Tibetan examples, see August 2014, March 2016 and November 2017 Flight of the Khyung; Bellezza 2008, pp. 506, 507, 509, 522; Bellezza 2013, pp. 69 n. 90, 207, 230–32. On crested bird heads (best described as griffins) made of wood functioning as decorations on horse harnesses in Pazyryk and other sites of so-called Scytho-Siberian culture, see Cheremisin 2009; Shulga 2015; Jacobson-Tepfer 2015, pp. 278–96. Very similar objects in terms of art and object type are found across the steppes. Based on the wide distribution of the griffin and griffin-stag combat scenes in the Iron Age, Farkas (1977: 128) hypothesises that a robust long-distance trade may have helped circulate them between Greece and Persia and Persia and Siberia. Wooden bird heads (around 3 cm in length), identified as probably cocks or phoenixes, were recovered in Dulan (Dur-lam rdzong) and are illustrated in Tong 2008: pp. 106, 349 (Fig. 6.2.6-7). No geographic source or other information on these objects is provided. These avian forms are remarkably like Scythic griffin-head harness decorations, calling into question their age, cultural sources and provenance. Most objects discovered in Dulan belong to the Imperial period, but tombs there have been heavily looted, and most materials recovered from the area lack a secure archaeological context. 136

In the next chapter, we will explore another class of objects that joined Iran to Tibet in the Iron Age. In order for Iran to serve as a distant source of inspiration that eventually wafted over the Tibetan Plateau, northern territories furnished pathways linking the two together. These pathways acted as cultural and technological conveyors for a host of conceptual and material forms.

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3 Tibetan copper-alloy jars of the Late Prehistoric era: Tracing a northern arc of cultural connectivity through form and function Tibetan copper-alloy bird-spouted jars in private collections

this is nowhere more evident than on the great lakes of Upper Tibet (with its large populations of aquatic birds). The open, broad tubular bill and eyes of the bird, formed by circular cavities in the spouted vessel, are very much like those of

The spouted jar in Fig. 3.1 is intact, save for a gash on the base. Although it has sustained some corrosion, much of the surface is enveloped in a well-developed bronzy patina. With its captivating spout, this jar functioned to contain liquids, probably in a ritual or ceremonial setting. However, the spout is not functional. While it is hollow and there is an aperture in the mouth, there is no opening in the adjoining wall of the vessel. Attribution of this object to the Tibetan Plateau is indicated but not assured. The jar has a bulbous body with a furrowed medial band, crenated shoulder, flaring neck, and slightly everted rim. Although the form of the spout most closely resembles a duck or goose, it is possible that another species of bird was envisioned by the makers. However, for the purposes of this work, the bird of the spout will be referred to as a duck. The ring handle appears to have been added to the jar through spot welding. The thin-walled vessel has a seam bisecting its entire breadth, indicating that it was cast complete with spout in a bivalve mould. The very high quality of casting of the jar, with its very thin, evenly formed walls, is the product of a mature bronze metallurgical industry. As this jar has not undergone laboratory testing, little can be said about its chemical composition and crystalline structure. Inner Asian traditions of metallurgy in the first millennium BCE suggest that it is composed of either copper (with trace elements), arsenical copper or true tin bronze. As we have learned, ducks and geese play a cardinal role in the folklore, mythology, rituals and toponymy of Tibet, and

Fig. 3.2. A close-up of the spout of the jar in Fig. 3.1. Note the deeply inset round eye, and crescent-shaped wing motif. Photograph by Mark French.

Fig. 3.1. A copper-alloy jar with a vertical ring handle and a false spout in the form of an animal protome that is reminiscent of a goose or duck. Probably Tibetan Plateau. Dimensions: 6.8 cm in height, 13 cm in width, 150 g in weight. Iron Age. Private collection, Hong Kong. Purchased in Nepal in the 1980s. Photograph by Mark French.

Fig. 3.3. An overhead view of the duck-spouted vessel. Note the crosshatch pattern cast on the bottom of the vessel. The casting seam is clearly visible on top of the spout. Photograph by Mark French.

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Tibetan Silver, Gold and Bronze Objects and the Aesthetics of Animals in the Era before Empire

Fig. 3.4. The duck-spouted jar in Figs. 3.1–3.3 shown next to a miniature bird-spouted jar. The smaller specimen measures 5.5 cm in length, 3.5 cm in width and 2.3 cm in height. It is attributable to Tibet and predates the Imperial period. Jeremy Pine collection, Hong Kong. Photograph by Mark French.

the two pairs of aquatic birds adorning the gold finial in the Pine collection (see pp. 39–42). These commonalities help define a stylistic repertoire of zoomorphic depiction in Iron Age Inner Asia, including Tibet. The fundamental features of the large duck-spouted jar are reproduced in a miniature example (Fig. 3.4). The basic shape of the body is the same, as are the vertical ring handle and zoomorphic spout. The creature represented on the spout is ambiguous, but we can be quite confident that it too is a bird. The smaller jar was also cast in a two-part mould. It is, however, not as finely modelled or as well made as the big jar. This is in part because of its diminutive size, and probably also due to differences in usage and perceived value. A large piece of flash adheres to the base on the opposite side of the miniature jar. That this excess material was not trimmed indicates the object did not warrant too much investment in time and effort. The more rudimentary form and finishing of the small vessel appear to be the result of an imitative process, whereby the large jar or others like it served as the prototype for smaller copies. The miniature example in Fig. 3.4 was made in either the Iron Age or Protohistoric period. Like many other thokcha, it may have functioned as a talisman, fetish or identifying symbol.

Fig. 3.5. A Tibetan miniature bird-spouted jar (4 cm × 2.8 cm). Probably Protohistoric period. Private collection.

The object in Figs. 3.5 and 3.6 is another Tibetan birdspouted container of the thokcha class to come to light. Although the two pictured miniature vessels in this work appear to be the only examples that are published, they are not likely to have been made in isolation. The holes on either side of the small jar in Figs. 3.5 and 3.6 may be the result of the misrun of molten material during casting. A tab where the handle is placed in the two analogous vessels is another sign of the cruder fabrication of miniature versions and their probable historical derivation from the large duck-spouted jar. Cognate copper-alloy objects of the Tibetan Plateau are often more perfunctory in form than their northern counterparts, evidence for imitative and derivative processes at play in their adoption. While the

Fig. 3.6. The opposite side of the vessel depicted in Fig. 3.5.

bird-spouted miniature vessels are unusual objects, they belong to a large genre of miniature cauldron thokcha (see Figs. 3.8 and 3.9). By analogy, as well as by its distinctive ensemble of aesthetic qualities, the large thin-walled duckspouted jar is best assigned to Tibet too. 54

Tibetan copper-alloy jars of the Late Prehistoric era The bronze jar in Fig. 3.7 shares much in common with the other large jar illustrated in Figs. 3.1–3.4. They were both cast in bivalve moulds and have similarly shaped duck spouts, bodies and spot-welded vertical ring handles. The fully perforated eyes of the bigger jar in Fig. 3.7 indicate that it is equipped with false and not functional spouts. Nevertheless, with its two spouts, two handles and three tubular legs, the jar in the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) collection constitutes a differently presented vessel than the other large duck-spouted vessel in this work.139 The conspicuous variations in the makeup

Fig. 3.9. The base of the miniature cauldron in Fig. 3.8.

of the two vessels is underscored by the two slightly twisting ribs that circumscribe the straight walls of the body, as well as by the short cylindrical legs with small disc feet and discs serving as the connecting element to the body of the LACMA jar. Directly above (presumably) all three legs on this jar is a ridged motif resembling a pair of wild caprid horns. While the ring handle on the jar in the private collection discussed above are plain, the handles of the LACMA jar are lightly embossed with a herring-bone pattern. Attention must also be called to the ostensible duck protomes: the curve of the wing is shown in the jar from the private collection but it is missing in the specimen belonging to the LACMA. Finally, the walls of the LACMA jar appear to be more thickly cast. The two spouts of the LACMA jar allude to a specialised function, one revolving around the ritual or ceremonial use of beverages or other liquids.

Fig. 3.7. Bronze jar with two opposing bird spouts, two ring handles and three squat legs (diameter of the mouth 10.5 cm, full width 16.5 cm and height 13 cm). The Nasli M. Heeramaneck Collection of Ancient Near Eastern and Central Asian Art, gift of the Ahmanson Foundation. Los Angeles County Museum of Art collection (M.76.97.676). Photograph: Los Angeles County Museum of Art (public domain). See: https://collections.lacma.org/node/226387.

In the LACMA catalogue, their jar is attributed to western Inner Mongolia (Southern Mongolia) and dated to the Warring States period (481–221 BCE). The dating settled upon by LACMA seems well indicated, even if a slightly earlier period should also be entertained. However, this jar is not part of a definable group of such types of vessels in the Northern Zone, calling into question attribution to Inner Mongolia. As discussed above, it is in Tibet where miniature examples of bird-spouted jars occur (Figs. 3.4–3.6), strongly suggesting that the LACMA jar is a prototype or cognate of the Tibetan miniature vessels. There are many cognate classes of copper-alloy articles in the Northern Zone and on the Tibetan Plateau (see Figs. 6.10–6.28). These groups of metallic artefacts share remarkable affinities in form and design, but they belong to discrete bodies of material culture indicative of different territories. In the case of the LACMA jar, the elaborate appurtenances (double handles and double spouts) and motifs (twisting ridges, horn-like motif, herringbone pattern on the handles), as well as the presence

Fig. 3.8. A typical Tibetan copper (or copper-alloy) miniature cauldron. This larger example of the genre measures 6.1 cm in diameter (including the ring handles) and is 3 cm in height. Private collection. 139 The bibliographic entry for the double-spouted jar given in the LACMA catalogue is a book of collected articles by Moorey et al. 1981. However, no reference to this object is found in that work.

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Tibetan Silver, Gold and Bronze Objects and the Aesthetics of Animals in the Era before Empire

Fig. 3.10. Two thin-walled copper-alloy bowls excavated from tomb M1, Gur-gyam, Sgar, Far Western Tibet. Tomb dated to ca. 220–350 CE. Drawing by Tenzin Dhargyal, after Institute of Archaeology, CASS and Cultural Relics Conservation Institute of Tibet Autonomous Region 2014, pp. 572, 573, 590.

of legs, seem to support a Northern Zone provenance. The addition of legs on copper and copper-alloy footed vessels (particularly cauldrons) are a defining trait of North Inner Asia (see Fig. 3.11), encouraging attribution of the LACMA jar to the Northern Zone (western Inner Mongolia being one possibility). On the other hand, attribution of the single spouted large jar in the private collection to the Tibetan Plateau is given credence by the miniature variants. Closely related to the LACMA jar, it might be best viewed as a cognate vessel. While we cannot discard the possibility that the single spouted jar was also made in the Northern Zone, the manner in which it parallels the form and style of the two miniature jars may suggest fabrication on the Tibetan Plateau. Until such larger vessels are found in secure archaeological contexts, their geographic origins must remain an open question.

and zangs-mkhar) is unclear. The group appears to be highly diverse chronologically, spanning no later than the Protohistoric period to Vestigial period. However, these objects are difficult to date because of their relatively uniform shapes and lack of decorative motifs. The walls of the two copper-alloy vessels from Gurgyam illustrated in Fig. 3.10 are only 1–2 mm thick. The specimen on the left has a mouth 35.4 cm in diameter, a base 26.4 cm in diameter and a height of 15 cm. The mouth of the specimen on the right is 25 cm in diameter, its base 12 cm in diameter and its height 13.6 cm.141 These two bowls vary in shape, with the one on the left having angled walls in profile as well as two tiny flanges on the rim. The walls of the bowl on the right have a rounder profile. However, both bowls have an outward-projecting ridge along the midsections of the vessels. The Gur-gyam bowls and actual and miniature Tibetan cauldrons all possess a fairly shallow depth, flared rim, crenated midsection and

As we shall see, the origins of substantial elements of the group of bird-spouted jars being considered can be traced to Iran, ca. eighth century BCE (see Fig. 3.12), furnishing a starting point for the dissemination of bird-spouted jars in both South and North Inner Asia. These vessels confirm that a northern arc of transmission was indeed in operation, one that spanned Tibet and the Northern Zone (milestones along this pathway of transmission are discussed in detail in chapter five). The miniature Tibetan cauldron pictured in Figs. 3.8 and 3.9 has all of the traits of a major subset of this large group of thokcha.140 These include the flared rim, partially rolled lip, two small ring handles, flattened hemispherical base, and crenated midsection. Like the bird-spouted vessels examined above, these objects were cast in two-piece moulds. The age of the miniature cauldron pictured in Figs. 3.8 and 3.9 (actual cauldrons are known as zangs

Fig. 3.11. Copper spheroidal cauldron encircled with ribbing and four small ring handles (two horizontal and two vertical). Xinyuan, Ili, Xinjiang. Drawing by Rebecca C. Bellezza, derived from Mei 2002, after Wang and Qi.

140 For numerous examples of these miniature cauldrons, see John 2006, p. 171; Lin 2003, pp. 150, 151; Weihreter 2002a, p. 91; Bellezza 1998, p. 53 (Fig. 10); March 2016 Flight of the Khyung, Fig. 40. This class of objects varies considerably in the forms of the vessels. Two actual copper-alloy cauldrons of the same form and of significant age, attributed to Mao county and another Qiang cultural region, on the south-eastern fringe of the Tibetan Plateau, are on display in the Rnga-ba Provincial Museum, Bar-khams, Sichuan province. No information on their age and the circumstances surrounding their discovery are given in the display.

For the dating and other information on the burials of Gur-gyam, see Bellezza 2020b, pp. 198–204. For another copper-alloy bowl, but without the crenation discovered in tomb M1 at Chu-’thag, Gu-ge, see Institute of Archaeology, CASS and Cultural Relics Conservation Institute of Tibet Autonomous Region 2014, p. 590. See also the hemispherical copperalloy bowl from tomb M2 at Chu-’thag in Institute of Archaeology, CASS and Cultural Relics Conservation Institute of Tibet Autonomous Region 2015, p. 46.

141

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Tibetan copper-alloy jars of the Late Prehistoric era flattened base. In terms of form, the bowls discovered in the burial at Gur-gyam are either the precursors of the Tibetan cauldrons or homologous vessels existing alongside early examples of these genres. The copper cauldron identified as a Saka type in Fig. 3.11 was discovered 20 km north-east of Xinyuan and is tentatively dated to the fourth or third century BCE (Debaine-Francfort 1990, p. 84 (Fig. 2); Mei 2003, p. 55 (no. 7)). According to the typology of cauldrons from Xinjiang developed by Mei (2002), the example in Fig. 3.11 belongs to Type IV, primarily defined by its tripod legs. The diameter of its mouth is given as 44.5 cm (ibid., 2). This cauldron is composed of 98.6 per cent copper and trace metals (ibid., 3). Mei relates the Type IV cauldrons of Xinjiang to those of the Semirechiye region in Kazakhstan and Kirghizia, which are attributed to the Saka culture and dated ca. seventh to third centuries BCE (ibid., 2, citing Akishev and Kushayev and Bernshtam). While the Type IV cauldrons of Xinjiang undoubtedly resemble Saka-attributed cauldrons found in the Eastern Steppe, the bodies of the miniature cauldrons of Tibet came to share some of the same major features, such as the fairly shallow depth, ribbed midsection, everted lip and ring handles. However, Tibetan cauldrons never seem to have tripod legs, although miniature specimens rarely have a conical foot, like some cauldron types in North Inner Asia. As with many other copper-alloy, silver and gold objects surveyed in this study, Tibetan cauldrons, actual and miniature, appear to have absorbed aesthetic and technical knowledge from North Inner Asia in their conception and manufacture. Thus, the Xinyuan cauldron can be viewed as a transitional type, merging features of cauldrons of the Eastern Steppe with miniature versions from the Tibetan Plateau (it is not yet known whether full-sized cauldrons were produced in Tibet in the Late Prehistoric era).142

Fig. 3.12. A burnished ceramic jar with bird-headed spout and three rows of incised triangles on the shoulder. From the Ziwiye hoard, Iran, ca. eighth century BCE. Musée du Louvre, Department of Oriental Antiquities, Accession no. AO 26276. Bequest of Mrs. André Godard, 1976. Photograph: Musée du Louvre (open access for noncommercial use).

reflect the importance of Ziwiye as a hub for the meeting of various peoples in the Early Iron Age. There are bronze and ceramic pitchers attributed to Luristan and Anatolia assigned to the second half of the first millennium BCE, which have rounded bodies and true spouts (Goldman 1957: 257, 258, 260, 262). Among these are vessels with bird-headed spouts. Goldman identifies the birds represented as the duck and pelican. The bronze animal-spouted pitchers of Luristan exhibit markedly different forms than the ceramic jar in the Louvre collection. They typically have globular bodies set on a disc foot, and a highly elongated spout terminating in the bill of an aquatic bird or the head of a lion.

A bird-spouted ceramic jar from Iran

On their own merits, the art and construction of the two large bird-spouted bronze jars constitute evidence for assignment of this vessel to the Iron Age. This is supported by comparison with the ceramic pitcher from the Ziwiye hoard. There is little question that the large, ostensibly Tibetan copper alloy jar (Figs. 3.1–3.4) has Iron Age origins. It appears to be a fine example of bronze metallurgy on the Tibetan Plateau in that period. As noted above, the two miniature versions are more likely to exemplify a proliferation of bird-spouted jars that occurred subsequently.

The reddish tan ceramic jar in Fig. 3.12 features the head of a duck with an elongated bill and round eyes. The jar is characterised by a flat base, ovoid body, vertical loop handle, long, slightly flaring neck, and everted rim.143 This vessel is from the Ziwiye hoard, a cache of gold, silver, bronze and ivory objects discovered on the south shore of Lake Urmia, Kurdistan Province, Iran, in 1947. The horde was dispersed around the world in various collections and there are questions concerning the provenance of certain objects attributed to the site. The Ziwiye horde, dating to the Iron III period, contained objects combining Assyrian and Scythian elements, such as the crouching deer (Loehr 1955: 63). There are also objects in preAchaemenid and native styles. These various influences

The existence of bird-spouted jars in Iran in the first millennium BCE, especially the specimen from the Ziwiye hoard examined above, demonstrates that Tibetan copper-alloy counterparts did not spring up in an artistic or cultural vacuum. The Tibetan and Ziwiye vessels share a remarkable suite of parallel traits, including the bird-headed spout, loop handle, wide mouth and bulbous body. Moreover, the crenated shoulder grafted onto the large specimen possibly from Tibet is a signature trait of

142 For another cauldron with a body and ring handles below the rim found in Mongolia that is comparable to the shape of Tibetan cauldron (but with a conical foot), see Enkhtuvshin and Sanjmyatav 2007, p. 92 (Fig. 24). 143 A drawing of a red ceramic pitcher from Ziwiye with a duck-headed spout but no handle visible is seen in Goldman 1957, p. 258 (Fig. 9). It is either the jar housed in the Louvre or very close in form to it.

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Tibetan Silver, Gold and Bronze Objects and the Aesthetics of Animals in the Era before Empire pre-Achaemenid and Achaemenid drinking vessels. Like affinities between the silver bowls in the Pine collection and Iranian silver vessels, these common traits intimate long-distance cultural and artistic bonds between birdspouted jars. As with the silver bowls and gold finial in the Pine collection, these bonds are unlikely to betoken the simple transfer of a vessel type from Iran to the Tibetan Plateau. Rather, a chain of cultural and technological agents can be implicated in the dissemination of the iconic form eastward. The large double-handled variant attributed to western Inner Mongolia marks the outstretch of the form to the Northern Zone. As with many other copper-alloy objects, it may have been directly from this territory that bird-spouted vessels reached Tibet. The striking commonalities in the bird-spouted vessels suggests that the web of interrelationships undergirding them may have been less convoluted than for the two silver bowls or gold finial examined in the first two chapters of this book. While the addition of the crenation in the two larger examples hints at the more direct injection of western cultural features, the creation of the Tibetan silver and copper-alloy vessels and gold finial appears to have been inspired through the same medium of transmission: mobile pastoralists of North Inner Asia. In the first millennium BCE, the art of nomadic equestrian peoples penetrated Iran, Tibet and intervening regions. In the next chapter, we examine the cultural fallout from this northern nexus more closely, through other classes of Tibetan copper-alloy objects.

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4 Tibetan copper-alloy trapezoidal plaques of the Late Prehistoric era: Tigers and geometric patterns in the interregional matrix A trapezoidal plaque attributed to Tibet in the Pine collection

to something else, such as an article of clothing, horse harness, ritual or military instrument, or some other kind of larger assembly.

The unusual plaque in Figs. 4.1 and 4.2 has a modified trapezoidal form: the bottom of the object is flat, the sides curve outward and the top is arched.144 This shape is repeated in a variety of other copper-alloy plaques of Tibetan origins belonging to the same period (see below). The tigers on the rear of this cast plaque have the same rounded shape and ornamental details as the front side, presenting a three-dimensional form. Except for minimal damage to the bottom edge, this plaque is in very fine condition. The object is composed of arsenical bronze with lead added.145 It appears that some of the corrosion covering the plaque was removed quite recently. The functions of the plaque are unknown. The three attachment loops on the reverse signify that it was affixed

The plaque in the Pine collection is the only one of its kind to come to my attention. Objects of this rarity are by their very nature difficult to place geographically. I attribute it to the Tibetan Plateau on indications received (in personal communications) from the late collector Shang Nyima. Nevertheless, the style of tigers and geometric patterning are such that a Tibetan provenance is not assured. Tigers and geometrics were widely apportioned in the Iron Age, blurring the Tibetan-ness of the object. For this reason, assignment of the Pine plaque to outside the Tibetan Plateau should be entertained. The only other place that such an object could have been produced is the Northern Zone. Yet, this seems unlikely, as other examples do not appear to have been reported in that territory, though its repertories of Iron Age copper-alloy objects are far more widely published. Furthermore, the same trapezoidal form is associated with other Tibetan copper-alloy objects of the Iron Age (see below).

This plaque is also illustrated in the December 2010 Flight of the Khyung, Figs. 11, 12. 145 A spectrographic analysis of the chemical composition and metallographic examination of this object were carried out by CIRAM Science for Art Cultural Heritage (Antique Authentication Ref HK/ CBZ/19/251). Their final report was issued on 24 April 2019. The microstructure of the metal (including the presence of dendrites) is consistent with casting. The composition of the metal is as follows: 83.5% copper, 10.8% Arsenic, 5.7% lead, which is consistent with ancient alloys. Trace elements often (but not always) associated with copper smelting in antiquity (e.g. iron, nickel, antimony) are absent. No metals indicative of modern metallurgical technology were detected. Testing confirms that the metal of the plaque has not undergone heavy weathering or corrosion (corrosion along most intergranular boundaries and dendrites was not detected). However, some weathering around lead globules in the metal structure was detected in the testing regimen. Lead is more susceptible to corrosion than other metals in copper alloys. The limited corrosion and weathering of the plaque are consistent with an object deposited for a long time in a highly protected micro-environment subject to the arid climatic conditions of the Tibetan Plateau. However, due to the lack of more generalised intergranular corrosion of metal structures non-parallel with the surface and light weathering, the testing laboratory opines that the Pine plaque is probably of modern manufacture, and that its patina may have been artificially induced through acid etching. This conclusion, however, is patently incorrect. The parameters for determining how corrosion and weathering correlate with age used by CIRAM Science for Art Cultural Heritage, while pertinent to Europe and many other places in the world, are not suitable for the extremely high-elevation, arid environment of Tibet, biasing the judgement of the scientists issuing the laboratory report under review. Simply put, corrosion products may not penetrate as deeply into metals in such an environment when storage conditions are ideal, as evidently is the case with the Pine plaque. Copper-alloy objects that were worn and handled regularly over very long periods of time, like many thokcha, exhibit even less corrosion and weathering than the Pine plaque. Furthermore, no chemical traces of agents used to artificially treat the plaque were detected by the testing laboratory. Finally, the opinion tendered by CIRAM Science for Art Cultural Heritage concerning the Pine plaque highlights the need for research into how the aridity and high-ultraviolet-light conditions of the Tibetan Plateau might influence the development of corrosion on exposed metallic objects. On the structural and metallographic properties of corrosion products and patinas in ancient metals, see Scott 1991. 144

Like the two silver bowls in the Pine collection, the copper-alloy object in Figs. 4.1–4.3 is adorned with felines, but in this instance, they are tigers, not lions. The six surmounting tigers (stag) have gaping mouths and pointed skulls. A series of ridges and rows of raised dots bend around the entire body of the animals, mimicking stripes and perhaps spots or whorls as well. The legs of the tigers are flexed, simulating movement. Five of them have downward-pointing S-shaped tails. The exception is the third tiger from the left, which has an upwardpointing tail of the same shape. Modelling the tail in this manner permitted the opposing trios of tigers to be positioned without any appreciable gap between them. These tigers belong to the so-called Eurasian Animal Style, a heterogenous cluster of zoomorphic artistic traditions that disbursed on the continent in the Iron Age. The historical and cultural significance of the Eurasian Animal Style are examined in the last three chapters of this monograph. The plaque in the Pine collection sports a complex, symmetrically arrayed curvilinear pattern. This pattern, formed by unbroken ridges circling the face of the object, circumscribes two pairs of spiralling lines interconnecting with and enclosed by meandering lines that run parallel to each other. The outer set of raised sinuous lines is framed by twin rectilinear ridges that border the edge of the 59

Tibetan Silver, Gold and Bronze Objects and the Aesthetics of Animals in the Era before Empire

Fig. 4.1. A large bronze plaque of probable Tibetan origins, with a modified trapezoidal form and curvilinear patterns, crowned by six tigers (21.5 cm × 15.5 cm). Iron Age. Jeremy Pine collection, Hong Kong (former Shang Nyima collection, Lhasa and Kathmandu). Photograph by Mark French.

There was a suffusion of spirals, clusters of meandering lines and other intricate curvilinear geometric patterns in various media in Eurasia in the first millennium BCE. This transcultural proliferation was largely coextensive with the spread of Eurasian Animal Style art. The older and larger of the curvilinear petroglyphs in Fig. 4.4 bears considerable resemblance to the designs on the Pine plaque.147 Both of these materials exhibit three interconnected spirals circumscribed by longer, more gently curving outer lines. This design is repeated twice in the plaque, as mirror images of one another, while the petroglyph has a more symmetrically arrayed quatrefoil motif to the right of the spirals. Above these intricately carved geometric forms is a more crudely executed curvilinear subject that is less re-patinated and of more

Fig. 4.2. Reverse side of the plaque in Fig. 4.1. Note the row of three loops for attachment near the top of the object. Also note the undulating lip along the edges of the bottom half of the plaque. Each rise in the lip is perforated. Photograph by Mark French.

of four spirals (one of which has partly worn away; Bellezza 1998, p. 62 (Fig. 66, bottom right corner)). Many of the more than two dozen other thokcha in the same plate exhibit intaglio rectilinear and curvilinear motifs, constituting a distinctive genre of Tibetan copper-alloy amulets (most postdate the copper-alloy plaque in the Pine collection). This group of thokcha should not be confused with more recent so-called ‘Nestorian seals’ coming from Inner Mongolia (and adjoining regions), which they superficially resemble. The Nestorian seals, however, are thicker, less finely cast and with a more limited range of designs. They are often dated to the Mongol Yuan dynasty (thirteenth and fourteenth centuries CE). On these objects, see Asian Art 2016. 147 Complex curvilinear patterns of comparable age occur in the rock art of the Western Tibetan Plateau, particularly in Spiti. For examples of this Spitian rock art, see Bellezza 2017c, p. 69 (Fig. 14); August 2015 Flight of the Khyung, Figs. 74–76; September 2015 Flight of the Khyung, Figs. 10.2, 10.6, 10.12, 14.7, 14.53 etc. Rock art of the Iron Age consisting of spirals and so-called labyrinths is well distributed in North Inner Asia.

plaque. It is possible that the pattern is a stylised portrayal of the whorls on a tiger’s fur. I have seen variants of this design on smaller thokcha that may also simulate the stripes of a tiger. Spirals are found on other thokcha and in Tibetan rock art of comparable age to the Pine plaque.146 146 For example, see a circular fibula with an outer ring of 14 spirals (Tucci 1935: 107 (Fig. 1); 1973, Fig. 9). See also the mirror with four interconnected spirals in March 2015 Flight of the Khyung, Fig. 113, and a possible horse-harness fitting with twin sockets (Weihreter 2002a: 92 (Fig. 111). A small kidney-shaped thokcha of similar age to the plaque in the Pine collection has an analogous but simpler decorative pattern

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Tibetan copper-alloy trapezoidal plaques of the Late Prehistoric era

Fig. 4.3. A close-up of the tigers surmounting the plaque. Note that the three on the right face in that direction, while the trio on the left are oriented in the opposite direction. Photograph by Mark French.

Fig. 4.4. Rock art consisting of a two spiralling geometric subjects. The larger, more intricate and heavily re-patinated composition dates to the Late Bronze Age or Iron Age. It is located between Lehdo and Chumithang in lower Ladakh. Photograph courtesy of Quentin Devers.

recent production. The petroglyph and plaque attest to the broad distribution and application of spiralling geometric forms on the Tibetan Plateau in the Late Prehistoric era.

Fig. 4.5. Band patterns on Chinese bronze vessels recovered from tombs in Hou-ma and Liu-li-ko, ca. seventh to fifth century BCE (after Weber 1966b, pp. 298, 299, Fig. 28 f, i). The bands of reticulated motifs are two among many variations found on Chinese bronze vessels of the same period. Drawing by Aado Phuntsok Palden.

Interlinking spirals and other curvilinear geometric motifs on assorted objects and fixed surfaces spread across Central Eurasia in the Iron Age. Thus, assigning the bronze plaque in the Pine collection to the Iron Age through its art is grounded in cross-cultural comparison. In East Asia, geometric patterns on Chinese hu and p’an bronze vessels of the Eastern Zhou dynasty (770–255 BCE) bear some resemblance to the decorative regimen of our plaque (as seen in Fig. 4.5). As Psarras (1998–99: 20–24) notes, these Eastern Zhou motifs were common and widely distributed; she describes them as ‘interlocking cruciform patterns filled with squared spirals’ and ‘interwoven bands of squared spirals’.148 The forms and aesthetic tone of curvilinear motifs in Tibet and China varied significantly, emulating different cultural worlds. The mass of lines on the Tibetan bronze plaque inscribe more sinuous and less

repetitive patterns and are closer in form to spirals than are the Chinese motifs. Furthermore, unlike in Chinese variants, there is no hint of zoomorphism among the linear designs of the Pine plaque. Weber (1966a: 130–32) considers the impact of steppe peoples coming from the west via the Ordos on China, as well as cultural exchanges between them, influencing motifs found on Chinese bronze vessels of the Late Zhou period, particularly those discovered in Li-yü in Shaanxi.149 Like other parts For comparative purposes, see Weber 1966a, Figs. 17, 18; 1966b, Fig. 28; 1967, Figs. 30–34. See also drawings of earlier Western Zhou (ca. 1050–771 BCE) geometric designs on bronze vessels for comparison in Bagley 2006, p. 18. This tradition of geometric ornamentation in China had Bronze Age antecedents. The use of spirals is prevalent in Bronze Age art in many other regions of Eurasia.

149

148 On the evolution and narrative qualities of spiral-like motifs on Chinese bronze vessels from Eastern Zhou to Han times, see Juliano 2018, pp. 28–31.

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Tibetan Silver, Gold and Bronze Objects and the Aesthetics of Animals in the Era before Empire of Eurasia in the Iron Age, Tibet and China were caught up in cultural and technological trends of continental proportions, which can be measured in the transcultural convergence of artistic output.

The mirror (me-long) in Figs. 4.6, 4.7 was obtained in Tibet by Namgyal G. Ronge, a collector of thokcha (his collection is featured in John 2006), in the 1980s.151 It is one of a small group of such mirrors that have been published to date. The ground around the three major suites of geometric motifs is filled with engraved punctates. The very centre of the mirror is slightly raised above the surrounding surface, a trait found in other ancient mirrors of Inner Asia, not least of all in Tibet. This nipple is ringed by six concentric circles, each made up of three parallel outlines. The circumjacent band of the mirror is devoid of decorations save for a scant covering of engraved punctates. The next larger band is filled with engraved diamonds set end to end. It is surrounded by another band with only a hint of engraved punctates. The outermost band consists of a ring of interconnected volutes. There are 11 of these tightly folded volutes forming simple spirals. The rim of the mirror is prominently raised and bevelled along the outer edge. The outer edge of the rim is circumscribed by two cast lines or grooves. The handle is made of iron and is in remarkable condition for an object of this great age. Although it is cratered, there is very little rust or other signs of active degradative processes. Meteoric iron used in the manufacture of a select group of ancient ritual objects in Inner Asia (including Tibet) and in China is particularly resistant to corrosion and the buildup of iron oxide coatings. However, sans laboratory testing, little can be said about the composition of the mirror handle in the private collection. The four-sided handle is slightly thickened at the end. It is securely coupled to the body of the object by a funnel-shaped sleeve made of a

Simplified spirals in the form of volutes also embellish a small group Tibetan copper-alloy mirrors that are assignable to the Iron Age. The serpentine motifs on these mirrors are further evidence for the Tibetan appropriation of a system of geometric figuration widely distributed in Iron Age Eurasia. Clearly, there was wholesale aesthetic appeal involved in the spread of interlinking spirals and volutes, but appearance alone is not likely to fully account for their continent-wide dispersal. Nonetheless, it is unclear how much of the ideological and symbolic freight of serpentine motifs was transmitted between various Eurasian cultures, including to Tibet. The mirrors with engraved volutes and other curvilinear designs discussed below are part of a much larger group of early Tibetan copper-alloy plain and patterned mirrors (some with handles or fastening loops on the top or back). My examination of dozens of Tibetan specimens indicates that these mirrors evolved locally from Central Eurasian prototypes introduced to the Tibetan Plateau perhaps beginning in the Late Bronze Age.150 Of particular relevance are Scythic copper-alloy mirrors. Typological and historical study shows that Tibetan copper-alloy mirrors were produced without major interruption from the Iron Age until the contemporary period. They have been mainly employed in diverse ritual functions, but cosmetic uses for some ancient Tibetan examples cannot be discounted.

Fig. 4.6. A Tibetan copper-alloy mirror engraved with concentric circles (inner circle), diamonds (middle band) and volutes (outer band). The body of the mirror is 14.3 cm in diameter, the handle is 14.3 cm in length and the overall length of the object is 28 cm. Iron Age. Private collection, former collection of the late Namgyal G. Ronge. Photograph by Mark French. 150 On the cultural origins and early mirror types of Tibet, see Bellezza 2008, pp. 99, 100, 101 (Fig. 151); March 2016 Flight of the Khyung.

151 See also December 2014 Flight of the Khyung, Fig. 6; March 2015 Flight of the Khyung, Figs. 112, 113; Lu 2015, pp. 122–25.

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Tibetan copper-alloy trapezoidal plaques of the Late Prehistoric era surrounded by an engraved pattern of interconnected volutes, each of which winds out to create a second orbit of spirals. The middle band of the mirror exhibits a ring of eye-like interconnected ovals, and the outer band a line of interlinked triangles. Most of the face of the mirror is covered in engraved punctates. Although the handle is missing, the sleeve (of the same form as the other Ronge mirror) that joined it to the body of the mirror is still fully intact. Ronge (loc. cit.) dates this mirror to 800–300 BCE as well.153 This chronological placement squarely in the Iron Age appears to be correct. A Tibetan trapezoidal openwork plaque in a private collection

Fig. 4.7. Reverse side of the mirror in Fig. 4.6. Photograph by Mark French.

The trapezoidal openwork plaques examined in this work are part of a growing number of analogous objects documented. These trapezoidal plaques exhibit variations in size and in the number of rows and types of animals depicted. Despite just ten of these plaques coming to my attention, they constitute one of the largest groups of Tibetan copper-alloy objects with zoomorphic ornamentation attributable to the Iron Age known.

copper alloy, which is of the same form on both sides of the mirror. There are several parallel decorative ribs on this sleeve. The reverse side of the mirror is unornamented and very slightly concave. Ronge (1988: 410, Pl. 1), attributes the Tibetan mirror under review to 800–300 BCE, adding that it may date between the eighth and fifth centuries BCE. I concur with this chronological placement of the object in the Iron Age, but due to a lack of archaeological data I refrain from attempting to pinpoint its age more precisely. Earlier, I considered an expanded range of dates extending to the second century CE. Ronge (loc cit.) informs us that this mirror reportedly came from the western Gtsang-po. If this localisation is correct, either the Gtsang-stod or Groshod region is likely to be indicated. Another mirror of the same genre with volutes but smaller in diameter and missing its handle was in the possession of a dealer in Lhasa. It is reported to have come from North-west Tibet near the border with Xinjiang. This adds some credence to the geographic information furnished by Ronge. However, nothing seems to be known about the precise circumstances in which these purported Upper Tibetan objects were found. They may possibly have been deposited in wellsheltered burials or secreted in caves or rock formations for religious purposes. Another mirror of the same group was also owned by Ronge. Ronge reports ‘discovering’ this second mirror in 1981 (1988: 408 (Figs. 3, 4); 410, citing an earlier publication of 1982), but the particulars of the find are obscure. This mirror is made of true bronze and has a raised rim inlaid with gold.152 It is supposed to have come from Kong-po (loc. cit.) but its place of manufacture on the Tibetan Plateau, like other members of the group, is in question. As with the example in Figs. 4.6 and 4.7, it has a round nipple in the centre, which is

The trapezoidal plaque in Figs. 4.8 and 4.9 was photographed in China, the owner being a PRC national. He wishes to remain anonymous. The plaque is reported to have been excavated in Brag-sgo, perhaps during road construction, ca. 2015. Brag-sgo is an eastern Tibetan region in Sichuan province. The heavy corrosion on the surface of the object indicates that it was indeed in contact with the ground for a long period. The trapezoidal plaque in the PRC collection was expertly produced in a bivalve mould; only a minimal amount of flash adheres to the openwork. The stem at the bottom of the object was used either to embed the plaque in a substrate or fix it to a larger object or ensemble. The function of such trapezoidal openwork plaques has not A fourth mirror of the group was excavated from the Chu-gong site located on the north side of the Lhasa valley. On this mirror see also March 2015 Flight of the Khyung, Figs. 112, 113; Lu 2015, pp. 122–25. Unfortunately, this precious object was improperly cleaned and, as of 2015, its surface had not been properly stabilised. It was removed from public exhibition at the Tibet Museum in Lhasa. This specimen has a ring of interconnected volutes both in the centre and along the periphery. It is also supposed to have a pair of peacocks engraved in the central area. Like the other three specimens of this group under discussion, the Chu-gong mirror has a raised rim. The iron handle of this mirror is largely intact but heavily corroded. The sleeve joining it to the body of the mirror is of a less elaborate design than the two Ronge examples. Huo (2016: 92, 94) dates the figured copper-alloy (bronze?) mirror from Chu-gong to 2000 to 2500 years ago. Based on stylistic traits and an analysis of its chemical composition, Aldenderfer and Zhang (2004: 32, citing Huo, the IOA and Zhao) assign an earlier date of 800–500 BCE to this mirror. This latter date may be more accurate. Unfortunately, reliable chronometric data was not obtained from the excavation where the Chu-gong mirror was recovered. Huo (1997) correctly identifies this mirror as Tibetan and links it with a zone of diffusion extending to Xinjiang and Central Asia. On the other hand, Aldenderfer and Zhang (2004: 32) incorrectly state that this mirror was made in Central Asia. That the Chu-gong specimen seems to have been deposited in a tomb suggests that it featured in burial rites. Among a host of other Tibetan ritual articles, copper-alloy mirrors play a role in archaic funerary rites.

153

On this mirror, see also Ronge and Huttel 1990; Lu 2015, pp. 122–25; Heller 1998, p. 110; John 2006, p. 107; December 2014 (Fig. 5). Ronge (1988: 408 (Fig. 3) provides a breakdown of the elemental composition of this mirror: 73% copper (decimal figure for copper content is not given), 25.46% tin, 0.836% lead, 0.225% zinc, 9.93% iron and trace amounts of silver and other elements. Heller (1998: 110) tentatively places the two Ronge mirrors in the ca. 200 BCE to 200 CE time frame, but this periodisation appears to be too late.

152

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Tibetan Silver, Gold and Bronze Objects and the Aesthetics of Animals in the Era before Empire

Fig. 4.8. A Tibetan trapezoidal openwork plaque made of a copper alloy with a row of freestanding birds on top and rows (in descending order) of antelope, wild yaks, tigers and snakes. The plaque has a height of 20 cm (including the tang) and a maximum extant width of 19 cm. Iron Age. Private collection, PRC.

been determined. The curved sides of the plaque lend it a modified trapezoidal form. It is the shape of this object and the row of tigers that most conspicuously link it to the copper-alloy plaque of the Pine collection. These two plaques are also comparable in size. Despite their differing designs and decorative selections, it appears that they are closely aligned temporally, geographically and culturally.

aquatic species. The plaque is bounded on all four sides by a frame divided into two longitudinal sections, each of which is ornamented with a line of nubs. The uppermost row of animals within the frame consists of 11 wild ungulates that probably represent the Tibetan antelope (gtsod). They have a long, thick horn that curls over the back. The upward bend near the end of the horns is most in keeping with the anatomy of the Tibetan antelope. The lineaments of the wild ungulates depicted more distantly recall ibexes (skyin) or wild sheep. The second row from the top of animals on the plaque is comprised of seven wild yaks (’brong). These creatures share their wide, inwardcurving horns, prominent withers and bushy tail tuft with wild yak rock art in Tibet, particularly that of western regions. The yaks each have two flexed legs, suggesting that they were envisioned in movement. Below the wild yaks is a row of five felines. These striped felines have a

The animals gracing the trapezoidal openwork plaque in Figs. 4.8 and 4.9 and the other nine known examples belong to the Eurasian Animal Style, a highly varied and widely dispersed bundle of artistic traditions on the continent dating mostly to the Iron Age. The 12 birds surmounting the plaque are arrayed in two opposing lines, facing left and right, evoking the arrangement of the tigers on the copper-alloy plaque in the Pine collection. The identity of the birds is ambiguous: they may possibly represent 64

Tibetan copper-alloy trapezoidal plaques of the Late Prehistoric era The large size and shape of the Brag-sgo trapezoidal plaque is comparable to the dimensions of a fragmentary example featured in the December 2010 Flight of the Khyung. This second trapezoidal plaque was part of the late Shang Nyima collection. Yet, the selection and style of animals and discs varies considerably between the trapezoidal plaques in Fig. 4.8 and the December 2010 Flight of the Khyung. The exceptionally well-crafted Shang Nyima specimen has freestanding hares on top instead of birds. While its row of antelopes, wild yaks and tigers are close in form to the plaque in the PRC collection, the bottom row of zoomorphs is taken up by birds instead of snakes. These birds are well modelled and appear to represent either peacocks or aquatic species. This arrangement deviates from the traditional cosmological organisation of animals usually seen on the plaques. Moreover, in the example published in the December 2010 Flight of the Khyung the rows of antelopes and tigers face right, and the wild yaks and birds are oriented to the left. The trapezoidal openwork plaque in Fig. 4.8 boasts bird, wild ungulate, tiger and serpent subjects, all storied animals in the Tibetan cultural world. The multifarious roles of snakes, tigers, wild ungulates and birds preserved in Tibetan cultural records are so broad it seems likely that some of these traditions must be relevant to the trapezoidal plaques of this work.154 But which ones? I can only proffer suggestions. The highly regarded species of animals of the trapezoidal plaques hint at functions pertaining to magical activity, ritual dispensation and mythic symbolism. Generally speaking, special birds, wild ungulates, tigers and serpents have semi-divine or demonic personae in Tibet. Wild ungulates and birds are central to Tibetan archaic funerary traditions, serving as protectors of the dead and escorts leading the way to the afterlife. In addition to acting as soul receptacles for living individuals, wild ungulates and birds have myriad other functions in Tibetan myths and rituals.155 Probably most vitally, these animals act as instruments for the attraction of good-fortune capabilities (g.yang), but also as sacrificial offerings, raw materials for the manufacture of ritual instruments, and paragons of honourable action and comportment.

Fig. 4.9. The reverse side of the copper-alloy plaque in Fig. 4.8. Note the vertical veins of metal on the surface, flow marks that formed during the casting process.

gaping mouth, large eye, upright ear and long S-shaped tail curling high above the body. They are almost certainly tigers, an animal commonly occurring in the rock art and portable objects of Iron Age Inner Asia. The front leg of the tigers is straight, but the rear leg bends deeply under the belly (perhaps portraying the rearing up of the animal). The yawning jaws, S-shaped tail, and shape and positions of the ear and legs of these felines recall the tigers on the Pine bronze plaque. The antelopes, wild yaks and tigers all face to the left. The bottom row of creatures on the plaque is made up of four winding serpents (sbrul), their long heads pointing upward. There are rows of bosses below the snakes, above and below the antelopes, as well as below the wild yaks. Rows of identical bosses run parallel to the four outer borders of the plaque. Two rows of larger shield-like discs with concentric circles sandwich the line of tigers. The numbers of animals, bosses and discs in each row appears to be dictated as much by the constraints of the tapering walls of the plaques as by any numerological concerns. The vertical organisation of the rows of animals corresponds with a Tibetan cosmology known as srid-pa’i gsum (three spheres of existence). The birds belong to the upper sphere (steng), the wild ungulates to the intermediate sphere (bar), and the serpents to the lower sphere (’og ; Bellezza 2005: 335, 338, 339). Each of the three layers of the cosmos is typically associated with a class of elemental spirits, the lha, gnyan and klu, respectively. Although the organisation of animals on the copper-alloy plaques generally conforms to ancient Tibetan cosmological concepts of vertical space, this is insufficient to assert that these creatures symbolise specific classes of elemental deities.

The tiger is deeply integrated in the Tibetan cultural ground in manifold ways, and an entire tract could be written to expound upon this animal’s cultural prominence. However, beyond general observations regarding the sacred and martial aura of the tiger, correlating any of it convincingly to the conceptions and intentions of the makers and users of the trapezoidal plaques is challenging, if not impossible. Postulating linkages between literary and ethnographic sources and actual objects results in hypothetical ascriptions, potential ties between a thing 154 I have written at length about the religious functions of animals in Tibet (2005; 2008; 2013; 2020b). 155 A few of these are described in relation to ancient objects in Heller 2018.

65

Tibetan Silver, Gold and Bronze Objects and the Aesthetics of Animals in the Era before Empire and a written account.156 Due to the methodological complexities and uncertainties involved in devising a correlative framework tying archaeological objects to texts and lore, I will sketch just a few areas derived from my published work, where the tiger of the written tradition (histories, biographies, hagiographies, myths, rituals etc.) and oral tradition (myths, legends, fables, riddles, songs, poems, clan genealogies etc.) may possibly overlap functionally and semantically with the tigers of the copperalloy plaques under study.157 However, no prescriptions regarding prospective correlations are offered.

of the spike-like stem of the plaques is unknown, it cannot be determined whether it should be characterised as a tang, shank or haft. The stand-on-its-own display function implied by the stem suggests that such objects were used in ritualistic or ceremonial performances and viewed widely. Other Tibetan trapezoidal openwork plaques and their cultural significance Close in form and subject matter to the example reportedly found in Brag-sgo (Figs. 4.8, 4.9) is a smaller example in the collection of Moke Mokotoff, illustrated in Figs. 4.10 and 4.11.159 The birds surmounting these two plaques are of the same kind. The Mokotoff example has five such birds, all of which face to the left (a sixth bird is missing). The upper row of animals in this plaque are of the same species as in the Brag-sgo specimen, but the second row is composed of three right-facing stags instead of wild yaks. These animals are easily recognised by their branching antlers. The front legs of the three stags are deeply folded, as if they are running. The bottom row is made up of just two snakes that curl in a similar manner to those on the Brag-sgo plaque. Whereas the Brag-sgo specimen has two lines of parallel nubs along the four sides of the frame, the Mokotoff example has just one line of nubs. The Mokotoff plaque has lines

The personal names of many ancient deities and people in Tibet, as well as place names, include the word ‘tiger’ (stag), indicating the well-anchored position of this animal in the Tibetan cultural edifice. Natural rock formations and valleys are often likened to the form and qualities of tigers. Tigers, like birds, wild ungulates and many other animals indigenous to Tibet, as well as trees, lakes and mountains etc., traditionally served as receptacles for the soul (blagnas) of individuals. Corollaries of this archaic tradition of tiger soul-vessels are present in pre-Buddhist sages and deities keeping tigers as pets and manifesting as tigers to conduct their work, as well as in the tiger remedial spirits of contemporary spirit-mediums. At least since the Imperial period, but probably much earlier, the tiger has been synonymous with the Tibetan warrior, tiger skin being an insignia and costume (in robes, skirts, headgear, ribbons, quivers etc.) that is linked to bravery and accomplishment.158 The tiger remains a common metaphor for heroic qualities in Tibetan literature and poetry. Tigerskin objects and dress are also associated with wrathful deities, and both spirits and adepts of yore are supposed to have ridden on tigers. Tiger-skin articles are used as ritual implements and offerings. Like the lion, the tiger is a clan and warrior spirit (dgra-lha), functioning to protect and ensure the success of kinfolk, soldiers, travellers, traders and others. Furthermore, funerary spirits with tigrine qualities are known in Tibetan religions. Specific Tibetan cultural traditions notwithstanding, the selection of potent creatures on the trapezoidal plaques intimates social considerations revolving around power, rank and prestige. The ten openwork plaques mentioned in this work had or still have a short cylindrical stem extending out from the middle of the base, indicating that they were not worn as personal decorative objects but rather displayed by erecting them vertically. As the purpose

Fig. 4.10. Tibetan copper-alloy trapezoidal openwork plaque topped by a row of birds (possibly waterfowl or pheasants). There are three rows of animals shown in profile arrayed within the frame of the object. They are (from top to bottom) antelope (or less plausibly ibex, five in number), stags (three) and snakes (two). The object is 9.4 cm in height (including the stem) and has a maximum extant width of 8.9 cm. Iron Age. Moke Mokotoff collection, New York.

For discussions on the interpretation of the cultural significance and import of archaeological materials (mostly rock art) using Tibetan textual and ethnographic materials, see Bellezza 2020b; July 2015, and April, June (‘The Ancient Burials of Mustang’) and September 2017 Flight of the Khyung. 157 Some of this cultural material on tigers is aggregated in Bellezza 2014c, pp. 263–65; August 2012 Flight of the Khyung. 158 One of the oldest historical references to Tibetan sorcerers and warriors wearing bird-shaped hats and tiger-skin girdles is found in the T’ang Annals, in a description of the Sino-Tibetan peace treaty of 822 CE. See Bushell 1880, p. 521. There are many accounts of tiger-skin costumes set in the prehistoric epoch in Yungdrung Bon literature (Bellezza 2001; 2005; 2008). On tiger-skin insignia, uniforms and martial symbolism, see also Bellezza 2020b, chh. 5, 6. 156

On this object, see also February 2016 Flight of the Khyung, Figs. 5, 6. I have observed a more damaged example of the same type and size of plaque as the Mokotoff specimen in another private collection. This latter specimen is the fourth example noted so far.

159

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Tibetan copper-alloy trapezoidal plaques of the Late Prehistoric era

Fig. 4.12. Tibetan copper-alloy trapezoidal openwork plaque. Five circular owl-like heads (a sixth head is missing from the right corner) are perched above the frame of the object. The three rows of animals within the frame all face towards the left. From top to bottom, they include probable antelopes (seven in number), tigers (three) and snakes (three). This object is 14.1 cm in height (including the stem) and has a maximum extant width of 12.4 cm. Iron Age. Private collection.

Fig. 4.11. The reverse side of the trapezoidal plaque in Fig. 4.10. Note the reticular appearance of the casting.

of bosses just inside the four sides of the frame as well as an additional row of bosses between the antelopes and stags and a row of larger shield-like discs between the stags and serpents. Bosses and discs are an iconographic feature of this genre of openwork plaques. The Brag-sgo and Mokotoff plaques have analogous stems too. In terms of manufacture, function, cultural value and age, the trapezoidal openwork plaque in Figs. 4.12 and 4.13 is closely comparable to the other two pictured above.160 It is intermediate in size between the Brag-sgo and Mokotoff specimens. With their round eyes and pointed beaks, the bird heads most resemble owls. The forms of the antelopes, tigers and snakes are already familiar to us. The alignment of the rows of animals on this whitish cast copper-alloy object corresponds with the arrangement of creatures in the vertically oriented two-tiered or three-tiered cosmologies of ancient Tibet. In this vertical arrangement of animals, the horns of the antelope touch the celestial realm of divine spirits (lha), while felines embody terrestrial spirits (e.g. btsan and gnyan) and the world of subterranean spirits (klu) manifests as serpents. The four sides of the frame of the plaque are ornamented with a single line of nubs. The stem is short and cylindrical, a standard feature in this type of object. Also like the Brag-sgo and Mokotoff specimens, the frame is paralleled inside by lines of bosses. There is also a row of bosses between the antelopes and tigers and a row of larger shield-like discs between the tigers and serpents. All ten of the trapezoidal openwork plaques of the group employ both bosses and larger discs in analogous spatial 160

Fig. 4.13. The reverse side of the object in Fig. 4.12. A sparse mineral encrustation is visible on the surface of the plaque.

relationships. The placement of these discoidal motifs among the zoomorphic elements of the plaques is quite evidently a regular feature. However, little can be said concerning the literal and symbolic associations of what might be represented by these wheels, orbs, shields or circular objects of some other kind.

See also February 2016 Flight of the Khyung, Figs. 3, 4.

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Tibetan Silver, Gold and Bronze Objects and the Aesthetics of Animals in the Era before Empire

Fig. 4.14. A Tibetan trapezoidal openwork copper-alloy plaque (11 cm × 9.5 cm), featuring an upper row of six antelopes and a lower row with four snakes, as well as an animal predation scene in the middle section, consisting of two tigers attacking what appears to be an onager from the front and the rear. This object, with its fine bronzy patina, could only have been conserved in a highly sheltered environment for most of its existence. Iron Age. David Salmon collection, UK. Photograph courtesy of Alex Salmon.

The trapezoidal openwork plaque belonging to the David Salmon collection in Figs. 4.14 and 4.15, the sixth noted in this work thus far, is the most divergent example in the entire group. The sophisticated modelling and manufacture of this specimen is the product of a mature metalworking tradition, presupposing the existence of highly developed metallurgical capabilities on the portion of the Tibetan Plateau on which it was made. This is borne out by the fluent modelling of the various figures, the intricate decorative details and the adept openwork casting, chasing and careful finishing of the object. As with other plaques from the same group of ten known pieces, the example from the Salmon collection appears to have had a stem, but it has broken off, leaving just the base in place. This base is adorned with an animal (serpent?) head. Unlike some other plaques of the group, the one in the Salmon collection does not have an outer frame. Rather, four lines of interconnected bosses form the borders, giving the object a more delicate appearance than those with plate borders. The upper row of antelopes and bottom row of snakes in the Salmon plaque are common features of the group, but they are larger and carry more anatomical detail in this example. The probable antelopes are identifiable by

Fig. 4.15. The reverse side of the object in Fig. 4.14. The precision casting of this bronze object is readily seen from this perspective. Photograph by Alex Salmon.

their furrowed horns. The horns curl back and downward from the base but then turn straight up near the tips. Ibex horns in mature males generally point out and downward. 68

Tibetan copper-alloy trapezoidal plaques of the Late Prehistoric era Moreover, in Eurasian Animal Style art of North Inner Asia, ibex horns usually form arcs or complete circles and point downward or towards the head. The horns of the Tibetan male antelope generally stick straight up, but the lower portion in larger animals often curves back slightly, recalling the wild ungulates in the upper row of the openwork plaques. The horns portrayed on these objects are somewhat exaggerated, but in a manner that parallels the geometry of the Tibetan antelope. A reason for the peculiar depiction of the horns may simply be the space limitations imposed by the object. Each of the six antelopes has an open mouth, round eye, long neck and long legs (again, these latter two traits are more congruent with the anatomy of the Tibetan antelope than that of the ibex). The presence of what appears to be antelopes helps geographically place the group of trapezoidal openwork plaques. This species is restricted to Upper Tibet, upper Ladakh and the south-western part of the so-called Qinghai plateau (in North-east Tibet). On the other hand, the range of the ibex does not extend into Upper Tibet, except perhaps at the very border with Ladakh and Spiti.

is beyond our capacity to ascertain. Rather than merely a fact of natural history, the primary significance of the depiction may have been social and political. The blatant aggression portrayed can be connected to ancient martial traditions in Tibet. This savagery may communicate ideological, ritualistic or symbolic themes pertaining to ancient warriors and warfare, such as bravery, prowess, conquest and leadership (Bellezza 2020b, ch. 9). Apart from the dramatic conveyance of ideas and activities, the predator attack scene furnishes some indication of the age of the Salmon plaque. Felines, wolves, griffins and other carnivores attacking wild ungulates in the Eurasian Animal Style are well represented in bronze and gold plaques, buckles and pectoral ornaments of North Inner Asia (styles of zoomorphic depiction in this territory tend to be more lithe and sinuous than in Tibet and include animals in fantastic poses never seen on the Plateau). As with these analogous objects in North Inner Asia, the Salmon plaque is best dated to the Iron Age. Striped carnivores preying upon wild ungulates are also a common feature of rock art in Inner Asia (see below, pp. 73–77).161

The four S-shaped serpents in the bottom row of the Salmon thokcha are beaded, which is representative of scales and the kinds of patterns they produce. The two middle serpents are confronted, and the outer two figures are oriented in the same direction as the adjacent ones. These snakes are shown head facing upward, with one large, circular eye in the middle. The triangular heads are viper-like. Between the row of snakes and the predator scene is a line of four large shield-like discs. The outer portion of these discs is circumscribed by five concentric circles that surround the hemispherical middle portion. There is also a row of bosses interspersed between the felines and the upper row of antelopes. Above these bosses are six extensions terminating in small circles with inset centres.

One of the more striking thematic parallels in North Inner Asian openwork bronze belt plaques and the art of the Tibetan Plateau are tigers attacking wild equids. Nevertheless, the style of tigers and wild equids on the northern belt plaques have little in common with the Salmon trapezoidal plaque from Tibet. When seen against the connate art of the Northern Zone and Eastern Steppe, the Tibetan Plateau was a cultural outlier. The belt plaque in Fig. 4.16 is one of many such objects depicting a predator attack scene originating in the Northern Zone.162

The middle section of the Salmon collection plaque is dominated by a carnivore attack scene. Here, two longtailed felines are depicted attacking what appears to be an onager (rkyang). The marauding felines are shown coming in for the final kill. These striped felines are almost certainly tigers (although the leopard or snow leopard cannot be ruled out entirely). They have nubs between the stripes, just like the tigers on the plaque in the Pine collection examined above. Similarly, the tigers on these two plaques have open jaws with bared fangs. There are also rows of nubs sandwiched between the bending lines on the pairs of tiger legs of the Salmon plaque. The long, curved tails of these carnivores terminate in a spiral set on the two vertical sides of the object, supplanting two of the unmarked bosses along the outer edge. The feet of the tigers sport claws. The prey is identified as the wild ass by its erect ear, large, rounded neck, blunted head, and body shape. The stylised bushy tail of the doomed animal sticks straight up in terror. Mouth agape, its head points downward in a defensive stance.

Fig. 4.16. Bronze belt plaque in the form of a tiger devouring a limp, doubled-over kulan. Northern Zone. Attributed to the third century BCE. Drawing by Rebecca C. Bellezza, after Bunker 2002, p. 125 (Fig. 97). Commenting on this subject, I have written, ‘We are inclined to read these attack compositions as evidence for a martial exuberance or militarism, as part of a social contagion that spread extensively in the Iron Age’ (Bellezza and Bruneau 2013: 53). On the zoomorphic aspects of martialism in ancient Tibet and its relationship to North Inner Asia, see Bellezza 2020b. 162 Those of a similar style to Fig. 4.16 have been excavated in southcentral Inner Mongolia and southern Ningxia (Bunker 2002: 125). A cognate buckle is illustrated in Salmony 1933, Pl. XXIV.1. See also twin belt buckles attributed to Southern Siberia, ca. third century BCE, portraying a symmetrically arrayed pair of tigers that seize two kulans (Bunker 2002: 102 (Fig. 70)). See also Bunker 1992; Enkhtuvshin and Sanjmyatav 2007, pp. 109 (Fig. 17), 148 (Fig. 25). 161

We can assume that the carnivore attack scene on the bronze in the Salmon collection carried mythic, narrative and/or symbolic overtones, the precise nature of which 69

Tibetan Silver, Gold and Bronze Objects and the Aesthetics of Animals in the Era before Empire

Fig. 4.17. Trapezoidal openwork plaque exhibiting features common to all ten plaques of the same group noted in this work. This object measures 15 cm (including the stem) in length and has a maximum width of 14 cm. Iron Age. Drawing by Rebecca C. Bellezza, after an object in the online catalogue of J. J. Lally & Co. New York: www.jjlally.com/exhibitions/ancientchinese-bronzes/an-archaic-bronze-openwork-ornamental-plaque/.

Although it is very differently styled than the predation scene in the Salmon bronze, both feature tigers in the midst of slaughtering a wild ass (in the Northern Zone, the kulan replaces the onager). The spread of hunting portrayals starring tigers and wild asses in the Iron Age emphasises artistic and cultural cross-currents in South and North Inner Asia, exchanges that are very much strengthened by evidence consisting of cognate copper-alloy plaques and pectoral ornaments of Tibet and the Northern Zone examined in chapter six.163

undisclosed buyer. It is the seventh specimen to be discussed in this work. In the J. J. Lally & Co. catalogue, this ‘archaic bronze openwork ornamental plaque’ is pictured under the heading ‘Ancient Chinese Bronzes’ and is misattributed to the Eastern Zhou Dynasty (770–256 BCE). While the time frame proffered seems accurate, this plaque belongs to a Tibetan culture of the Late Prehistoric era. The verdigrisy patina and mineral encrustations on this object indicate that it was once buried before subsequently undergoing cleaning. It has an outer border of bosses and no row of surmounting birds, features it has in common with the Salmon specimen (Fig. 4.14). The four serpents with beaded bodies are also very similar to those on the Salmon plaque. With their squared jaws, downward-pointing curling tails, and bodies embellished with stripes and dots, the three tigers on the plaque purveyed by J. J. Lally & Co. are closest in form and ornamentation to the pair of tigers on the Salmon specimen. Moreover, the base of the stem appears to be emblazoned with a serpent-like head, as is seen on the Salmon plaque.

The trapezoidal plaque illustrated in Fig. 4.17 was offered for sale by J. J. Lally & Co. in 2011 and disposed of to an 163 Belt plaques featuring carnivores attacking herbivores, a common scene in the Eurasian steppes and Northern Zone, were fabricated by different groups, each with its own preferred animal forms influenced by local ecological conditions and mythological imperatives (Bunker 1992: 99). For a study of many bronze belt plaques and other articles with animal combat scenes discovered in the Ordos and other parts of the Northern Zone, dated to the fourth to first century BCE, see ibid. Although animal combat portrayals of steppe origin are unusual in Chinese art, the Chinese developed idiosyncratic forms derived from the nomadic world in the Iron Age (Jacobson-Tepfer 1988: 213–18). Similarly, the Tibetans devised their own animal combat art in the same period.

The upper row of 11 probable antelopes on the plaque in Fig. 4.17 only deviates from the others we have considered 70

Tibetan copper-alloy trapezoidal plaques of the Late Prehistoric era by facing right rather than left. In their catalogue, J. J. Lally & Co. opine that instead of antelopes these wild ungulates may possibly be wild sheep. While this identification must be considered, wild sheep rock art of the Western Tibetan Plateau and Tibetan miniature copper-alloy figurines in the form of wild sheep usually have horns that curl around the sides of the head of the animals. As in the Brag-sgo plaque, the second row of animals in the specimen sold by J. J. Lally & Co. is comprised of wild yaks that also face right rather than left. The U-shaped horns, double-curved back, barbed, downward-pointed tail, prominent belly fringe and two angular legs of these animals are all standard elements of wild yak rock art in Upper Tibet.164 Like the antelope, the presence of wild yaks, particularly in the style in which they are rendered in these objects, points to the Tibetan Plateau. The row of five large shield-like discs between the lines of wild yaks and tigers is unique among the group of openwork trapezoidal plaques for its central nipple and the four small concentric circles decorating each of them. The lower row of five shield-like discs decorated with concentric circles reflects those observed on many other plaques of the group.

animals on top and the broad plate frame of some plaques. Like the Salmon specimen and the one purveyed by J. J. Lally & Co., the four borders of this object are made up of interconnected bosses. What appears to be a serpent head is situated where the stem connected to the body of the object once existed, a feature of the Salmon and J. J. Lally & Co. plaques too. The stem in these three examples may have been more delicately constructed than others in the group. The rows of zoomorphs in the plaque published by Weihreter are in keeping with the openwork specimens pictured in this chapter (save for the Salmon plaque and its unique animal attack scene). The top row of figures in the plaque in Weihreter (1988) is comprised of 12 leftfacing antelopes. These animals were cast smaller than in other plaques so that they could be accommodated within its breadth (in contrast, the larger Brag-sgo specimen only has 11 antelopes). The second row from the top has seven right-facing stags, followed in descending order by a row with five left-facing yaks, a row with four rightfacing tigers and finally three snakes closest in form to the Salmon plaque and the plaque acquired by J. J. Lally & Co. A row of stags also adorns the specimen in the Mokotoff collection and in the analogous plaque of another private collection noted above. There are three rows of larger bosses in the plaque published by Weihreter (above the snakes, tigers and wild yaks respectively). These bosses have a recessed middle, a unique feature among the group of plaques. The metal surface below these sunken inner circles is generally thin, and discontinuities during pouring led to the creation of rough-edged apertures in the middle of some bosses. Weihreter (loc. cit.) attributes the plaque to Inner Mongolia or Tibet and dates it to the Warring States period. His assignment of age is in conformance with that of Bunker in her forthcoming catalogue and falls within the broader chronological attribution of such plaques offered in this work. While the specimen published by Weihreter belongs to the Tibetan Plateau, it does share certain artistic traits with bronzes of the Northern Zone (see discussion on tigers below, pp. 73–77).

An eighth trapezoidal-shaped openwork plaque belonging to the same group is featured in a forthcoming catalogue of artefacts written by Emma Bunker (forthcoming, no. 79).165 This larger, heavily corroded specimen (14.5 × 15 cm) is part of a private European collection, and is assigned by Bunker to the third century BCE. It has been ascertained that it is composed of arsenical bronze, like the Pine plaque (Figs. 4.1–4.3) and the Moutuo specimen discussed below. The plaque studied by Bunker has no freestanding animals on top. There are eight antelopes facing left in the uppermost row. In the second row four wild yaks are oriented to the right, three tigers face right in the third row and three S-shaped snakes with heads facing upward comprise the lowermost row. Like tigers on the Moutuo plaque and the specimen acquired by J. J. Lally & Co., those on the plaque being published by Bunker have tails that hang down before curling up near the tip. There is a single row of bosses below the antelopes, as well as two rows of discs with a concentric-circle pattern sandwiching the line of tigers on the plaque studied by Bunker. The four plate borders of this plaque have two parallel lines of nubs running along them. The stem is still intact. Flash residue within the openwork indicates that this object was cast in a bivalve mould. It might be inferred that certain other plaques of the same group as the one in the forthcoming Bunker catalogue are also composed of arsenical copper (spectrographic analysis is needed in order to test this supposition).

The group of trapezoidal openwork plaques is a product of the Tibetan Plateau, the wild yaks and antelopes serving as important geographic markers. All those associated with locational information are thought to have been found on the Tibetan Plateau or very near it. Due to the alleged discovery of some of these plaques in Upper Tibet, I opine in the February 2016 Flight of the Khyung that they may have been produced on the Western Tibetan Plateau. However, additional information about the locations of the discoveries and reconsideration of their artistic content and form persuade me to believe that they may be of Eastern Tibetan manufacture and exchanged widely as prestige objects across the Plateau. On the same grounds, the copper-alloy plaque in the Pine collection might also be best attributed to Eastern Tibet. Cross-cultural comparison of the artistic contents of these assorted plaques with objects of the Northern Zone also suggests an Eastern Tibetan provenance. Nevertheless, the fungibility of EAS art in Tibet is of sufficient force to still preclude a fixing

A ninth trapezoidal openwork plaque has been published by Weihreter (1988: 228, 229 (Fig. 158), 230, 231 (Fig. 159)). This specimen (10 cm × 12.5 cm) lacks freestanding 164 The most extensive resource available for comparing the wild yak rock of Upper Tibet is the July to September 2016 and April to June 2017 Flight of the Khyung. 165 I heartily thank Emma Bunker for sharing photographs and information about this plaque as well as her upcoming catalogue with me.

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Tibetan Silver, Gold and Bronze Objects and the Aesthetics of Animals in the Era before Empire unlike archaeological cultures of the Sichuan basin, and an example of the richest and perhaps earliest stone-cist building cultures in western Sichuan. As is now well established, the bronzes and ceramics of these cultures reveal affinities with the Eastern Steppe (see March 2016 Flight of the Khyung).168

of the precise geographic location on the Plateau for the production of the trapezoidal openwork plaques. In addition to the nine examples discussed above, there is one more trapezoidal openwork plaque that has come to light. In a highly informative article, Falkenhausen (1996) discusses this other specimen, which was recovered from the cemetery of Moutuo in the Min valley of Mao County, bordering the Tibetan highlands to the west. This is a predominantly Ch’iang (Qiang) ethnic area but with some Tibetans among its mountains. The site is situated approximately 220 km north-east of Brag-sgo (the place of discovery of the plaque pictured in Figs. 4.8, 4.9). The Moutuo trapezoidal plaque is housed in the Barkhams county museum (not to confused with the Rnga-ba prefectural museum in Bar-khams).

Falkenhausen (1996: 43–46) considers the trapezoidal openwork bronze plaque (13.5 cm in height and 12.7 cm in width) to be the most enigmatic object found in the Moutuo burial. As with most other objects from the same burial, he pushes back the age of the plaque to the late sixth to early fifth century BCE. Although Falkenhausen is well acquainted with bronzes of the Central Plains and Sichuan basin, he makes no mention of Tibet’s rich tradition of comparably dated copper-alloy objects. Thus, he is unable to identify its geographic origin. He looks for similarities in the Dian culture of northern Yunnan but admits that formal and stylistic parallels are vague. They are indeed, divulging a very different cultural pattern than contemporaneous objects from the Tibetan Plateau. Falkenhausen sees in the openwork plaque a South East Asian flavour, but also one of the Zhou cultural realm and cultures of the Eurasian steppes. He observes that the plaque stylistically and iconographically seems to bridge the bronze metallurgical traditions of the Eurasian steppes and South East Asia. While he betrays no knowledge of bronze metallurgical traditions of the Tibetan Plateau, Falkenhausen is an astute observer, all but geographically placing the openwork plaque by enumerating its affinities to surrounding cultures.

In a single intact tomb at Moutuo, three caches of objects containing more than one hundred bronze objects of varying geographic origins suggest long-range contacts with Inner Asia, China and South East Asia (Falkenhausen 1996). Falkenhausen observes that the tomb and its contents may date to the late sixth or early fifth century BCE (no settlement remains were detected in the area; ibid., 32, 33). At the head of stone cist M1, three compartments were filled with rows of ceramic vessels containing meat, grain, fruit and tubers.166 Other grave goods of bronze (vessels, bells, ornaments and weapons), stone, jade, and one bamboo arrow were scattered across the burial chamber, but human remains were not discerned. Bamboo and textile burial mats are likely to have had agate, turquoise and glass beads affixed to them. Stone objects and ceramics are said to probably be of local manufacture, while most of the bronzes appear to have come from elsewhere, including the Sichuan basin. Based on the presence of weapons very similar to those of the Ba-shu culture in the Sichuan basin (whose weapons and other implements bear strong affinities to those of the Eastern Zhou conventionally dated to the Warring States period),167 Falkenhausen alternatively suggests that the Moutuo tomb belongs to the Warring States period (480–221 BCE), but probably also contained artefacts produced in earlier periods. Falkenhausen adds that the Moutuo burial is a distinctive local cultural expression,

The plaque from Moutuo is closest in decorative arrangement to the example illustrated in Figs. 4.12 and 4.13;169 however, instead of circular bird heads, it has birds depicted in profile, matching those on several of the other openwork plaques. On top of the Moutuo plaque are two groups of four freestanding birds. Each group faces towards the centre of the object. Falkenhausen identifies these birds as ducks or geese but this is not certain. The Moutuo specimen has a single line of nubs along the four 168 Huo Wei (2016: 92 (Fig. 2.1), 95) writes, ‘It is likely that the bronze dagger unearthed at the Rgya-gling thang cemetery in Phyi-dbang, Guge, was transmitted to this area via trade with the Jinsha River valley in south-west China: this represents a long-distance exchange’, but notes that decorative treatment of the dagger shares characteristics with the north-eastern steppe zone. If it is in fact an import, this dagger could have reached the Western Tibetan Plateau from the north rather than through trans-plateau exchange. That daggers of the steppes or influenced by steppe art and technology are distributed in western Sichuan says little in itself about how a cognate dagger was deposited in Rgya-gling thang. On this dagger, see also Bellezza 2020b, pp. 206, 207; July 2010 Flight of the Khyung. 169 The photograph of the plaque Falkenhausen provides in his article is after Wenwu 1994, vol. 3, cover. For photographs of the Moutuo plaque as well as diagrams of it in a Chinese publication featuring the objects of the same burial, see Qiang Museum of the Mao County et al. 2012, pp. 49, 51, 52. Bunker (forthcoming) notes that this plaque is composed of arsenical copper and was cast in a bivalve mould. This is evidenced by X-ray imagery, which revealed a hook with a clay core below the birds on the back of the object and two other hooks on the lower right corner (ibid.). X-ray imagery also shows that the stem is broken and cemented together by corrosion. Other objects from the Moutuo site are composed of tin-copper and tin-lead-copper bronzes and one from arsenical copper (ibid.).

For this information and that in the remainder of the paragraph, see Falkenhausen 1996, pp. 32, 33. 167 Falkenhausen (1996) observes that in many respects the cultural development and bronze technologies in the Sichuan basin, including that of the Ba-shu culture, are distinct from Shang and Zhou China, not becoming assimilated to the Central Plains until the Qin period in the fourth century BCE. Falkenhausen includes a description of the Bashu culture (ibid., 29–32), and furnishes illustrations of lei vessels from Moutuo and more eastern regions (ibid., 34, 35). He also discusses vessels and bells, some clearly of Zhou manufacture and other products of Middle Yangtse workshops (ibid., 35–41). According to the author, one tripod vessel with an inscription (the only one found in the burial) indicates that it was a Zhou cultural import, while narrow bronze cups appear to reflect a South East Asian link (ibid., 41, 42). Falkenhausen holds that most bronze weapons from the site were probably made in the Sichuan basin (ibid., 47). However, a dagger with a pommel in the shape of an animal head is reminiscent of so-called Karasuk types distributed widely along the northern periphery of the Northern Zone (ibid., 49). Two scabbards found in the Moutuo tomb may be of steppe origin (loc. cit.) 166

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Tibetan copper-alloy trapezoidal plaques of the Late Prehistoric era sides of the outer frame. In addition to rows of bosses in the same configuration as other examples, it bears one horizontal line of three larger discs. The upper row of seven wild ungulates inside the frame are again probably antelopes. Below them is a row of three striped tigers with gaping mouths in the same style as the Brag-sgo specimen (Fig. 4.8) and the plaque with owl heads (Fig. 4.12). The bottom row of the Moutuo plaque is made up of three snakes of analogous form complete with heads pointed upward. As with the plaque in the PRC collection (Fig. 4.8), the heads of all animals are oriented toward the left. Moreover, the stem is straight and relatively long.170

of people delimited temporally and geographically), nor does it furnish a basis to speak of ethnic and linguistic affiliations. More generally, there are pressing questions concerning the cultural complexion and differentiation of material remains associated with the so-called stone-cist cultures of western Sichuan.171 The tiger embellishes the copper-alloy plaque of the Pine collection and many of the trapezoidal openwork plaques examined above. These tiger motifs are close in form and style to tiger rock art of the Western Tibetan Plateau, Mongolia and the Northern Zone.172 Tiger and tigrine rock art on the Western Tibetan Plateau was produced from the Late Bronze Age or Iron Age until the Early Historic period, a well ingrained cultural tradition in the region. These petroglyphs depict tigers with stripes and S-shaped tails rising above their bodies (Fig. 4.18), just like many tigers on the openwork plaques. The shape of the bodies and heads and the prominent round eyes of tigers on the openwork plaques also evoke tiger depictions in the rock art of Mongolia (Fig. 4.18).173 However, the tails of tigers in the rock art of Mongolia and the Northern Zone are oriented downwards and have little or no curl at the end. The triangulation of tigrine and other artistic features represented in Mongolia, the Northern Zone and the Western Tibetan Plateau suggests once more that Eastern Tibet is probably the most likely source for the trapezoidal plaques of this study.

Through association with a wide range of other bronze objects, assigning the trapezoidal openwork plaque extracted from the Moutuo tomb to the mid-first millennium BCE, as Falkenhausen does, is plausible. Nonetheless, differences in the style and design of the ten examples described in this work could possibly be evidence for production over a longer period of time. For that reason, it is prudent to extend the potential manufacture of this group of artefacts from the seventh century or eighth century BCE to the third century BCE. Whatever their exact chronological range, the trapezoidal openwork plaques are among the finest examples of Iron Age metalworking on the Tibetan Plateau. The grave goods of the Moutuo burial were carefully chosen from the four directions to elevate the standing of the inhumed. The bronze articles deposited in the tomb, probably for use in the afterlife, came from far and wide: the Sichuan basin, Central Plains, Northern Zone, Eastern Steppe, south-western regions, as well as Tibet. This indicates that the society to which the burial belonged commanded an advantageous position in a meshwork of long-distance exchange. This could only have been predicated on substantial economic and political capacities. Although Falkenhausen reports that locally fabricated goods were also found in the tomb, the Moutuo burial provides ample evidence for the interregional appropriation of high-value objects through trade, giftgiving, diplomacy, booty, or other avenues of interchange, all of which remain hypothetical at this juncture. Having access to prestigious objects of the Northern Zone and possibly the Eastern Steppe, it is no great feat that the trapezoidal plaque was brought down from the adjoining Tibetan Plateau. Nevertheless, from what I can tell, this is the only metal object of Tibetan origin deposited in the Moutuo tomb. Most of the other objects belong to the Sichuan basin, the main focus of exchange for the people who provisioned the burial, and it is possibly in this direction that some of their cultural ties may lie. The lone funerary structure at Moutuo lacking human remains and with a cosmopolitan array of grave goods is not in itself evidence for a discrete archaeological culture (an integral body of materials correlated to a specified group

Petroglyphs in the Helan Mountains of Inner Mongolia and Ningxia, not far from the big bend in the Yellow River of the Ordos, also share stylistic elements with A comprehensive study of shared burial traditions and object production defining communities of common inclination and endeavour in ancient Liangshan and how these might correlate with ethnic, cultural and social identities has been undertaken by Hein (2017). Situated below the eastern rim of the Tibetan Plateau in south-western Sichuan, Liangshan is characterised by a wide spectrum of tomb types, grave goods and burial rites that exhibit strong steppe influences, but also links with Yunnan and other southern regions, and later contacts with the Han in the east. 172 They occur quite regularly in the rock art of the Western Tibetan Plateau. Many of the tigrine figures belong to local branches of so-called Eurasian Animal Style art. For examples in the rock art of Upper Tibet, see August 2012 Flight of the Khyung, particularly Figs. 1, 5 and 6; January 2014 Flight of the Khyung, Fig. 38. For other striped carnivores rock art in Upper Tibet, see September and October 2017 Flight of the Khyung; Suolang Wangdui 1994, pp. 52 (Fig. 10), 53 (Fig. 11), 56 (Fig. 17), 71 (Fig. 38). On tiger rock art in Upper Tibet and Ladakh and its relationship to that of the Eastern Steppe, see Bruneau and Bellezza 2013, pp. 51, 53, 65, 66, 129, 140–142. See also Bellezza 2018, pp. 58– 62. That petroglyphs of tigers on the Western Tibetan Plateau resemble those from Yinshan, Inner Mongolia and Mongolia was first noted by Francfort et al. (1992: 156). The same comparison can be made with the tiger rock art of Ningxia. On tiger rock art in the Northern Zone see Ge and Ge 2009, p. 193 (Fig. 183). For a detailed description of these figures in Ladakh, see Bruneau 2010a, pp. 241, 242. For striped carnivores of the same general style from Zamthang, Ladakh, see Vernier 2016, pp. 73 (Fig. Ill.7), 90 (Fig. Ill.12), 91. For three tiger carvings in Ladakh documented by Linrothe, see Lü 2014, p. 1308. On tiger rock art in Spiti and its relationship to that of the Eastern Steppe, see August 2015 Flight of the Khyung. In a survey carried out by the Spiti Rock Art and Historical Society in 2017, a petroglyphic composition consisting of a tiger with a spiralling tail and chevron-like stripes springing at animal was located on the path between Sum-ra and Shel-dkar. 173 On related tiger subjects in the rock art of Mongolia and the Altai, see Sher 1988, p. 56 (Figs. 8–12); on this art appearing on deer stones (figured stelae) in Mongolia, see Fitzhugh 2017, Fig. 20. 171

Falkenhausen (1996: 46) comments that small beads in the tomb have parallels with those from the Eurasian steppes. One wonders if those of agate and turquoise should also be linked to the Tibetan Plateau, but the information and imagery to assess them is not provided in his article.

170

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Tibetan Silver, Gold and Bronze Objects and the Aesthetics of Animals in the Era before Empire The tigers from North-west Tibet and Ladakh in Figs. 4.19 and 4.20, although carved in very different styles, are examples of rock art in the Eurasian Animal Style (EAS). The tiger petroglyph from Ru-thog (Fig. 4.19) is found on a natural rock pillar with a remarkable complement of other rock art.175 The stripes, deep bend in the back and upraised S-shaped tail recall the tigers on a number of the trapezoidal openwork plaques we have scrutinised. The tiger petroglyph from Ladakh in Fig. 4.20 shares many features with the tigers of various parts of Inner Asia pictured in Fig. 4.18. Nevertheless, it also has volute body ornamentation and stands on the tips of its paws, motifs that commonly occur in other EAS rock art of Inner Asia. Animals poised on the

Fig. 4.18. Tiger rock art in the so-called Eurasian Animal Style on the Western Tibetan Plateau and Mongolia. Far left column: three tiger petroglyphs from (in descending order) Gu-ge, Ladakh (after Francfort et al. 1992, Figs. 24, 25; Linrothe 2003; Francfort 1994: 40 (Fig. 6)) and Spiti. All other figures: rock carvings of tigers and perhaps other felines from Mongolia (after Francfort et al. 1992, p. 176 (Fig. 26), after Novgorodova). Most of the petroglyphs illustrated can be assigned to the Iron Age. Drawing by Aado Phuntsok Palden.

the copper-alloy plaques under examination.174 These petroglyphs appear to have been made by pastoralist tribes that roamed across the region in the first millennium BCE. Motifs replicating the fur patterns of tigers in this rock art include curved and angular stripes, concentric circles and volutes. Like tiger rock art on the Western Tibetan Plateau, Northern Zone examples share artistic commonalities with tiger rock art of the Eastern Steppe. Much of this tigrine rock art can be dated to the first millennium BCE, when there was a proliferation of tigers in various artistic media across the greater region. This art reflects the martial colouring of societies in that period and goes hand in hand with the spread of horse-riding and heightened mobility, the widespread diffusion of bronze weaponry, the intensification of warfare, and the proliferation of other art in the Eurasian Animal Style.

Fig. 4.19. Tiger with bold diagonal stripes, pointed ears, thick jaws, S-shaped tail held over the back and four legs with claws on the paws (the paws on the rear legs are not visible in the photograph). The tiger carving is flanked by a deer (upper) and wild yak (lower) with telltale curvilinear bodies and body decoration of the Eurasian Animal Style (these animals are only partially visible in the image). Rwa’brog ’phrang, Ra-bang, Ru-thog. Iron Age or Protohistoric period.

On the tiger in the rock art of the Helan Mountains and other unspecified Northern Zone locations, see Bradshaw Foundation n.d. On tiger carvings from Inner Mongolia, see Chen and Zhu 2019a, pp. 49 (Fig. 1–2–27: Hong-shan weng-hua), 85 (Fig. 1–4–22: Ying-shan), 101 (Fig. 1–4–57: Ying-shan). Also, see tigers in the rock art of Ningxia: Chen 2006; Qiao 2007; Francfort 2002, p. 69 (Fig. 20); Chen and Zhu 2019a, pp. 295 (Figs. 3–1–21, 3–1–22), 304 (Figs. 3–1–37, 3–1–38), 333 (Figs. 3–1–100). Closely related Eurasian Animal Style rock art is found at Helimu, Qinghai, which consists of a tiger with spiral on the front quarter, vertical stripes and a long downward-pointed tail, carved in close association with wild yaks. See Tang and Zhang 2001, p. 54 (Fig. 159); Tang 2006 (Fig. 7). For two tiger carvings with front and rear volutes from Del Khonjil mountain, Dundgobi aimaq, see Enkhtuvshin and Sanjmyatav 2007, p. 26 (Fig. 30). On comparable EAS carnivores from the Thalpan rock art site in Northern Pakistan, see Bandini-König 2003: p. 91, Pl. 8 (Figs. 13:3, 69:1). These two carved probable tigers also have curvilinear bodies and two deeply flexed legs with front and rear volutes. Additionally, one of them has circle feet and a circle on the end of its upraised tail, and the other one a downward-pointing tail curling at the end. The use of the circle motif in this manner is well known in small copper-alloy ornaments of the Northern Zone and Eastern Steppe and is found in Tibet too (see Fig. 6.28).

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Fig. 4.20. Tiger rock carving with stripes and front and rear volutes, splayed mouth, deeply arched back, two legs terminating in points and a downward arcing tail. Domkhar, Ladakh. Iron Age. Drawing by Rebecca C. Bellezza, after Bruneau 2010b, Pl. 69. 175 On the rock art of this pillar, see also Bellezza 2001, pp. 217–19, 358 (Figs. 10.78, 10.79), 359 (Fig. 10.80); 2004, Fig. 15a; 2008, p. 175 (Fig. 310); August 2014 Flight of the Khyung, Figs. 13, 14; November 2014 Flight of the Khyung, Fig. 51; May 2017 Flight of the Khyung, Fig. 147.

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Tibetan copper-alloy trapezoidal plaques of the Late Prehistoric era tips of their feet and volutes that merge with the contours of the underside are traits especially well articulated in North Inner Asian rock art and portable objects (see chapter seven for further discussion).176 Figs. 4.21–4.24 depict tiger rock carvings from various places in North Inner Asia (Southern Siberia, the Altai, Northern Zone and Xinjiang), illustrating how widely diffused tiger rock art in the Eurasian Animal Style was in North Inner Asia in the Iron Age. All four compositions pictured feature tigers with volutes, spirals and other curvilinear body ornamentation typical of the EAS in both South and North Inner Asia. Along with curvaceous body contours, these major stylistic traits define one taxon of the Fig. 4.23. EAS Tiger petroglyh, Helan Mountains, Inner Mongolia. Drawing by Rebecca C. Bellezza, after Bradshaw Foundation n. d., ‘Mountain King Tiger’.

Fig. 4.24. Rock carvings of four tigers in the EAS, which are part of a larger composition. Toksun county, Turfan, Xinjiang. Iron Age. Drawing by Rebecca C. Bellezza, after Ge and Ge 2009, p. 265 (Fig. 287).

Fig. 4.21. EAS Tiger carving made on a stele of the Tagar culture, Podgornovo kurgan. Minusinsk Basin, Southern Siberia. Iron Age. Drawing by Rebecca C. Bellezza, after Sher and Legchilo 1999, Pl. VIII (Fig. 10.1).

Inner Asian EAS artistic canon, which joined the Tibetan Plateau to northern lands in the Iron Age. Tigers with chevron-like stripes in the rock art of Ladakh, Inner Mongolia and Ningxia also artistically amalgamate the Western Tibetan Plateau with the Northern Zone. One of these specimens from Ladakh is very close in style and form to a tiger thokcha, another example of strong affinities between Tibetan rock art and copper-alloy objects.177 Other kinds of Tibetan copper-alloy objects with tigers or tigrine creatures dating to the Iron Age and Protohistoric period are known but they are uncommon. These subjects bear little resemblance to tigers on the trapezoidal plaques (see pp. 59–73). The typical triad of animals in Scythic art consists of the deer, panther and eagle, while the prime carnivore in Xiongnu art was the tiger. The zoomorphic art of ancient metal objects in Tibet encompasses both: sleek maneless lions and striped

Fig. 4.22. EAS tiger petroglyph from the large Baga Oigor rock art site, Mongolian Altai. Iron Age. Drawing by Rebecca C. Bellezza, after Jacobson et al. 2001, p. 461 (Fig. 1260). 176 For an analysis of other powerful artistic parallels positioning the rock art of Ladakh and North Inner Asia in the same transcultural constellation, see also Bellezza 2020b, pp. 18–23, ch. 9.

See Bruneau and Bellezza 2013, pp. 66, 143 (Fig. V.22), 144 (Fig. V.23). For other examples of this style of thokcha, see John 2006, p. 132 (Figs. 311, 313).

177

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Tibetan Silver, Gold and Bronze Objects and the Aesthetics of Animals in the Era before Empire tigers. Examples of feline art on the Tibetan Plateau, Eastern Steppe and Northern Zone, sharing parallels in form and aspect, trace the transcultural circulation of aesthetic traditions and probably elements of their ideological underpinnings in the first millennium BCE. As with the adoption of the riding horse and recurve bow somewhat earlier, the Tibetan Plateau was an eager recipient of styles of zoomorphic art prevailing in the north, including new forms of feline depiction. Similarly, the strong association of the tiger motif with steppe peoples in the fourth century BCE appears to have influenced contemporaneous Chinese art (Psarras 1998–99: 52, 53, 56).

Fig. 4.25. A single tiger among rows of like beasts carved on the lid and sides of a log coffin from Kurgan 2, Bashadar, Altai, Russia. Dated to ca. sixth or fifth century BCE. Drawing by Rebecca C. Bellezza, derived from Haskins 1988, p. 5 (Fig. 3, after Rudenko).

Certain stylistic features of tigers on the Tibetan copperalloy plaques studied above reverberate in the wellmodelled carvings of tigers on a wooden coffin from Bashadar (Fig. 4.25). This burial site belongs to a socalled Scytho-Siberian culture.178 These striped felines are depicted in profile, nose to tail. Although these tigers have stripes resembling tongues of fire, their disproportionately large heads, gaping mouths and drooping tails curled on the end are motifs shared with the Pine plaque (Figs. 4.1– 4.3). Also, like the tigers on this plaque, the tigers in each of the rows of the Bashadar coffin are split into two groups facing in opposite directions.

the Iron Age. This petroglyph indicates that artistic inputs from North Inner Asia penetrated as deeply as the most southerly reaches of North-east Tibet. How these inputs might have been carried to Ser-shul and the degree to which they signal ideological and symbolic engagement between north and south Inner Asia are difficult to assess. Nonetheless, there would have been little cause to parrot a northern style in Ser-shul unless its aesthetic and/or conceptual qualities had some impact on the region.

A recently discovered tiger petroglyph in North-east Tibet (Fig. 4.26) is close in form and style to the tiger carvings from Bashadar examined in Fig. 4.25, expanding the scope of artistic links between North Inner Asia and the Tibetan Plateau. The large tiger petroglyph in question was recently documented by Xiao Bo in Ser-shul, northern Khams.179 The Ser-shul and Bashadar tigers share the same body shape and stripes rendered as a flame-like pattern. The design and placement of the single ear on these carvings is also almost identical. Although the long tail of the Sershul example extends over its back (the most common mode of depiction on the Tibetan Plateau) and its head is rounder, and although it has just two legs instead of four, it belongs to an EAS genre closely aligned to the Bashadar coffin. Hence, the Ser-shul tiger carving can be assigned to

The tiger as an icon reached a crescendo in the Xiongnu empire. Many openwork gold and bronze belt plaques with tigers are assigned to the Xiongnu and other pastoralist peoples of the Northern Zone and Southern Siberia. Most of these objects are stray finds, and generalised ascription to the Xiongnu says little about their respective cultural and ethno-linguistic affiliations (Horváth 1995). Tigers in the plaques of the Eastern Steppe and Northern Zone of the second half of the first millennium BCE are closely related stylistically and thematically.180 This art, however, has only a minimal resemblance to the Tibetan tigrine art of the copper-alloy articles in this work.181 This 180 For a discussion of stylistic criteria applied in distinguishing Xiongnu plaques (and alternative objects) from the production of other steppe cultures, see Psarras 1996. The value of one economic criterion noted in this article for defining the cultural characteristics of these groups of objects, pastoralism, has been diminished by more recent archaeological findings indicating that agriculture played a more prominent role in the Eastern Steppe than previously thought. For a review of this evidence, see Honeychurch 2015, pp. 89, 109, 110, 160, 164–68, 188, 196, 230, 268, 309. 181 For gold and bronze belt plaques with tigers and a tiger tomb ornament mostly from the Northern Zone, see Horváth 1995, pp. 92–94. For Xiongnu gold and bronze plaques with tigers, see Psarras 1996, pp. 239 (Pl. 2), 241 (Pl. 3). On a bronze belt buckle consisting of two openwork plaques with walking tigers, attributed to Southern Siberia, third century BCE, see Bunker 2002, p. 98 (Fig. 64). These two tigers, with their exaggeratedly large heads facing the viewer, and paws and wavy stripes, epitomise some of the differences in tiger art from the Eastern Steppe and Tibetan Plateau in the Iron Age. For a bronze belt buckle consisting of two mirror-image openwork plaques depicting a sleek carnivore biting the front leg of an equid-like animal with a raptor-like muzzle, attributed to North China, third to second century BCE, see ibid., p. 104 (Fig. 72); for a pair of bronze plaques in the form of a tiger with S-shaped tails overarching the back (terminating in raptor heads) attributed to northeast China, seventh to sixth century BCE, see ibid., p. 157 (Fig. 134). The art of these Northern Zone plaques strongly contrasts with tiger subjects on the Tibetan copper-alloy trapezoidal plaques.

178 On manifold parallels in form, design and decoration between Tibetan and so-called Scytho-Siberian copper-alloy metal objects, see Bellezza 2008, pp. 98–106; March 2016 Flight of the Khyung. For cognate copperalloy objects of the Tibetan Plateau and the Slab Grave culture of the Eastern Steppe, see Bellezza 2008 (ibid.); May 2010 Flight of the Khyung. Tucci (1935: 110 (Fig. 18), 114) states that a thokcha with a square shape (which he identifies as a horse harness decoration), on which there is a raised central cruciform pattern flanked by four concentric circles, has Scythic artistic affinities. Although it is not certain that it is a piece of equestrian gear, the object either dates to the Iron Age, when the Tibetan Plateau was being buffeted by Scythic artistic influences, or belongs to an artistic legacy of the Protohistoric period in which Scythic elements were conserved. In either chronological scenario, the Tucci object is not imitative; it represents the adaptation of form and content to the Tibetan cultural milieu. 179 Xiao Bo of the Anthropology Museum of Guangxi generously shared his images of petroglyphs at Ser-shul with me, an exchange kindly facilitated by Xiang Wan, an archaeologist at Northwest University. Ser-shul lies at the south-eastern edge of the great swathe of Tibetan grasslands, which extends 1800 km west to upper Ladakh. Carvings at the Ser-shul site range in age from the Iron Age to the Early Historic period. On the artistic affinities of the Ser-shul site with rock art in Yulshul and Upper Tibet, see Bellezza 2020b, p. 354 n. 77.

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Tibetan copper-alloy trapezoidal plaques of the Late Prehistoric era

Fig. 4.26. A large rock carving of a tiger in Ser-shul, North-east Tibet. Iron Age. This petroglyph was created in an EAS form of art strongly reminiscent of Bashadar. Photograph courtesy of Xiao Bo.

contrasts with the more vibrant links between tiger rock art of the Western Tibetan Plateau and Mongolia, some of which is probably datable to the first half of the first millennium BCE. A comparison of Xiongnu and Tibetan burial structures and goods also indicates little direct association.182 A pronounced cultural distancing was under way in South and North Inner Asia at the end of the first millennium BCE.

the silver vessels and lion art of this study. However, the Tibetan Plateau was also pivotal in geographic terms, for its ancient artistic canon also included tigers. In the Near East the lion was the chief felid, the tiger almost unknown, while in the Eastern Steppe and Northern Zone, the tiger was paramount. In this regard, Tibet served as focal point for both eastern and western cultural influences.183 Gauging the impact of western lands and the Iranian world on Tibetan art is the next focus of study. Chapter five delineates the cultural and technological vectors involved in this transference and their role in enriching the artistic heritage of the Tibetan Plateau.

The distinctive archaeological profile of monuments in Tibet dating to the first millennium BCE, as well as its peculiar corpus of rock art, confirms that the Plateau forged unique cultural trajectories, part of a civilisational order of its own making. While western and northern cultural and technological innovations in the Late Bronze Age and Iron Age had a profound effect on the Tibetan Plateau, they did not replace or even weaken underlying cultural tendencies. Rather, they worked to enrich the Tibetan artistic repertoire and manufacturing capabilities. In some fundamental respects Tibet was an appendage of the western cultural world. This is evidenced in chariot rock art, a dominant pastoral economy, adoption of western cultivars (wheat, barley and peas), as well as in

183 Kaloyanov (1990: 77) holds that the Tibetan Plateau was historically and culturally a hub for contacts with Indo-Iranian, Uralo-Altaic, Chinese and Turkic peoples. Indeed, as we have seen in the cross-cultural comparison of art-historical and archaeological materials in this study, the Tibetan Plateau enjoyed wide-ranging contacts with neighbours in antiquity. However, these various materials are mute in terms of their ethnic and linguistic affiliations.

182 For a brief comparison of Xiongnu and Tibetan mortuary sites, see September 2014 Flight of the Khyung.

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5 To and from Iran: Scythic links with the north and east The Achaemenid empire and its steppe connections

that may have stretched from north of the Black Sea to Afghanistan.185

In the first four chapters of this work, an assortment of Tibetan silver, gold and copper-alloy objects are catalogued and discussed. As part of this examination, cross-cultural and interregional comparisons are made, routinely linking featured Tibetan items to Iran, the Eurasian steppes and the Northern Zone. This comparative exercise demonstrates that, before the time of the empire, metal objects in Tibet did not exist in a cultural and geographic void. To the contrary, a host of aesthetic, ideological and technological forces issuing from other territories are implicated in aspects of production ranging from the conceptual to the aesthetic and manufactural. Starting no later than the Late Bronze Age and continuing in the Iron Age, the Tibetan Plateau was especially receptive to technological innovations and cultural expressions originating in countries to the north and west. Nearly two millennia before the invention of writing in the Imperial period, Tibet began to absorb the knowledge, skills, sensibilities and symbolism of other peoples, reimagining and refashioning them to devise native idioms in metal, rock and other media.

As early as the ninth century BCE but with increasing intensity in the late eighth and early seventh centuries BCE, nomadic warriors known generally as Scythians entered western Iran, probably from across the Caucasus (Loehr 1955: 63). Certain objects and motifs including harness trappings discovered in horse burials in Ziwiye, in Iran Kurdistan, belonging to the Iron III period (eighth and seventh centuries BCE) exhibit Scythic artistic patterns and animals (Moorey 1982: 97; Curtis 2005: 118). During their advance in the north Caucasus in the eighth century BCE, Scythic tribes interacted with the multiethnic but sedentary Koban culture. Scythic peoples penetrated deeply into northern Iran during Iron II (seventh to fourth century BCE), forming a material-cultural link between earlier cultures of north-western Iran and the Achaemenid empire, in contradistinction to Assyrio-Babylonian influences (Moorey 1985: 35).186 Horse bits of Scythic design reached Luristan after 900 BCE (Moorey 1971: 121). Nevertheless, zoomorphic imagery in Luristan cast bronze objects does not owe its origins to the Scythians (ibid., 119, 120). Potential sources for Achaemenid animal art were Scythic tribes and Luristan, as well as the wellestablished artistic canons of Mesopotamia that also came under nomadic influence (Kantor 1957: 3).

In chapter three, Iran was heralded in the genesis of the Tibetan copper-alloy bird-spouted jar. Likewise, Iranian cultural factors were shown to be crucial in engendering the two Tibetan silver bowls in the Pine collection in chapter one. As explained, Iran may also have influenced the design of the Tibetan gold finial in chapter two. None of these things, however, are imitations of Iranian objects; rather, they manifested in transmuted forms. The altered state of the silver bowls and copper-alloy jar and gold finial is evidence not for simple linear transference of fully formed articles from Iran to the Tibetan Plateau, but a web of geographic movement, material adaptation and cultural metamorphosis with an eastward impetus.

The history of the Scythians comes chiefly from inscriptions and classical sources such as the writings of Herodotus, Diodorus, Xenophon and Strabo. In the mid-seventh century BCE, the Medes were allied with the Cimmerians, and the Scythians ruled Media (northwestern Iran) from 653–624 BCE (Dandamayev 1994: 37, 38). The Scythians were by turns in league and at war with Assyria in seventh century BCE and with Thracia in the fifth and fourth centuries BCE. The complex of Scythic peoples called Saka were subdued by Cyrus and he extended the reach of his Achaemenid empire into Central Asia, annexing Chorasmia, Parthia, Aria and Sogdiana (ibid., 40–43). Military campaigns against the Massagetae (Scythic tribes inhabiting the Aral Sea region) in the 530s BCE led to the death of Cyrus at the end of the decade (Olmstead 1948: 66; Dandamayev 1994: 43, 44). Achaemenid military campaigns caused the defeat of

Although written sources for the early period are scant, we know that, at the start of the first millennium BCE, Persians and Medes in Iran gradually began to expand their sphere of cultural influence and territorial control (Curtis 2005). In the pre-Achaemenid period, mobile pastoralism remained a significant part of the economy in Iran (Dandamayev 1994: 36, 37). The Persians and Medes may have been ethnically and linguistically related to the Cimmerians and Scythians (whom they called Saka) of the Pontic steppe (loc. cit.).184 Moreover, the Medes and Persians were part of an Iranic linguistic territory

Using linguistic data, Harmatta (1992) theorises that there were three waves of dispersion of Indo-Iranian-speakers, the final wave occurring after the split with Proto-Indians and marked by the acquisition of horseriding technology, mobile pastoralism and huge movements of ProtoIranian-speakers. 186 Watson’s (1972: 146) opinion that nomadic artistic and technological traditions owed their existence to high western cultures such as those in the Assyrio-Iranian world is not sustained by more recent archaeological research. 185

The Eastern Iranian word ‘Saka’ can be glossed as ‘The Strong’ (Kuz’mina 2007: 382, citing Bailey 1958).

184

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Tibetan Silver, Gold and Bronze Objects and the Aesthetics of Animals in the Era before Empire 2012: 116, citing Rudenko). Achaemenid silver vessels, Achaemenid-influenced textile designs and a belt plaque were discovered in Pazyryk (Marsadolov 2000: 51, 52). Pazyryk saddle blankets with leather and felt appliqués of horned lions were found in Kurgan 1 (Kantor 1957: 9, citing Rudenko). Felt appliqués of felines and ibexes in Kurgan 1 are similar to Achaemenid animal depictions on bracteates and other objects, but probably of Altaian manufacture (Kantor 1957: 9). The striding lion subject known from portable objects and the Persepolis reliefs shares many stylistic parallels with lions on a woollen saddle cloth from Kurgan V at Pazyryk, complete with commas, volutes and circlets on the haunches, mouth agape and muscular bodies (ibid., 5 (Fig. 2), 6, 7 (Fig. 3)). The Pazyryk saddle blankets and rug with lion heads probably borrowed back in Persian style a form already well known in the steppes (ibid., 10, 11, 21). According to Stark (2012: 113, 114 and 115 (Figs. 7-5, 7-6), 116), the Achaemenid pile carpet and saddle rug discovered in Pazyryk used felt components of local manufacture but were produced in the eastern provinces of the empire.

various Saka tribes in the Black Sea and Aral Sea regions during the reign of Darius I in the late sixth century BCE (Olmstead 1948: 141; Dandamayev 1994: 44–46). It was through Scythic contacts that the Medians (sic) and other Iranian-speaking peoples adopted weapon types that appeared in the Achaemenid armoury (Moorey 1982: 97; Jettmar 1971: 14).187 The Achaemenid dynasty kept various mercenaries from the steppes in its employ (Jettmar 1964–65: 296), and they returned home taking technical knowledge with them for advancing their own manufactures (Jettmar 1971: 14). Eastern Scythic peoples known as the Saka provided the Achaemenid army with large numbers of mounted bowmen, a crucial component of their military, and the Achaemenid army appropriated the Scythian composite bow and gorytus and their mounted archery tactics (Moorey 1985: 27; Dandamayev 1994: 45).188 The Saka were crucial members of Achaemenid society, who assisted in collecting taxes and tribute and in the management of Central Asian holdings of the empire (Chang 2018: 120, 123, citing Vogelsang and Christian).189 Also, the Medes, Achaemenids and others of the Near East adopted the trihedral arrowhead from Scythic peoples (Moorey 1985: 28, 29). Not only were weapons and horse trappings borrowed from Scythic cultures, but their decorative motifs as well (ibid., 29, 30).

Achaemenid artistic influence in Pazyryk appears to have been mostly exerted on grave goods of local manufacture or those originating from the periphery of the Achaemenid empire (Lerner 1991; Stark 2012: 116). Objects and their artistic features reaching Pazyryk from West Asia were often aesthetically transformed in conformance to local customs, traditions and beliefs, reflecting nomadic tastes and worldview (Bokovenko 1995c: 288; Stark 2012: 119). However, it is not clear how foreign objects reached Pazyryk; they may have been traded via Central Asia or the Tarim Basin (ibid., 121). According to Wu (2007), the Saka played an instrumental role in transmitting Achaemenid art to Pazyryk.190 Apart from Pazyryk, archaeological finds in the Eurasian steppes suggest that a large variety and quantity of prestige goods poured northward from Achaemenid territories as trade, gifts and plunder, including metalwork, jewellery, weapons, textiles and sundry small objects (Stark 2012: 113).191

Achaemenid artistic and technological imprints spread far, reaching the Pazyryk culture (ca. 350–250 BCE) in the Altai, some 2500 km north-west of the northern borders of modern-day Iran. This is more than double the distance from north-eastern Iran to the western edge of the Tibetan Plateau. Achaemenid-related evidence in Pazyryk illustrates the extent of the out-thrust of the empire. Achaemenid artistic traditions were appropriated for the making of Pazyryk burial goods, but Scythic artistic and clothing elements also permeated Achaemenid conceptions of design (Moorey 1985: 22–26). By analogy, Rudenko exploited knowledge of the Achaemenid chronology to estimate the date of tombs in Pazyryk (Lerner 1991). Cultivated coriander found in Kurgan 5, Pazyryk, appears to have come from Achaemenid territories (Stark

The tremendous geographic reach of Achaemenid material-cultural traditions in the Eastern Steppe is not nearly as pronounced in lands south-east of Bactria. Evidence for cross-cultural borrowing between the Achaemenids and North-west India is limited in scope but trade between them was very likely (Neelis 2011: 97,

The archaeological perspective on steppe societies has continued to develop, furthering an appreciation of their major contribution to the evolving systems of exchange and technological innovation extending beyond the steppes. On this subject, see Frachetti 2012, p. 2. 188 Saka axillaries made up an important part of the Achaemenid army, but sometimes they proved to be unpredictable allies. During the downfall of the Achaemenid empire in the late fourth century BCE, Saka war parties were intent on carrying away as much booty as possible, which must have resulted in large amounts of valuable goods, particularly from the eastern provinces, flowing into Central Asia. According to Xenophon, victorious and loyal Saka officers in the Achaemenid military were richly rewarded with gifts. Conflicts among the Achaemenids and Saka were common and led to the latter raiding and freebooting. According to the Greek author Aelianus (third century CE, but based on older sources), among the gifts given to Saka delegations at the Achaemenid court were two silver cups weighing a talent each. See, as above, Stark 2012, pp. 111–13. 189 The dating of Saka archaeological sites in the Central and Eastern Steppes (ca. 800–200 BCE) is given by Chang (2018: 26–29) as follows: early Saka – ninth to sixth century BCE, early to middle Saka – eighth to fifth century BCE, and late Saka – fourth to second century BCE. 187

The Pazyryk culture has been shown to have enjoyed encompassing exchanges, inducting into its burials Indian and Chinese as well as Iranian objects. Two cotton shirts (for which Stark cites Marsadolov and Maršak and Vasilkov) and a bronze mirror with an ox-horn handle and silks in Pazyryk burials (for which Stark cites Polymak and Shumakova) have been identified as of Indian origins. Chinese imports in Pazyryk tombs include silk fragments, a bronze mirror fragment and Chinese lacquerware (for which Stark cites Lubo-Lesnichenko and Bunker) and a four-wheeled wagon resembling Chinese vehicles was also interred (for which Stark cites Rudenko); these coincide with a period of growing influence of Chinese prestige goods on mobile pastoralists in the Central and Eastern Steppes. See, as above, Stark 2012, pp. 121, 126. 191 Trade ties between steppe elites and Bactria are already evident in the pre-Achaemenid period, as seen in lapis lazuli from Badakhshan deposited in Kurgan 82, Shilikty 3, Kazakh Altai, dated to the late eighth or seventh century BCE (Stark 2012: 116, citing Casanova). 190

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To and from Iran 98).192 The Achaemenids initiated a series of contacts with Northern Pakistan, and Old Persian inscriptions indicate that Sind and Gandhara formed the easternmost satrapy of the empire; however, the extent of Achaemenid rule in North-west India remains unclear (ibid., 96, 97). Francfort et al. (1992: 173) remark that rock art in Thalpan, Indus Kohistan, seems to stand at the eastern extremity of the Achaemenid artistic tradition. According to Hauptmann (2007: 28, 29 (Fig. 20)), with the expansion of the Achaemenid empire under King Cyrus (559–529 BCE) to include Gandhara, Iranian influence extended as far as the upper Indus valley; however, petroglyphs in Northern Pakistan displaying Iranian artistic influences (new types of weapons, garments and zoomorphic art) may have been introduced by traders. Neelis (2011: 98) articulates this more forthrightly, holding that rock art in Northern Pakistan exhibiting Iranian influences is not likely the product of Achaemenid sources. Iranic inscriptions in Northern Pakistan postdate the Achaemenid empire and include Sogdian, Parthian, Bactrian and possibly Middle Persian (all dating to the first half of the first millennium CE; Jettmar 1986: 149). Similarly, much of the rock art in Northern Pakistan thought to have Iranian connections postdates the Achaemenid era.193

reforms carried out by King Xerxes, people of northeastern Iran (Sogdiana) migrated to the borders of Tibet. Bolder still is the claim that Iranians carried their religion to Tibet in the early first millennium BCE, which came to be known as ‘Bon’ (ibid., 114).194 No such transfer of an entire religious package from Iran to Tibet could have taken place without substantial adaptation and alteration along the way. While cultural and migratory streams associated with Indo-Iranian-speakers probably infiltrated the Western Tibetan Plateau in the second millennium BCE, there is no archaeological evidence for the wholesale replacement of an earlier religion by a foreign one.195 Rather, long-term cultural continuity in Tibet appears to be the watchword. Historical genetic studies indicate that Tibetans have both Palaeolithic and Neolithic lineages, their tenure on the Plateau very well established.196 Rooted in a people with a Stone Age past, the rock art and longstone structures of Upper Tibet spell out a relatively stable ethno-cultural trajectory in the first millennium BCE. It appears that processes of assimilation characterised 194 It has been speculated by several Tibetologists that the so-called sky burial known to Tibetans as ‘scattered by birds’ (bya-gtor) was introduced to Tibet from Zoroastrian Iran. However, no significant archaeological or textual evidence has been presented to support this supposition, nor have explanations been proffered for how such an Iranian custom might have reached Tibet. To my mind, the almost treeless pastoral regions that make up more than half of the Tibetan Plateau are an ideal environment for the endogenous origin of the sky burial. Furthermore, no archaeological evidence for the transplantation of Zoroastrian funerary art, monuments, customs and traditions has materialised in Tibet. 195 Among the evidence for possible Indo-Iranian influences in Ladakh and Upper Tibet (and in North-east Tibet) is cognate chariot rock art in the Central and Eastern Steppes. The dissemination of chariot rock art eastwards may have involved the Andronovo cultural complex (ca. 2000–1300 BCE), which might have spoken Indo-Iranian languages. See August 2010 and January 2017 Flight of the Khyung; Bruneau and Bellezza 2013, pp. 32–40; Bellezza 2008, pp. 195–99; 2020b, pp. 357– 75. On possible religious inputs from Indo-Iranian speakers in Upper Tibet, see July 2017 Flight of the Khyung; Bellezza 2008, p. 307 n. 312. A large-scale palaeogenomic study of ancient population migrations to South Asia by Narasimhan et al. (2018) indicates that peoples of Eurasian steppe ancestry spread south via Margiana and Bactria to the northern periphery of the Indian Subcontinent, mixing genetically with various pre-existing populations in the first half of the second millennium BCE. These population movements are a plausible source for the cultural mechanisms responsible for the transfer of knowledge about the chariot to Northern Pakistan and the Western Tibetan Plateau, as seen in the rock art of these regions. There appears to be an etymological relationship between the reconstructed Proto-Indo-European (PIE) word for wheel/circle: kʷékʷlos (and certain of its Indo-European derivatives such as Proto-Tocharian) and Tibetan words for circle/circling: ’khyil/dkyil/’khor. The ProtoSino-Tibetan word for wheel is *kolo, which is a loan word from IndoEuropean (Martin 2010: 179, citing Bauer). Beckwith (2009: 402, 403) notes that the reconstructed pre-Old Tibetan *kwerlo corresponds closely to the Proto-Indo-European and maintains (predicated on a non-genetic relationship with Sinitic languages) that it was either derived from an Old Chinese intermediary or borrowed directly from early Indo-Europeanspeakers. The depiction of chariots of the North Inner Asian type in the rock art of Tibet favours the direct borrowing of the Indo-European word for wheel by speakers of pre-Old Tibetan. This cognate chariot art shows that by the Late Bronze Age the inhabitants of Upper Tibet and Northeast Tibet participated in the same techno-cultural movement as their neighbours in the north. For a detailed discussion of the PIE linguistic root of ‘wheel’ and its semantic reconstruction in various Indo-European languages, see Anthony 2007; see also Mallory and Adams 1997, pp. 640, 641. The Zhang-zhung words for ‘encircle’ (ku) and ‘wheel’ (kyi-ri) (Martin 2010: 35, 38) and the Tibetan non-lexical sound ornament khyi li li/kyi li li also appear to have the same Indo-European root: kʷékʷlos. 196 For a review of Tibetan genomic studies and their demographic and historical implications, see May 2013 and March 2017 Flight of the Khyung.

The evidence reviewed indicates that Achaemenid cultural outreach in North-west India was relatively weak. Further removed, Achaemenid cultural projection to the Tibetan Plateau is almost non-existent, even in areas adjoining North-west India. Achaemenid art, inscriptions and monuments have not been detected in the archaeological resources of Upper Tibet, Ladakh or Spiti. Furthermore, Achaemenid or Achaemenid-influenced portable objects are rare in Tibet (the two silver bowls of the Pine collection being an exception). Despite attestations to the contrary in some scholarly quarters, only negligible Achaemenid manifestations are discernable in the abstract cultural substrate of the Tibetan Plateau. There are Tibetologists who have attempted to tie Tibetan culture to the Achaemenid and Sasanian empires, but their efforts have not proven very fruitful. Kuznetsov and Frye (1975: 113, 114), without providing an iota of evidence, speculate that in response to religious On historical and archaeological evidence for Achaemenid political culture in North-west India, see Magee et al. 2005. 193 Symmetrical geometric subjects in the rock art of Northern Pakistan are interpreted as being similar to ornaments affixed to the crowns of Sasanian kings (Jettmar 1986: 155). Jettmar (ibid., 152, 153) suggests that certain types of shrines in this rock art (such as baetyls) may possibly have been transmitted by the Sogdians. At Hodar, Indus Kohistan, there are many lion carvings with one front leg raised, nearly all of which have a star or flower motif on the front haunch (ibid., 156, 157 (Fig. 7)). Jettmar (loc. cit.) states that these lions are of Irano-Hellenistic influence and appear to be heraldic symbols of a local prominent social group, which can be dated through inscriptions (including Brāhmī) to no earlier than the sixth century CE. In a later work, Jettmar (1991: 9 (Fig. 13)) submits that the lions of the Hodar site are derived from the art of Sasanian and Sogdian toreutics. A common genre of thokcha depicts lions with one front leg raised, a potential link with analogous leonine rock art of Northern Pakistan. This aspect also occurs in the leonine rock art of Ladakh. Jettmar (1986: 150, 151) further imputes Iranian influences on depictions of ‘altars’ with ‘horns’ on the corners. 192

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Tibetan Silver, Gold and Bronze Objects and the Aesthetics of Animals in the Era before Empire to preserve a historic memory of earlier Tibetan religious relations with regions to the west of the Plateau.

religious development on the bulk of the Tibetan Plateau in the Late Bronze Age and Iron Age, not extinguishment to make way for a new order.

In his study of historical links between Iranian and Tibetan religions, Kværne (1987: 163) notes that although Iranian influences in Tibet have often been speculated upon, there is no evidence for a massive cultural or religious infusion; it appears instead that disparate Iranian elements were transmitted to Tibet at various times. Kværne (ibid., 164) finds just two reasonably assured examples of Iranian influence in Tibet, both dating to the Imperial period: the Greek medical tradition spread via Iran and the lion dance, both of which were transmitted to Central Asia, China and thence to Tibet but probably not through Far Western Tibet. Kværne (ibid., 165–67) repudiates assertions of seminal Iranian influence in Tibetan religions, as definite Iranian names and terms and the radical dualism of Iranian cosmogonic tradition are lacking. Thus, Iranian religious elements in Tibet, even if present, are ill defined (ibid., 167). Kværne (ibid., 172) asserts that the chronology of Tibetan sources argues against early Iranian influences in the mythology of Tibet because most of it comes from Classical Tibetan literature (post-tenth century CE). A deficit of palpable Zurvanite and Zoroastrian religious imprints in Tibet is reflected in the virtual absence of preAchaemenid and Achaemenid archaeological signposts on the Plateau.

Kaloyanov (1990: p. 78) notes that in Persian the words bon and bun are glossed ‘root’, ‘base’ and ‘foundation’, and in Zoroastrian religious doctrines bun has the sense of a basic text. He suggests that the Persian terms are etymologically related to the ancient Tibetan ‘religious doctrine’ called bon, adding that according to (Lamaist Yungdrung) Bon tradition, its founder, Gshen-rab, came from the country of Stag-gzigs, located west of Tibet (loc. cit.).197 In the Yungdrung Bon tradition, bon carries the mystical meaning of completeness, as in the religious doctrine or universe, and denotes the fundamental state of reality. However, no foreign land is associated with Gshen-rab in earlier Old Tibetan sources (Bellezza 2008; 2010; 2013). Most directly, the word bon is tied to the Tibetan verb bon-pa, meaning to utter, chant or pronounce sacred speech. Kaloyanov (1990: 78) writes that Far Western Tibet was a contact zone for Tibetans and nomads of Iranian origins akin to the Saka. Although the Saka and related tribes had a significant impact on the Western Tibetan Plateau (more on this subject below), the evidence furnished by Kaloyanov does not establish an etymological relationship between Saka vocabulary and the Tibetan word bon. Firstly, we must consider the possibility that the word bon was already known in proto-Tibetan languages predating the time of Saka interactions in the middle and late first millennium BCE. In his study of Tibetan cognates in the historical Saka language of Khotan, Bailey (1982) does not include bon.198 In a survey of Tibetan loanwords and Tibetan terms with etymological links to Iranian languages, Laufer (1919) shows that they are primarily botanical terms. As is well known, in the Imperial period, Tibet absorbed much medical knowledge from the west, including Greco-Persian traditions. If the Persian bon/bun and the Tibetan bon are indeed etymologically related, however, interconnections are more likely to stem from the more formative era of Indo-Iranian language diffusion in the second millennium BCE.

The Scythian carriers of culture in the eastern part of Central Asia As we have seen, the Achaemenids had close ethnic and linguistic ties with various Scythic peoples, who circulated throughout the vast steppe, mountain and desert tracts to the north of Iran. Material-cultural evidence connects Achaemenid Iran to Pazyryk, far to the northeast in the Altai mountains. No such remains have been discovered on the Tibetan Plateau, minimising a role for the Achaemenids there. Rather, the major agents in the intricate web of exchange and innovation linking Iran and Tibet in the first millennium BCE were mobile pastoralist groups inhabiting the intervening territory. As Bunker remarks (2002: 11), the various peoples of the steppe interacted in the west with the Greeks, Assyrians, Urartians, Medes, Achaemenids and Parthians, and in the east with dynastic China. To this list of recipients, we can add the Tibetans.

In a critique of a study of Tibetan historic geography by Kuznetsov and Gumilev (published in 1970), Martin (1995: 59–68) concludes that this material does not chart the scope of the Achaemenid empire but serves to spatially position events in the life of the founder of Yungdrung Bon, Gshen-rab. Martin bases his observation on an analysis of the same schematic geographic organisation and sketch map of countries surrounding Tibet in Yungdrung Bon literature used by Kuznetsov and Gumilev, which can be traced back in written form to the twelfth century CE. Nevertheless, as Martin comments (ibid., 68, 69), the Yungdrung Bon land of origins, ’Olmo lung-ring, is always located to the west of Tibet, somewhere on the fringes of the Iranic world, and seems

It is through the arc of lands north and west of Tibet that Iranian cultural and technological transmissions were probably conveyed to the Plateau, accounting for the foreign ideological and material wherewithal incumbent in the creation of the two silver bowls, gold finial and copper-alloy duck-spouted jar featured in this work. As noted above, there is far less archaeological and cultural evidence for Iranian intellectual and technological conferrals having reached the Tibetan Plateau via the Hindu Kush and Indian Subcontinent. The prime engine of cultural exchange and demic movement from the west and north in the first millennium BCE was the mounted

Actually, the home ground of Gshen-rab was a related western country, ’Ol-mo lung-ring. 198 On Bailey’s study of Saka and Tibetan cognates, see March 2016 Flight of the Khyung. 197

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To and from Iran pastoralists of the steppes and adjoining mountains and basins of North Inner Asia.

Basin and the Hexi (Gansu) Corridor to the north-eastern reaches of the Plateau.

Iran and Tibet are separated by a large swathe of steppes, deserts and mountains. There are any number of routes between these territories, all of which have been inhabited for millennia and served as foci of interregional communications, migration and material exchanges.199 However, many of the potential lines of communication between Iran and Tibet traverse relatively inaccessible and harsh terrain punctuated by high passes and other natural barriers. Minimal Achaemenid cultural access to Northwest India indicates that direct western routes over the Hindu Kush were not paramount in linking the Iranian and Tibetan cultural worlds in antiquity. The easiest geographic route between north-eastern Iran and the Tibetan Plateau was along well-established tracks later associated with the Silk Road. These byways pass through the modern-day territories of Turkmenistan and/or northern Afghanistan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Xinjiang before reaching Tibet, an overland distance of approximately 2400 km. North of this route are the deserts and steppes of Central Asia, and to the south are the lofty Hindu Kush and Karakorum ranges.200

Before we explore further the peoples inhabiting the northern territories linking Iran and Tibet, it is necessary to clarify what is meant by the ethnonym ‘Scythian’. For much of the twentieth century it was assumed that the Scythians were a fairly homogenous ethnic and linguistic body of tribes occupying a contiguous territory extending from the Pontic region of the Black Sea in the west to the Ordos and Mongolia in the East, ca. 800–250 BCE. This gigantic land mass was often referred to simply as ‘Scythia’. Those called Scythians continued to be pivotal players in the political and cultural affairs of Central Eurasia until the rise of the Xiongnu empire in the midthird century BCE. Recent genetic findings confirm that peoples possessing Scythic material culture had certain genetic traits in common, but such studies do little to address questions of cultural and linguistic variability.201 Their shared genetic bequest also tells us little about how far-flung Scythic peoples perceived and articulated their social relatedness vis-à-vis one another. According to classical sources, the Scythians (Greek: Skythoi, Latin: Scythii) were subdivided into various tribes as per their places of inhabitation.202 These include the Scythians proper (whose ruling class is sometimes referred to as the ‘Royal Scythians’) of the Pontic region, peoples that came under Hellenic sway. Another major Scythian tribe in classical sources are the Sarmatians/Sauromatians, who inhabited the steppes around the Ural Mountains and the Volga and Don rivers and are sometimes differentiated from one another in archaeological literature. There are also the Massagetae, who inhabited the steppes north-west of the Caspian Sea, as well as the Saka, who appear to have

Immediately east of the present-day borders of Iran is the Transoxiana region of Margiana (now the Mary and Lebap regions of Turkmenistan and the Murghab district of Afghanistan). Margiana was one of the Achaemenid satrapies under Darius I and thereafter part of the Seleucid, Parthian and Sasanian empires. The heart of Margiana is the oasis city of Merv, a centre of civilisation since the Bronze Age (part of the so-called Bactria-Margiana Archaeological Complex) and a major trade mart on the historical Silk Road. From Margiana, well-used and relatively easy routes in antiquity ran north-east to the Ferghana valley. The Ferghana valley, split between the modern states of Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan, forms a natural east-west corridor 300 km in length, north of the Tian-Shan mountains. The fertile Ferghana valley has long been an artery for trade and the movement of peoples between Xinjiang and Central Asia. It was at different times part of the Achaemenid empire, Sogdiana and the Greco-Bactrian kingdom. A main link connecting the Ferghana valley to the oasis city of Kashgar in Xinjiang breaches the juncture of the Tian-Shan and Pamirs at the Irkeshtam pass (3000 m). From Kashgar, a route leads south along the western margin of the Tarim Basin and over the Karakorum pass (and others) to the north-western corner of the Tibetan Plateau, an overland distance of approximately 600 km. From this corner of Tibet, it is another 2000 km along the southern margin of the Tarim

A large-scale mtDNA population history survey demonstrates that the various producers of Scythic material culture shared substantial genetic affinities. Although these producers had multiregional origins, with distinctive western and eastern groups arising independently among them, demographic modelling infers that there was a significant and continuous flow of genes between them in the first millennium BCE. These genetic transfers appear to have been underpinned by westward migrations or gene flow through other means of populations in the second millennium BCE (e.g. Okunev, Karasuk, Mezhovskaya), resulting in all peoples associated with Scythic material culture up to the Volga– Don region having East Asian ancestry. Yamnaya-related peoples of the Western Steppe (Chalcolithic and Early Bronze Age) also appear to have contributed in large measure to the genome of the bearers of Scythic material culture in all regions of their occurrence. See, as above, Unterländer et al. 2017. A more recent population history survey, however, contests the mtDNA-based findings of Unterländer et al. 2017, which point to heavy gene flow between various Scythic groups. This study by (de) Barros Damgaard et al. 2018 endorses instead a Late Bronze Age multiple-origins model with minimal Iron Age inflows. This fundamental difference of opinion on the admixing of Scythic populations is a salient example of still all-too-common discrepancies in the conclusions reached about prehistoric demography (there are a host of technical reasons for these contentions). This forces archaeologists to be extremely cautious in applying the summaries of the implications of population data provided by geneticists to the interpretation of ancient materials and processes. Uncertainties about how much of Scythic material culture was due to the movement of peoples and how much is the result of cultural exchange and socio-political entanglement also permeate the conclusions of another large-scale genetic study conducted by Järve et al. 2019. 202 For an inventory (incomplete) of various Scythic peoples and precursory cultures, see Piotrovsky 1973–74. 201

On Bronze Age seasonal pastoral migrations in highland areas interconnecting North Inner Asia, which underpinned the establishment of overland trade routes first mentioned in written sources ca. 200 BCE, see Frachetti et al. 2017. 200 On trade routes linking Iran to Tibet via Central Asia recorded in Persian geographic texts, see Melikian-Chirvani 2011, pp. 92–96. Melikian-Chirvani (ibid., 97) suggests that these exchange routes in use in the Imperial period are likely to have had long historical precedents, a premise supported by evidence tendered in this work. 199

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Tibetan Silver, Gold and Bronze Objects and the Aesthetics of Animals in the Era before Empire templates were grafted manifold elaborations, the themes, subjects, styles and motifs of the EAS corpus.

originated in the Eastern Steppe but migrated westward to Parthia and southward to India.203 Scythian tribes in classical sources are subdivided into smaller tribes and moieties, demonstrating that ancient authors were aware of the heterogenous nature of these peoples. For example, the Saka are classed by Greek and Roman authors into four distinctive tribes: the Amyrgians, Homodotes, Komedes and Kaspians (P’iankov: 1994).204 Moreover, ‘Massagetae’ appears to be a generic name applied to different populations living in disparate ecological zones and with variable economic systems.

In the Eurasian Animal Style (EAS), creatures both real and fabulous are fashioned through a series of sweeping curves and are variously depicted on the tip of their hooves, bodies flexed, coiled or twisted, and sometimes with heads turned backward. Additionally, animals frequently display arcuate body ornamentation (e.g. volutes, scrolls, whorls, spirals etc.) and wild ungulates are often portrayed with exaggeratedly large horns and antlers with elaborate designs.206 The sinuous outlines and internal motifs of figures reverberate throughout the multifarious corpus of EAS art, a signature aesthetic vocabulary widely distributed in Central Eurasia at the end of the second millennium and in the first millennium BCE. The production of horse gear, funerary goods, ornaments, insignia, ritual implements, tools and weapons with EAS traits was a cultural earmark of Central Eurasia.207 Jettmar (1989: 268, 269) defines the ‘Animal Style’ as art created by nomads from the Eurasian steppes in the seventh to second century BCE, spanning the area from the Pontic region to the north-western marches of China. Jettmar (loc. cit.) remarks that the EAS is not actually a single style, but a decorative system characterised by heads, bodies, eyes, ears, horns, muzzles, hooves and tails of animals ‘rendered in a schematic way’. In the Late Bronze Age, the horned and antlered animals, horses, boars, felines and wolves of the EAS were divorced from the natural world to become conventionalised emblems or icons (Jacobson-Tepfer 2015: 243; Jacobson et al. 2006a: 45).208

Relying on ancient political and ethnographic accounts, archaeologists of the twentieth century identified an interrelated corpus of material-cultural findings from the Western and Central Steppes with the various Scythic peoples. As this material evidence was also being discovered farther east in great quantity in Mongolia, the Altai and Southern Siberia, archaeologists created a new Scythic category called ‘Scytho-Siberian’ to account for the producers of eastern variants. Other cultural groupings in western Gansu, Qinghai and Xinjiang of the first millennium BCE sharing elements of Scythic material culture (such as the Yüeh-chih (Yuezhi), Wusun and roving tribes of the Ordos) were also believed to had have ethnic and linguistic affinities with the mass of peoples called Scythian.205 However, as we shall see, this broad-strokes approach to understanding the ethno-linguistic and cultural complexion of diverse peoples across the continent in the Iron Age has undergone much revision in recent years. The common material bequest of what is referred to as Scythic peoples revolves around the so-called ‘Scythian triad’, comprised of horse gear, weaponry and ‘animal style’ art. These shared types of objects, arts and technologies reflect the spread of equestrian skills and mobile pastoralism beginning in the last quarter of the second millennium BCE. The geographic mobility afforded by the riding horse and an economy founded on enhanced transportability facilitated more pervasive and intensive interactions between many Eurasian peoples, exerting a powerful convergence effect on their sociopolitical and techno-cultural systems. A major current in this continent-wide confluence of peoples, ideas, materials and capacities was the ‘animal style’, alias the ‘Eurasian Animal Style ’ (EAS). This diverse assortment of interrelated artistic traditions consists of zoomorphic representation conceived and designed on curvilinear schemata expressed in various media, including gold, stone, wood, bronze, bone, felt etc. Upon incurvate

The stylisation of animals characterised by the common decorative traits described was the most influential and pervasive of aesthetic and symbolic systems in zoomorphic art at the end of the second millennium BCE and throughout most of the first millennium BCE. Yet, beyond the graphic commonalities reviewed, art labelled ‘Eurasian Animal Style’ varies significantly in the themes and styles presented and in the modes of representing them, the product of diverse cultures with variable territorial, linguistic and ethnic affiliations.209 The producers, users and transmitters of EAS art were primarily mobile pastoralists (nomadic and semi-nomadic), but also agro-pastoralists, agriculturalists, horticulturalists, foragers and others.210 The florescence of For a discussion of these kinds of EAS motifs, see Francfort 1998. For a discussion of this topic, see Bunker 2002 pp. 7–16. 208 According to Jacobson-Tepfer (2015: 369), in the Late Bronze Age and Early Iron Age, death was conceived of in terms of the violence of predation: the renewal of life that depended on naturalism was replaced by extreme stylisation in objects reflective of status and wealth. Relying on the Tibetan archaic funerary tradition as a touchstone, the violence of which Jacobson-Tepfer speaks might be viewed as an enactment of the eschatological struggle between infernal beings and the deceased (Bellezza 2008; 2013). 209 There are various scholarly interpretations of what constitutes EAS art, some of which extends beyond the graphic parameters set forth in this work. These alternative styles of zoomorphic art are not included in the discussion and analysis of the EAS in this work. 210 In the middle and late Bronze Age, grains such as wheat, barley and millet were either cultivated or traded in Xinjiang, south-eastern Kazakhstan and the Minusinsk Basin and became staple foods in these regions in the Early Iron Age. See Honeychurch 2015, p. 138 (citing 206 207

203 For a largely hypothetical reconstruction of the complex migrations of the Saka derived from classical sources, see P’iankov 1994. The social, environmental, economic and political pressures behind these migrations are only dimly understood. 204 Old Persian:  Sakā; Sanskrit: Śaka, Greek: Sakai; Latin: Sacae; Chinese: Sai. A recent study of the population history of Scythic peoples, which entailed the large-scale genotyping of ancient human remains, has discovered genetic variations in Saka groups of Central Asia and Inner Asia, supporting the confederal makeup of their social organisation ((de) Barros Damgaard 2018 et al.). 205 For example, Sher (1988: 48) lumps together the Massagetae, Issedonians, Yüeh-chih and others of the Eastern Steppe as Saka tribes.

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To and from Iran the EAS is associated by some researchers with the rise of the primacy of warriors and epic heroes, as seen in the decorative lineaments of horse harnesses, weapons, tattoos, decorative plaques, jewellery, clothing etc. (Bokovenko 1995b: 292). In mobile pastoral societies of that time the exchange of prestige goods was an important tool for cementing relations between rulers and their followers (Stark 2012: 109, citing Togan). The obtainment of luxury goods was crucial in the political culture of the ruling classes of sundry peoples in Central Eurasia, helping to account for the pervasive diffusion of EAS objects.

BCE). Jacobson-Tepfer speculates that some early nomads must have left their Eastern Steppe homeland at the end of the Bronze Age, bringing the riding horse and the Scythian triad as far as the Black Sea. Yablonsky (2000: 5, 6) observes that the Scythian triad was a powerful symbol of prestige in various material, religious and cultural orders, encapsulating the anthropological specificities of the peoples who adopted it. Bashilov and Yablonsky (2000: 10, 11) add that there are many cultural differences, even in each location in Central Eurasia, as typified by highly variable ceramic assemblages. For example, in the single Southern Siberian region of Tuva, Bokovenko (1995a: 259) cautions that the material culture evidence does not permit a determination of whether it was home to a single culture or multiple cultures in the Scythic period. As more recent research has indicated, variable settlement patterns in the greater region are diagnostic of significant cultural diversity and encompass nomadic, semi-nomadic and more sedentary economic systems. Yablonsky (2000), coming to grips with the fallacy of a cultural and ethnic unity over the vast Eurasian hinterland associated with the Scythians, proposes that common technological and artistic features be referred to as the ‘Eurasian Cultural Continuum of the Scythian Epoch’.

In addition to the Eurasian steppes, corollaries of the EAS spread to southern territories abutting the steppes, including Iran,211 the Tarim Basin, the Tibetan Plateau, Northern Zone and China. As Rogozhinsky (2004) states, ‘the process of [artistic] homogenization that characterizes this period is evidence of a major socio-economical change connected with an irreversible growth of human interaction all over the Central Asian steppes’. By the late twentieth century, archaeology had progressed sufficiently to show that the concept of a Scythian triad was ineffective in differentiating cultural, regional and chronological distinctions in the archaeological record of Central Eurasia. As Watson noted (1972: 142), ‘the term “Scythic” has been used … to denote a group of basic traits which characterize material culture from the fifth to the first century B.C. in the whole zone stretching from the Transpontine steppe to the Ordos, and without ethnic connotation’.

At the time Yablonsky (2000) was writing, much analysis of the Scythian question was overly dependent on the concept of ‘ethnic culture’ or ‘culture of the ethnos’. It is now better appreciated that ethnic bounds are difficult to adduce utilising archaeological and molecular data, for cultures can be multiethnic and peoples sharing the same genetic makeup may belong to more than one culture. Moreover, ethnic composition can shift over the lifetime of a material-cultural manifestation through demic amalgamation or the attenuation of subgroups within it. Much of this holds true for language: analogous sets of material-cultural assemblages may represent one or more languages, which are difficult to detect without complementary epigraphic or textual evidence.

According to Bashilov and Yablonsky (2000: 10, 11), the striking typological parallels in artistic traditions of Eurasian cultures in the Early Iron Age, such as the Scythian triad, can be accounted for by stockbreeders having inherited interrelated cultural traditions from antecedent Bronze Age peoples, similar ecological conditions and comparable stages of socio-economic development. Jacobson-Tepfer (2001a: 52 n. 9) adds that while the cultural affiliations of nomads in the Late Bronze Age are unclear, in the Eastern Steppe they included earlier transitional groups such as the Karasuk (ca. 1400–900

From the foregoing analysis it becomes clear that there was no single Scythian cultural complex or ethnicity, or even merely an amalgam of Scythian-related peoples in Central Eurasia. Although we now know that the ethnological picture in the first millennium BCE was a good deal more complex and heavily dependent on antecedent cultural structures in each locale, a complete picture of the cultural mosaic of Central Eurasia in the Iron Age is still elusive. Questions of ethnic and linguistic affiliation are likely to linger even longer,212 as signals for them in material

Svyatko et al., Li et al., Murphy et al., Miller-Rosen et al., Frachetti et al. and Doumani et al.). These grains were introduced to Mongolia in the same period (Honeychurch 2015: 138, citing Machicek and Machicek and Zubova). Frachetti (2011: 202–04) observes that, like models resolving Bronze Age settlement patterns, those for the Iron Age often posit climate deterioration as a motive force behind extensive migration to justify significant changes in material culture. Not infrequently, Iron Age models attribute hegemonic tendencies to the Cimmerians, Scythians, Saka and Xiongnu etc. (ibid., 203, 204). However, increasing evidence for agriculture in the Scythian era calls into question the role of migration in accounting for material-cultural changes. For example, Saka-Wusun populations in south-eastern Kazakhstan are now known to have practised grain cultivation in alluvial fans (ibid., 204). For a review of this palaeobotanical evidence, see ibid., p. 204; Chang 2018, pp. 52–57. 211 Kantor (1957: 2), aside from what was adopted from West Asia, characterises Achaemenid art as a kind of animal style (but also with cultural scenes and vegetation) in which the stylisation of figures and unnatural poses predominate. The use of animal heads and other body segments is typical of both Scythic and Achaemenid art and atypical of Middle Eastern art (ibid., 10, 11, 21).

It is generally thought that in the first millennium BCE Scythian and related languages were used over a vast territory, extending from the Pontic region to western China. Middle Iranian languages attested in the first millennium CE include Scythian, Sarmatian, Sogdian, Bactrian, Choresmian, Parthian, Bukharan, perhaps Ferghanan and a host of Pamir languages. See, as above, Ivan M. Steblin-Kamenskij, ‘Central Asia xiii. Iranian languages’, Encyclopædia Iranica, V/2-3, pp. 223–26: www. iranicaonline.org/articles/central-asia-xiii (accessed on March 20, 2018). According to Mallory (2010: 46), the sub-branch of Eastern Iranian languages to which the Saka belonged includes Sogdian, Bactrian and Avestan.

212

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Tibetan Silver, Gold and Bronze Objects and the Aesthetics of Animals in the Era before Empire records are often inconclusive or even contradictory. What can be stated is that various pastoral and warrior peoples on horseback as well as others sharing material-cultural commonalities such as the Scythian triad were involved in short- and long-distance migrations, alliance-building and expanding exchange networks in a land mass extending from Mongolia to the Black Sea.

163–73, 205, 364, 379–83, 386). According to Hemphill and Mallory (2004: 216, 217), the Saka were either direct descendants of an Andronovo population from the Central Steppe or an Andronovo group alloyed with local populations from western Tajikistan, the Ferghana valley and possibly the western Tian-Shan.215 The Saka are commonly thought to have been Iranicspeaking peoples who originally resided in the Eastern Steppe and the Tarim Basin before moving westward.216 However, as Francfort et al. (1992: 147) remark, archaeological findings indicate that Saka migrations were more complex than the literary sources indicate. According to Yablonsky (1995a: 222) a distinct ‘Mongoloid’ component in the Saka populations of the lower Syr Darya river region strongly suggests eastern genetic links. This discerning of Mongoloid elements in the Syr Darya region was calculated through craniometric analysis,217 but is supported by state-of-the-art molecular studies such as those already cited. Archaeological evidence confirms cultural contacts with eastern regions, underpinned by Bronze Age cultural and ethnic ties of the Syr Darya region to northern Kazakhstan and Southern Siberia (loc. cit.).218 Archaeological evidence for the Saka in Bactria and Xinjiang includes burial mounds (kurgans), artefacts and petroglyphs.

Many peoples in Central Eurasia bearing the EAS in the first millennium BCE were dependent on stock-rearing economies, which required varying degrees of mobility and the use of portable dwellings. Other participant cultures engaged in farming, foraging, hunting and trade, in which nomadism and/or sedentarism played a role. The economic life of these sundry peoples was moulded by multivariate environmental factors. Even just the north-eastern quadrant of Central Eurasia, North Inner Asia, enjoys a wide range of biomes including arid deserts, desert steppe, steppe grasslands, steppe forests, alpine meadows, taiga, deltas etc.,213 which were suited to disparate subsistence strategies. Changing climatic conditions in the Late Bronze Age and Iron Age were also a determinate in the economic development of peoples across Central Eurasia. Moreover, the equestrian, bronze-using peoples of Central Eurasia in the first millennium BCE possessed socio-political organisations of increasing complexity, endowing them with a growing capacity to coordinate military, political and economic activities over wide areas.214 Political alliances and confederations for administrative and military purposes grew, culminating in the Xiongnu empire of the late first millennium BCE.

The two beads in Fig. 5.1 are described as made of white agate with soda-induced designs from India, which indicates long-distance trade (Yablonsky 1995a: 218 (Fig. 50)). These etched beads were recovered along with a wealth of other objects from a burial identified as belonging to Saka tribes in Tagisken. However, only a drawing of the two patterned agate beads is provided in Yablonsky’s work. In terms of their shape and the designs of ‘eyes’

Saka agency in the expansion of zoomorphic art in North Asia Of all the so-called Scythic groups, the ones of most interest to this study are the Saka, for they occupied or passed through the northern corridor linking Iran with the Tibetan Plateau. Even after Darius’ victory over the Saka in 519 or 518 BCE, they remained a potent political and cultural force in the greater region. The Saka were not culturally and ethnically homogenous tribes. They were also economically diverse, practising sedentary, nomadic and semi-nomadic lifeways. Their economic strategies were differentiated through adaptation to local ecological conditions, but with the uptake of common materialcultural components such as horse harness accoutrements, objects in the EAS, certain types of weapons and bronze cauldrons (Yablonsky 1995c: 242–44). The Saka tribes are thought to have arisen from various Bronze Age populations, with the Andronovo cultural complex having played a large role (Kuz’mina 2007, pp. xiv, 50, 51, 78, 79,

A genomic survey of the ancestry and demography of human remains associated with Scythic material culture in Central Asia corroborates the large demic contribution made by the Andronovo and other Bronze Age groups (Unterländer et al. 2017). The findings of this study underscore the heterogeneity of the Saka (and other Scythic populations). As might be expected, the Bronze Age cultural patrimony undergirding art attributed to Saka groups has a strong genetic component. Another recent genetic study has found that the ancestry of the Saka of the Central Asian steppe and Tian-Shan and the Tagar of Southern Siberia (ca. eighth to second century BCE) is comprised of Late Bronze Age pastoralists as well as hunter-forager groups from Southern Siberia ((de) Barros Damgaard et al. 2018). There is also a smaller genetic component related to a Neolithic population from Iran in the ancestry of the Tian-Shan Saka (ibid.). 216 There are Greek, Iranian, Indian and Chinese sources for the study of the Saka. On historical accounts of the Saka in Central Asia, see Yablonsky 1995b. For a review of the history of the Saka and related tribes in Chinese literary sources, see Wang 1987, pp. 32, 33. 217 Frachetti (2011: 204, 205) rightfully questions the efficacy of multivariate craniometric studies due to the use a priori of heuristic cultural categories to organise taxonomic skeletal traits, potentially separating or combining related populations by masking biological variability in a single population. 218 Regarding the variable development of steppe pastoralism from the fourth to the second millennium BCE, Frachetti (2012) calls one of the main conduits of North Inner Asian communications the ‘Inner Asian Mountain Corridor’, extending from the Trans-Oxus to the Pamirs, Tien-Shan and Altai. Perhaps this zone should more accurately be called the ‘Inner Asian Mountain and Basin Corridor’. Frachetti’s geographic sphere of interrelations does not encompass the southern Tarim Basin, but for the second millennium BCE it probably should. 215

213 For a description of the ecological zones in North Inner Asia, see Honeychurch 2015, pp. 80–86. 214 The rise of more elaborate social hierarchies in this era is seen primarily as a response to the adoption of mobile pastoralism, facilitating the building of exchange networks over wide areas (Chang 2018: 10, citing Koryakova and Epimakhov, Kuzmina, Anthony, Hanks, Frachetti and Cunliffe).

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To and from Iran Tillya-Tepe (Golden Mound) is a prominent example of Saka cultural and economic leverage in regions interposed between Iran and Tibet. This burial mound (80 m in diameter and 4 m in height) situated in northern Afghanistan (Bactria) was excavated in 1978.221 It is the source of a hoard of over 20,000 gold objects recovered from six burial chambers, displaying Hellenistic, Iranian, Parthian, Sarmatian and Saka characteristics, dating from ca. first century BCE to first century CE (cf. Neelis 2007: 64). Tillya-Tepe also boasted artefacts originating in or influenced by the Mediterranean, India and China. There are gold objects from the site that depict female figures identified as ‘mistress of animals’ (Neelis 2007: 64, citing Pugachenkova and Rempel and Sarianidi). In the crown ornament pictured in Fig. 5.2 both Achaemenid and steppe artistic influences are visible.222 The central anthropomorphic figure and flanking creatures have an aspect reminiscent of Luristan masters and mistresses of animals, furnishing a spatial (and perhaps temporal) intermediary point between cognate themes in Luristan bronzes and Tibetan copper-alloy ring fibulae and the gold finial in the Pine collection.

Fig. 5.1. Two artificially patterned agate beads recovered from a burial in Tagisken, Syr Darya, Uzbekistan. Dated to ca. seventh to fifth century BCE. Drawing by Rebecca C. Bellezza, after Yablonsky 1995a, p. 218 (Fig. 50).

and lines, these beads seem more typical of Afghan and Tibetan examples,219 not etched carnelian beads of the Indus Valley (Harrapan) type. Other affinities with Tibetan objects in the same Syr Darya burial include copper-alloy socketed trilobate arrowheads, small strap buckles and a four-jointed bridle piece.220 These bronze objects and agate beads trace pathways of communications, trade, diplomacy and probably more symbolic kinds of exchange with the Eastern Steppe, but possibly extending to the Tibetan Plateau as well. The Amyrgian Saka were dislodged from the Tian-Shan by the Great Yüeh-chih and moved west to Bactria; some of this tribe also pushed south through the Pamirs and Hindu Kush in the late second century BCE, while others reached India in the mid-first century BCE (P’iankov 1994: 38). The hand of the Saka is writ large in objects from the famous hordes known as the Oxus Treasure and Golden Mound, demonstrating that they were key agents in interregional exchange. These hordes underline the role played by the Saka in the transcultural artistic and technological development of the northern arc of territory between Iran and Tibet. Saka dominance was bolstered by their control of trade centres along the network of exchange joining Central Asia to the Iranian borderlands and North-west India (Neelis 2011: 109). The Oxus Treasure (ca.  late first millennium BCE) was discovered in southern Tajikistan in the late nineteenth century. Fewer than two hundred gold and silver objects survive, many now housed in the British Museum (among the most famous of its holdings is an Achaemenid gold bowl dated to the fifth or fourth century BCE). Objects from the Oxus Treasure embody Achaemenid, Parthian and Central Asian Saka influences, the horde a banner for international art and design. The Oxus Treasure contained many objects with Central Asian EAS-influenced representations (Neelis 2007: 63, 64, citing Dalton, Jettmar and Schlitz). Some of these objects with artistic features characteristic of the steppes may have been produced in the cities of Bactria and Sogdiana for trade with nomadic elites (Stark 2012: 111).

Fig. 5.2. A crown ornament (12.5 cm × 6.5 cm) from TillyaTepe, ca. first century BCE to first century CE. National Museum of Afghanistan. The central figure in nomadic dress reaches out to the pair of horned dragon-like animals rising on either side of it. The crest, wings and tails of the creatures and the long dress of the central figure are adorned with teardrop-shaped and crescent-shaped turquoise inlays. Below these figures, circular hangings (some with inlays) are interconnected through a series of chains (these are not illustrated). Several kinds of semi-precious stones were used in the decoration of this object. Drawing by Aado Phuntsok Palden. On this site and its treasures, see Sarianidi 1985. For a photograph of this figure, see Davis Kimball 2000, p. 237 (Fig. 18); Hazara International Network: http://www.hazarapeople. com/fa/?p=3496. Davis-Kimball (loc. cit.) characterises the central figure as a mistress of animals controlling two mythological creatures, and stylistically relates the object to Pazyryk, the Saka animal style of Kazakhstan, and Greco-Bactrian art. According to Francfort (2011: 96, 97 (Fig. 20)), this object with its mistress of animals figure ultimately derives from Greece and was transmitted to Greco-Parthian and IndoParthian iconographic traditions before probably being embedded into a steppe or Bactrian cultural framework.

221 222

219 Called gzi and mchong in Tibetan, artificially and naturally patterned agate and carnelian beads constitute distinctive classes of objects on the Plateau. On these beads, see, for example, Ebbinghouse and Winsten 1988; Lin 2001; Xiaoli Zhu 2017; January 2016 Flight of the Khyung. 220 For a more comprehensive list of copper-alloy objects discovered in Scythic burials of the Central and Eastern Steppes with Tibetan analogues, see March 2016 Flight of the Khyung; Bellezza 2008, pp. 99–106; 2020b, ch. 7.

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Tibetan Silver, Gold and Bronze Objects and the Aesthetics of Animals in the Era before Empire The Oxus Treasure and Golden Mound assemblages indicate a central role for the various peoples known as Saka in the interchange of cultural and technological knowledge across the belt of deserts, steppes and mountains joining Iran to areas north of the Tibetan Plateau. Nonetheless, a more direct, widely distributed and well-developed material-cultural link bridging the geographical divide between North Inner Asia, Northern Pakistan and the Tibetan Plateau is rock art; specifically, that in the intertwined modes of art belonging to the EAS. This body of rock art appears in several interrelated genres at dozens of sites in Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, and Tajikistan. However, an integrated inventory has not yet been published. It is generally supposed that EAS petroglyphs in Central Asia, given their location, style and imputed age, are attributable to shared material-cultural traditions identified as Saka.

Fig. 5.3. An ibex petroglyph with three volutes ornamenting the body and long, curving horns in a style attributed to the Saka, ca. middle to late first millennium BCE. Cholpon-Ata, Kyrgyzstan. Drawing by Aado Phuntsok Palden.

Viewed as a mosaic of cultures, polities and populations, the Saka were the prime medium of dispersal for EAS rock art along the northern arc of territory linking Iran to the Tibetan Plateau, from ca. 800 to 200 BCE. Effected through the intensification of socio-political entanglements and the formation of confederations of equestrian peoples in the first millennium BCE, the advance of EAS rock art of the Saka type can be seen as a transcultural phenomenon. Varying cultural orders exchanging and communicating with one another account for the strong aesthetic correlates of ‘Saka’ rock art. A finer-grained ethnological analysis of the peoples involved in the dissemination of EAS rock art in the Central Asian republics awaits a more complete picture of the ethno-linguistic attributes attached to Saka material culture.

Fig. 5.4. A deer petroglyph with branching antlers and S-shaped body motif in a style attributed to the Saka, ca. middle to late first millennium BCE. Arpauzen, southern Kazakhstan. Drawing by Aado Phuntsok Palden.

The ibex carving shown in Fig. 5.3, in an EAS equated with the Saka, is located on the north shore of Lake Issyk-kul, Kyrgyzstan.223 It is part of a group of ibexes at Cholpon-Ata that have large curving horns arching over their body and are ornamented with volutes, spirals and angular lines.224 The ostensible deer petroglyph depicted in Fig. 5.4, belonging to a different branch of the EAS, is found in Arpauzen, southern Kazakhstan, 1000 km northwest of Issyk-Kul.225 There are many other rock sites with EAS petroglyphs tied to the Saka in Kyrgyzstan

and Kazakhstan, betokening the thorough dissemination of this artistic tradition in the region.226 Although not as common, rock art in allied styles is also found in Uzbekistan and Tajikistan.227 Rock art consisting of an 226 Other important rock art sites with EAS petroglyphs associated with the Saka in southern, central and eastern Kazakhstan include Tamgaly (17 km north-west of Almaty City); Alatau-Eshkiolmes (in the Kazakhstan portion of Dzungaria), Kulzhabasy, Sholakzhideli and Akterek (Zhambyl region); Talas, Besoba and Kalmakemel (Karaganda region); and Moldazhar valley (situated 100 km south-east of Ayaguz City). See Rogozhinskiy 2011, pp. 11, 12, 15, 17, 19, 20, 22, 25, 26, 35, 39. Some of the small body of rather crude Saka-attributed rock art at the Tamgaly site was superimposed on petroglyphs from the Bronze Age (Rogozhinsky (sic) 2004). See also Rozwadowski and Lymer 2012, p. 159. Rogozhinsky (ibid.), commenting on rock art identified as Saka in Kazakhstan, states, ‘The Saka petroglyphs … represent a major turn of culture witnessed by the sudden drastic contraction of the repertoire of subjects and styles [and] the rise of a theatrical visual concern absent in the Bronze Age petroglyphs.’ For a map of rock art sites in the Central Asian republics, see Rogozhinsky 2008, p. 85. 227 EAS rock art associated with the Saka is found in Arkar, northwestern Uzbekistan and at the Sarmishsay site, Zarafshan valley, central Uzbekistan (Khujanazarov 2011: 101, 104). It is reported that there are more than 140 rock art sites in Uzbekistan, with EAS petroglyphs among a number of them (Rozwadowski 2001: 1–3; Miklashevich 2008: 167). In north-western Tajikistan, EAS rock art occurs at Soi Sabagh in the Gornaya Mathca District, Sogd province (Bobomulloev 2011: 88).

223 For the ibex and a group of ibexes in the same style (together with hunters and carnivores on a single bolder) in an EAS associated with the Saka at Cholpon-Ata, see: http://kgnature.com/?page_id=220&lang =en#prettyphoto[fancygallery-1-12]/0/; http://paleolithic-neolithic.com/ data/documents/Cholpon-Ata.pdf. See also October 2014 Flight of the Khyung, Fig. 1. 224 Petroglyphs at Cholpon-Ata linked to the Saka also include goat and deer subjects (Amanbaeva et al. 2011: 51). In the Iron Age, semi-nomadic pastoralism became prominent in the Ferghana valley and the EAS was also introduced in the zoomorphic repertoire of the huge rock art site of Saimaluu Tash (over 100,000 carvings), Kyrgyzstan (Baumer 2017: 28; Amanbaeva et al. 2011: 53). Saimaluu Tash is situated 300 km southwest of Cholpon-Ata. Another rock art site in Kyrgyzstan with EAS rock art associated with the Saka is Ayrymach-Too (in Kara-Su District, Osh Province; ibid., 63). 225 For this petroglyph, see October 2014 Flight of the Khyung, Fig. 2; Rozwadowski 2001, p. 3. According to Rogozhinskiy (2011: 28), EAS rock art subjects identified as Saka at Arpauzen include deer, wild boar and bear.

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To and from Iran ibex on the tip of its hooves identified as belonging to the EAS of the Saka type has also been documented at Tope Khane above Khandut village, Wakhan, Afghanistan.228 However, this ibex petroglyph exhibits only minimal body ornamentation. The site of Tope Khane is roughly equidistant between EAS rock art in north-western Tajikistan and Northern Pakistan, narrowing the gap between nodes in the network of diffusion of EAS artistic traditions in North Inner Asia and the northern fringes of the Indian Subcontinent.

groups.230 The presence of EAS art on the Tibetan Plateau also appears to be a marker of social and political convergence, whereby Bodic peoples became embrangled in intellectual and practical exigencies buffeting North Inner Asia. The broad array of burial goods and rock art attributed to the Saka track well-trodden pathways of material exchange and cultural interaction in Margiana–Bactria and the steppes of Central Asia during much of the first millennium BCE. This evidence highlights traditions of significant weight and reach, a cosmopolitanism reflected in the art and industry of the wider region. Peoples subsumed under the label Saka were instrumental in circulating cultural and technological knowledge in Margiana–Bactria and the Central Steppe, which was of sufficient intensity to spill onto the Tibetan Plateau. As we have seen in this chapter, objects and rock art from Central Asia produced or handled by the Saka have aesthetic and functional affinities to Tibetan ones. Now that the pathways of Saka material culture north and east of Iran have been laid out, in the next chapter we turn south, to a continuation of the same avenues of transmission. Although these artistic and technological conduits did not necessarily originate in Iran, Iran was a western terminus of Saka expansion and influence. Similarly, the north-western and north-eastern extensions of the Tibetan Plateau were an eastern terminus of Saka cultural clout.

EAS petroglyph sites of Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan constitute many geographic nodes arrayed along a network of exchange underlying this complemental aesthetic tradition during much of the first millennium BCE. This artistic dissemination in sundry forms stretched eastward to encompass Mongolia, Southern Siberia, the Northern Zone, Northern Pakistan, the Western Tibetan Plateau and North-east Tibet. This broad geographic ambit is indicative of an epic movement in art and design spurred on by intellectual and affective factors underlying social and political forces of significant magnitude and cogency. Rock art in the spectrum of EAS artistic traditions located at various sites in Northern Pakistan, Ladakh and Spiti, as well as in North-west and North-east Tibet, appears in several branches (each differing in decorative details and in the selection of subjects). In many respects, however, this rock art is comparable to that in Central Asia, as well as to that in Mongolia and the Northern Zone.229 As in North Inner Asia, the ibex is a popular subject in the EAS of Northern Pakistan and Ladakh. In Spiti there are striped felines in this outstanding form of artistic expression in Sum-mdo. In Ru-thog, North-west Tibet, the ibex is replaced by the antelope, exhibiting an analogous parallel curvilinear schema and embellishments. On the Western Tibetan Plateau, there are several hundred examples of petroglyphs in the EAS made in the Iron Age and Protohistoric period. Bearers of EAS rock art such as the Saka and their early Tibetan counterparts were active over a wide sweep of Inner Asia, which presupposes cultural and technological communications between northern territories and the Plateau. These communications are reflected in common artistic models, customs and conventions, evidence it seems for ideological interactions between far-flung See Mock 2018, p. 294 (Figs. 15, 16). Mock (ibid., 295–97) observes that rock art subjects at the Tope Khane site exhibit motifs associated with Saka hunting groups, such as the gorytus (case for short recurve bow). Mock (2013) discusses the prospect of Saka and other Scythic influences in the rock art of Wakhan, commenting that horsemen shooting composite bows at a gallop hint at a Scythic presence in the region. While some of the wild yaks illustrated in Mock’s work are very close in form to those on the Western Tibetan Plateau, none of the rock art illustrated has the arcuate motifs of special interest to this study. 229 The heterogenous nature of the EAS that spread all over Inner Asia (e.g. ones from Northern Pakistan are not the same as those of Tibet) was noted by Francfort et al. (1992: 173). 228

230 Small carved stone objects (lids and cylinder seals) with horses from Achaemenid Bactria can be related to rock art from Northern Pakistan, and tigers on these objects to tigrine petroglyphs from Yinshan (straddling the Inner Mongolia–Hebei border) and various sites in Mongolia, Kazakhstan and Southern Siberia. This wide-ranging art in diverse media shares a number of commonalities in style and form. See Francfort 2002, pp. 67, 68, 69 (Figs. 10–22). The EAS lithic materials studied by Francfort highlight artistic interconnections between Bactria, Northern Pakistan, the Eastern Steppe and the Northern Zone in the Iron Age.

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6 To Tibet: Bearers of the Eurasian Animal Style in Northern Pakistan and North Inner Asia Saka art in the Pamirs and Northern Pakistan

Pakistan are often referred to as ‘small cauldrons’ in academic literature. The upper specimen illustrated in Fig. 6.1 has a spheroidal body, incised cross-strokes on the rim, two horizontally fixed loop handles, and a false spout projecting from the body of the vessel in between the handles. This spout appears to be in the form of a horse protome. The vessel was discovered in a hoard in Ishkhuman, Northern Pakistan (Jettmar 1967: 74, Fig. 18; Litvinskij 2002: 128, 129). This miniature cauldron is composed of more than 99 per cent copper with traces of tin; radiocarbon analyses of the contents has yielded a date in the second half of first millennium BCE (Litvinskij, loc. cit.). Jettmar notes that the Gilgit vessel is very similar to a jar with a faux spout terminating in a raptor head unearthed in the Aličur necropolis, in the Pamirs (Jettmar 1967: 74; 1991: 6 (Fig. 2)).232 Along with the Pamirian small cauldron, a bronze rhyton was recovered that may belong to a slightly later archaeological context (Litvinskij 2002: 128, 130, citing Boardman). During Litvinskij’s excavations of Saka sites in Aličur, four small cast cauldrons made of copper were discovered, and a

This chapter explores the lines of geographic progression involved in the transference of artistic traditions of the Pamirs, Northern Pakistan, Tarim Basin and Northern Zone to the Tibetan Plateau. These exogenous processes had a profound impact on the development of metalworking and rock art traditions in Tibet. By tracing the flows of the Eurasian Animals Style (EAS), we set the stage for a more refined understanding of how foreign peoples and influences contributed to the conception and fabrication of the Tibetan silver, gold and copper-alloy objects central to this study. Tribes identified as the Saka in Bactria and the Tarim Basin penetrated southward into North-west India, giving rise to the Indo-Scythians, a major ruling dynasty on the Indian Subcontinent in the first century BCE and first century CE.231 The series of southern migrations undertaken by the Saka in the late first millennium BCE appear to have been underpinned by long-term interactions between different Saka groups and peoples of the northern fringes of the Indian Subcontinent. Jettmar (1967: 148) thinks that Saka tribes dwelling in the Pamirs since ca. eighth to seventh century BCE had close relations with Gilgit before Saka encroachment farther south on the Indian Subcontinent. P’iankov (1994: 42) places one Saka tribal group, the Kaspians, in Kashmir, Gilgit, Chitral, Badakhshan and Wakhan from the sixth to the second century BCE and relates them to the Burusho of Northern Pakistan. Litvinskij (2002: 148) maintains that the Saka may have mixed with more ancient Iranian populations in Northern Pakistan that were also impacted by the Achaemenids and possibly early Dardic tribes. Neelis (2007: 57, citing Frye 1963) opines that the Saka were probably differentiated from their sedentary neighbours by a mobile way of life rather than their language or ethnicity. This is a good way of reading the available archaeological evidence for the Saka in Northern Pakistan because the material-cultural record does not yet resolve questions concerning the relationship between common economic patterns and ethno-linguistic affiliations.

Fig. 6.1. Two animal-spouted jars (after Jettmar 1967, Fig. 18). Top: copper jar with false spout ending in what appears to be the head and neck of an equid (5.9 cm in height, 8.1 cm in diameter), Ishkhuman, Gakuch region of Gilgit, Northern Pakistan. Second half of the first millennium BCE. Bottom: copper-alloy jar with false spout terminating in the form of a raptor protome (rim 6 cm in diameter, 6 cm in height), Aličur II, Kurgan 3, eastern Pamirs, Tajikistan. Dated ca. fourth or third century BCE. Digital drawing by Aado Phuntsok Palden.

The two vessels in Fig. 6.1 are part of a class of copper jars discovered in the Pamirs and Northern Pakistan. The animal-spouted vessels among them are invaluable in tracing interactions between these two regions during the Saka era. The jars found in the Pamirs and Northern 231 For a review of the archaeological and historical evidence for Saka migrations to North-west India, see Neelis 2011, pp. 110–15. Neelis (2007: 61, 62) outlines three possible migration routes used by the Saka to reach India: 1) via the Pamirs and Karakorum to Swat and Gandhara, 2) via the Hindu Kush to Taxila and Punjab, and 3) via south-eastern Iran to the Sindh.

Litvinskij (2002: 139–42) identifies the bird-head spout as that of a griffin and relates it to Egyptian, Assyrian, Hittite, Mitannian, preAchaemenid and other kinds of art, ranging from 3000 BCE to the seventh century BCE. A more parsimonious interpretation rests upon griffin art in Scythic cultures of the Iron Age.

232

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Tibetan Silver, Gold and Bronze Objects and the Aesthetics of Animals in the Era before Empire the Pamirs bear some resemblance to the duck-spouted ceramic jar of the Ziwiye hoard in north-western Iran (see Fig. 3.12) and the Tibetan copper-alloy bird-spouted jars in private collections (see Figs. 3.1–3.6). These Iranian and Tibetan jars geographically bookend the Pamir and Hindu Kush examples, suggesting that the genesis of spouted varieties of miniature cauldrons was not the result of a single transfer from one region to another. It is more likely that the animal-spouted cauldrons drew inspiration from various cultural sources and arose through the synthesis of diverse artistic and technical elements. What is clear is that the ceramic jar from the Ziwiye hoard is much more like the Tibetan copper-alloy jar than either is to the copper jars of Gilgit and the Pamirs. The Iranian and Tibetan bird-spouted jars allude to the complicated nature of long-distance transmissions in which analogous forms manifested in unconnected regions but not necessarily in conterminous ones.

fifth in the Dushanbe museum also comes from the Pamirs (Litvinskij 2002: 130–33). Of all the jars or miniature cauldrons from the Pamirs, the spouted one from Aličur II, Kurgan 3, dated ca. fourth or third century BCE (Litvinskij 2002: 131, 133, 134), is closest in form to the specimen from Gilgit. Likewise, Litvinskij dates the Gilgit vessel to the fourth or third century BCE (ibid., 133, 134). He believes that the Gilgit and Pamir spouted jars may have been made in the Pamirs, but more likely in the Ferghana valley (ibid., 136). These jars were not for household usage, but probably served an important ritual function (ibid., 136–39). Miniature cauldrons are also found in the Eurasian Steppe in regions such as Southern Siberia, where they continued to be produced as late as the second century BCE to first century CE (ibid., 134, 135); however, Scytho-Siberian and Sarmatian bronze cauldrons have dissimilar features.233 Litvinskij (ibid., 147 (Fig. 5)) observes that bronze objects with comparable EAS recumbent ungulates are known in the Pamirs and Gilgit.

Litvinskij (2002: 130, 148) believes that the copper jars of the Pamirs and Gilgit in Fig. 6.1 reflect ethno-historical ties springing from Saka tribes living in the Pamirs since the eighth or seventh century BCE, which began moving southward into Northern Pakistan. Many small copperalloy objects in declensions of the Eurasian Animal Style (EAS) have also been discovered in the Pamirs and Northern Pakistan.234 Like the copper jars of both regions discussed above, these objects serve as footprints along pathways of exchange and migration followed by Sakarelated peoples, linking North Inner Asia with the Indian Subcontinent in the Iron Age.235 Jettmar (1989: 259, 260) observes that the bronze plaque with S-shaped body decoration purchased in Indus Kohistan shown in Fig. 6.2

Litvinskij (2002: 135, 136) speculates that the copper spouted jars of Gilgit and the Pamirs were influenced by Southern Siberia, the Altai and Semirechiye in the sixth century BCE. However, similar vessels have not been documented in those regions. Although the Eurasian Animal Style (EAS) decorations on the copper jars of Gilgit and the Pamirs do point to the north and north-east, the false animal spouts may have been of pre-Achaemenid inspiration. The spouted jars discovered in Gilgit and 233 Copper and copper-alloy cauldrons of various types were produced widely in Eurasia beginning in the Late Bronze Age. In the Iron Age, spheroidal cauldrons with two horizontal loop handles placed near the top of the vessel are associated with so-called Scythic cultures in many parts of Central Eurasia. Examples have been excavated from burial complexes in Tuva, but they are rare (Bokovenko 1995b: 279, 280 (Fig. 35)). These vessels appear to have had both utilitarian and religious functions. The appearance of cognate copper-alloy cauldrons in Xinjiang are a major sign of cultural change in the early first millennium BCE, which is associated with the rise and spread of the mobile pastoral way of life in Eurasia (Mei 2003: 53). These vessels are generally deep and have spherical shapes, and some have a narrow conical foot. For bronze cauldrons from the Western Steppe and Xinjiang that are very close in form (high conical foot and two loop handles extending well above the rim), see Wu Guo 2009, p. 112. The mostly plain cauldrons from Xinjiang contrast with the profusely decorated cauldrons of western Eurasia (Mei 2003: 57, citing Jacobson 1995). For a review of vessels made mostly of wood belonging to nomadic peoples (Scythians and others) of Central Eurasia from the Iron Age (with rounded bottoms, and some with zoomorphic subjects, false spouts and handles), see Korolkova 2000. The shapes, designs, ornamentation and construction of these vessels are not at all like our silver vessels, but they may be distantly related to the Tibetan bird-spouted copper-alloy jar. In particular, see the reconstruction of a wooden vessel with a gold horsehead handle from Filippovka, Russia (Western Steppe; ibid., 62 (Fig. 56)). Ceramic and wooden vessels from Tuva dated to the fifth and fourth centuries BCE are different in form from Saka-attributed cauldrons (Bokovenko 1995b: 279 (Fig. 32), 280 (Fig. 33)), as are ceramic vessels from Altaian cattle-breeding settlements with rudimentary agriculture of the Scythian period (Bokovenko 1995c: 292 (Fig. 19)). For ceramic and wooden vessels of the Tagar culture in the Minusinsk Basin, see Bokovenko 1995d, pp. 305, 309 (Fig. 14), 310 (Fig. 16). All the vessels enumerated in works by Bokovenko are unrelated to the cauldrons of Xinjiang. Furthermore, they bear no discernable likeness to the Tibetan bird-spouted jars of this study. It should be noted that the only Scythic groups to produce silver and gold vessels were the Hellenised Scythians of the Western Steppe.

Fig. 6.2. EAS bronze plaque in the form of an ibex, purchased in the Kandia valley, Indus Kohistan (after Jettmar 1982: 86 (Fig. 1). The head of a small ungulate facing in the opposite direction is attached to the horn of the larger figure. Also note the curvilinear body ornamentation and deeply folded legs (as if springing into the air or flying). Digital drawing by Aado Phuntsok Palden. For a description of some of these objects of probable Saka or Sakarelated origins recovered in Northern Pakistan, see Neelis 2007, pp. 64, 67. 235 Francfort (2002: 66, 67) identified artistic affinities between horse carvings from Thalpan and those on stone lids from northern Afghanistan. These appear to be yet more evidence for Iron Age artistic flows coursing between Northern Pakistan and regions north of the Hindu Kush. 234

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To Tibet: Bearers of the Eurasian Animal Style in Northern Pakistan and North Inner Asia

Fig. 6.3. EAS bronze plaque in the form of an ibex, excavated from Kurgan 7, Tegermansu, Oksu valley, the Pamirs, Tajikistan (after Jettmar 1991: 6 (Fig. 5)). The body of the ibex is ornamented with two inset circles. It has the horn or beak of another creature attached to the rear of its horn and its legs are deeply folded, as if it is recumbent or moving rapidly (racing or flying). Digital drawing by Aado Phuntsok Palden.

Fig. 6.4. A running or recumbent stag rock carving in the EAS from the Thalpan Bridge site, Indus Kohistan, Northern Pakistan (after Dani and Jettmar n.d., Fig. 1; Bandini-König 2009: Pl. 15 (Fig. 499:1)). This petroglyph bears much similarity in style and decorative treatment to the copper-alloy plaque from Kandia (Fig. 6.2). Drawing by Aado Phuntsok Palden.

has artistic elements most like bronze objects found in the Pamirs, with the Pamirian plaque of an ibex shown in Fig. 6.3 seemingly serving as the model.236

hunters in Northern Pakistan indicates that this territory was one nexus of manufacture for them. EAS copperalloy plaques, pendants and pectoral elements have been found in relatively large quantities in the territory in recent years, delineating one or more discrete cultural orders.238

Jettmar (1989: 259, 260, 269) believes that the two ibex plaques (Figs. 6.2, 6.3) were made in the same workshop or by artisans of the same tribe, their distribution occurring through invasion. He notes that several trade routes through Indus Kohistan link the region in both southerly and northerly directions (ibid., 261, 262). The two copperalloy objects found in the Pamirs and Northern Pakistan compared by Jettmar may be sufficiently similar in form and manufacture to be ascribed to a people or peoples enjoying common cultural, ethnic and/or linguistic traits.237 However, the ease with which artistic and technical traits were transposed in Iron Age Inner Asia might rather suggest that varying cultural attributions for the two plaques are to be contemplated. That is to say, their strong affinity with one another does not necessarily pinpoint their place of manufacture, with both the Pamirs and/or Northern Pakistan plausible. The sheer wealth of small EAS copper-alloy objects recovered by treasure

A very effective instrument for detecting Saka migrations and cultural influences in Northern Pakistan is Eurasian Animal Style (EAS) rock art. Unlike chance finds of cognate metallic objects in the Pamirs and Northern Pakistan, this rock art supplies a larger body of materials for study and comparison. Rock art also has the key benefit of being geographically fixed, in contradistinction to portable objects whose provenance may be in question. In September of 2019, at an open market held on Sunday in the Wuhouci quarter of Chengdu, Sichuan, I happened upon two men from Northern Pakistan displaying for sale a large collection of ancient copper-alloy objects (totalling around 500 items), which they said were excavated from various places in Gilgit, Hunza, Baltistan and Indus Kohistan. The degraded condition of these objects indicates that they were indeed dug out of the ground. I was struck by the stylistic and typological coherence of the group of small metallic objects for sale, as they signal the existence of a sophisticated metallurgical tradition and cultural world in Late Prehistoric Northern Pakistan. I have never seen such a large and diverse assemblage of copper-alloy artefacts in any museum or publication (but hasten to add that I am not specialised in the region). It is very unfortunate that these artefacts are being dispensed with illicitly and without any kind of study or documentation being carried out on them. Among the items the two Pakistani men were purveying in Chengdu were zoomorphic ornaments in EAS styles comparable to Figs. 6.2 and 6.3, some of which are larger and more impressive. In addition to ibex, these pectoral ornaments are adorned with deer, markhor, equid and bird subjects. Other objects for sale and belonging to the same broad regional cultural complex were tanged mirrors, some figured (including one with 11 embossed circles); horse bit rings; openwork discs with four circles inside and attachment rings; plain and ribbed bracelets and those with stamped ‘eyes’; snake-like pins with spatulate heads; ornaments in the shape of flowers and wild ungulate heads; finger rings with circular, oval and rectangular bezels; a pectoral ornament in the form of a peacock with a divided tail; tiny nubbed rings; and campanulate objects with four points on the ends. Some of these objects obtained in Northern Pakistan are artistically related, albeit rather distantly, to Tibetan thokcha.

238

For a photograph of the Kandia bronze plaque, see Jettmar 1991, p. 2 (Fig. 3); for the bronze ibex from the Pamirs, see Jettmar 1982, p. 87 (Fig. 2). On stylistic affinities between the Kandia plaque and other EAS bronze objects discovered in the Pamirs, see Jettmar 1991, pp. 2–6. 237 Jettmar describes gold objects discovered in the Pattan horde, Indus Kohistan, including a large ring originally weighing some 16 kg. This gold ring, cut into 57 pieces by local people for financial gain, is covered in tigers and eagles attacking cervids, equids and camels, a selection of animals of North Inner Asian inspiration. This object is assigned to the third or second century BCE and is thought to be a product of the Eastern Steppe and possibly brought to Northern Pakistan by the Greater Yüehchih. The gold objects of the Pattan horde have strong affinities with the art of Scythic and Xiongnu peoples. See, as above, Jettmar 1991, pp. 11–17. See also Bruneau and Bellezza 2013, p. 55. Scientific testing, including an appraisal of the exact chemical composition of the golden ring, is required to better fix its provenance. While the animal figures were rendered in a branch of the EAS closely aligned to the Eastern Steppe and Northern Zone, this alone is insufficient to determine the object’s place of manufacture. 236

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Tibetan Silver, Gold and Bronze Objects and the Aesthetics of Animals in the Era before Empire ungulates reminiscent of the Scytho-Siberian animal style.240 Accordingly, Jettmar (1989: 258, 273) classes these petroglyphs as a branch of the EAS, saying that some of them were probably made by Saka tribes pushing southward in the second century BCE, and thus the product of nomadic warriors. However, he qualifies his attribution by adding that certain carvings may have been made later by the descendants of a Saka elite who settled in Northern Pakistan but retained their old cultural traditions (ibid., 259). Jettmar (ibid., 263 (Fig. 77)) also suggests an earlier date (sixth to fifth century BCE) for a wild ungulate in a less elaborate animal style, standing on the tip of the hooves, with a volute on the haunch. As a photograph of this petroglyph is not included in his article, its physical traits remain opaque.241 However, simplicity in the design of a single specimen is no assurance that it predates more intricate varieties of rock art.

Fig. 6.5. Petroglyph of two ibexes in the EAS from Dardarbati Das, Northern Pakistan (after Bruneau and Bellezza 2013: 130 (Fig. IV.22), photograph by Laurianne Bruneau; Bandini-König 2011, Pls. 83 and 89 (Figs. 39:1, 39:2)). The shape of the horn and beard helps identify these animals. The sinuous bodies, circle on the rear flank and arched horns are typical of EAS rock art in Northern Pakistan. Drawing by Aado Phuntsok Palden.

Neelis (2007: 67–69) reviews EAS petroglyphs in Northern Pakistan, concluding that the presence of this rock art does not necessarily indicate it was made by migrating Saka, as such art may have been adopted by other groups in the region.242 Nevertheless, he adds that these rock carvings suggest there was a long-lasting Saka cultural impact in the region. Extending the range of potential creators of EAS rock art in Northern Pakistan is advisable, as it makes allowance for the probable existence of a heterogeneous ethnological formation in the region in the second half of the first millennium BCE (as in later times). Neelis’ observation on cultural diversity also accords with the variable constitution of EAS rock

EAS rock art was discovered in Indus Kohistan in the 1970s and early 1980s. Litvinskij’s (2002) contention that the Saka were ethnically altered in Northern Pakistan as they mixed with indigenous and other peoples is lent credence by this rock art. EAS rock art in the region borrowed heavily from Saka tribes and perhaps other Scythic peoples of the Eastern Steppe, but it also carries distinctive regional qualities. Precedents for interactions between the Eastern Steppe and Northern Pakistan can be traced to rock art of the Bronze Age.239 Hauptmann (2007: 26, 27) describes the group of EAS rock art in Northern Pakistan as possessing slightly abstract features, elaborate designs and a high level of artistic proficiency, marking the movement into the region of northern nomads he identifies as Scytho-Saka tribes of the Early Iron Age. Subjects include wild cervids standing on the tips of their hooves and ibexes being attacked by a feline in the environs of Chilas, a type of scene also occurring in the steppes. EAS rock art in Northern Pakistan is not common, making up a tiny percentage of the total number of carvings. The body ornamentation of EAS rock art in this territory consists of circles, loops and volutes. However, most EAS subjects in Northern Pakistan lack curvilinear body decoration despite possessing other cardinal traits of the tradition (curvilinear schema, heavy stylisation, elaborate and exaggeratedly large horns, and figures standing on the tips of their hooves).

240 Jettmar furnishes seven drawings of different EAS wild felines and ungulates, and one drawing of a predator assailing a wild ungulate (1989: 266 (Fig. 81)). For two more EAS scenes of a carnivore attacking a wild caprid, see Jettmar 1991, Figs. 4, 5. See also Francfort 1994, p. 36 (Fig. 5); Francfort et al. 1992, Fig. 13a, b; Bandini-König 2003, p. 23, Pls. 38 (Figs. 13:2, 13:3), 48 (Figs. 69:1, 69:2). For EAS wild ungulates with curvilinear body ornamentation (volutes, circlets, interconnecting lines) at the various rock art loci of Thalpan, see Bandini-König 2003, Pl. 58 (Fig. 30:231): wild ungulate with long curling horns and volute on the front haunch; Pl. 63 (Fig. 30:379): ibex head regardant with front and rear volutes; Bandini-König 2011, Pls. 64 (Fig. 58:17): wild caprid with rear volute and front oval; 66 (Fig. 54:1): ibex with two rear volutes; 73 (Fig. 4.1): ibex with no body ornamentation but two circle feet. For a probable equid with interconnected front and rear circles on the body standing on the tips of its hooves, described as a mythical animal, which the authors remark may perhaps be a later imitation of the EAS, see Bemmann and König 1994, pp. 8, 116, Pl. 19 (Fig. 47.7), photographic series Pl. 12 (lower). For animal carvings from Oshibat, Indus Kohistan, with significant elements of the EAS but lacking curvilinear body ornamentation, see ibid., Pl. 14 (Figs. 35.2, 38.4, 39.10). For a stag with rudimentary body ornamentation that combines EAS and rectilinear indigenous artistic motifs, see BandiniKönig 2009, Pls. 23 and 53 (Fig. 502:29). 241 As regards EAS rock art in Northern Pakistan, Jettmar acknowledges the shortcomings of his reliance on stylistic approaches to dating by not considering the physical condition of petroglyphs. He reaffirms that early examples of this rock art in Northern Pakistan were created through the settlement or trans-migration of peoples from the steppes, dating it to the fifth to second century BCE. He believes that the prototype of this animal art originated in North Inner Asia and was imported to Pakistan no later than the fifth century BCE. See, as above, Jettmar 1991, pp. 3, 5. The wide lateral distribution of EAS petroglyphs in Northern Pakistan, Ladakh and North-west and North-east Tibet buttresses Jettmar’s stance that prototypes of this art filtered in from one or more northerly regions. 242 As Saka artistic influences reached even farther south, they were thoroughly transformed in the cultural crucible of ancient India. For a review of Saka, Parthian and Yüeh-chih artistic traditions that penetrated India, see Anklesaria 1973.

Jettmar (1980: 216 (Fig. 8), 217, 218) characterises the EAS creatures in the rock art of Northern Pakistan as wild ungulates, carnivores and carnivores pursuing wild Jettmar (1981: 155, 156) observes that certain early petroglyphs in Indus Kohistan are connected thematically and stylistically to the Okunev culture, suggesting there were long-range relations with the Eastern Steppe by the early second millennium BCE, perhaps through the migration of cattle breeders. Although the role of the Okunev culture in the art forms of Northern Pakistan may have been less direct than Jettmar considers, links to the north in the Bronze Age are clearly seen in the region’s chariot, mascoid and hunting rock art.

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To Tibet: Bearers of the Eurasian Animal Style in Northern Pakistan and North Inner Asia art on the Western Tibetan Plateau. The wide stylistic and technical purview and unequal erosion and re-patination characteristics of this rock art in Northern Pakistan and on the Western Tibetan Plateau indicate that it had a long lifespan, a sign of thorough indigenisation. As with EAS rock art in Northern Pakistan, the Saka almost certainly acted as agents of its dispersal, directly or indirectly, on the Western Tibetan Plateau.243 Nevertheless, this art evolved in each territory in response to local cultural and environmental conditions. This is illustrated by the unique branches (with distinctive compositional lineaments) of EAS rock art appearing in Northern Pakistan and on the Western Tibetan Plateau. Indigenisation on the Tibetan Plateau is also reflected in the inclusion of wild yaks and antelope (native animals) in its EAS bestiary.

Although armorial, genealogical, military or political permutations in heraldic symbolism may possibly be behind EAS depictions in the rock art of Northern Pakistan, this is but one interpretation among many that potentially fits the graphic evidence, none of which are verifiable using visual cues alone. The scenes of carnivores (possible lions, tigers, snow leopards, wolves and other creatures) pursuing wild ungulates in the EAS appear to embody narrative themes as well as martial attributes. Solitary wild ungulates sans other figures to provide a relational dimension could potentially encompass a broad purview of meanings and functions, ranging from simple portraits to complex cultic symbols.247 Jettmar (1991: 7) sees certain EAS petroglyphs in Northern Pakistan as a ‘retarded’ rendition of the tradition. The term ‘retarded’ here seems to imply that the makers were trying to ape foreign art they could no longer recollect accurately or foreign art that only merited superficial treatment. An example of a more crudely executed ungulate with two hooked body motifs is found in the Thalpan village site (see ibid., 8 (Fig. 9)). I rather see this petroglyph as evidence for indigenous developments, the adaptation of the EAS by local inhabitants who were not per se beholden to the Saka for artistic inspiration. If the broad chronology offered by Jettmar for EAS in Northern Pakistan is sound, by the time later examples were being fashioned, centuries after the epic migrations of the Saka, memory of their cultural achievements is likely to have dimmed, if they were at all still recognised. Jettmar (ibid., 9, 10) acknowledges the modifying force of time in his work, remarking that anachronistic EAS rock carvings were made by a people who had forgotten the old iconographic rules, members of landowning clans, a politically important minority in the region, who were invoking national symbols of their ancestral home on the steppes as heraldic signs to distinguish themselves from other populations in the region. This elaborate speculation presupposes production of EAS rock art by elite members of society. Such a social affiliation is not assured, though, particularly when much of this rock art was roughly executed, in contrast to the superb craftmanship exhibited by some stūpa engravings in Northern Pakistan during the first half of the first millennium CE.

As a group, Jettmar (1989: 268) dates Eurasian Animal Style rock art in Northern Pakistan from the fifth century BCE to sixth century CE.244 The expansive period of time settled upon by Jettmar is prudent, as there are significant stylistic, technical and weathering differences in this small but relatively diverse class of petroglyphs.245 Similarly, in the larger bodies of EAS rock art located in Ladakh and Ru-thog, stylistic and technical indicators as well as their physical condition strongly suggest that it was produced during both the Iron Age and Protohistoric period.246 According to Jettmar (ibid., 271, 272), later examples of deer stone art from North Inner Asia lost most of its semantic import, becoming decorative in nature, and thereafter surviving in the form of heraldic symbols, which were carried to Northern Pakistan by Saka migrations in the second century BCE; thus, this rock art is also heraldic in nature. However, formalised patterns of depiction associated with heraldic symbolism are not very discernable in the EAS rock art of Northern Pakistan (nor on the Western Tibetan Plateau). 243 Another parallel between Saka peoples and Tibetans in the preImperial era is the deposition of ovicaprid remains in burials, apparently as part of offerings for the deceased in the afterlife. At least in Tibetan burials, ovicaprid remains appear to be related to the sacrifice of sheep to placate demons interfering with the passage of the dead (dri-lug) and to serve as guides to the otherworld (skyibs-lug), functions recorded in Tibetan archaic funerary rites. On these funerary traditions in Old Tibetan literature, see Bellezza 2008; 2013; Stein 1970; 1971. See also Bellezza 2020b, ch. 7. 244 To account for this large time spread, Jettmar (1989: 273) hypothesises that later Saka refugees from India may have encouraged Saka still settled in Northern Pakistan to revive the tradition of animal style decoration. He now dates this later phase to the fourth to eighth century CE, examples of this art serving as totems for various social groups (ibid., 274). Jettmar’s interpretations are highly speculative and overly elaborate given the relatively small body of EAS rock art he considers. Viewing the later rock art record in terms of the Saka of the Iron Age is problematic, for any members returning to Northern Pakistan 500–900 years after the initial southward migration would surely have acquired another set of linguistic and socio-cultural encumbrances and with them new forms of artistic expression. 245 Similarly, the persistence of Saka-attributed rock art in Kazakhstan is seen in imitations thought to have been made by Turkic groups (postsixth century CE; Rogozhinsky 2004). 246 Jettmar (1989: 271) observes that in Northern Pakistan there is never more than one EAS figure or scene on a single boulder, and none occur in hunting scenes. This contrasts with Ladakh and Ru-thog, where multiple compositions are sometimes encountered on boulders and rock faces. Moreover, there are hunting scenes in Ru-thog with EAS antelope, deer and wild yaks.

The EAS rock art of Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan introduced in the last chapter has many stylistic traits in common with that of Northern Pakistan. Yet, the same comparison can be made between EAS art in Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan and that on the Western Tibetan Plateau. The EAS art of Northern Pakistan, while being in much closer geographic proximity to North-west Tibet than Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan, is not necessarily closer in style to Ladakhi and Tibetan EAS rock art than that of North Inner Asian countries. For instance, the more rectangular form and S-shaped body motif of a The depiction of solitary wild ungulates is one of the most persistent and widespread subjects in the rock art of Inner Asia. For a discussion of its potential signification in Upper Tibet, see Bellezza 2008, pp. 171–75. The various categories of function and meaning considered can be applied more generally to solitary ungulate rock art, including EAS specimens in Northern Pakistan.

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Tibetan Silver, Gold and Bronze Objects and the Aesthetics of Animals in the Era before Empire wild ungulate petroglyph at Arpauzen, southern Kazakhstan (see Fig. 5.4), bears a stronger resemblance to many Tibetan EAS wild ungulate petroglyphs than do some specimens in Northern Pakistan. This illustrates the fungibility of EAS artistic rock art models throughout Inner Asia and the permeability of the visual representations, ideas and symbolism carried by them.

terms of artistic and cultural impact, Northern Pakistan may be no closer to the Tibetan Plateau than Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan. Given the breadth and amplitude of EAS rock art transmissions, these transcultural communications may have contributed to the genesis of one or more of the silver, gold and copper-alloy objects featured in this study.

Through EAS rock art, Northern Pakistan is joined to Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan in the north and to the Tibetan Plateau in the east.248 As a nexus of EAS rock art, Northern Pakistan was one centre along geographic conduits conveying associated artistic traditions to Ladakh and North-west Tibet in the Iron Age.249 Nonetheless, in

As shown, one vector of transmission of EAS rock art stretched from Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Wakhan, Northern Pakistan and onto the Western Tibetan Plateau. This line of communications seems to have carried artistic, cultural and technological information relevant to the genesis of the silver, gold and copper-alloy objects featured in this study. Nevertheless, this is just one trajectory that must be considered in understanding the role of Iran and North Inner Asia in the conception and fabrication of the Tibetan objects central to this monograph. The northern margin of the Tibetan Plateau stretches from the Eastern edge of the Pamirs to the Qilian Mountains in the east. This large expanse, paralleling the entire axis of the Kunlun Mountains, abuts Xinjiang, western Gansu and Inner Mongolia, regions closely aligned to the Eastern Steppe in antiquity. All of these territories have EAS portable art and rock art, indicating that the diffusion of commonly held aesthetic traditions to Tibet did not rely solely on the geographic channel passing through Northern Pakistan. The distribution of cognate chariot rock art extends to greater Mongolia, the Altai, Southern Siberia and the Northern Zone, as well as North-east Tibet, furnishing a basis for an expanded sphere of transcultural communications affecting the Tibetan Plateau. Chariot and EAS rock art, which is concentrated in north-east and north-west Tibet, charts multiple lines of artistic transmission linking North Inner Asia to the Tibetan Plateau in the Late Bronze Age and Iron Age.

248 The same channels of artistic and cultural transference appear to have been active in the Late Bronze Age. The evidence concerns cognate chariot (two-wheeled equid-drawn vehicles) rock art, which is distributed in eastern Kazakhstan (and other areas of the Eastern Steppe), Northern Pakistan, Ladakh, Upper Tibet and A-mdo. This genre of rock art is generally attributed to the second half of the second millennium BCE, but some chariot carvings appear to have been made in the first millennium BCE as well (Bellezza 2020b, ch. 9). On the dating of chariot rock art in the Eastern Steppe, see Kuz’mina 2007, pp. 111, 112; Jacobson et al. 2006a, p. 38. Speaking of Altaian rock art, Jacobson et al. (2006a) date chariot carvings to the Bronze Age and Late Bronze Age but consider that the rarer vehicles with riders with a gorytus may date to the Scythian period. According to Jacobson et al. (ibid., 38), the apparel and weaponry of the charioteers are varied and suggest production over this long period of time. For a review of the geographic distribution and archaeological significance of chariot rock art in North Inner Asia, see Honeychurch 2015, pp. 191–94; Jacobson-Tepfer 2015, pp. 193–211. On chariot rock art in Ladakh and Upper Tibet and its relationship to chariot rock art in Northern Pakistan and North Inner Asia, see August 2010, November 2011, March and September 2016, and October 2017 Flight of the Khyung; Bellezza 2008, pp. 193–96; 2014c, pp. 127, 182, 195, 196; 2020b, pp. 363–6; Bruneau and Bellezza 2013, pp. 32–40, 75, 76. For rock art chariots of the same type at Yeniugou and Shebuqi, Qinghai, see Tang and Zhang 2001, p. 259 (colour photograph 16); Tang and Gao 2004, p. 163 (Fig. 2). For a discussion of these chariots discovered in Qinghai, see Bruneau and Bellezza 2013, pp. 33, 34, 119 (Fig. IV.3), Bellezza 2020b, ch. 9. Recently, several comparable chariots have been discovered in the rock art of south-eastern Qinghai in Yul-shul prefecture (at the ’Am-la and Tha-chu sites; see Nyi-ma rgyalmtshan 2016: 64, 196, 230, 236, 240, 241, 455–60). For a chariot in the rock art of Swat, see Bruneau and Bellezza 2013, p. 120 (Fig. IV.5), citing Olivieri 1998. Chariot rock art served as a historical precedent in the flow of cultural and technological information from North Inner Asia south to Northern Pakistan and the Western Tibetan Plateau, anticipating the spread of EAS rock art through the same geographic pathways. North Inner Asian peoples who appear to have been responsible for the creation of chariot rock art (such as those labelled Andronovo (ca. 2000–1300 BCE) and Karasuk (ca. 1400–900 BCE)) were involved in long-distance exchanges and migrations. Jacobson et al. (2006a: 55, 56, 82) maintain that chariot carvings spread to the Altai either from the north by the Karasuk culture or from the south-west. That chariots had a profound impact on the Tibetan Plateau is demonstrated in the discovery of the actual remains of a twowheeled vehicle in Dalitaliha, Dulan County, Qinghai (Barbieri-Low 2000: 11; October 2017 Flight of the Khyung; Bellezza 2020b, pp. 365, 366)). This discovery confirms that technological information (not just artistic and ideological communications) regarding the chariot reached North-east Tibet. However, it is not yet clear how these critical transmissions from the north might have initiated the exchange network relied upon by Iron Age successors to disburse EAS rock art as far south as Northern Pakistan and the Western Tibetan Plateau. 249 The widespread distribution of rock art consisting of elementary tiered shrines in Northern Pakistan, Ladakh and Upper Tibet demonstrates that these regions also shared strong artistic ties in the Protohistoric period. The ongoing artistic interrelationship between these three regions is seen in mchod-rten engravings of the Early Historic period. On the interregional composition of tiered shrine rock art, see Bellezza 2020a. As met with in the rock art records, there were more or less continuous interactions between peoples that inhabited the wide swathe of territory extending from the eastern Hindu Kush to the eastern Byang-thang between the Late Bronze Age and the late first millennium CE.

The Saka in the multicultural Tarim Basin We now turn to another major geographic nexus linking the Pamirs and Eastern Steppe to the Tibetan Plateau, the Tarim Basin (extending to the crest of the surrounding mountain ranges, this territory covers an area of approximately 700,000 km²). Like Northern Pakistan, the Tarim Basin served as a kind of clearing house for cultural communications between North Inner Asia and the Western Tibetan Plateau in the Iron Age. The transition from the Bronze Age to the Iron Age in Xinjiang occurred ca. 1000–800 BCE with the gradual uptake of iron implements (Mei 2003: 53; Wu 2009).250 Wu (ibid.) believes that iron objects were introduced from north-western Iran, with peoples living along what became the Silk Road or the steppes playing an important role in the transmission of iron technology to

For a general description of the Iron Age cultures of Xinjiang, divided into 12 cultures or regional groups, see Mei and Shell 2002. See also Bellezza 2020b, pp. 241–44.

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To Tibet: Bearers of the Eurasian Animal Style in Northern Pakistan and North Inner Asia Xinjiang.251 This changeover between earlier cultures of the second millennium BCE and cultures of the first millennium BCE was marked by more mobile economies hinging upon the riding horse. In all opened burials of Xinjiang representing Iron Age cultures, the remains of domestic animals have been found (Chen and Hiebert 1995: 283, 285). Climatological data suggests that the eastern part of Inner Asia became progressively drier in the first millennium BCE, leading to a weakening of the summer monsoon and progressive deglaciation in the Kunlun and Tian-Shan ranges (Wagner et al. 2011: 15737, citing Tarasov et al., Rudaya et al. and Kleinen et al.), and the resultant abandonment of oases settlements in the Tarim Basin (Wagner et al. 2011, citing DebaineFrancfort and Idriss (eds.), Jäkel and Zhu and Han). As is commonly held for the steppes, Wagner et al. (ibid., 15737) see declining natural resources in Xinjiang in the first millennium BCE as exacerbating tensions between neighbouring peoples, resulting in increased warfare and encouraging mobile pastoralism and the socio-political development of state-like confederacies that managed resources among local groups and dealt with foreign powers.

economic activities of these groups were metallurgy and animal husbandry; however, these pastoralist groups also had strong links to the agricultural settlements of the north rim of the Tarim Basin (Di Cosmo 1994: 1112). Wang (1987) attributes archaeological remains (tomb structures and grave goods) in northern and eastern Xinjiang and in Tashkurgan (south-western Xinjiang) to the Saka with varying degrees of confidence.253 Cultural remains have been identified by Chinese archaeologists as Saka mainly on the geographic distribution of these peoples delineated in historical texts (Chen and Hiebert 1995: 281–83). Many petroglyphs have been discovered in Xinjiang, particularly at sites in the north, but also in the Kunlun Mountains (Debaine-Francfort 1989: 208, citing Hu Bangzhu and Hanbaier and Leijia).254 These petroglyphs have affinities with the Bronze Age Okunev culture of Southern Siberia, engravings on deer stones and Saka cultures (ibid., 208). Jettmar (1994: 6, 7) identifies Xinjiang as the probable lynchpin in the EAS of the Eastern Steppe and its adoption by the Saka. Interactions between Xinjiang and south-eastern Kazakhstan and Southern Siberia are traceable through more than two dozen cauldrons discovered in Xinjiang. The majority of these were found north of the Tian-Shan and most can be dated to the middle of the first millennium BCE (Mei 2003: 53). However, two were discovered in mountainous tracts of the southern Tarim Basin, one of them near Kashgar (ibid., 53, 54). Of five examples that underwent elemental analysis, four were found to be made of copper with tiny amounts of antimony and other trace elements, and one of leaded tin-bronze (ibid., 56, 57). Most cauldrons found in Southern Siberia are also composed of copper (ibid., 57). The Xinjiang cauldrons are classified primarily according to handle and foot designs into four types, but no two are exactly alike (ibid., 53). Some of the Xinjiang specimens resemble those of Semirechiye region in south-eastern Kazakhstan, which are attributed to the Saka of the seventh to fourth century BCE (ibid., 54, 56, citing Akishev and Kushayev) or the fifth to third century BCE (ibid., 54, 56, citing Bernshtam). According to Mei (ibid., 56), the Xinjiang counterparts are probably also attributable to a Saka context and can be dated from

By the middle of the first millennium BCE, patterns of interaction between the Eastern Steppe and the TianShan were transformed by the appearance of horse-riding pastoralists. This shifted the centre of cultural florescence and resource allocation from the oases of the Tarim Basin to the highlands (Chen and Hiebert 1995: 286). It is theorised that the advance of horse nomadism in Xinjiang may possibly have coincided with the introduction of a new linguistic group related to Saka languages (ibid., 290, citing Mair and Skjærvø and Parpola). Xinjiang had vigorous interactions with neighbouring regions in the first millennium BCE, coinciding with the rise and expansion of the Saka in the north-west and the appearance of EAS bronzes, especially on the north slope of the Tian-Shan, signalling cultural influences emanating from the Eastern Steppe (Mei 2003: 57).252 Burial sites attributed to the Saka and Wusun in Xinjiang indicate that the most important Wu’s (2009) hypothesis on the cultural source of iron technology in Eastern Xinjiang is speculative but plausible. Iron appeared in western Iran ca. 1350–1100 BCE and there are many iron objects discovered in that region dating to 1100–800 BCE (ibid.). Wu also discusses a number of early iron artefacts discovered in Xinjiang, including iron swords, knives and awls found with other objects such as ceramics and bronze items, which indicate steppe influences. 252 By comparing craniometric data from surrounding areas with that obtained in a craniometric survey of remains from several burial sites in Xinjiang, Tan et al. (2013) postulate various ethnic and cultural relationships. The Qawrighul population (ca. 1800 BCE) in Xinjiang is determined to be most like populations in the Central Steppe of the Bronze Age, including the Afanasievo (ca. 3500–2500 BCE) and Andronovo (broadly: ca. 2100–900 BCE), and cultures in the Volga river region of the same period. The Pamir Saka (ca. 600–400 BC) are referred to as a Mediterranean European or Indo-Afghan population type, which had affinities with Xinjiang populations, including the Shambabay (900–500 BCE), Kroran (100 BCE to 100 CE) and Sampul (100 BCE to 300 CE) cultures. Also, the Pamir-Ferghana skull type in Central Asia is determined to be like western Xinjiang populations such as the Wusun (600–100 BCE). Human remains identified as Xiongnu in north-western Xinjiang are found to be an admixture of western and eastern Eurasian elements. See, as above, Tan et al. 2013, p. 305. 251

While the cultural and ethnic categories relied upon by Tan et al. (2013) are called into question, their analysis of skull types sheds light on the geographic sources of populations inhabiting Xinjiang in the Bronze Age and Iron Age. This study of craniometrical parameters is the most comprehensive to date, confirming that ancient populations of Xinjiang were ethnically diverse, the product of intensive cultural interactions and demic movements in the second and first millennia BCE. Findings from the Tan et al. craniometric survey support archaeological evidence furnished by burial structures and grave goods, indicating the multiethnic and multicultural makeup of ancient Xinjiang. However, their study does not discriminate between regional populations and actual self-identified orders of peoples in antiquity, conflating morphological data (biological characteristics) with archaeological assemblages of material evidence (cultural characteristics). While indicating the geographic lines of human interactions involved, the evidence provided by the Tan et al. study cannot be used to adduce the ethnic and territorial purview of ancient cultures. 253 There are no obvious correspondences of illustrated funerary structures and objects in Wang’s work with those found in Tibet. 254 For a wide cross section of rock art in Xinjiang, see Ge and Ge 2009, pp. 230–86; Chen and Zhu 2019a, pp. 137–279.

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Tibetan Silver, Gold and Bronze Objects and the Aesthetics of Animals in the Era before Empire the seventh to third century BCE.255 The sole trait of some cauldrons from the Eurasian steppes and Tarim Basin that can be likened to the silver bowls in the Pine collection is the conical foot. Yet, they have different forms: the foot of the cauldrons is considerably narrower in relation to the body of the vessels.256

sedentary cultures of Eurasia were not direct but were mediated through surrounding highland pastoralist peoples. In western and eastern Xinjiang several sites belonging to different archaeological cultures including Aketala (Kashgar), Wupu (Hami) and Alagou (Turfan Basin), dated ca. 1000–400 BCE, reveal a pattern of metal and stone agricultural implements and other bronze objects incorporating nomadic elements (Di Cosmo 1994: 1108). The metal artefacts discovered suggest that agriculturalists in the Tarim Basin had vibrant interactions with mobile pastoralists in the second half of the first millennium BCE, while others in the region practised a mixed economy (ibid., 1109).258

Archaeological evidence from the oases ringing the Tarim Basin indicates long-term cultural continuity in both agricultural and pastoral populations, with the southern edge of this basin constituting a core area until historic times (Chen and Hiebert 1995: 283). Archaeological evidence for the Saka and other mobile pastoralists in the first millennium BCE is found all along the margins of the Tarim Basin. Deltaic agriculture in the south of the region was fed by rivers originating in the Kunlun Mountains and practised by a complex of interrelated cultures (Chen and Hiebert 1995).257 Di Cosmo (1994: 1107) believes that agricultural communities flourishing in the oases around the Taklamakan in the second half of the first millennium BCE had relatively small populations and limited political reach; however, their economic sphere of activity must have been wider. According to Chen and Hiebert (1995: 290), interactions between Xinjiang cultures and other

The Tarim Basin is separated from the Tibetan Plateau by a single range, the Kunlun Mountains. As with many other adjoining regions of Eurasia, cultural intercourse between these two territories began in prehistoric times. The wooden pail pictured in Figs. 6.6 and 6.7 and others like it discovered in southern Xinjiang appear to have been used in burial rites. Satma Mazar is located along the now intermittent Keriya river in the endorheic Tarim Basin, east of Khotan.259 The deer (stag) figures on the wooden pail in Figs. 6.6 and 6.7 are identified through the exaggeratedly long branched antler portrayed on each specimen. The stags are depicted in profile and the two legs of both specimens terminate in points. Other than these three main features, the two deer carvings vary in style, although they belong to the same wooden vessel and were made using the same carving technique (producing well-defined lines).

Furthermore, the three types of horse bits recovered from Iron Age cemeteries in Xinjiang are represented in those attributed to the Saka (seventh to fourth century BCE) in central Kazakhstan. This strongly suggests that horse-riding in Xinjiang and the steppes was interconnected, with the Saka perhaps playing a major role in transmission eastwards. See, as above, Mei and Shell 2002, p. 229. Linduff and Olsen (2011) show that saddles, bows and the structural features of tombs found at Zaghunluq (situated in the middle of the southern rim of the Tarim Basin, ca. eighth to fifth century BCE) and Subeshi (located in Turfan, ca. 500– 200 BCE) extend the geographic range of Eurasian steppe traditions associated with Scythic material culture to Xinjiang, partially or wholely prior to the adoption of a cavalry by the Chinese in Warring States period. A total of 21 tombs and two residential sites excavated in the foothills of the northern slope of the Tian-Shan attributed to the Subeshi culture yielded objects reflecting diverse cultural elements (Xinjiang Provinical Institute of Archaeology 2016). 256 Wooden bowls with a shallow hemispherical body, small ring handle and prominent conical foot were recovered from burials of Gumugou I, in the Lop Nor region, and dated to first half of the second millennium BCE (Chen and Hiebert 1995: 254 (Fig. 4.2-6)). According to these authors (ibid., 285, 286), the Gumugou (Qäwrighul) wooden vessels with attachable feet are very similar to those of pastoralist cultures of the Altai. These wooden vessels supply a potential prototype for the silver bowls designed with conical feet in the Pine collection. At least in the Imperial period, Lop Nor was under the political control of the Tibetans, but any earlier involvement of Tibetan groups in the region remains unclear. As calculated through craniometric analysis, the population of Gumugou II may have had strong affinities with Bronze Age steppe peoples (Afanasievo and Andronovo; ibid., 253, 257, citing Han), but the material culture record and system of burial were different (ibid., 253, 257). Early sources of ceramic bowls with conical stems and feet come from Loebanr III and Bir Kot Ghundai, Swat; Chu-gong, Lhasa; and Kanishapura, Kashmir; all are dated to the late Neolithic, ca. 2000–1500 BCE (Lü 2016: 83). Archaeological evidence from the Western Himalaya and Tibetan Plateau suggests that the transition from the Neolithic to the Bronze Age was forestalled by ample supplies of large wild herbivores and the retention of older hunting strategies (cf. Bellezza 2002: 135 n. 29). For a footed shallow bronze pan water vessel with a coiling dragon pattern attributed to the late Shang Dynasty (ca. thirteenth to eleventh century BCE), see Digital Taiwan – Culture and Nature. 257 Evidence for millet- and wheat-farming and sheep/goat-rearing in river valleys of the eastern Tarim Basin can be dated to the seventeenth to fifteenth century BCE or even earlier (Flad et al. 2010; Wagner et al. 2011: 15737, citing Xinjiang Wenwu and Li et al.). It is thought that cattle and sheep may have entered north-west China ca. 2500 BCE and horses ca. 1300 BCE (Wagner et al. 2011: 15737, citing Yuan et al.). 255

The deer from Ru-thog pictured in Fig. 6.8 is strongly reminiscent of a deer carving on the wooden pail from Satma Mazar (Fig. 6.6). The body of the deer in Fig. 6.8 is circumscribed by a scroll motif composed of a single line, the typical manner of depicting this motif on the Western Tibetan Plateau.260 The legs are slightly flexed and no attempt was made to render hooves. This genre of EAS rock art is common in Ru-thog, which lies over the Kunlun Mountains, 300 km south of the Tarim Basin. In North-west Tibet, scroll motifs on deer, antelope and wild yaks are usually centred inside the body rather than forming part of the outline of the figures. The merging of a volute with the margin of the body seen in the Satma Chen and Hiebert (1995: 287) note that evidence for the agricultural pattern of early oases settlements in the Tarim Basin stands on a Central Asian model of deltaic locations and wheat-farming; however, the large architectural complexes and distinctive material assemblage of Central Asia have not been identified in Xinjiang. In the mid-second millennium BCE, the Chust culture of the Ferghana valley developed a material assemblage for the practice of agriculture similar to the Haladun culture of western Xinjiang and, in the Early Iron Age, painted pottery types in Central Asia bear a resemblance to ceramics of the Xintala, Yanbulake and Haladun cultures of Xinjiang (loc. cit.). On the ceramics of Xinjiang, see Debaine-Francfort 1989. 259 On this Iron Age mortuary site, see Baumer 2011, pp. 53–60. The wooden vessel illustrated is one of nine recovered from Satma Mazar. The deer in Fig. 6.6 is pictured in ibid., p. 57 (Fig. 5). 260 Along with the deer on the rock panel in Fig. 6.8 there is a hunter, and an antelope in the same North-west Tibetan EAS style. See October 2014 Flight of the Khyung, Fig. 14. For other deer sharing comparable forms and features, see ibid., Figs. 16, 19, 20. 258

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Fig. 6.6. Deer carved on one side of a wooden vessel, Satma Mazar, southern Xinjiang. Iron Age. Note the scroll composed of twin lines ornamenting the body. Photographs of this pail were taken by Christoph Baumer at the site of discovery. Photograph courtesy of Christoph Baumer.

Fig. 6.8. Carving of a deer with branched V-shaped antlers and scroll body motif. Rwa-’brog ’phrang, Ru-thog (Northwest Tibet). This is one of a number of stag petroglyphs from the Iron Age and Protohistoric period in North-west Tibet that bear a strong resemblance to the carved deer from Satma Mazar in Fig. 6.6. Both the Xinjiang and Tibetan stag carvings have circular contours and a scroll motif. In some rock art specimens, there is also a triangular ear opposite the snout, just like on the deer in Fig. 6.6.

Mazar specimen is a canonical feature of North Inner Asian EAS art. The design of antlers in the Xinjiang and Tibetan specimens is also a point of contrast. Nevertheless, the snout, body shape and presentation in profile of the stag from Ru-thog in Fig. 6.8 are shared with the deer carving from Satma Mazar in Fig. 6.6. Moreover, while the legs of most deer carvings in Ru-thog do not terminate in points, they are often portrayed on the tip of their hooves (a widely distributed EAS trait).261 The single horizontal antler with vertical branches, projecting snout, elongated body and ornamentation consisting of two separate volutes of the other stag carved on the wooden pail from Satma Mazar (Fig. 6.7) are characteristic qualities of EAS cervid art in the Eastern Steppe occurring in various media. This northern art is often labelled ‘Scytho-Siberian’, but it is best viewed as

Fig. 6.7. Deer carved on the other side of the wooden vessel shown in Fig. 6.6, Satma Mazar, Xinjiang. Iron Age. Note the body ornamentation consisting of a front and rear volute. Photograph courtesy of Christoph Baumer.

261

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On this aspect, see Bruneau and Bellezza 2013, p. 46.

Tibetan Silver, Gold and Bronze Objects and the Aesthetics of Animals in the Era before Empire of Iron Age cultures in Xinjiang, confirming many of his observations and conclusions. Examining a variety of objects recovered by Chinese archaeologists, Francfort (ibid., 55) concludes that the so-called Zaghunluk and Djoumboulak-Koum cultures served as EAS artistic mediators between North Inner Asia and the Transhimalaya in the first millennium BCE, bringing the latter territory within the orbit of the Saka and Scytho-Siberians, but not merely as a simple extension. Francfort understood that the domain of EAS artistic representation was widely shared from the steppes of Central Asia to the upper valleys of North-west India, irrespective of language and ethnicity, to the extent that particular stylistic conventions could be adopted without difficulty.265 Nevertheless, while sharing artistic affinities (e.g. spirals, volutes, wave patterns), the EAS artefacts of the Zaghunluk and Djoumboulak-Koum cultures are not identical to rock art and artefacts from Upper Tibet, Ladakh or Northern Pakistan. As Francfort appreciates (ibid., 57), the expansile energy and historical importance of a common Inner Asian art idiom extending to the rock art of the Western Himalaya is more than a superficial phenomenon of the migration of images, for not only are themes and motifs reproduced, but processes underlying their representation were also shared. While noting that further study is required, Francfort (loc. cit.) identified the Saka and Indo-Iranian linguistic groups as possible agents in the spread of EAS art over the greater area.266

the product of various cultures sharing an interregional artistic idiom. Thus, on a single wooden pail from the south-western margin of the Tarim Basin, we find deer art with analogues in the north and in the south, linking EAS styles of the Eastern Steppe with those of the Western Tibetan Plateau.262 The lineaments of the two Satma Mazar deer carvings and those on other wooden pails discovered in southern Xinjiang mirror its geographically intermediate position.263 The rock art and artefactual records indicate that the cultural centres of gravity for these disparate EAS traits were the Eastern Steppe and the Western Tibetan Plateau. The deer of the wooden pail demonstrates an inclination among its Iron Age makers in southern Xinjiang to combine disparate elements of the EAS common in adjoining territories to beget their own artistic lexicon. Nonetheless, the artistic lexicon represented in the stags of the wooden pails in the southern Taklamakan also contains figurative traits peculiar to the region, indicating adaptive outgrowth, not simply imitation. Rock art discovered at several sites in the Kunlun Mountains confirm the mediating role of the southern margin of the Tarim Basin in the transfer of cognate artistic elements between South and North Inner Asia.264 The same kind of intermediary role for Xinjiang is reflected in the copper cauldron from Xinyuan (Fig. 3.11). The intermediary role played by the southern Tarim Basin was recognised by Francfort (1998) in his article on the wider cultural affiliations of the Zaghunluk and Djoumboulak-Koum sites, in Cherchen county, Xinjiang (situated along the south-eastern margin of the Taklamakan). Research conducted in the two decades since the publication of Francfort’s study have brought to the fore new archaeological materials and a better understanding

We now turn to the burials of Xiangbabai, located on the west bank of Tashkurgan river, in the Pamir region of south-western Xinjiang. Xiangbabai is situated approximately 600 km north-west of Ru-thog and about half that distance to Ladakh. Stone mounds with a shaftpit chamber lined with wooden beams were excavated at Xiangbabai (Debaine-Francfort 1989: 200, 201; Chen and Hiebert 1995: 282). The tomb construction and material culture of the site are said to be very similar to Saka tombs in the Tian-Shan and dated on comparative grounds to 900–400 BCE (Chen and Hiebert 1995: 281–83). Gold,

Transitional forms also occur in deer rock art of the Kunlun Mountains. See Hu 1993, p. 537 (lower Figs. 3, 4, 6–9). The antlers of these stags are decidedly more like EAS rock art of the Eastern Steppe, while their bodies are squarer like cervid rock art on the Tibetan Plateau. 263 On art links between oases cultures of the southern Taklamakan in the first millennium BCE and Kazakhstan, the Altai and other Eastern Steppe regions, see Francfort 1998. Francfort’s survey includes a wooden pail and wooden combs with deer subjects coming from sites along the southern edge of the Tarim Basin (ibid., 47–52). Two wooden pails discovered in a tomb in Yanghai, Shanshan County, with a selection of EAS wild ungulates (some with volutes) and carnivores, are illustrated in Zhongguo Xinjiang Weiwuer Zizhiqu wen wu ju 2014, pp. 101, 115. On the wooden pails from Xinjiang, see also Bruneau and Bellezza 2013, p. 55. 264 Black and white drawings of petroglyphs from the Kunlun are furnished in Hu 1993. Rock art of this mountain range stylistically and thematically reminiscent of Upper Tibet includes a yak, archer and other animals (ibid., 536 (Fig. 3)), two compositions each featuring what appears to be a wild yak and archer (ibid., 536 (Figs. 1, 2)), and a counterclockwise swastika with two shorter arms (ibid., 537 (middle Fig. 4)). A more widely distributed rock art subject in the Kunlun consists of two circles with cross motifs joined by a single line (ibid., 537 (middle Fig. 5)). Also found in North Inner Asia and in Gu-ge, this subject often occurs with chariots and probably represents a simplified variant of this vehicle. Rock art related stylistically and thematically to that in Upper Tibet is also located in the Muztagh Ata region of the Pamirs in Western Turkestan. It includes a counterclockwise and clockwise swastika, wheel with cross motif, two wheels with cross motifs and underscored line, wild yaks, wild yaks and Bactrian camels and archer (Koryoumu and Hojia 1993: 524). The rock art of northern and eastern Xinjiang as well as that of Yinshan (Inner Mongolia) and the Helan Mountains (Ningxia) and other regions of the Northern Zone has weaker affinities with Upper Tibet. 262

265 According to Debaine-Francfort (1989: 208), some of the lithic materials and petroglyphs of Xinjiang suggest that there were links with Ladakh, Kashmir and Swat (it appears that the author has EAS petroglyphs in mind). However, petroglyphs of the Tian-Shan and Eastern Steppe regions of Xinjiang are closest in form to EAS rock art in other regions of the Eastern Steppe, such as the Altai, Southern Siberia and Mongolia. 266 Although Francfort’s observations on interregional EAS artistic links have proven perspicacious, his analysis was hindered by a tacit reliance on a model of culture equating the distribution of related material remains with singular peoples occupying discrete geographic blocks. This was the prevailing model in the time in which Francfort was writing for understanding patterns of cultural dispersal. For example, Francfort (1998: 55) claims that the Zaghunluk and Djoumboulak-Koum cultures stretched to the Himalayan valleys in the south and as far north as the Aksu and Kucha regions, their geographic reach effected through high levels of mobility. When viewed in toto, Iron Age cultures around the Tarim Basin exhibit both material-cultural commonalities and discontinuities, which is indicative of not only interrelationships but significant regional differentiation. The Western Tibetan Plateau and Northern Pakistan were not mere cultural outliers of peoples along the southern Tarim Basin, but host to distinctive cultural orders marked by a large degree of endogenous development. On cultural variability on the Western Tibetan Plateau in the Iron Age and Protohistoric period, as discerned through rock art and monuments, see Bellezza 2018; 2020b, chh. 8, 9.

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To Tibet: Bearers of the Eurasian Animal Style in Northern Pakistan and North Inner Asia bronze and iron objects, as well as agate beads, were found at this site (loc. cit.). Bronze objects include EAS motifs (ibid., 282; Wang 1987: 40–42). Wang argues that because of a well-preserved skull with Europoid morphological features comparable to skulls from mortuary sites in the Pamirs attributed to the Saka by Soviet archaeologists, Xiangbabai is related to the Saka. Craniometric analyses carried out suggest that the Sakarelated population detected along the southern margin of the Tarim Basin entered the region from the west prior to 1000 BCE (Hemphill and Mallory 2004: 216, 217, citing Han). Yong and Wang (1994: 203, 204) report that in the 40 tombs of Xiangbabai there was evidence for both cremation and inhumation. These authors think that this may point to a ‘composite culture’: a Europoid skull representing the Saka, and cremation, a custom of Ch’iang tribes to the south (loc. cit.). Wang (1987: 40–42) notes that tombs at Xiangbabai containing incinerated human remains have somewhat different structural features than those containing skeletal traces. Yong and Wang (1994: 203, 204) add that, according to pre-Qin written records, the Ch’iang practised cremation.

skilfully depicted.267 These plaques bear some resemblance to Tibetan ram’s head thokcha, but Tibetan variants lack the large support bar on the back of the Xiangbabai specimen. On the Tibetan ram’s head ornaments, this structure is replaced by one or two small attachment rings. As the excavation of tombs at Xiangbabai by Chinese archaeologists in the 1980s lacked the rigour and resources of modern international campaigns, many fundamental questions about this archaeological culture remain unanswered. That a people residing near the juncture of the Pamirs and Kunlun Mountains, not far from North-west Tibet, had both Europoid and Mongoloid characteristics (phenotypes) aptly illustrates how the material-cultural assemblage associated with the Saka encompassed sundry peoples.268 The cultural manifestation at Xiangbabai in the middle of the first millennium BCE may possibly have arisen through demic infusions of Saka tribes speaking Eastern Iranian languages and inhabitants of the Tibetan Plateau with Tibeto-Burman languages (such as Zhangzhung). Nevertheless, this bifocal view of cultural, linguistic and ethnic origins reduces the ethnological complexity of Xiangbabai to the melding of two discrete cohorts. A more nuanced anthropological scenario is called for, one that makes allowance for multifarious demic flows to the area as well as the amalgamation and fission of cultures, the finer gradation of peoples, languages, beliefs, traditions and social structures over time. In addition to the give and take of Iron Age cultural identity, an assessment of the ethnological composition of Xiangbabai should be broadened to factor in Late Bronze Age peoples in the region who may have contributed to its cultural and ethnic heritage.

Although limited craniometric data from Xiangbabai point to a ‘mixed’ population, the Ch’iang of pre-Qin records relate to peoples living near the Hexi Corridor (Wang 1987; Yong and Wang 1994). Thus, this literary evidence may not be relevant to Ladakh and Upper Tibet, regions much closer to Xiangbabai. However, cremation (ro-sreg) is attested as an ancient method of burial in Far Western Tibet. At Sa-gsum thang, Gu-ge, traces of bone dust and burnt earth, probable crematory remains, were detected in two tombs dated to the second half of the first millennium BCE (Bellezza 2008: 113 n. 114, citing the Chinese Institute of Tibetology). Moreover, more recent archaeological research carried out in southern Xinjiang supports the existence of an ethnically diverse population in the region.

A more modern regime of exploration was carried out over a three-year period at Liushui, in the Kunlun Mountains near Khotan, Xinjiang, at 2850 m elevation. Fifty-two tombs in the cemetery at Liushui containing skeletal remains of 162 individuals, dating to ca. tenth and ninth centuries BCE, were excavated (Wagner et al. 2011: 15733). The limited range of artefacts and the small tomb size at Liushui suggest that they were associated with commoners belonging to a mobile pastoralist group, but with some variation in social status detectable; however, the burials are not comparable with kurgans belonging to the steppe aristocracy (ibid., 15736). Agro-pastoralist groups at Yanghai and Turfan

Among the copper-alloy objects found at Xiangbabai were two plaques in the form of a ram’s head, as shown in Fig. 6.9: a common subject in the Pamirs (Debaine-Francfort 1990: 87 (Fig. 6)), where they are also simply, realistically and

See also Wang 1987: 41 (Fig. 18), 42); Zhongguo Xinjiang Weiwuer Zizhiqu wen wu ju 2014, p. 137. See also March 2016 Flight of the Khyung, Figs. 35–37. To my knowledge, comparably dated Tibetan ram’s head ornaments have not yet been published. 268 Based on classical sources, P’iankov (1994: 44) identifies the Byltai as a Tibetan tribe that settled in the north-west Kunlun Mountains with the concomitant loss of Kaspian Saka territory during the second to first century BCE. According to P’iankov, the Byltai penetrated the Pamir plateau occupying part of the Ges-darya valley (an eastern feeder of the Oxus) and Kashmir as early as the first century BCE, driving the Kaspians to the south-east portion of their territory. While P’iankov’s historical and ethnic interpretation of the role of the Byltai is hypothetical, it finds some support in archaeological findings illuminating the wide diffusion of the Saka and their mixed ancestry. The Byltai of the Greco-Roman geographer Ptolemy is commonly equated with Baltistan and its ancient peoples, and the term has an etymological relationship with the Tibetan toponym Sbal-te/Rbal-te. According to late Yungdrung Bon sources, Sbal-te is supposed to once have been part of the Zhang-zhung kingdom (Bellezza 2011: 60, 61, 68, 81). 267

Fig. 6.9. Copper-alloy plaque in the shape of a ram’s head, Xiangbabai, Xinjiang. Probably mid-first millennium BCE. Drawing by Rebecca C. Bellezza, after Debaine-Francfort 1990, p. 87 (Fig. 6).

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Tibetan Silver, Gold and Bronze Objects and the Aesthetics of Animals in the Era before Empire Copper-alloy tanged arrowheads and lunar-shaped knives found in the burials of Liushui have many analogues on the Tibetan Plateau. However, most known Tibetan objects lack secure archaeological contexts. The Wagner et al. 2011 article does not illustrate copper-alloy buttons and beads from Liushui burials, precluding comparison with similar Tibetan articles. Tibetan versions of gold earrings and the pectoral found in the Liushui cemetery have not come to light.

and the Kayue culture in the eastern Kunlun are roughly contemporaneous with Liushui. Drawing analogies with agro-pastoralist groups in the Tian-Shan in the first millennium BCE, it is suggested that Liushui was a summer encampment for a people practising transhumance, who may have also engaged in agriculture in oases on the edge of the Tarim Basin (loc. cit.). In the tombs of Liushui ovicaprid bones deposited in or near ceramic vessels served as food offerings, and horse mandibles with and without bronze bits and cheekpieces may represent highly valued riding horses (ibid., 15734).269 Thirty-eight tombs contained bronze objects, including knives, a socketed axe, a socketed lancehead, arrows, buttons and beads, horse bridle bits and earrings; in four tombs iron fragments assumed to be knives were recovered; gold and silver earrings and bracelets and a gold pectoral were also discovered; as were necklaces made of a white stone or shell and nephrite and agate beads (loc. cit.).270 Typological parallels between Liushui artefacts and objects found in other parts of Xinjiang, Kazakhstan, Southern Siberia, Mongolia and North China suggest long-distance cultural and technological exchange (loc. cit.).271

Physical and molecular anthropological studies indicate that Xinjiang peoples of the early first millennium BCE had traits in common with both eastern and western Eurasian populations. A preliminary but important craniometric analysis of 19 intact skulls (male and female) from the Liushui cemetery, the oldest found to date in south-western Xinjiang, compares craniometric data from other areas of Xinjiang, the Eurasian steppes and the Central Plains.272 This analysis demonstrates that an admixture of eastern and western Eurasian populations emerged in various parts of Xinjiang by ca.  1000 BCE. Different Eurasian populations in Xinjiang sometimes shared the same territory. Moreover, Xinjiang populations of the Early Iron Age were similar to Bronze Age populations of the region, as well as to modern populations of the Northern Zone and North-east Tibet. It is reported that carved geometric motifs on pottery from Liushui are not unlike those on ceramics in Tibet and Qinghai.273

The possible relevance of Tibetan archaic funerary ritual texts to the Liushui burials is well worth considering, given that some eschatological themes in this literature parallel those surrounding death in Eurasia more widely. In the Tibetan tradition, ovicaprid remains fulfilled several functions, in addition to serving as food offerings for the deceased in the afterlife. As noted, the sacrifice of sheep (dri-lug) was carried out to appease demons interfering with the passage of the dead to the otherworld. Moreover, sheep, known as skyibs-lug in Old Tibetan, acted as guides and beacons, in order that the deceased could find his or her way through the rugged post-mortem landscape to the realm of the ancestors (Bellezza 2008: 459–64, 499–503; 2013: 213–20). Horse mandibles, copper-alloy bits and copper-alloy and bone cheekpieces in the burials of Liushui are likely to represent highly prized horses, as Wagner et al. suggest, but their significance is probably far more profound. Using the Tibetan archaic funerary tradition as a benchmark for comparison, these equestrian remains may be related to the psychopomp horses known as do-ma, which were envisioned as carrying the deceased across the rivers and mountains of the post-mortem realm (Bellezza 2008: 452–59, 517–37; 2013: 236–47). Tibetan funerary texts record that the do-ma included riding horses owned by the deceased, which were repurposed for funerals (do-ma appear to have been used exclusively by males). Moreover, a blood line of do-ma was connected to Turkic lands known as Drugu (probably in Xinjiang) in the Imperial period (Bellezza 2008: 524). The ancestral dimension of this account suggests that such equid psychopomps represented a transcultural tradition of considerable temporal depth. Relations between Turkic groups and the Tibetan state of the Imperial period are confirmed in Old Turkic texts. This link extended as far as the Yenisei region in Southern Siberia, as attested in inscriptions in which the Turkic form of Tibet and blon (‘minister’; Tibät and bölün) are recorded. On these Old Turkic texts, see Aydın 2018. 270 Bronze weaponry from Liushui, particularly rhombic arrowheads with a spur on one side and horse harnesses, are very similar to those found at Arzhan I (ninth century BCE), which were part of the mortuary inventories of various steppe and forest cultures of Southern Siberia, Kazakhstan and northern Xinjiang (Wagner et al. 2011: 15735). Other bronze weapons and the horse harnesses are close to those found in steppe regions of the Northern Zone (loc. cit.). Gold pectorals and certain other small objects from Liushui have a comparable wide geographic range (loc. cit.). On design parallels in copper-alloy arrowheads of Xinjiang and Tibet, see Bellezza 2020b, pp. 228–32. 271 These interregional contacts in southern Xinjiang were underpinned by antecedent genetic links between the Xiaohe people (eastern Tarim Basin, ca. 1800–1500 BCE) and Bronze Age populations of Southern Siberia (Wagner et al. 2011: 15735, citing Shou et al. and Li et al.). Genetic analysis of human remains from the Xiaohe cemetery furnishes evidence for a population of both eastern and western origins (loc. cit., citing Chinese archaeological reports). 269

According to Tan et al. (2013), eastern contributions to Liushui’s population may have come from Tibet. The genetic makeup of the Tibetan population has been determined to be closest to Tibeto-Burman minority groups such as the Tu and Nakhi and other proximate East Asian populations, with progressively weaker ties to Central Asian and Siberian populations (Zhang et al. 2018). While contemporary populations in Xinjiang have genetic ties to Tibetans,274 the phylogenetic relationships of populations 272 See Tan et al. 2013 (also for all information below this point in the paragraph). 273 Ceramics pictured in Wagner et al. (2011, p. 15735 (Fig. 3)), including redware of a coarse unglazed fabric, cord impressions and hatched triangles, do indeed recall the ceramics of Upper Tibet. A jar illustrated (loc. cit.) with a bulbous bottom and wide mouth, with two vertical strap handles, echoes the form of ceramic vessels from Upper Tibet. On the ceramics of the Western Tibetan Plateau, see October 2010, March 2015 and January 2016 Flight of the Khyung; Institute of Archaeology, CASS and Cultural Relics Conservation Institute of Tibet Autonomous Region 2014; 2015; Yao Jun 2004. Affinities shared by ceramic vessels in Xinjiang and the Western Tibetan Plateau are noted in January 2016 Flight of the Khyung. 274 A genetic analysis of the paternal and maternal lineages of the inhabitants of the relatively isolated Keriya village in the south-eastern Tarim Basin indicates that the local population has only a distant phylogenetic relationship with Tibetans (discernable in the M9 haplogroup). This study has dispelled speculation that the Keriya villagers were descendants of Tibetans who arrived in the region after the collapse of the Gu-ge kingdom in 1630 CE. See, as above, Chen et al. 2014. In the western and eastern Eurasian admixture of peoples contributing to the genome of Uighurs in Xinjiang, a western East Asian component (including Khams, Ch’iang, Baima and Mongol) has been detected (Li et al. 2009). MtDNA extracted from bones and teeth from 15 different individuals recovered from the Yuansha site, located in the middle of the Taklamakan desert, was used to assemble a phylogenetic portrait. Radiocarbon dated to ca. 200–100 BCE, these individuals shared haplotypes widely distributed in western and eastern Eurasia, and two individuals contained a minor admixture of Tibetan genetic material. See, as above, Gao et al. 2008.

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To Tibet: Bearers of the Eurasian Animal Style in Northern Pakistan and North Inner Asia between these regions in the Bronze Age and Iron Age remain to be determined. The DNA sequencing of ancient Tibetan skeletal and dental samples is a crucial missing link in scientific research. Until this lacuna is closed, we will be unable to ascertain how genetic findings can be correlated to craniometric affinities in ancient populations of the southern Tarim Basin and Tibetan Plateau.

The archaeological evidence for pathways of communication and migration between North Inner Asia and the Tibetan Plateau explored in this study seems to have a corollary in the Tibetan literary tradition. There is a body of mytho-ritual materials alleging that Tibet was embroiled in various military conflicts with northern regions in prehistoric times. However, none of these accounts are historical per se and none have been independently corroborated. Still, it appears that Tibetan literature preserves a remote collective memory of interactions with Xinjiang and other lands to the north in the era before empire. These northerners are often generically referred to as Hor/Hor-pa, an ethnonym that may include Turco-Mongolian and Eastern Iranian-speakers and other groups as well, depending on the potential location and period relayed in a text.277

Wagner et al. (2011) and Tan et al. (2013) support numerous other archaeological studies indicating that Xinjiang in the first millennium BCE was a highly dynamic land culturally and ethnically. Various peoples migrated to Xinjiang, adding layer upon layer to the cultural edifice of the region. This is demonstrated in the archaeological, morphological and genetic links of peoples in the region to other parts of North Inner Asia. In the first millennium BCE, multiple cultural, technological and demic currents from the Central and Eastern Steppes streamed south and east to the Tarim Basin. Evidence for a Tibetan demic factor in southern Xinjiang adds an additional element of complexity to the anthropological blend, suggesting that there were sustained interactions between the Tarim Basin and the Tibetan Plateau in the first millennium BCE.275 These interactions are reflected in the interregional propagation of EAS art and other commonly held cultural and technological traits. In the middle of the first millennium BCE, much of Xinjiang was inhabited by peoples with a Saka-type material culture, as in adjacent western territories. Even earlier in the first millennium BCE currents of transmission between the steppes and Xinjiang revolved around mobile pastoralists, horse-riding groups with many common material, artistic and economic features. This intermingling of diverse peoples in the southern and eastern Tarim Basin acted as an engine for cultural and technological exchange embracing the Tibetan Plateau in the Iron Age.276

A remarkable tale of links between Khotan and Tibet in prehistoric times is recorded in a clan origins text (pharabs) entitled The Abridged Account of the Source of the Gu rib Paternal Origins. This rare text purports to document the genealogical history of a celebrated clan of Upper and Central Tibet known as Gu-rib (in some sources: Gurub).278 One of its members belonging to a branch known as Shing gu-rib, the son of the king of Rtsang (western part of Central Tibet), Dmu-ber skya, requested the king of Khotan (Li-yul) for the hand of his daughter in marriage. The king of Khotan granted his request and the text states that eventually Dmu-ber skya took control of Khotan. The Gu-rib clan origins text avers that from the time of Dmuber skya to the thirty-second king of Tibet, Gnam-ri slonbtsan (late sixth to early seventh century CE), there was a line of seven descendants.279 This suggests an intervening period of roughly 250–400 years, potentially placing Dmu-ber skya’s tenure in Khotan in the second to fourth century CE. While information in the Gu-rib clan origins text cannot be taken literally (without additional means of verification), it does reference specific prehistoric ties between the southern Tarim Basin and the Tibetan Plateau.

275 Huo Wei (2016: 96) observes that wooden artefacts discovered in the Gur-gyam cemetery in Gu-ge, such as a horseshoe-shaped wooden comb, wooden cup, fire-making implements and objects woven from straw, are ‘very similar’ to those from the Loulan and Yutian (Keriya) cemeteries in Xinjiang dating to Han and Jin times. This strongly suggests that interactions between Xinjiang and Far Western Tibet persisted through the first third of the first millennium BCE. On the chronology and contents of Gur-gyam burials, see Bellezza 2020b, pp. 198–202; October 2010 and April 2012 Flight of the Khyung. On the wooden comb from tomb M3, Gur-gyam, see Institute of Archaeology, CASS and Cultural Relics Conservation Institute of Tibet Autonomous Region 2015, p. 44. Horseshoe-shaped and rectangular combs dating to the Protohistoric period also appear as copper-alloy objects of the thog-lcags class. Chayet (2014: 35) observes that wheat and barley sown in the spring dominated cultivation in the regions of Loulan and Niya, ca. third century CE, as it did on much of the Tibetan Plateau, adding that Tibetans had a presence in Xinjiang well before the Imperial period. However, it is still not evident how agriculture in Xinjiang might have informed that practised in Far Western Tibet in the Protohistoric period. 276 Evidence for an Imperial-period exchange between Xinjiang and Tibet is represented among the 200 objects recovered from 21 tombs and two residential sites belonging to the Subeshi culture, located in the foothills of the northern slope of the Tian-Shan (attributed to the Early Iron Age, while a ‘Late Phase’ is dated to the seventh and eighth centuries CE). See Xinjiang Provincial Institute of Archaeology 2016. At these Subeshi sites a copper-alloy ring divided into three equal segments arrayed around a trifoliate hub (approximately 7 cm across) was discovered (ibid., pp. 18, 21 (no. 15)). This object (possibly horse tack) undoubtedly came from Tibet, where it is a relatively common type among thokcha. For other examples of this object (with minor design variations), see Lin 2003, p. 116; John 2006, p. 105 (Figs. 145–47); Weihreter 1988, pp. 258, 259 (Fig. 216).

The Northern Zone connection To elucidate cultural and technological interactions that led to the appearance of EAS rock art on the Tibetan Plateau, the role of northern ties across the full breadth of Xinjiang and the Northern Zone must be considered. Beginning in the Bronze Age, demic, cultural and technological inputs from the Eastern Steppe played an important role in the movements of ideas and art between 277 On these textual sources, see Bellezza 2005, pp. 282–84; 2002, pp. 23–25; 2001, pp. 65, 66; 2008, pp. 226, 228, 231, 235–37. For a Tibetan account of prehistoric interactions between Northern Pakistan and Far Western Tibet, see Hoffman 1969, pp. 138–42; January 2018 Flight of the Khyung. 278 This is a Buddhist text, but with much non-Buddhist lore: Gu rib pha rabs kyi byung khungs mdor bsdus (anonymous, 12 folios). I have prepared a full translation of the contents of the text up to the Vestigial period. 279 The seven intervening figures of the Shing gu-rib are Dran-mar sangste, Lig-stang rgya-sde, Mar-stang rgya-ste, Sting-mar rgya-sde, Sma ’o-ber, Gyer dang-ber and Cu-mar stang.

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Tibetan Silver, Gold and Bronze Objects and the Aesthetics of Animals in the Era before Empire Xinjiang and the Northern Zone.280 There is a growing body of archaeological evidence supporting engagement between cultures of Xinjiang, Qinghai, western Gansu and the Eastern Steppe in the second millennium BCE (Mei et al. 2012).281

agro-pastoralist groups under their political control.283 The ethno-linguistic makeup of peoples comprising the Xianbei and Xiongnu had a significant purview.284 The breadth of interactions between the Northern Zone and Tibetan Plateau in the time of the Xiongnu and Xianbei is indicated in the following survey of analogous copperalloy objects produced in both territories. These material ties augment the sphere of transcultural intake across the entire northern flank of the Tibetan Plateau.

A major source of east–west cultural cross-currents in Xinjiang in the third and second centuries BCE was the Yüeh-chih. The extent of the Yüeh-chih empire is unclear, but it is widely thought to have included western Gansu and large parts of Xinjiang before being crushed by the Xiongnu in 176 BCE. The Yüeh-chih came under continued pressure from the Xiongnu and a contingent known as the Little Yüeh-chih left western Gansu and settled in the Nan-Shan range (forming the north-eastern escarpment of the Tibetan Plateau; Maenchen-Helfin 1945: 71; Enoki et al. 1994: 171), but this region and the Ch’iang (Tibetan) tribes inhabiting it may already have been under the control of the Yüeh-chih empire (loc. cit.). Given their foothold in North-east Tibet and their possible Scythic affinities, the Yüeh-chih are a potential candidate for being carriers of EAS traditions to Tibetan groups in the east.282

The object in Fig. 6.10 is one of many kinds of small copper-alloy campanulate objects found on the Tibetan Plateau. This group of thokcha has round and ovoid cross sections, and sometimes geometric decorative patterns. As these objects occur as disjecta membra, their original places of manufacture and usage remain unknown.285 Nevertheless, they are common, and widespread distribution in ancient Tibet is likely. The pervasiveness of campanulate objects in Tibet is mirrored in the occurrence of analogous objects in the Northern Zone, the Altai and Southern Siberia. The many permutations in forms and designs of the Tibetan bell-like objects intimate a long spell of production, ranging from the Iron Age to the Early Historic period.

The cultures and polities subsumed under the protoMongolian formations called Xiongnu (third century BCE to first century CE) and Xianbei (ca. first to fourth century CE) appear to have exercised an important role in transferring artistic impulses from the Northern Zone to North-east Tibet at the close of the Iron Age and in the Protohistoric period. There are a number of classes of minor copper-alloy objects from the Northern Zone attributed to the Xianbei and Xiongnu that have close parallels with unprovenanced Tibetan objects. It is important to note, however, that reliance on terms such as Xianbei and Xiongnu to label archaeological objects from the Northern Zone does not address the cultural heterogeneity of the

Small copper-alloy campanulate objects from sites such as Xichagou (western Gansu), Pingyang (Shanxi),

280 For an analysis of these interconnections traced through copperalloy objects, in what I have termed the greater and lesser metallurgical provinces (which also encompasses Eastern Tibet), see March 2016 Flight of the Khyung. 281 For example, ceramics (sandy, painted redware) from the Yanbulake culture in the Hami region (ca.  1700–1300 BCE, mid-first millennium BCE) have analogous forms in ceramics of Gumugou in the Lop Nor and ceramics of the Xindian culture in Gansu, suggesting bonds between these cultures (Chen and Hiebert 1995: 250, 260 (Fig. 8.4-6), 262, 264). Craniometric analysis carried out on human remains from Yanbulake indicates that it was inhabited by a people of ‘Mongoloid’ stock, but with a Europoid component (ibid., 263, citing Han). Moreover, Yanbulake appears to have been culturally linked to oases in the Oxus region, possibly through Andronovo tribes (ibid., 264). For a survey of interactions between Xinjiang and the Northern Zone, ca. 1000 BCE, see Debaine-Francfort 2001. 282 Enoki et al. (1994: 166–69, 172, 173) discuss various scholarly ideas concerning the identity of Yüeh-chih, settling upon the Scythians on linguistic grounds. They speculate that the people of Pazyryk may have been the ancestors of the Yüeh-chih (ibid., 172). However, based on his own linguistic reconstruction, Beckwith (2009: 380–83) identifies the Yüeh-chih as the Tocharians. Beckwith’s ethnic identification better fits the historical evidence, but a resolution of this complex matter is still pending. Martin (2010: 199) is of the opinion that the Tibetan word g.yag (yak) is probably of Indo-European origins and etymologically related to the Tocharian yuk/yakwe (horse). How this might relate to the language spoken by the Yüeh-chih is unclear.

Fig. 6.10. A bell-like copper-alloy thokcha with prominent attachment loop and two deeply indented sides (2.1 cm × 0.9 cm). Moke Mokotoff collection. 283 The genetically heterogenous Xiongnu were of East Asian and west Eurasian origins. See (de) Barros Damgaard et al. 2018. 284 Psarras (1994: 3–5) recognises that monolithic labels such as ‘ScythoSiberian’ and ‘Ordos’ for non-Chinese peoples inhabiting Inner Mongolia and northern China (Shanxi, Shaanxi, Liaoning, Jilin and Ningxia) responsible for producing an interrelated corpus of copper-alloy objects are too broad, for their chronology often remains unclear and groups living beside each other were not necessarily directly related to one another. As Psarras concludes (loc. cit.), typological development does not necessarily reflect a linear chronological evolution. 285 For Tibetan examples of these objects, see Bellezza 1998, p. 53 (Fig. 10); 2008, p. 101 (Fig. 153, top row); John 2006, p. 161 (Figs. 469–80, 482); Lin 2003, pp. 147–49.

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Fig. 6.11. Copper-alloy bell-like objects excavated from tombs in the Ordos, Gansu and Shanxi (after Psarras 1994, p. 91 (Fig. 20b, top row)). Dated ca. last third of the first millennium BCE. Drawing by Aado Phuntsok Palden.

Fig. 6.12. A Tibetan copper-alloy semi-spherical button with radiating lines near the edge. Private collection.

Guoxianyaozi (south central Inner Mongolia) and Daodunzi (Ningxia), some dated to the Western Han period (206 BCE to 9 CE), appear in a variety of forms, including those that closely match Tibetan variants (Fig. 6.11).286 Nevertheless, those from the Northern Zone have deviating decorative features, and some have rectangular or triangular openings on the sides, features not seen in Tibetan specimens. Conversely, a subset unique to Tibet are in the form of animal heads. Analogous sets of miniature copper-alloy bell-like objects are also commonly found in burial sites in the Altai and Southern Siberia.287 These groups of copper-alloy objects were among the most widely distributed forms in Inner Asia during the Iron Age. Circular copper-alloy ‘buttons’ (some probably functioning originally as studs on horse harnesses and accessories worn on the body) occur in Tibet in a great variety of styles.288 The most common type is fashioned in the form of a flower with five or more petals. Many have a loop or bar on the rear for suspending or attaching to clothing or an object. The Tibetan specimen pictured in Figs. 6.12 and 6.13 belongs to a subgroup among the larger class of Tibetan buttons. This button with short radiating lines is very close in form to copper-alloy semi-spherical appliqué ornaments from the Northern Zone illustrated in Fig. 6.14. The northern specimens are primarily found at Xianbei sites and are usually assigned to the Han period (206 BCE to 220 CE; Psarras 1994, pp. 58, 59, 102). Although the Northern Zone buttons share many fundamental traits in common with their Tibetan counterparts, most have larger attachment bars than Tibetan examples.

Fig. 6.13. The reverse side of the button in Fig. 6.12. Note the attachment loop.

286 See Psarras 1994, pp. 12, 91 (Fig. 20b (Type III, Type IV)), 92 (Figs. 21a, 21b (Type VII)). 287 See Bellezza 2008, pp. 100, 101 (Fig. 153, lower row); Shulga 2015, p. 281 (Fig. 21). For those found in Mongolia, see Enkhtuvshin and Sanjmyatav 2007, p. 96 (Figs. 11, 12). According to Enkhtuvshin and Sanjmyatav (ibid., 95), such bells were used by ancient Mongolians in the worship of mountains, rivers and lakes, in hunting and ancestral rites, for mourning, during celebrations and as marks of rank. 288 See Bellezza 1998, pp. 55 (Fig. 33), 61 (Fig. 65); John 2006, pp. 176, 177; Weihreter 2002a, pp. 95 (Fig. 122), 96 (Fig. 124); Lin 2003, pp. 162, 163 (including photographs of the reverse side, all with attachment loops). For a Tibetan button very similar to the specimen depicted in Figs. 6.12 and 6.13, see John 2006, p. 177 (Fig. 629).

Fig. 6.14. Semi-spherical buttons recovered from tombs and other sources in the Northern Zone (Xigouban, Wudaohezi and Yushu) (after Psarras 1994, pp. 58, 59, 102 (Fig. 34b)). Drawing by Aado Phuntsok Palden.

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Tibetan Silver, Gold and Bronze Objects and the Aesthetics of Animals in the Era before Empire Zone.290 The similarities shared by funerary enclosures made of slabs in Upper Tibet and Tibetan copper-alloy buttons with the burials and artefacts of the Slab Grave culture have been examined (Bellezza 2008: 122–26). The Slab Grave culture was absorbed by expanding mobile pastoralist groups, ca.  fifth century BCE. Buttons from the tombs of the Slab Grave culture were the historicocultural predecessors of those found in the Northern Zone dated to the last third of the first millennium BCE. Thus, the Slab Grave culture is very likely to have had a direct role in the genesis of copper-alloy buttons in the Northern Zone.291 These classes of buttons do not have counterparts among Scythic copper-alloy objects, indicating that their inspiration did not come from more westerly sources.

Tibetan copper-alloy buttons exist in relatively large numbers and many have fine patinas, showing that just like other thokcha they were prized objects handed down over generations. Tibetan buttons come in many forms and appear to have been manufactured from the Iron Age until well into the historical era. Their later phase of production illustrates a tendency among Tibetans to conserve borrowed northern artistic forms long after they were first introduced onto the Plateau. A typological and chronological study of Tibetan copper-alloy buttons, however, is still pending. Among buttons found in the Northern Zone and Tibet, whose forms and designs overlap, are those that may possibly have been produced in the other territory. Exchange of objects in contiguous regions, whether through trade or for other purposes, is commonplace and must be weighed. Nevertheless, when viewed in aggregate, buttons from the Northern Zone and the Tibetan Plateau constitute discrete classes of objects.

Referred to as ‘flower discs’, round copper-alloy buttons with circular petals of the Xiongnu type found at Taohongbala and Yulongtai (Psarras 1994: 13, 103 (Fig. 35a, rows 1–3)) have cognate forms among Tibetan button thokcha (Fig. 6.16, top row). Hemispherical buttons of the Xianbei type ornamented with regularly spaced lines curving around an open centre are found in the Ordos and at Pinyang (ibid., Fig. 35a, rows 4, 5). These objects are illustrated in Fig. 6.16 (bottom row). All these ornaments have analogues among Tibetan thokcha. The buttons described by Psarras as Xiongnu and Xianbei types that match Tibetan ones are distributed across the Northern Zone from Inner Mongolia

Tibetan copper-alloy buttons also have a strong affinity with those of the Slab Grave culture (Fig. 6.15), an archaeological culture defined through its distinctive burials. These consist of superstructures constructed with upright slabs.289 Some of these slabs are so prominent that they resemble menhirs. Slab Grave culture burials define an interrelated cultural domain in the Transbaikal, eastern and central Mongolia and the northern tier of the Northern

Fig. 6.15. Copper-alloy button-like objects. Top row: Tibetan thokcha belonging to various periods, the largest of which is 5.4 cm in diameter (private collections); bottom three rows: Slab Grave culture (after Tsybiktarov 1998, pp. 232, 234), late second millennium BCE to middle of the first millennium BCE. The Tibetan specimens have comparable forms, and attachment bars on the reverse side. They are also comparably sized. Drawing by Lingtsang Kalsang Dorjee. On the Slab Grave culture, see Honeychurch et al. 2009; Tsybiktarov 1998. 291 On affinities between the metallurgical and typological traits of copper-alloy objects belonging to the Xiongnu, Slab Grave culture and Scythians, see Miniaev 2016, pp. 156–58. 290 289 Tucci (1973: 39) compares Tibetan copper-alloy buttons (not illustrated) with objects found in Southern Siberia by the Russian archaeologist S. I. Rudenko.

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Fig. 6.16. Xiongnu and Xianbei floral ornaments. Drawing by Rebecca C. Bellezza, after Psarras 1994, p. 103 (Fig. 35a).

to Jilin. Cognate forms existing on the Plateau are likely to have arisen through diffusive forces emanating from the Northern Zone, which acted upon Eastern Tibet in the last third of the first millennium BCE and the first third of the first millennium CE. Even if these elementary metal objects sprang up relatively independently of one another in the Northern Zone and Tibet, their remarkable similarities are indicative of wider interactions between the two territories. Minor objects such as buttons were potentially exchanged by a broader spectrum of people than those who could afford more elaborate bronze and gold plaques and other larger objects.292 In any case, the usefulness of buttons (as well as studs and bosses) helps explain their broad geographical scope, furnishing the impetus for the production of cognate forms on the Tibetan Plateau.

Fig. 6.17. Tibetan thokcha with four concentric circles arrayed around an equally sized central concentric circle. Probably Protohistoric period. Private collection. Note the two attachment points (one partly missing) on either side of the object.

There are other classes of minor copper-alloy objects that bind the Northern Zone to the Eastern Steppe and to the Tibetan Plateau as well. One of these consists of quatrefoil ornaments illustrated in Figs. 6.17–6.19. These objects from Tibet, the Northern Zone and the Altai share the same basic form and circular decorative patterns. However, as can be seen in the images provided, the Tibetan example has several singular features. Unlike some of the northern variants, it is flat and does not have a hole in the centre. Also, the central circle in the Tibetan specimen pictured is of an identical size and design to the other four. I have observed two or three other thokcha specimens of this kind, each with minor design variations. They form a distinctive genre of Tibetan objects, but no information about their places of manufacture and discovery has been forthcoming. The excellent condition of these objects indicates that they were kept as heirlooms. Like cognate buttons, they represent the sweep of a tradition extending from the Eastern Steppe (ca.  middle first millennium BCE) to the Northern Zone (ca. late first millennium BCE) and onto the Tibetan Plateau (no later than the Protohistoric period).

Fig. 6.18. The reverse side of the object in Fig. 6.17.

parallels in Tibet (Psarras 1994: 60, 104 (Fig. 36a)). They come from Taohongbala, Guoxianyaozi, Nanshan’gen and Pingyang in the Northern Zone, as well the Southern Siberian areas of and Minusinsk and Transbaikal. These are said to be common all over the Northern Zone (loc. cit.). They are comprised of three, four or more interconnected hemispherical nodes oriented in a single line. Similar objects are included among Tibetan thokcha, but they are not as numerous as in northern territories.293 This is yet another example of minor copper-alloy articles propagated in the Eastern Steppe and Northern Zone in the second half of the first millennium apparently influencing Tibetan ornamental and metallurgical traditions.

Another class of objects from the Northern Zone and Eastern Steppe Psarras calls ‘connected semi-spheres’ have close

Openwork rectangular plaques with an interlinked geometric pattern of triangular cells are frequently

Psarras (1994: 59) believes, quite to the contrary, that small items like the buttons did not have as much attraction for interregional trade as highly decorated plaques; thus, where they are found is more likely indicative of their cultural zone of origin. 292

293

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For a specimen presumably from Tibet, see Lin 2003, p. 122.

Tibetan Silver, Gold and Bronze Objects and the Aesthetics of Animals in the Era before Empire

Fig. 6.19. Quatrefoil ornaments. Top two rows: Taohongbala (a Xiongnu site in south-western Inner Mongolia), Hulusitai (central Inner Mongolia) and the Ordos (after Psarras 1994: 59, 103 (Fig. 35c)). Bottom row: a similar specimen identified as a belt ornament, excavated from a burial mound at Temir-Sug in the Russian Altai (after Shulga 2015: 318 (Fig. 3)). Drawing by Aado Phuntsok Palden.

encountered in Tibet and the Northern Zone (Fig. 6.20).294 In Tibet, this design is known as dpal gyi be’u or pa-tra and it is one of the ‘eight auspicious symbols’ (bkra-shis rtags-brgyad) in Buddhism and Yungdrung Bon. However, like the conjoined sun and moon subject in Scythic and Sasanian art, the so-called endless knot also has nonBuddhist northern cultural ties. Tibetan variants of these rectangular openwork plaques are more simply designed, thicker and often more crudely cast and less well finished than their northern counterparts. Rectangular openwork plaques with the so-called endless knot motif from the Northern Zone frequently have bosses at the junctures of the diamond-shaped cells, whereas Tibetan specimens do not. The bulk of Tibetan examples were made in the Historic era. They were worn as amulets or used as ornaments on various everyday and religious articles. The origins of Tibetan copper-alloy endless knots are unclear, but it is not unlikely that the earliest variants derive at least some of their inspiration from northern cultural sources.

There are also copper-alloy ornaments with zoomorphic subjects in the Northern Zone and on the Tibetan Plateau with multiple physical and aesthetic links. A compelling example of this ancient relationship is seen in the frogs pictured in Fig. 6.21, as demonstrated by their striking similarities in style, design and form. Frog subjects constitute a diverse but fairly uncommon class of thokcha in Tibet. The age of the two Tibetan examples pictured here has not been ascertained, save that they appear to predate the Protohistoric period. While some copper-alloy frog ornaments belong to the Early Historic period, frogs are not often represented in later Tibetan amulets. In Tibetan mythology and ritual practices, frogs are frequently connected to the chthonic realm and act as personal protectresses of women (usually in the form of a water spirit known as klu-mo). The Tibetan frog ornament on the lower left of Fig. 6.21 is thin and finely cast. The reverse is a mirror image of the side illustrated. Part of its outer ring has worn away. The specimen on the lower right has a bumpy surface simulating the skin of a frog (similar decorative treatment of the skin is seen on jade frog pendants from Han dynasty China). Both Tibetan objects show almost no signs of corrosion, indicating that they were kept in protected environments and probably passed down as heirlooms over the centuries. At the top of Fig. 6.21 is an ornament in the form of a frog from northern Hebei in the Northern Zone. Its ovoid body and head, four short legs pointed forward and prominent toes anticipate the iconography of Tibetan thokcha counterparts.295 That the Tibetans retained the northern iconography of the frog is an excellent example of the innate conservatism of their zoomorphic

Other correspondences in styles, subjects and themes in the geometric and floral art of minor copper-alloy articles belonging to the Eastern Steppe, Northern Zone and Tibetan Plateau exist, but the examples given above shall suffice to underline the strong artistic and metalworking links between these territories from the middle of the first millennium BCE until the early first millennium CE. Another specimen illustrated in John 2006 (pp. 103, 107 (Fig. 171)) may actually be from the Northern Zone. For other examples from the Northern Zone (attributed to the Xiongnu and Xianbei), see Tong 2013, Figs. 4.5.2-3, 4.5-7; Boardman 2010: p. 58 (nos. 460, 461). Thokcha with the endless knot motif most commonly have a circular outline or are quadrate in form but without an outer frame. See John 2006, pp. 106, 107 (Figs. 156–70); Lin 203, p. 123; Bellezza 1998, p. 52 (Fig. 4, lower left); Weihreter 1988, pp. 258, 259 (Fig. 214); 2002, pp. 29 (Fig. 18), 30 (Fig. 19); Tucci 1973, Fig. 6 (centre); September 2013 Flight of the Khyung, Fig. 4. 294

For another example of this style of frog in Tibet (cast without an outer ring), see John 2006, p. 133 (Fig. 317). See also Bellezza 1998, p. 60 (Fig. 56, upper row, second from the right).

295

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Fig. 6.20. Tibetan and Northern Zone copper-alloy openwork plaques featuring a design popularly known as the ‘endless knot’. Left: Tibetan object after John 2006, pp. 103, 107 (Fig. 172), middle: Tibetan object in a private collection (6.7 cm × 5.9 cm), right: Inner Mongolia specimen, after Tong 2013, p. 301 (Fig. 4.5.2-4.1). Drawing by Rebecca C. Bellezza.

and in the fur and leather-tanning trade with the Chinese (Bunker 2002: 19). There is a small suspension loop on the back of this object near the top (Bunker et al. 1997: 118). Similar specimens have been found at Xiaobaiyang, Xunahua, northern Hebei, and others in the northern Hebei counties of Datun, Luanping and Longhua (loc. cit.).296 The concentration of these frog ornament finds in northern Hebei suggests that they were produced in that region. Like those of the Northern Zone, the Tibetan frog ornaments in Fig. 6.21 are likely to have been worn on the upper body for protective and good-fortune-enhancing purposes. However they might have taken hold in Tibet, these copper-alloy objects apparently became more popular on the Plateau than they did in the Northern Zone. The diverse styles of frog thokcha indicate that they were the object of much indigenous innovation after their introduction. Like some examples from Tibet, the bronze frog pendant from Luristan in Fig. 6.22 (left) has an attachment point for suspending the object for display on the body. The two serpents on the Northern Zone plaque in Fig. 6.22 (right) appears to distinguish it as belonging to that territory. No

Fig. 6.21. Copper-alloy ornaments featuring frogs set inside rings. Top row: Northern Zone specimen from northern Hebei, dated to ca. sixth or fifth century BCE (after Bunker 2002: 19 (Fig. 23); Kawami et al. 2016, p. 181 (Fig. 110)). Bottom row: Tibetan specimens, left (4 cm × 3.3 cm; private collection), right (after Bellezza 1998 (Robert Brundage collection), s.v. cover), probably Protohistoric period. Drawing by Aado Phuntsok Palden.

Another frog pectoral of the same type (all four legs facing forward, and flanked by snakes and a segmented outer ring), but with a squatter body, is also part of the Sackler collection (Bunker et al. 1997: 118 (no. 110.1)). A cognate Northern Zone example but with broken front legs is illustrated in Salmony 1933, Pl. XXIII.5. One such pectoral ornament was found atop the ribcage of a female adult burial in Manzigou, Xingzhou, northern Hebei (Bunker et al. 1997: 118). According to these authors, this object may have functioned as a fertility device. However, I think it is unlikely that a frog pectoral ornament in a mortuary context directly signified fertility. While frogs (like other klu-mo spirits) have fertility connotations, relying on ancient Tibetan cultural lore, I put forward that the frog ornament in the female burial in Manzigou may have been foremost a clan or family identifying marker. In the Tibetan archaic funerary tradition, frogs are associated with the infernal realm (Bellezza 2013: 122–27).

296

art. The pictured specimen from the Northern Zone is identified as a pectoral ornament (Bunker 2002: 19). It has a beaded outer ring and an inner ring comprised of a pair of snakes (Bunker et al. 1997: 118 (no. 110)). The snake is another creature identified with the lower realm of the cosmos, female spirits and maternal lineages in Tibet. The Northern Zone specimen is reported to belong to a group of bronze objects made by a people engaged in hunting 109

Tibetan Silver, Gold and Bronze Objects and the Aesthetics of Animals in the Era before Empire appeal of this creature notwithstanding. The designs and attendant functions of frog ornaments were altered from Iran to the Northern Zone and again in Tibet, the work of differing cultural agents and utilitarian aims. However, all ranine objects considered in this work appear to have been bound together by their amuletic value, presupposing certain ideological and symbolic interconnections between far-flung peoples. Furthermore, the Tibetan and Northern Zone examples seem to have had a special attraction for females. Another thematic parallel in Tibetan and Northern Zone bronze art is seen in S-shaped objects with an animal head on each end. These distinctively shaped objects characteristic of both territories furnish compelling evidence for cultural and artistic interplay between the Tibetan Plateau and regions to the north-east beginning in the Iron Age. The raptor heads embellishing the object on the left in Fig. 6.23 are of a style that pervaded the Northern Zone and Eastern Steppe. This avian motif is often referred to as a griffin. It is first encountered among a great wealth of objects (especially horse tack such as psalia) that are attributed to Scytho-Siberian cultures.297 The precise usage of S-shaped ornaments in the Northern Zone and Tibet is enigmatic and this kind of object is uncommon in both territories. The Tibetan specimen with crocodiloid heads on the right side of Fig. 6.23 is the first of its kind to be published. I have observed three or four other examples of this type of thokcha over the last 35 years, including some larger in size than the one published in this work. Crocodile-like heads have been a popular motif in Tibetan decorative arts since no later than the Protohistoric period. Thus, it is no surprise to see them on the S-shaped ornaments. The two sides of the Northern Zone specimen in Fig. 6.23 are more or less mirror images of one another. On the other hand, its Tibetan counterpart has only one fully ornamented side, the back of the object being flatter and without eyes. In fact, many such small copper-alloy objects of North Inner Asia have like designs on both sides, whereas Tibetans favoured plain backs. The S-shaped objects under review are another instance of Tibetans adopting with great fidelity a northern artistic system for their own use, which they continued to propagate long after its disappearance in the Northern Zone.298

Fig. 6.22. Left: Bronze pendant in the form of a frog with a suspension ring and greenish patina (5 cm in length). Luristan, Iran. seventh to fourth century BCE (Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Accession no. 30.622. www.mfa.org/ collections/object/frog-amulet-244556). Right: Frog-shaped openwork plaque with two flanking serpents (9.5 cm in length). Western Han Dynasty, ca. third century BCE (‘The Sze Yuan Tang Archaic Bronzes from the Anthony Hardy Collection’, Christie’s Sale 2508 (16 September 2010). Website: ‘The City Review’, www.thecityreview.com/ f10cchinbronzes.html). Drawing by Rebecca C. Bellezza.

Fig. 6.23. Left: S-shaped object with stylised raptor heads on the two ends (dimensions not given). Attributed to Ningxia or Gansu, ca. sixth to fourth century BCE (Kawami et al. 2016, p. 183 (Fig. 209)). Right: Tibetan S-shaped object (3 cm in length) with each end terminating in the head of a water monster (chu-srin). Probably Protohistoric period. Private collection. Drawing by Rebecca C. Bellezza.

The bovids depicted on gold and copper-alloy belt plaques of the Northern Zone share certain stylistic traits with

such association of frogs with snakes has been recorded in the ancient pendants and pectoral ornaments of the Tibetan Plateau. Nonetheless, the shape and aspect of the probable Northern Zone frog as well as the eye motifs covering the body find much resonance in Tibetan counterparts. The frog ornaments from Luristan, the Northern Zone and Tibet demonstrate how such emblems reverberated across much of the eastern half of Eurasia during the Iron Age. Western Iran, a highly influential cradle of bronze metalworking in the final Bronze Age and Early Iron Age, might have directly influenced the uptake of the frog motif among cultures of the Northern Zone, the universal

297 Objects featuring these raptor heads have been published widely. Good sources for illustrated examples include Shulga 2015 and Davis-Kimball et al. (eds.) 1995. 298 For a copper-alloy object consisting of two conjoined modified S-shaped figures with a single raptor head on each, see John 2006, p. 138 (Fig. 333). This item preserves the zoomorphic iconography of North Inner Asia but appears to be a Tibetan-made thokcha. Like the Tibetan specimen in Fig. 6.23, the one published by John has a central hub, this particular one being smaller than the Tibetan one in Fig. 6.23 and consisting of just a raised circle. Also, it has a well-developed patina and a single line of beading along the length of the modified S-shaped bodies, qualities that are congruent with ancient articles produced on the Tibetan Plateau. For another set of raptor anatomical features on a Tibetan object mimicking a northern object with the griffin/eagle icon, see March 2016 Flight of the Khyung, Fig. 30.

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To Tibet: Bearers of the Eurasian Animal Style in Northern Pakistan and North Inner Asia

Fig. 6.25. Reverse side of the object in Fig. 6.24. Fig. 6.24. Tibetan copper-alloy pendant in the form of a butting yak with openings between the tail and body and head and body (4.4 cm × 3.5 cm). Possibly Early Historic period. Late Shang Nyima collection, Lhasa and Kathmandu.

Tibetan yak subjects represented in thokcha. The Tibetan specimen in Figs. 6.24 and 6.25 is reported to have come from Tibet to Nepal in the 1980s. It stands on all four legs. The upright bushy tail identifies this zoomorphic figure as a bull yak, as do the very broad body and prominent withers. This object is enrobed in a lustrous patina, betraying no signs of having ever been exposed to an unprotected environment. It features the only full-profile yak (probably the wild variant) in this particular style to come to my attention. However, thokcha yak heads in the same style (short horns, bulbous forehead and extended tongue) are known.299

Fig. 6.26. Copper-alloy buckle in the form of a bovid (bull or yak) with its head cradled in the folded front legs. Approximately 9 cm × 5.5 cm. Attributed to the Xiongnu, Ordos region. Photograph courtesy of Emma Bunker.

Belt plaques of confronted bulls/yaks in the styles seen in Figs. 6.26 and 6.27 have been excavated from Xiongnu graves and chance finds in Tuva, Minusinsk Basin, Manchuria and Inner Mongolia (Kilunovskaya and Leus 299 However, none seem to have been published yet. For yak-head thokcha in various styles, sizes, copper alloys and ages, see Weihreter 2002, p. 49 (Fig. 23); 1988, p. 255 (Fig. 203); John 2006, pp. 131 (Fig. 302), 132 (Figs. 308–10); Lin 2003, p. 90; Bellezza 1998, pp. 56 (Fig. 42, second from left), 60 (Fig. 58), all specimens with deeply curved, erect horns and no crowning motif. Small copper-alloy objects consisting of a two-dimensional (flat) yak in full profile are much less common in the diverse group of Tibetan copper-alloy objects called thokcha. For a yak astride a ring, see John 2006, p. 94 (Fig. 88); for two anthropomorphs standing on the horns and tail of a yak, see Lin 2003, p. 3. The Kunlho bod-rigs rang-skyong khul dngos-mang bshams ston-khang museum, in Kun-lho prefecture, has a plaque in the form of a wild yak in their collection; however, as of September 2019 it was not on public display. Another yak-shaped small object but in poorer condition is exhibited in the Mtsho-sngon bod kyi rig-gnas rten-mdzod-gling museum, Xining. Each of the objects in the form of full-profile yaks noted are unique in style and probably had different purposes. They date to the Iron Age and Protohistoric period and may have been made in various places on the Tibetan Plateau. It must be remembered that the yak is the animal most culturally emblematic of Tibet.

Fig. 6.27. Reverse side of the object in Fig. 6.26. Photograph courtesy of Emma Bunker. Note the two small loops for attachment.

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Tibetan Silver, Gold and Bronze Objects and the Aesthetics of Animals in the Era before Empire published, I have observed two small Tibetan figurines in the form of boars that date to the Late Prehistoric era. These figurines have their own suite of distinctive artistic and technical features.303 When examined in the light of the other classes of copper-alloy articles pictured examined here, these commonalities in the zoomorphic subject matter of Tibet and the Northern Zone are not likely to be the result of coincidence.

2018: 9), as well as in other Northern Zone regions.300 The specimen pictured in this work is one of two mirrorimage components that originally made up the complete belt buckle.301 This buckle, like many others of the same type (they vary slightly in decorative details), is gilded. Copper-alloy belt buckles and ornaments became popular social, decorative and symbolic costume elements for pastoralist groups of North Inner Asia starting in the early first millennium BCE. They appear to have been fixed on perishable materials such as leather or fabric. Those belonging to the Xiongnu represent the terminus of this costumery tradition.

The specimen on the upper left side of Fig. 6.28, apparently a Tibetan variant, consists of two felines placed on top of one another. Their bodies are in profile but the heads are turned to face the observer. The hindquarters and forequarters are embellished with inset concentric circles. The two legs of the figure are folded into an L-shaped configuration and the downward-pointing tails end in a small circle. The ostensibly Tibetan lower feline figure in Fig. 6.28 has two folded legs with circles in the middle, double-curved back, and a downward-pointing head and tail.304 There is a large attachment loop on the back of this object. The feline pectoral ornament on the right side of Fig. 6.28 may actually be from the Eastern Steppe or Northern Zone. Its two feet and the tip of the tail form small rings, common motifs in bronze and gold zoomorphic art of the Iron Age in North Inner Asia.305 The two Tibetanattributed specimens are so close in form and aspect to

The tradition of zoomorphic belt buckles so popular in North Inner Asia did not take hold in Tibet. Reliance on robes tied with a sash (as depicted in Tibetan rock art) may have been a deciding factor. However, Tibetan design and metallurgical traditions seem to have been impacted by those buckles. Although the Tibetan and Northern Zone bovid objects published in this work appear to have different functions (belt buckle versus smaller pectoral ornament) and the aspect of the animals varies (butting versus reposing), their overall pictorial effect is quite similar. In terms of specific elements, they both have heads pointing down and turned inward, bodies with much relief simulating the musculature and fur, and two apertures (front and back). While the scope of these shared traits is less encompassing than for the buttons, frogs and other objects of Tibet and the Northern Zone submitted above, the bovid figures augment the cultural and technological overwash of these two territories. The time lag between the manufacture of the Xiongnu buckles and the featured Tibetan pectoral ornament indicates that the former did not exert a direct influence upon the creation of latter. Rather, the art of small copper-alloy objects was shaped and reshaped in Tibet, resulting in the indigenisation of diverse contributions from abroad and the formation of distinctive bodies of art on the Plateau. There are other zoomorphic subjects and themes shared by small copper-alloy objects of the Northern Zone and Tibetan Plateau. In the art of both territories we find the hare, which is much more prominent in the Northern Zone. The hare occurs infrequently as a subject in Tibetan copper-alloy objects of the late first millennium BCE.302 The boar is another common subject in the bronze art of the Eastern Steppe and Northern Zone of the middle and late first millennium. Although none appear to have been

Fig. 6.28. Three copper-alloy figures in the form of felines, designed to be worn on the body. The animals depicted represent either leopards, panthers or tigers. Second half of the first millennium BCE. The upper and lower left objects appear to have been produced in Tibet, while the specimen on the right is probably attributable to the Northern Zone. Robert Brundage collection, USA. Drawing by Rebecca C. Bellezza, after Bellezza 1998, p. 59 (Fig. 55).

Another cognate class of small copper-alloy objects distributed widely are plaques in the shape of a raptor with folded wings, head regardant. These have been discovered in Scythic contexts in Kazakhstan, Mongolia and Southern Siberia, and one was obtained in Ladakh. See Koenig 1982; Bellezza 2008, p. 102; Weihreter 1988, pp. 226, 227 (Fig. 155); 2002a, p. 39 (Fig. 5). 304 For a Tibetan thokcha of comparable form but with punctates (simulating spots) covering most of the body and head and sans the decorative rings, see John 2006, pp. 120, 121 (Fig. 241). 305 For comparative purposes, see, for example, North Inner Asia specimens in Bunker 2002, p. 171 (Fig. 152): gold leopard-shaped pectoral, attributed to Hebei, sixth century BCE; similar felines in bronze in Salmony 1933, Pl. XII.1, XII.2; Kawami et al. 2016, p. 182 (Fig. 112), dated to sixth to fifth century BCE; Enkhtuvshin and Sanjmyatov 2007, p. 107 (Figs. 7, 8, 10). 303

On these bovid-shaped buckles, see, for example, Bunker 2002, pp. 98, 99 (Fig. 65), Boardman 2010, Pls. 19 (no. 142), 20 (nos. 143–47). All feature a bull or yak with its head down and slightly turned back, and most have apertures between the horns and between the tail and rump, as well has two small attachment loops on the back. 301 At the Tuvan Xiongnu cemeteries of Ala-Tey 1 and Terezin, openwork and zoomorphic bronze buckles are found in the tombs of females. They were probably part of ceremonial dress that initially functioned as a bridal ornament that was subsequently used on special occasions. See, as above, Kilunovskaya and Leus 2018, pp. 5, 7. 302 For a trapezoidal openwork plaque with hares on top, see December 2010 Flight of the Khyung. A Tibetan figured mirror made in the same time frame also features hares (December 2014 Flight of the Khyung, Fig. 7). 300

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To Tibet: Bearers of the Eurasian Animal Style in Northern Pakistan and North Inner Asia northern counterparts that they can be classed as part of an imitative group of feline-shaped objects (I have observed several of these specimens). This state of affairs could only come about through the direct borrowing by Tibetan tribes of the northern tradition. Tibetan regions bordering North Inner Asia, particularly North-east Tibet, seem to be the strongest candidates for their places of manufacture.

powerful neighbours cannot be ruled out, as we are dealing with unique objects difficult to date through comparison with other vessels and art. At any rate, West Asian artistic, ideological and technological inputs transfusing the conception and fabrication of the silver bowls could have taken any manner of ways to Tibet. In this regard, the western gateway to the Tibetan Plateau (via Northern Pakistan and the Tarim Basin) being closer to West Asia than the eastern gateway (via eastern Xinjiang and the western Northern Zone) is no assurance of preferential status. Long-established east–west avenues of exchange in Xinjiang running parallel to the northern rim of the Tibetan Plateau join its western and eastern gateways. Although the Tibetan portals opening on south-western Xinjiang and western Gansu are situated approximately 2000 km apart, this distance on well-trodden and logistically well-supported routes could have been covered on horseback, using camels or in wheeled vehicles in two months or less. Much of the northern tier of the Tibetan Plateau is extremely high in elevation and uninhabited, which would have acted to divert most traffic to its north-western and north-eastern corners.

In this review of parallels between Tibetan and Northern Zone bronzes of the Late Prehistoric era, mention must be made of two or more animals stacked on top of one another.306 The stacking of one animal on top of another is commonly seen in small copper-alloy objects attributed to the Ordos and other areas in the Northern Zone. These are dated from the second half of the first millennium BCE to the first third of the first millennium CE. This peculiar thematic feature also alludes to a degree of cultural connectivity between these two territories. Like the addition of ornamental circles and rings on the legs and tails of feline thokcha, the stacking of animals is indicative of northern cultural preferences permeating the Tibetan Plateau.

Cultural crosscurrents extending to the Eastern Steppe

The various buttons, pendants, plaques, buckles and other copper-alloy objects examined above occur in a wide arc of territory north and east of Tibet as well as on the Plateau itself. Like the EAS rock art of Inner Mongolia and Ningxia, these objects trace cultural and technological pathways used in the dissemination of abstract and material bequests to Tibet. Routes involving groups of Xiongnu and Xianbei in the late first millennium BCE and early first millennium CE were also used by EAS-bearers originating in the Eastern Steppe in the first half of the first millennium BCE; these too seem to have had an effect on the creation of analogous Tibetan objects and art. Lying immediately to the south, North-east Tibet was especially well placed to receive these vectors of artistic transmission.307 The cultures operating along these geographic lines are likely to have injected ideologies and technologies into Tibet along with their iconographies. These concrete and non-concrete infusions are also implicated in the engendering of the copper-alloy trapezoidal plaques of this study (chapter four).

We have now explored three major geographic nexuses coupling northern lands to the Tibetan Plateau in antiquity: Northern Pakistan, southern Xinjiang and the Northern Zone. These zones of contact are conterminous to the western and northern margins of the Tibetan Plateau. Similarly, Northern Pakistan, southern Xinjiang and the Northern Zone had multiple links with more northerly regions, acting as go-betweens in the transfer of artistic, ideological and technological information from the Eastern Steppe to the Tibetan Plateau. From around 1300 BCE until the second century BCE, the EAS flourished in the Eastern Steppe, spreading south and west in various media to encompass Central Eurasia. In this process many different EAS-related artistic traditions arose in the Iron Age, as the movement gained momentum through migration, long-distance exchange and accession by various peoples. This cultural contagion spread to the Tibetan Plateau, giving rise to its own branches of the EAS expressed in rock art and the copper-alloy and gold objects on which this study is based.

The mediation of the Xiongnu or Xianbei may possibly be palpable in the creation of the two silver bowls in the Pine collection as well (chapter one). The agency of these For typical examples of one equid on top of another from the Northern Zone (and Mongolia) cast in bronze and gold, see Bunker 2002, pp. 168 (Fig. 153); Tong 2013, Fig. 5.2-1; Salmony 1933, Pl. X.6; Enkhtuvshin and Sanjmyatav 2007, p. 115 (Fig. 7). An excellent example of comparative stacking is seen in two copper-alloy objects (John 2006: 126, Figs. VM, 279). These objects consist of an unidentified animal standing on top of a wild yak (Tibetan, Protohistoric period) and three equids set on top of one another (Northern Zone, late first millennium BCE). For another class of thokcha with two stacked animals, the upper creature a wild yak and the lower one a tiger, see John 2006, p. 132 (Fig. 313). For examples of thokcha depicting the stacking of three or four animals on top of one another, see ibid. pp. 131, 132 (Figs. 311, 312); Bellezza 2020b, Figs. 7.21–7.23. 307 A model of trade routes in Inner Asia calculated through algorithms representing the easiest routes linking archaeological and historical sites and the simulation of herding activity pathways distinguishes a possible prolongation of an early Silk Road branch to North-east Tibet. See Frachetti et al. 2017, p. 206. 306

Both the Western Tibetan Plateau and North-east Tibet were recipients of EAS rock art, which is absent in intervening portions of the Tibetan Plateau. This strongly suggests that two different zones of contact were responsible for the conveyance of this rock art to opposite ends of the Plateau. Although EAS artistic traditions were subject to reinterpretation as they were refracted through the cultural and environmental lens of intervening regions, they came to Tibet with many northern characteristics intact. This is seen in both Tibetan rock art and the metal objects central to this study. EAS rock art and portable objects of Tibet are chronologically convergent phenomena, sharing common transcultural roots with connate indigenous features grafted 113

Tibetan Silver, Gold and Bronze Objects and the Aesthetics of Animals in the Era before Empire upon them. It is very likely that Iranian and EAS influences on the silver bowls, gold finial, copper-alloy trapezoidal plaques and bird-spouted jar of this study arrived on the Tibetan Plateau through the same geographic corridors as did EAS rock art, and not via the Indian Subcontinent.

Eurasian steppe. In the following period (sixth and fifth centuries BCE), EAS art in Pazyryk and Sagly became more ornamental and fell under significant Achaemenid and Greek influences (loc. cit.; Jacobson 1983: 69, 70). Weapons, horse gear and ornaments decorated in the Scythic EAS appeared In the Pontic region in the early sixth century BCE (Jettmar 1970: 256, 257). Finally, elements of the EAS were taken up by Hunno-Sarmartian and Celto-Germanic tribes (Sher 1988: 55).308

The EAS artistic movement was widespread in Central Eurasia in the first millennium BCE, and the east–west conduits joining Iran to Tibet were highly permeable to cultural inputs originating farther north in the Central and Eastern Steppes. Tchlenova (1963: 204) remarks that naturalism in the forms of EAS figures together with the unnatural quality of their poses appears to be of steppe inspiration. Indeed, the genesis of EAS art was largely centred in northern regions. Sher (1988) traces the origins of the EAS rock carvings to Southern Siberia beginning with petroglyphs on stelae identified with the Okunev culture (first half of the second millennium BCE), thence to petroglyphs associated with the Karasuk culture (middle of the second millennium BCE) and on to deer stone carvings of pre-Scythic cultures of the Late Bronze Age. Jettmar (1970: 267, 268) observes that the Karasuk culture merged into the Tagar culture (Southern Siberia) of the Early Iron Age, apparently through acculturation. In the Iron Age, this historico-cultural progression in Southern Siberia divaricated across the steppes, furnishing inspiration, directly or indirectly, for the development of EAS art as far south as the Tibetan Plateau. The excavation of kurgans at Arzhan with fully developed EAS imagery dated to the tenth and ninth centuries BCE confirms that this tradition of figuration did not originate in the Near East (Sher 1988: 50). According to Sher, the fully formed animal style of Arzhan diffused relatively quickly throughout the entire

Jacobson-Tepfer (2015: 224–42) discusses the conventionalised and stylised EAS stag images with highly elaborate antlers in the rock art of the Mongolian Altai, which she dates to the Late Bronze Age and Early Iron Age. On the basis of the clothing and weapons depicted in these compositions, Jacobson-Tepfer identifies the stags as being carved by early nomads, who acted as carriers of distinctive cultural elements that emerged from the AltaiSayan mountains and spread across the Eurasian steppes leaving similar images in gold and felt by the fifth and fourth centuries BCE.309 Jacobson (1983: 76–109, 114–16) surveys a wide range of artistic evidence including rock art from Siberia and other northern regions, showing that the Scythic stag image was derived from northern hunting cultures in the Bronze Age, particularly those in Southern Siberia.310 However, as Doan (1983: 149) remarks, there is no single place of origin recognised for the EAS; early stages have been uncovered in Central Asia, but these too appear to have been influenced by antecedent zoomorphic art of the northern steppes. There is a positive correlation between the aesthetic propinquity of North Inner Asian EAS rock art to Tibetan variants and increased proximity to the Plateau. With some notable exceptions, EAS rock art in Tibet more Doan (1983: 152, 153) reviews finds of Scythian-style objects in the Balkans and Central Europe, some of which were the work of Greek craftsmen and some with Achaemenid influences, pointing out that EAS art arrived in Europe in the sixth and fifth centuries BCE, probably reaching there through marauding Scythian tribes. Doan (ibid., 163) observes that EAS subjects among Celts and Thracians, from the sixth century BCE to first century CE, were founded on West and Central Asian prototypes. Doan (ibid., 153–56) traces EAS modifications by Celts on the European mainland to the fifth to third century BCE, in animal combat scenes already commonly seen in both Scythian and Thracian art. By the second century BCE, there was much interchange in artistic styles between the Celts, Thracians and Sarmatians (ibid., 163). 309 Jacobson-Tepfer (2015: 224–42) notes that these highly stylised stags were beautifully created but lack the vitality of Bronze Age rock art in the Altai: the stag had become a liminal being, losing its actual appearance and place in the hunt. 310 Jacobson (1983: 70–72, 76) considers different scholarly opinions on the origins of Scythic stag images in Southern Siberia, eastern Kazakhstan, Media and Mesopotamia, concluding that Scythic varieties are not genetically related to ones from West Asia. She also notes that the Andronovo and other more westerly groups in the Bronze Age lacked related zoomorphic art (ibid., 74). The EAS stags and other animals in Mongolian rock art and those of Arzhan suggest a single model marked by much skill and ingenuity but characterised by the disappearance of naturalism and a high degree of stylisation (Jacobson-Tepfer (2015: 256–68). Fundamental social changes are reflected in the rock art of the Mongolian Altai in the early first millennium BCE, as seen in the appearance of belted tunics, recurve bow, gorytus, and the stylisation of horses, caprids and boars, but most significantly in antlered cervids (deer and elk), reflecting major changes in artistic conceptions and functions (Jacobson et al. 2006a: 42, 43). 308

Fig. 6.29. Deer stones of Mongolia and the Sayan-Altai with stags in a style typical of these stelae. Drawing by Aado Phuntsok Palden, after Jettmar 1994: 9 (Fig. 1.4, 1.9), as derived from Grjaznov 1984).

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To Tibet: Bearers of the Eurasian Animal Style in Northern Pakistan and North Inner Asia closely resembles that of south-eastern Central Asia, the Tarim Basin and Northern Pakistan than it does most EAS rock art and deer stone carvings from the Eastern Steppe. A series of artistic adaptations charts the geographic advancement of EAS forms culminating in Tibetan variants, the southernmost repository of this zoomorphic artistic tradition in Inner Asia. This sequence of incremental modifications probably had a temporal dimension, with the Tibetan EAS being among the later branches to appear in Inner Asia. Nevertheless, in that period of cultural and technological tumult, this time lapse may have been measured in decades rather than centuries.

is ornamented with a unique array of jumping or flying stags with wave-like horns extending across the back, legs tucked under the body, and bird-like heads, as well as other motifs (implements, chevrons etc.).312 The stag carvings on deer stones are usually silhouetted. Copperalloy pectoral ornaments of stags with the same type of horn treatment and leg placement are found in Mongolia and Southern Siberia. Another type of figured standing stone in Southern Siberia belongs to the Scythic Tagar culture of the Minusinsk Basin. Some of the zoomorphic carvings on these Tagar stelae are closer in style to the EAS of Upper Tibet than the cervids with ornithic features on the deer stones of the DSK cultural complex.313

The earliest examples of a fully developed EAS turn up on so-called deer stones (a kind of funerary stele) erected in Mongolia, the Altai and Transbaikal. According to Fitzhugh (2017), deer stones appear to have functioned as cenotaphs for political, military and spiritual luminaries. In Mongolia, organic remains associated with the erection of deer stones have been radiocarbon dated to ca. 1300– 700 BCE, placing them in the Late Bronze Age and the inception of the Iron Age (Fitzhugh 2009a; 2009b; 2017). Deer stones of the Sayan-Altai have not been securely dated yet. Their carvings are more variable, losing the canonical integrity of images on Mongolian specimens, which may indicate that these more western deer stones were derived from the Mongolian type with the shifting of the deer-stone-khirigsuur (DSK) monument complex west through pressure exerted by Slab Grave culture migrations and influences (Fitzhugh 2009a: 82). Fitzhugh believes that the art of the DSK cultural complex may have originated in the forests of Siberia. Deer stones, numbering around 1000 in total (50 cm to 3.5 m in height), appear to represent stylised anthropomorphic figures, probably individualised warriors or leaders, through the inclusion of carved motifs representing the head, torso and waist (ibid., 76, 77; Jettmar 1994: 4).311 The ‘torso’ of deer stones

The primary wild ungulate subject on deer stones is the maral or Asian elk (Cervus elaphus sibiricus; Fitzhugh 2009a: 74; Jacobson-Tepfer 2001a: 33, 34). In her survey of cervid art, Jacobson-Tepfer (ibid., 52) hypothesises that deer images on the stelae are signs or totems representing generalised tribal warrior figures, their orientation to the east associated with the sun and the renewal of life. According to Fitzhugh (2009a: 85), deer-bird images on the stelae are suggestive of ecstatic shamanic flight or passage from the earth to the otherworld. However, deer stones are not directly associated with human remains, but rather with outlying horse-head burials (loc. cit.). Whether dedicated to individuals or collective groups, deer-bird figures on the stelae are indicative of complex funerary beliefs and rituals.314 Calling upon Tibetan archaic funerary traditions, I hypothesise that stags carved on the deer stones represent zoomorphic psychopomps relied upon by the dead to to overarching eschatological concepts and possibly to cultic parallels as well. The Upper Tibetan stelae erected inside enclosures may have come about in response to North Inner Asian funerary customs, not unlike the reinvention of northern artistic traditions in the Tibetan EAS. 312 Jacobson (1983: 110–14) discusses and illustrates stag images on deer stones, dating them from the seventh to the fifth century BCE, as one opinion had it in the time she was writing. Jacobson holds that deer stones are of native origins and may be related to the Okunev stelae and rock art of Southern Siberia. On deer stone carvings, see also Volkov 2002; 1995, pp. 325–32; Jettmar 1994, pp. 9 (Fig. 1), 11 (Fig. 4); Francfort 1994, p. 40 (Fig. 7); Francfort et al. 1992, Fig. 13; Fitzhugh 2017; Enkhtuvshin and Sanjmyatav 2007, pp. 29–39, 50, 126–30. 313 For example, see Sher and Legchilo 1999, Pls. VIII (Fig. 10.1) (carnivore with volutes and other elaborate body ornamentation from the Podgornovo kurgan; this phase of the Tagar culture is now generally dated to ca. eighth to sixth centuries BCE), IX (Figs. 11.1, 11.2, 11.4) (animals with volutes connected to the underside and other curvilinear markings). The dominant anthropomorphic figure on Tagar stelae are linear figures with squared arms pointing downward, long stick bodies, male genitalia and small roundish heads. They are often depicted with wild ungulates, but not in hunting scenes. Interestingly, these Tagar figures are very similar in form and thematic arrangement to the main anthropomorphic type in the rock art of Spiti in the Late Prehistoric era. On these Spitian figures, see Bellezza 2017a, pp. 65, 66. See also cognate figures in Hu-nan shan, Henan, in Chen and Zhu 2019b, 484. 314 On the key role of deer and birds in the journey to the celestial afterlife recorded in Tibetan archaic funerary rites, see Bellezza 2013. It is my opinion that some of the underlying eschatological and procedural themes associated with these taxa in the Tibetan texts are of much antiquity, and relatable to the funerary beliefs and customs of other peoples in Inner Asia. As noted, in the Tibetan ritual context horses served as psychopomps, like they did in Scytho-Siberian burials. On this comparison, see Bellezza 2008, pp. 544–53. The discovery of a Tibetan copper-alloy raptor-headed cheekpiece and cognate wooden examples in Scythic burials indicates that the psychopomp functions imputed to birds in both cultural settings are likely to be closely interrelated. See March 2016 Flight of the Khyung, Figs. 29–31.

311 Jacobson-Tepfer (2001a: 51) observes that deer stones share their form and locational characteristics with uncarved standing stones and must be studied as part of the same North Inner Asian tradition. Unmarked standing stones in Mongolia, Tuva and the Altai appear to have been erected in the Bronze Age and Iron Age, but they have not been dated precisely. These plain menhirs are commonly set inside a frame of long-stones near circular structures made of round boulders. Individual standing stones usually face east, and small groups are oriented in north– south rows. Deer stones and the more generic standing stones are part of a North Inner Asian tradition of a ritual or memorial nature, which preceded the advent of early nomadism in the Late Bronze Age and continued well into the period of developed mobile pastoral cultures in the Iron Age. See, as above, ibid., pp. 39, 40 (Fig. 6). For images of the plain stones erected in stone frames from the Mongolian Altai, see Jacobson et al. 2010, pp. 28 (Fig. 2.25), 29 (Fig. 2.26), 32 (Fig. 2.34), 33 (Fig. 2.38), 45 (Figs. 3.19), 55 (Figs. 4.8, 4.9), 67 (Fig. 5.17), 121 (Fig. 9.18), 125 (Fig. 9.29), 135 (Figs. 10.18, 10.19) etc.; JacobsonTepfer 2015: pp. 356 (Fig. 10.1), 357 (Fig. 10.2); Jacobson et al. 2006b, Pls. 39, 54, 58. A common type of unmarked stele or long-stone (rdoring) monument delineating much of Upper Tibet is also planted inside enclosures often constructed of stone slabs, and faces east. When a number of long-stones form a row inside an enclosure, it is oriented in a north–south direction. These Tibetan menhirs appear to have been raised in the Late Bronze Age and Iron Age, and possibly as late as the Protohistoric period. See Bellezza 2001, pp.160–72; 2002, pp. 104–15; 2008, pp. 74–83; 2011; 2014a, pp. 9–12; 2014b, pp. 3–233; 2014c, pp. 139–47; March 2011, February 2012 and May 2013 Flight of the Khyung. The common morphological, directional and non-sepulchral qualities of classes of North Inner Asian and Upper Tibetan standing stones allude

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Fig. 6.30. EAS Stag petroglyph, Tsagaan Gol, Mongolia. Iron Age. Image reproduced courtesy of Gary Tepfer. This stag has one long, barbed antler, an elongated head, a narrow neck and body segmented into several sections, and two pointed hooves.

blaze the way to the afterlife, which was conceived of as a celestial paradise where the ancestors resided. The long bills on the bird-like heads of the stags invoke pipes (sbub) used in one Old Tibetan funerary text for the conveyance of the deceased to safety (Bellezza 2013: 141, 142). Moreover, according to Tibetan archaic death rituals, objects called tho (which may include menhirs) were erected at funeral venues to subjugate demons interfering with the valediction of the dead.315 Although the comparisons made here are speculative, they have the advantage of being derived from non-Buddhist textual sources belonging to peoples with kindred art, objects and funerary monuments.

those on deer stones.317 Highly stylised deer with wavelike horns and bird-beak muzzles carved into menhirs, boulders and rock formations persisted as a prime cultural emblem in Mongolia, Southern Siberia, eastern Kazakhstan, and the Northern Zone, ca. 1000–500 BCE (Jacobson-Tepfer 2001a: 31; Jacobson et al. 2006a: 42, 43).318 These cervids are often carved deliberately over older rock art, representing a new cultural orientation or population (loc. cit.). As is generally supposed, Fitzhugh (2009a: 85) maintains that the artistic and ritual heritage of Pazyryk is indebted to the antecedent monument complex of deer stones and khirigsuurs in the region. In any event,

As seen in Fig. 6.30,316 there are many depictions of cervids in the rock art of the Eastern Steppe similar to

Fitzhugh (2009a: 81) observes that animal combat scenes and coiled or twisted animals found on some deer stones in western Mongolia and the Sayan–Altai are also subjects in Scythian art. Sher (1988: 50) links the Scytho-Siberians and Black Sea Scythians through elements of their EAS productions in the sixth to fourth century BCE. Similarly, Jacobson-Tepfer (2001a: 116), relying on the artistic evidence, hypothesises that migrating groups from eastern Kazakhstan, northern Mongolia or Southern Siberia contributed to the origins of Scythic peoples in the Western Steppe. Stags standing or with legs folded under the body, mostly shown in profile, are the most common and distinctive subject in Scythic gold and bronze objects and are suggestive of religious and tribal symbols (Jacobson 1983: 69). Deer images primarily occur on bronze objects, but also on stone and ceramics in the art of peoples from Southern Siberia and the Ordos west to the Volga, and are marked by elaborate looped and serriform antlers that overarch the body (Tchlenova 1963). 318 For another survey of Scytho-Siberian EAS art, see Hančar 1952. While this survey classifies the aesthetic vocabulary of this artistic tradition, the author’s ideas on nomadism, ethnicity and chronology have been superseded by more recent advances. 317

315 Tibetan ritual texts describe tho (standing objects, some of which were made of stone) as registers used in the appeasement of demons interfering with the transit of the dead to the otherworld. See Bellezza 2008, pp. 483, 484, 487, 489; 2013, pp. 139–41, 148, 149, 196. The long-stones of Upper Tibet are referred to as tho by local inhabitants. Nevertheless, the relationship of the textual tho to the prehistoric long-stones of Upper Tibet is ambiguous. 316 The deer image in Fig. 6.30 comes from a large archaeological database of rock art and monuments in Mongolia by Jacobson-Tepfer and Meacham, 2009. See Fig. 1108 (RA_PETR_TG_0870): http:// img.uoregon.edu/mongolian/index.php. On artistic parallels between cervids on deer stones and the rock art of the Eastern Steppe, see Fitzhugh 2009a, p. 86; Jacobson 1983, pp. 110–14. For cognate rock art in northern Xinjiang, see Chen and Zhu 2019a, pp. 205, 215 (Fig. 2–2–47).

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To Tibet: Bearers of the Eurasian Animal Style in Northern Pakistan and North Inner Asia

Fig. 6.31. Two EAS stags in the rock art of Ust’-Tuba III, Minusinsk Basin, Southern Siberia, attributed to the Early Iron Age (after Francfort et al. 1992, Fig. 14). The larger specimen has a long, branching antler extending beyond the rear of the animal, erect ear, two volutes adorning the body, and two straight legs. The body of the smaller specimen is ornamented with two poorly developed volutes and shares the same general form as the larger figure. Drawing by Aado Phuntsok Palden.

the elegant, highly stylised animal art (primarily ibex but also stags) of the Pazyryk culture originated in this part of North Inner Asia (Jacobson 2001b: 29). Sher (1988: 50) adverts that the so-called Scytho-Siberian animal style is not characterised by fixed zoomorphic subject matter (which was heavily influenced by earlier cultures), but in how these subjects are represented.

founded on a curvilinear schema, as well as curvilinear body motifs, just like EAS carvings on the Tibetan Plateau. The volutes in the various carvings link to the contours of the body, a mode of embellishment that also filtered into the rock art of Ladakh and North-east Tibet, but less so in Upper Tibet (the implications of which are discussed in chapter seven).

Although there are architectural, cosmological and ritual affinities between deer stones and Tibetan stelae and archaic funerary texts, the EAS deer art of these two sources varies significantly. The bird-deer composite figures of the Eastern Steppe tradition do not occur on carvings of the Tibetan Plateau. Moreover, the treatment of the antlers and other motifs of the deer varies considerably in deer stones and Tibetan rock art. EAS figures in the rock art of the Tibetan Plateau have their own set of arcuate body ornamentation and range of associated subjects. These major graphic contrasts in the Eastern Steppe and the Tibetan Plateau are indicative of particularised artistic canons and cultural configurations (Bellezza 2008: 191, 192).

The form of the stag and the treatment of the antlers and legs in Fig. 6.35 recalls EAS cervid rock art from Southern Siberia. However, this specimen from the Baga Oigor rock art theatre has only minimal curvilinear body ornamentation. While the unmarked funerary stelae of Southern Siberia, the Mongolian Altai and Upper Tibet share strong morphological parallels, the florid EAS styles of Southern Siberia and Tibet largely bypassed the Altai. Although artistic expressions deviate significantly in the Eastern Steppe and Tibetan Plateau in the Iron Age, their EAS bestiaries have taxa in common.320 Two wellrepresented examples in both territories are ibexes and cervids. Deer (followed by antelopes) are the most frequent EAS figures in the rock art of Upper Tibet (probably depicting Cervus albirostris and Cervus elaphus wallici, species native to the Plateau). Both deer and ibexes occur in the EAS of Ladakh.321 As indicated, EAS cervid and ibex depictions in the rock art (and artefacts)

Ornithic elements are absent in the stags of Figs. 6.31 and 6.32,319 bringing them in closer aesthetic correspondence to the Upper Tibetan EAS than the cervid in Fig. 6.30. The body ornamentation and form of the deer in Figs. 6.31 and 6.32 occurs quite commonly in North Inner Asia. The wild ungulates in the EAS of Southern Siberia portrayed in Figs. 6.33 and 6.34 possess forms mostly

Four prime zoomorphic subjects widely depicted in the art of Scythic peoples, the crested eagle, griffin, winged lion and wolf (Rudenko 1958), are absent or only minimally represented in Tibetan objects and rock art of the Iron Age. However, EAS rock carvings of equids are common to both North and South Inner Asia. 321 In her description of EAS cervid rock art in Ladakh, Bruneau (2010a: 242) lists 13 (10 in Domkhar and one each in Stagmo, Sumda Rikpa Bao and Changa). There are, however, other examples in Ladakh documented by Quentin Devers and Viraf Mehta (see ch. 7). 320

For this Ust’-Tuba III rock art and adjoining petroglyphs of a caprid, cervid and equid, each with three separate volutes in the body, and an archer whose mount is ornamented with front and rear volutes, see Sher et al. 1994, Pls. I (Fig. 2), III (Fig. 3.1). For other rock art in Southern Siberia in this peculiar EAS style see ibid., Pl. 62 (Fig. 73.1) (cervid with front and rear volutes linked to belly, branched antlers and curvaceous body), Pl. 5 (Fig. 12.5) (wild ungulate with front and rear volutes).

319

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Fig. 6.32. Rock carvings (from left to right) of EAS deer, equid and wild carnivore from Ust’-Tuba III, Minusinsk Basin, each with front and rear volutes and intervening sinuous motifs ornamenting the body. Drawing by Rebecca C. Bellezza, after Sher et al. 1994, Pl. I (Fig. 3); Blednova et al. 1995, Pl. 58.

Fig. 6.34. EAS wild ungulate rock carvings with volutes and other curvilinear body ornamentation from the Minusinsk Basin, Southern Siberia. Drawing by Rebecca C. Bellezza, after Sher and Legchilo 1999, Pl. 9 (Figs. II.1–II.4).

Fig. 6.33. EAS cervid rock carving with curvilinear body ornamentation, long neck and antlers, fairly angular body, and deeply flexed legs. Tepsej II (situated on the Yenisei river near its confluence with the Tuba river), Southern Siberia. Drawing by Rebecca C. Bellezza, after Blednova et al. 1995, Pl. 18 (Fig. 25.1).

of the Eastern Steppe have been well documented.322 EAS deer rock art spread across the Eastern Steppe and beyond through movements of mobile pastoralists carrying portable objects with them (including perishable ones) and who had tattoos of analogous figures, probably acting as models for this rock art (Jacobson-Tepfer 2016: 515, For an ibex, head regardant, in a Scythic or earlier nomadic style from the rock art site of Biluut 3, Mongolian Altai, see Fitzhugh and Kortum 2012, p. 110. On EAS deer in the rock art of the Mongolian Altai attributed to the Late Bronze Age and Early Iron Age, see JacobsonTepfer 2001a, pp. 46 (Figs. 9, 10), 47 (Fig. 11), 50 (Figs. 12, 13); Jacobson et al. 2001, pp. 138 (Fig. 11), 149 (Fig. 48a, 48b), 183 (Fig. 175), 193 (Fig. 214), 208 (Fig. 290), 232 (Fig. 384), 275 (Fig. 564), 341 (Fig. 809) etc.; Jacobson et al. 2006a: p. 267 (Fig. 642); Kubarev et al. 2005, p. 97. On pre-Scythic and Scythic EAS deer in rock art from various locations in the Eastern Steppe, see Sher 1988, p. 57; Kubarev et al. 2005, pp. 515–18; Francfort et al. 1992, Figs. 13d, 14; Francfort et al. 1993, pp. 41, 45, 46; Bokovenko 1995d, 313 (Fig. c). For EAS deer and those in related styles from the Russian Altai, see Čermáková 2007–08, pp. 76 (Fig. 5), 77 (Figs. 6, 7), 78 (Figs. 8, 9); on EAS deer rock art more widely in the Sayan-Altai, see Jacobson-Tepfer 2016. There are many petroglyphs in Tuva related to the Scythian period (Miklashevich 2008: 141). Bokovenko (1995d: 313 (Fig. 23)) attributes petroglyphs of horses and deer in the EAS of Tuva to the Tagar culture.

322

Fig. 6.35. Petroglyph consisting of an EAS stag being pursued by two carnivores. Baga Oigor, Mongolian Altai. Drawing by Rebecca C. Bellezza, after Jacobson et al. 2001, p. 473 (Fig. 1298).

516; Jettmar 1989: 270). These means of dissemination may also have had a role to play in the introduction of the EAS in Tibet; however, as in North Inner Asia, cervid and ibex rock art was well established on the Plateau before the introduction of the EAS. Although EAS cervid art of North Inner Asia and the Tibetan Plateau was created by different cultural orders, it 118

To Tibet: Bearers of the Eurasian Animal Style in Northern Pakistan and North Inner Asia was produced in a technological and environmental sphere with certain convergent attributes. The rise of EAS deer art in the Eastern Steppe and Northern Zone coincided with four major changes: chronic desiccation, a more nomadic way of life, adoption of horse-riding, and the appearance of the recurve bow as the weapon of choice (cf. Jacobson-Tepfer 2001a: 33). Whatever the precise geographic sources of the economic and technological innovations enumerated, they circulated around North Inner Asia with growing intensity beginning in the Late Bronze Age. Archaeological evidence indicates that the same seminal cultural and environmental forces buffeting the north had a formative impact on the Tibetan Plateau (Bellezza 2020b, chh. 7, 8). Comparable forms of mobile pastoralism, equestrian technology and the recurve bow (to which can be added bronze metallurgy and items such as daggers and arrowheads) also arose on the Tibetan Plateau as early as the Late Bronze Age.323 These defining cultural and economic traits were introduced to or given impetus in Tibet by northern agents in the same or a somewhat later time than their own adoption of them.

However, the EAS bestiary of the Tibetan Plateau and the Eurasian steppes varies significantly. Even regarding just cervid art, the artistic commonalities creating strong aesthetic bonds in North Inner Asia and the Northern Zone are not as deeply imprinted or as durable in EAS portable objects and rock art of the Tibetan Plateau. The interrelated styles of zoomorphic art prevailing in the north are most attenuated in the EAS rock art of North-west Tibet, a region impervious to most canonical art forms of the steppes, signalling substantial removal from the economic and political affairs of northern territories. Tibet’s relative isolation is further indicated by the failure of EAS rock art to penetrate beyond North-west Tibet to other regions of Upper Tibet. Absent in adjoining regions of Tibet, EAS rock art on the Western Tibetan Plateau and in North-east Tibet delineates a cultural buffer zone between North Inner Asia and the Plateau heartland. The pervasive diffusion of EAS traditions in Central Eurasia encourages us to see transmission to the Tibetan Plateau not merely through a few well-defined, unidirectional (down-the-line) corridors but as part of a complex web of interaction. It is certainly possible that cultural and technological know-how informing the conception and design of a specific object or art form was transferred to Tibet directly through long-distance migration, invasion, missionary activity, trade or giftgiving etc. However, the delivery of materials and ideas in unchanged forms from distant places to Tibet does not appear to have been the regular course of transmission. Alinear exchanges, engendered through the intermingling of ideas and methods in multiple geographic and cultural channels, whereby objects and art were transformed (sparingly or dramatically) along the way, appears to have been more the norm. The nature of exchange and its impact on the Tibetan objects and rock art of this study is further examined in the final chapter of this work.

Ideological and aesthetic correlates of the interrelated systems of pastoralism, bronze metallurgy, armament production and horse-riding on the Tibetan Plateau contributed to the abstract cultural foundation of EAS art there. However, it is not yet known how these allied technological and economic innovations originating in the north were introduced to Tibet or precisely how they facilitated the uptake of EAS art. A long-term trend towards colder and drier climatic conditions in Inner Asia is likely to have been a major catalyst. As in other regions of Inner Asia, the exchange of portable EAS objects in Tibet serving as artistic models, socio-political emblems and religious symbols must have aided in the establishment and propagation EAS traditions on the Plateau. Sher (1988: 56, 57) demonstrates that wild ungulates in the EAS of Southern Siberia, Central Asia and Eastern Europe evince a certain unity of form and design.324 323 Very little is still known about the introduction of domestic livestock (sheep, goats, yaks and horses) and the origins of the system of pastoralism that developed on the Tibetan Plateau. These huge gaps in our knowledge of ancient Tibet illustrate the fledging state of archaeological research there. For references to the domestication of sheep and yaks in Tibet, see Bellezza 2020b, pp. 265, 266. July 2016 Flight of the Khyung. On the introduction of the riding horse in Tibet, see October 2017 Flight of the Khyung; Bellezza 2020b, pp. 239–48, 269–75. On the appearance of the recurve bow in Tibet, see March 2013 Flight of the Khyung, Bellezza 2020b; pp. 226–28. On the structural makeup and profile of composite bows in ancient Inner Asia and the arrows used with them, see Reisinger 2010. On the beginnings of bronze metallurgy on the Tibetan Plateau, see March 2016 Flight of the Khyung; Huo Wei 2016. For a brief review of palaeoclimatic studies indicating a shift to colder and drier conditions on the Tibetan Plateau in the Late Holocene (ca. 1000 BCE), see Bellezza 1997, pp. 438, 439; 2001, pp. 11–16; 2002, pp. 12–14. 324 To the list of EAS wild ungulate rock art must be added Ningxia in the Northern Zone. On this rock art, see Bruneau and Bellezza 2013, p. 57, citing Chen; Chen and Zhu 2019a, p. 298 (Fig. 3–1–32). Of special interest is a deer petroglyph with stripes and front and rear spirals at the Helankou site, Ningxia (Qiao 2007: 94). This deer carving belongs to the same tapestry of EAS cervids as those in Central Asia, the Eastern Steppe, Xinjiang and the Tibetan Plateau.

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7 In Tibet: Transfer of the Eurasian Animal Style to the Plateau and parallel processes affecting China Eurasian Animal Style rock art in Tibet

whether the Western Tibetan Plateau or North-east Tibet was the first to acquire the EAS artistic tradition, but not too much time seems to have separated their respective adoptions. Transfusing the western, northern and eastern periphery of the Tibetan Plateau, the EAS diverged in Ladakh, North-west Tibet and North-east Tibet,326 each area exhibiting localised characteristics. From these more outer regions, vestigial forms of EAS art eventually infiltrated the Tibetan hinterland, as seen in objects of the Early Historic period and even in those still manufactured by blacksmiths and silversmiths today.

As shown in the preceding chapters, the artistic movement referred to as the Eurasian Animal Style (EAS) engulfed Central Eurasia in the first millennium BCE. The distribution of EAS artefacts and rock art in North Inner Asia has been used to suggest how analogous forms reached the Tibetan Plateau. Tibetan rock art and portable objects partook of the ascendant tradition of zoomorphic representation in the Iron Age, in selected pictorial elements resounding with EAS art elsewhere in Eurasia. Cogent ideological and socio-political factors originating from abroad can be postulated to explain the arrival of the EAS on the Tibetan Plateau. The dispersion of these powerful influences in Tibet irrevocably altered the artistic vision of its inhabitants.

As demonstrated in the last two chapters, the EAS rock art of this study was part of a web of exchange interlacing Inner Asia in antiquity. Through these links, aesthetic features of rock art in northern territories merged with rock art on the Tibetan Plateau, creating a zoomorphic artistic vocabulary with an interregional complexion. The cultural communications responsible for the transference of EAS art to Tibet in the Iron Age were preceded by infusions of peoples, ideas and objects onto the Western Tibetan Plateau, beginning no later than the Late Bronze Age. As Francfort et al. (1992: 173) have pointed out, Ladakh and Zanskar, like Gilgit and Hunza, were related to or at least connected to steppe cultures in the Bronze Age, which fits with the distribution of megaliths (menhirs) in Tibet and the steppes.327 Another example of such historical

Tracing the spread of EAS rock art, a fixed archaeological resource, has proven particularly valuable in identifying geographic conduits in a Eurasian network of exchange extending to Tibet.325 These pathways of aesthetic, cultural and technological transmission served as a fountainhead for the genesis of the Tibetan EAS, as articulated in the objects and rock art of this study. The abstract and material inputs contributing to the generation of these objects and this rock art did not necessarily follow the same routes to Tibet; many diversions and alternatives could have been at play. Be that as it may, fixed and portable EAS art on the Tibetan Plateau was part of a much larger transcultural movement with continent-wide ramifications.

326 On EAS rock art in North-east Tibet (Qinghai), see Tang and Zhang 2001; Tang 1989; Recently, the geographic range of EAS rock art in North-east Tibet has been augmented to encompass areas as much as 350 km south of Lop Nor in the upper ’Bri-chu drainage basin. A comprehensive survey of rock art has been conducted in Chu-dmar leb, Khri-’du, ’Bri-stod and Yul-shul counties, in Yul-shul prefecture, by Nyi-ma rgyal-mtshan (2016; see also discussion of this work in Bellezza 2020b, pp. 351–54). This work employs a rigorous survey methodology recording in colour photographs as well as black and white diagrams almost all rock art documented, as well as the location, size, orientation and inclination of individual compositions (but little analytical treatment is provided). More than 20 sites containing around 380 compositions (1700 petroglyphs in total) situated between 3600 m and 4550 m are included in Nyi-ma rgyal-mtshan’s book (ibid., 26, 27, 491, 493). In general, the rock art of the upper ’Bri-chu basin shares strong subject, thematic and stylistic affinities with Upper Tibet. Among the carvings are approximately two dozen EAS specimens (although this style is not discussed in Nyi-ma rgyal-mtshan’s work) mostly consisting of cervids, but also wild yaks. See ibid., pp. 99, 208, 224, 227–29, 237, 244, 245, 317, 331, 332, 340, 343. These animals are characterised by less welldeveloped and alternative styles of volute body ornamentation, which merges with or links to the outer contours of the animal, in modes of depiction more like those found farther north in North-east Tibet and in North Inner Asia. Moreover, the S-shaped double volute detached from the outer contours of animals common in Upper Tibet is unrepresented in Yul-shul. Nevertheless, the curvilinear schema and selection of motifs used in rendering animals in Yul-shul are close in form to the EAS rock art of Ru-thog. For an EAS predator scene consisting of a stag flanked by two carnivores at Tha-chu, Chu-dmar county, see ibid., p. 208. 327 On morphological correspondences and their ideological analogues pertaining to long-stone funerary monuments in the Eastern Steppe and Upper Tibet, see Bellezza 2020b, pp. 262–70.

In whatever ways northern artistic, cultural and technological forces impregnated Tibet, they had a dramatic impact there. These drivers of change and innovation acted to fuse the pre-existing artistic traditions of Tibet with newer forms distributed all over Central Eurasia. The advent of EAS art in Tibet seems to represent, if not a relatively sudden and sharp phenomenon, a series of potent injections fundamentally altering the conception of art and design there. There is no evidence to suggest Another class of objects with great potential for tracing cultural interconnections between the Tibetan Plateau and other territories of Eurasia are ovicaprid knucklebones. Knucklebones are regularly discovered in ancient tombs in Inner Asia and beyond. These objects were used in various games, in rituals and, along with replicas, as talismans on much of the continent. For example, in Tibet the four main sides of an astragalus game piece are likened to the horse, donkey, sheep and goat; in Mongolia the four animals are the horse, camel, goat and sheep. See May 2014 Flight of the Khyung; Bellezza 2019. Similarly, in Khorasan, north-eastern Iran, the two broad sides of a knucklebone are associated with the horse and donkey (Sabori et al. 2016: 211). The cultural factors accounting for many parallels in knucklebone representations and games in Inner Asia are unclear. The Mongols may have been instrumental in bringing about some standardisation of game culture in the greater region in the thirteenth century CE, but its transcultural roots appear to go back much further in time.

325

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Tibetan Silver, Gold and Bronze Objects and the Aesthetics of Animals in the Era before Empire subjects, styles and motifs do not occur in the Upper Tibetan rock art repertoire. Thus, Ladakh played a prime role in funnelling the northern artistic heritage into the Western Tibetan Plateau, which persisted in the Iron Age. As with the Bronze Age and Late Bronze Age genres enumerated, the EAS rock art of Ladakh is generally closer in style and form to North Inner Asian variants than are Ru-thog specimens. The lower elevation and more amenable environmental conditions of Ladakh, as compared to more easterly regions on the Plateau, must have been major factors in its greater receptivity to northern cultural and technological signals in the Bronze Age and Iron Age.

precedents is the interweaving of mascoid rock art in Inner Asia. These anthropomorphic visages in emblematic form first appeared in association with the Okunev culture of Southern Siberia in the Middle Bronze Age, subsequently making their way south to the Altai and Northern Zone and to Ladakh and Ru-thog in new guises.328 Early examples of zoomorphic and hunting rock art in North Inner Asia and on the Western Tibetan Plateau also share many thematic and stylistic qualities. Mention of the chariot, another interregional rock art icon of the Bronze Age and Iron Age, has already been made. Thematically and stylistically, mascoid rock art in Ladakh is more closely aligned to Southern Siberia and Northern Pakistan than Ru-thog variants are to these territories. This is true of hunting compositions as well: the closest correspondences in scenes, subjects, styles and motifs are between Ladakh and northern countries.329 Vibrant interactions between Ladakh and North Inner Asia in the Bronze Age and Late Bronze Age are also evidenced in analogous rock art consisting of so-called giants, macelike implements displayed at the waist, battle-axes, bitriangular-style wild ungulates, and anthropomorphs with exaggeratedly large hands and fingers.330 These

The continuing discussion of EAS rock art is focused on the Western Tibetan Plateau, specifically on examples exhibiting arcuate body ornamentation. 331 Other types of EAS rock art on the Tibetan Plateau without curvilinear body motifs are hardly surveyed in this work, in order that a more strictly defined category of the EAS be available for comparative purposes (the most notable exception is felines in the EAS which sometimes have stripes instead of circles or volutes).332 Although the inspiration behind the creation of the volute, scroll and S-shaped motifs may have come from North Inner Asia, they were executed in Ladakh and North-west Tibet in a variety of ways consistent with indigenous artistic developments (Bellezza 2002: 137, 138).333 These curvilinear motifs accentuate the vibrancy of Tibetan EAS objects and rock art. I have speculated that arcuate body ornamentation may possibly signify the life-force of animals. For all that, novel or reconfigured beliefs, myths and symbolism energised by northly sources stand behind EAS art in Tibet.

328 On mascoid rock art on the Western Tibetan Plateau and its relationship to counterparts in North Inner Asia and Northern Pakistan, see Bruneau 2010a, pp. 226–30; Bruneau and Bellezza 2013, pp. 40–45; December 2011 and October 2016 Flight of the Khyung; Bellezza 2020b, pp. 332–36. 329 On certain parallels between early zoomorphic rock art in Upper Tibet and North Inner Asia, see Bellezza 2008, pp. 193, 194. On Ladakh’s early rock art and its affinities with North Inner Asia, see Bruneau 2010a, pp. 226–39; Bruneau et al. 2011; Bruneau and Bellezza 2013, pp. 44, 45; Bellezza 2020b, ch. 9. Francfort (1998: 45) maintains that the rock art record of Ladakh (including Zangs-dkar) indicates that access to North Inner Asia in the second and first millennia BCE was continuous, not episodic. The manifold stylistic and thematic links enjoyed by the rock art of both territories says so much. Francfort (loc. cit.) observes that the rock art of this Transhimalayan region matches quite well that attributed to the Afanasievo, Andronovo and Karasuk in Central Asia, Minusinsk Basin, the Altai and Tien-Shan. Francfort’s hypothesis of sustained northern influences on the Western Tibetan Plateau is lent support by a recent regimen of absolute dating conducted on organic materials from populations sharing an Andronovo material culture. These chronometric findings indicate that the Andronovo in the eastern portion of their range were heavily dependent on longterm local cultural developments, rather than long-distance migrations from the west, as was previously supposed. See Jia et al. 2017. There is increasing archaeological evidence for the Andronovo cultural complex in northern and western Xinjiang. For example, the Adunqiaolu occupation complex located in the Bortala valley, in the Western Tian-Shan, contains evidence (burial features, house construction, a trumpet-shaped earring) for the Andronovo cultural complex (specifically, the so-called Fedorovo and Semirech’ye groups) during the first third of the second millennium BCE (ibid.). Populations whose historical development was largely in situ accord well with models of ongoing artistic propagation. Frachetti (2011: 202, 203) observes that the expansion and diversification of societies in the middle and late Bronze Age (ca. 2300–1000 BCE), such as those of the Andronovo complex, are often seen to have resulted from waves of migration of mobile pastoralists, their movement driven by environmental degradation. However, increasingly, models relying on the same archaeological data view the regional development of steppe societies in the Bronze Age in terms of long-distance networks of social and economic interactions (migration playing a more limited role), which modified the ethnographic character of societies through sustained contact (ibid.). On the contributions of surrounding regions to the origins and early development of the Bronze Age in Xinjiang, see also Betts et al. 2019. 330 On this rock art in Ladakh and its interrelationship with North Inner Asian types, see Bruneau 2010a, pp. 230–36; Francfort et al. 1992; Bellezza 2020b, ch. 9.

331 On EAS rock art in North-east Tibet (Qinghai) and its links to the art of North Inner Asia, see Tang and Gao 2004, pp. 163, 166; Tang and Zhang 2001, pp. 259, 261. 332 In addition to stylised EAS images, there are many rock art depictions of animals on the Western Tibetan Plateau in more naturalistic aspects and poses dating to the Iron Age and Protohistoric period. Naturalism and stylisation in zoomorphic rock art also existed side by side in Mongolia and Southern Siberia in the first millennium BCE (Jacobson 1988: 222). These disparate aesthetic approaches distinguish more vernacular forms of rock art from more cosmopolitan ones. 333 Francfort et al. (1992: 153 (Fig. 19)) observe that the S-shaped motif on a deer carving from Matho, Ladakh, and from Ri-mo gdong is not typical of the steppes, and probably predates the sixth century BCE. These authors link a deer petroglyph from Choksti, Zangs-dkar, with an S-shaped body-motif and standing on the tip of the hooves to parallel motifs in EAS rock art of the steppes and EAS objects from Central Eurasia and China, dating the carving to the first millennium BCE (considering the seventh to fifth century BCE most plausible; ibid., 152 (Fig. 7 (upper), 153). Relying on Chinese publications at the time, Jettmar (1991: 7, 8 (Fig. 8b)) claims that animal style petroglyphs of Ru-thog were made under the influence of the steppes, but that the double volute is almost certainly a sign of later date. As Francfort et al. (1992) understood, this motif is in fact not late (cf. Bruneau and Bellezza 2013: 50). When he writes that the rock art of Ri-mo gdong is almost of a ‘baroque exuberance’, Jettmar (1991: 7), seems to have in mind a historical panel simulating EAS rock art, which has received much attention from Chinese archaeologists, the scholars who work on it apparently being unaware of the lesser age of these compositions. On this imitative panel of EAS rock art at Ri-mo gdong, Ru-thog, see Bruneau and Bellezza 2013, p. 49 n. 166, 59; October 2014 Flight of the Khyung, Figs. 27, 28.

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In Tibet: Transfer of the Eurasian Animal Style to the Plateau and parallel processes affecting China The EAS petroglyphs of the Western Tibetan Plateau were made using a variety of carving techniques and tools. Some were sharply cut into stone, others more roughly gouged and some lightly engraved. Many of the earliest petroglyphs in the EAS corpus deeply penetrate stone surfaces and are heavily re-patinated. These indications, in conjunction with stylistic traits, help provide a relative chronology of this rock art (for more details, see Introduction). Tibetan EAS rock art displays much variability in execution, certain compositions being the fruit of highly competent artists, other examples more crudely or hurriedly made. These variations in form and physical condition chart the indigenisation of EAS rock art and the development of new genres on the Western Tibetan Plateau.

and equids.339 In Ladakh, the most common figures are felines, followed by deer and then ibexes (Bruneau 2010a: 243).340 Additionally, there are bird carvings in the EAS of Ladakh.341 Bruneau (ibid., 243, 245) inventories 44 specimens of EAS rock art in Ladakh (not including two birds), mostly with arcuate body ornamentation, and mentions that approximately another 30 have been reconnoitred.342 However, this tally is incomplete. Devers et al. (2017) note that Bruneau included around 125 sites in her doctoral dissertation but there are no less than 360 sites now known in Ladakh, with more being discovered every year. Nevertheless, the EAS rock art corpus in Ladakh is limited to a relatively small number of petroglyphs at a handful of sites.343 No pictographs in the EAS style have been reported from the Tibetan Plateau or Northern Pakistan. EAS rock art (as well as so-called giants and the bi-triangular anthropomorphic style etc.) is concentrated west or downstream of the confluence of the Indus and Zanskar rivers, but it is also found in much smaller numbers in an intermediate zone extending from

Chinese researchers first recorded EAS petroglyphs at Ri-mo-gdong, Ru-thog, in the 1980s (for details, see Chayet 1994; Francfort et al. 1992). However, the first scholars who identified the EAS in the findings of the Chinese were Jettmar (1989: 267) and Francfort et al. (1990). More complete pictorial coverage of this rock art from Ri-mo gdong and other sites in Ru-thog was made by Suolang Wangdui 1994.334 An analytical approach to the EAS rock art of Ri-mo gdong is taken by Lü (2010), who links them to the cultural sphere of Eurasian steppe petroglyphs of the first millennium BCE.335 From 1995 to 2013, I surveyed around 160 EAS compositions with a total of no less than 400 animals exhibiting the scroll, S-shaped and volute motifs in the rock art of North-west Tibet.336 This rock art is concentrated in just one district: Ru-thog.337 The use of double volute and S-shaped body motifs finds its fullest expression there in all of Inner Asia (Bellezza 2002: 137).338

339 There is also one animal with an S-shaped body motif at Lu-ring snakha (sic), in Ru-thog, which resembles a boar (Suolang Wangdui 1994: 55 (Fig. 15). For another possible boar in the EAS rock art of Ru-thog, see ibid., p. 69 (Fig. 34). 340 Only two wild yak petroglyphs in the EAS are noted in Ladakh at the Domkhar site (Bruneau 2010a: 243). In Ru-thog there are no less than 15 wild yaks in the EAS. See November 2014 Flight of the Khyung, Figs. 45–51; May 2017 Flight of the Khyung, Figs. 139–53; October 2017 Flight of the Khyung, Fig. 43. Not only is the total number of known wild yaks nearly eight times higher in Ru-thog, but this is set against a much larger body of rock art in Ladakh. The areal distribution of this EAS rock art reflects the much greater wild yak population in Upper Tibet. For a wild yak ornamented with two volutes linked to the back and belly of the animal at Lushan, Qinghai (North-east Tibet), see Tang and Zhang 2001, 280ff. (Fig. 14). For a wild yak with a double volute on the rear quarters and a single volute in front in Beishan, Ningxia, see Qiao 2007, p. 195. In this petroglyph the body of the yak is entirely engraved except for the body ornamentation itself. The wild yaks of Lushan and Beishan are closely related to those of the Western Tibetan Plateau. At least five wild yaks in the EAS (with body ornamentation comprised of a double-volute or two single volutes) resembling examples on the Western Tibetan Plateau are found further south in North-east Tibet, in the upper ’Bri-chu basin at Tha-chu, Chu-dmar leb county. See Nyima rgyal-mtshan 2016, pp. 220, 228, 229, 237. There are also two yaks in ’Bri-chu with embryonic volutes unconnected to the belly or back (see ibid., 229). In the most deeply carved example, the well-developed double volute links to the outline of the body of the wild yak (see ibid., 237). 341 Bird petroglyphs in an EAS style have been documented at several sites in Lower Ladakh, such as Dartse and Domkhar. See Vernier and Bruneau 2017. The rock face with petroglyphs at Dartse (Dar-rtse?), in Kargil district, has been damaged by road construction (Viraf Mehra, in personal communication). There are three peacock carvings with crests and tails consisting of circle-and-line motifs at this site (see Fig. 7.24). I thank Quentin Devers and Viraf Mehra for sharing their photographs of Dartse with me. 342 In another tally of 100 rock art sites systematically surveyed in Ladakh, 11 have ‘Saka-style’ carvings totalling 85 in number, half of which occur at one site only, Domkhar (Bruneau and Vernier 2010: 28, 29). For pictures and diagrams of EAS art in Ladakh, see Francfort et al. 1992; Bruneau and Vernier 2010; Bruneau 2010b, Figs. 31–33, Pls. 58, 64, 66, 69–73, 217; Bruneau and Bellezza 2013, pp. 123 (Fig. IV.10), 124 (Fig. IV.12), 125 (Fig. IV.13), 126 (Fig. IV.16), 129 (Fig. IV.21). 343 Of approximately 20,000 petroglyphs recorded earlier in Ladakh, it is thought that only around 100 belong to all categories of the EAS, 0.5 per cent of the total (Bruneau and Bellezza 2013: 54 n. 189). Although a complete tally has not yet been compiled for Ru-thog, I estimate that more than 3 per cent of all zoomorphic subjects there are rendered in the EAS.

EAS rock art in Ru-thog is characterised by arcuate body adornment and consists of depictions (in descending order of frequency) of deer, antelope, wild yaks, felines 334 On EAS rock art at Ri-mo gdong, see Suolang Wangdui 1994, pp. 66 (Figs. 28, 29), 67 (Fig. 30), 69 (Fig. 34), 70 (Figs. 35, 36). See also Yu 2014, p. 1256 (Fig. 3.1); Chen and Zhu 2019b, pp. 391–95, 400 (Fig. 4–2–19), 404 (Figs. 4–2–27, 4–2–28). 335 Lü (2014: 1307) presents a well-known panel of much more recent EAS petroglyphs at Ri-mo gdong without commenting on this aberration. I present an introductory explication of North Inner Asian cultural and artistic features of EAS rock art in Ru-thog in Bellezza 2002, pp. 136–39; 2008, pp. 191–94. For more extensive treatment of EAS rock art on the Tibetan Plateau, see Bruneau and Bellezza 2013, pp. 45–59. 336 More than 60 compositions featuring EAS figures are illustrated in the October and November 2014 Flight of the Khyung. See also Bellezza 2008, pp. 169 (Figs. 293–96), 174 (Fig. 308), 176 (Fig. 313), 192 (Figs. 358, 359); 2001, pp. 345–48 (Figs. 10.52–10.59), 349 (Fig. 10.61), 350 (Fig. 10.62), 353 (Fig. 10.69), 358 (Figs. 10.78, 10.79), 359 (Fig. 10.80); 2002, pp. 226, 228 (Fig. XI-13d), 252 (Fig. XI-3h), 253; Suolang Wangdui 1994, pp. 48–56 (Figs. 4–16), 76 (Fig. 49), 77 (Fig. 50), 80 (Fig. 59), 81 (Fig. 60); Ge and Ge 2009, p. 215 (Fig. 225). For a comparison of Upper Tibetan EAS stags with those from North Inner Asia, see Lü 2014, p. 1309. 337 There is also a single rock art composition in Gu-ge, consisting of a stag in the EAS. See November 2014 Flight of the Khyung, Fig. 55. 338 Francfort et al. (1992: 155) note that isolated S-shaped motifs found at Ri-mo gdong (Ru-thog) and Char (Zangs-dkar) also occur in North Inner Asian art (Mongolia, Xinjiang, Kuruk-Tagh, Buyantu-Bulaq and Arvaīkher). On this motif as a stand-alone subject and as body ornamentation in the rock art of the Western Tibetan Plateau, see Bruneau and Bellezza 2013, pp. 47–56.

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Tibetan Silver, Gold and Bronze Objects and the Aesthetics of Animals in the Era before Empire

Fig. 7.1. Rock carvings of an antelope (left) and stag (right) rendered in the most common EAS style of North-west Tibet, which includes double volute body ornamentation. Ra-’brog ’phrang, Ru-thog. Probably Iron Age.

this confluence to Ubshi (Devers 2018: 105).344 An EAS composition featuring a tiger attacking a stag in Stangrtse, in upper Ladakh, represents an outlier of this kind of rock art in the region (Fig. 7.23).345

EAS rock art sites in Ru-thog mostly occur near agricultural settlements (active and defunct). The localisation of EAS rock art exhibiting curvilinear body ornamentation near sedentary sites in Ladakh and Ru-thog suggests a kind of beachhead phenomenon set into motion by a colonial exponent or exchange agent, which led to the creation of an artistic tradition isolated from many mainstream cultural enterprises on the Western Tibetan Plateau.

The distribution of EAS rock art in Ladakh indicates that this tradition of figuration was of limited influence and restricted to certain regional or social groups, and not to the population of the territory as a whole. The centre of gravity of wild ungulates with scroll and volute body ornamentation in lower Ladakh shows that North Inner Asian vectors responsible for the transmission of these motifs penetrated as far as the 33rd parallel, with more southern areas of the Western Tibetan Plateau (Gu-ge and Spiti) receiving far weaker shots of the EAS. Important EAS sites in Ri-mo gdong and Ra-bang, in Ru-thog, are also situated around 33 degrees above the equator. Although higher in elevation, like those of lower Ladakh,

The two animals pictured in Fig. 7.1 appear to form an integral composition, the head of the stag regardant. The long zigzagging horns are a defining feature of antelope rock art in the EAS of Ru-thog. Both animals are shown with stub tails, and possibly male sexual organs. It is not clear if the artist intended to depict each animal with two or four legs.346 The wild yak petroglyph in Fig. 7.2 is distinguished by U-shaped horns, upright wedge-shaped tail and belly fringe, typical motifs of wild yak rock art in Upper Tibet. This animal also carries the double volute or scroll motif commonplace in North-west Tibet.

344 Wild ungulate petroglyphs with curvilinear body ornamentation have not been documented at recently surveyed rock art sites in the upper Ladakh region of the Byang-thang. There are EAS animals that can be attributed to the Iron Age at Mud, but these are devoid of body ornamentation, save for a scene in which a stag has a three-peaked line running across the length of its body (see Fig. 7.10). EAS rock art in the Ladakh Byang-thang is characterised by cervids with curvilinear body forms and elaborate curling antlers, tigers with chevron (parallel angular) stripes, and peacocks with circle-and-line tail and crest motifs. Mud and Zamthang (both around the 33rd parallel) are the most southerly EAS rock art sites in Ladakh. My analysis of rock art in the Ladakh Byang-thang was made possible by Quentin Devers and Viraf Mehta, who generously opened their collections of rock art images of the region to me. 345 This composition is discussed and illustrated in Bruneau and Bellezza 2013, pp. 51–53, 129 (Fig. IV.21).

Each of the animals in Fig. 7.3 is depicted with four legs. The tail of the feline (probably a tiger) curves over the back of the animal and terminates in a curl. There are front and rear volutes and other lines ornamenting its 346 There are small figurines (thokcha) of wild ungulates probably from the same region and belonging to the Protohistoric period in which each pair of legs is joined by a small bar. One of these is illustrated in John 2006, p. 131 (Fig. 306).

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Fig. 7.2. A wild yak petroglyph in the EAS of Ru-thog (Skabs-ren site). Iron Age. The two front legs are intact, while the rearmost leg and rear end of the animal have been partially obliterated with the loss of the rock surface.

Fig. 7.3. A petroglyph of a feline chasing a stag that looks back at its attacker. Ri-mo gdong, Ru-thog. Iron Age.

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Tibetan Silver, Gold and Bronze Objects and the Aesthetics of Animals in the Era before Empire The form, decorative patterns and sophisticated execution of this petroglyph are defining qualities of the Ladakh branch of the EAS. The manner in which the front and rear volutes circumscribe the outline of the animal closely allies this rock art with the EAS of North Inner Asia. It is not clear to me whether this petroglyph dates to the Iron Age or Protohistoric period.

body. The eye of the feline is visible, and all four legs are flexed, depicting movement. Like the feline, the stag is adorned with front and rear volutes and other curved and angular linear motifs. All four legs of the stag are flexed, also simulating rapid movement. The antlers appear to be forked, but like the balance of the two figures, they have been obscured by subsequent carvings and damage to the rock surface. The animal at the top of the panel in Fig. 7.3 was added later. Predator attack scenes comprise a subset of EAS rock art in Inner Asia, a major thematic component documenting cultural interactivity in this vast territory. The pursuit of wild ungulates by wild carnivores parallels the hunting activities of diverse peoples in the Late Prehistoric era, perhaps serving as a prototype or exemplar for mythic and ritual aspects of the venatic economy as well as martial values.347

The wild yak in Fig. 7.5 has an upright, wedge-shaped tail, complex volute body decoration, elongated ear, large eye, and horns that nearly meet. This animal is also depicted standing on the tip of two hooves. All motifs enumerated are shared in common with wild yak petroglyphs in Ru-thog; however, its execution as well as the overall presentation of the pictured bovid are peculiar to Ladakh. The feline in Fig. 7.6 is adorned with a double volute and stands on the tip of two feet. Its mouth is open, signalling that it is coming in for the kill. The sinuous body of the stag is dominated by a double volute. It was also carved with a single, horizontal, knobby antler and the body is supported on the tips of two hooves. This example of EAS rock art is closer in style to the Ru-thog group than Figs. 7.4 and 7.5.

In addition to front and rear volutes, there is an arrowlike motif in the middle of the body of the stag from Ladakh illustrated in Fig. 7.4. The animal is depicted in movement, poised on the tip of two lancelet hooves. The branched antlers rise directly above the head (in many EAS cervid depictions on the Western Tibetan Plateau, the antlers bifurcate more widely). The stag is also shown with an upright hooked tail, round eye and linear mouth.

Affinities with Ru-thog notwithstanding, the three images of EAS rock art in Ladakh pictured in Figs. 7.4–7.6 have many parallels in form and embellishment to EAS art in North Inner Asia. On the other hand, the EAS rock art of Ru-thog displays more regional idiosyncrasies, putting considerable aesthetic distance between it and the EAS genres prevailing in North Inner Asia. Generally speaking, EAS rock art in Ru-thog is a more provincial and sometimes unpolished version of the transcultural tradition of zoomorphic depiction than the Ladakhi declension. This suggests that North-west Tibet was more insulated from northern cultural and demic forces in the Iron Age and Protohistoric period than was Ladakh.348 Isolation from northern influences is a carryover of the greater artistic separation of the region seen in the rock art of the Late Bronze Age. The aesthetic distancing of Ru-thog from northern regions must have some basis in the higher elevation and harsher conditions of the region. Perhaps most significantly, the highly developed network of residential and ceremonial monuments dating to the Iron Age and Protohistoric period in Ru-thog chronicles the existence of a sophisticated cultural apparatus with the heft to withstand foreign artistic encroachment. EAS rock art in Ladakh is closest to counterparts in contiguous territories: Northern Pakistan and Upper Tibet. Mimicking its intermediate geographic position, the EAS rock art of Ladakh has artistic features in common with both territories. Yet, certain features are shared only by Ladakh and one other region. For example, the double volute and S-shaped motif draws Ladakh and Ru-thog together, excluding Northern Pakistan. Conversely, some styles found in Northern Pakistan and Ladakh are not

Fig. 7.4. A stag made in the EAS, surrounded by other rock carvings (not pictured) belonging to the same general period, Domkhar, Ladakh. Late Prehistoric era. Photograph courtesy of Quentin Devers. 347 On this subject, see Bellezza 2020b, ch. 9; July 2016 Flight of the Khyung. For carnivores chasing wild ungulates in the EAS rock art of the Altai, see Kubarev et al. 2005, p. 103 (Pl. 13), 482; see p. 638 (Fig. 61) for an Altaian composition featuring a stag being savaged by what appear to be two carnivores. See also EAS compositions depicting a wolf or wolf-like animals attacking stags at the Tsagaan Salaa site in Jacobson et al. 2001, pp. 204 (Fig. 272), and at Baga Oigor (ibid., 326 (Fig. 759), 368 (Fig. 913)), 473 (Fig. 1298).

On likely ancient trade routes between Ladakh and Upper Tibet and Ladakh and northern and western regions, see Devers 2017.

348

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Fig. 7.5. A wild yak petroglyph in the EAS of Ladakh, Domkhar. Late Prehistoric era. Photograph courtesy of Quentin Devers.

Fig. 7.6. A petroglyphic composition of a feline pursuing a stag, each with two legs. Domkhar. Iron Age. The tail of the predator overarches the back and ends in a hook, a style typical of the Western Tibetan Plateau. Photograph courtesy of Quentin Devers.

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Fig. 7.7. An EAS petroglyph of an equid, Domkhar, Ladakh. Iron Age. This figure is fully silhouetted except for the S-shaped motif and other arcuate body adornment. Photograph courtesy of Quentin Devers.

speak of distinctive but overlapping branches of EAS rock art on the Tibetan Plateau: one in Ladakh, one in Ru-thog and a branch in North-east Tibet.

represented in Ru-thog. A horse and mythical creature with silhouetted bodies but also uncarved spaces highlighting curvilinear body ornamentation in Northern Pakistan is attributed to Iranian influences (see Hauptmann 2007: 29 (Fig. 20)). These decorative devices are replicated in an equid at the Domkhar site in Ladakh, pictured in Fig. 7.7. No such EAS rock art is seen in Ru-thog.

For all the differences in style, aspect and scene architecture marking EAS rock art on the Tibetan Plateau, common elements of its vocabulary serve as a cogent indicator of a shared artistic and cultural heritage. The EAS rock art and metal objects exhibited in this work demonstrate that Tibet gave birth to an artistic canon that cut across cultural, tribal and linguistic borders to unite much of the Plateau in an aesthetic idiom of great persuasion and reach. This common artistic language, while drawing heavily from northern territories for its inspiration, defines a geographically bound collection of interrelated peoples. The cultural and technological systems upon which this art rests delineate a human order that is uniquely Tibetan in composition. The complexity and exclusivity of this human order are as pronounced as those of any surrounding people cum territory widely recognised as constituting an integral civilisation in the Late Prehistoric era.

The use of single volutes or two disconnected volutes is much more common in Northern Pakistan and Ladakh than it is in Ru-thog (in the latter region the double volute and S-shaped motifs dominate). Some other features of the EAS lexicon in Ru-thog are also localised. For example, antelope are identified by their long, undulating horns and wild yaks by wedge-shaped tails. Both motifs are uncommon in Ladakh and generally occur in the eastern part of the region (Bruneau and Bellezza 2013: 28, 29, 61). In the rock art of Northern Pakistan, undulating and zigzag horns are common motifs only on ibex subjects. Moreover, deer carvings in Ru-thog have their own repertoire of antler styles. Examples characteristic of this region include broad antlers with scalloped or peaked edges, a three-horned variety, and tendril-like tines.349 Thus, we can

Figs. 7.8–7.10 feature EAS stags in Ru-thog and Ladakh with V-shaped horns.350 In Figs. 7.8 and 7.10, the tines

349 For examples of these various antler styles, see the October 2014 Flight of the Khyung. See also the three-horned wild ungulate petroglyph in the November 2014 Flight of the Khyung, Fig. 60.

350

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For Fig. 7.8, see also October 2014 Flight of the Khyung, Fig. 8.

In Tibet: Transfer of the Eurasian Animal Style to the Plateau and parallel processes affecting China

Fig. 7.8. EAS stag rock carving with V-shaped antlers, body ornamentation consisting of an S-shaped motif and stubby tail. Rgyab-lung, Ru-thog. Iron Age or Protohistoric period.

are oriented perpendicular to the beam, but in Fig. 7.9 the tines are less regularly aligned. Although Matho is farther away and environmentally less like Upper Tibet than Mud, its deer (Fig. 7.9) are closer in form, style and aspect to the deer from Ru-thog (Fig. 7.8) than the one from Mud (Fig. 7.10). This reminds us that the partialities and compulsions of individual artists, rather than relative geographic placement, were often the deciding factor in the structuring of individual rock art compositions. The stag from Mud has a curvy outline, and body ornamentation consisting of a front volute connected to a sawtooth motif spanning the entire length of the body. Additionally, there are two birds linked to the Mud stag, which appear to invest the composition with special mythic or symbolic meaning. The intimate relationship between birds and deer in this rock art invokes the bird-stag icon of ScythoSiberian cultures and the funerary associations of this pair of animals in Inner Asia, ancient Tibet being no exception.

Fig. 7.9. On the right is an EAS stag petroglyph with V-shaped antlers, double volute body decoration and a stubby tail. On the left is a similarly ornamented and shaped deer with much shorter horns. Matho, central Ladakh. Drawing by Rebecca C. Bellezza, after Francfort et al. 1992, p. 153 (Fig. 19).

Although Figs. 7.11 and 7.12 are found on opposite sides of Ru-thog and Ladakh, far from one another, they present a suite of strikingly similar traits. In addition to the analogous

curvilinear body ornamentation, they have pointed snouts, four flexed legs with hooves, and short, erect tails. Nevertheless, the specimen from Zanskar (Fig. 7.12) appears 129

Tibetan Silver, Gold and Bronze Objects and the Aesthetics of Animals in the Era before Empire

Fig. 7.10. An EAS deer rock carving crowned by V-shaped horns with perpendicular tines and just the hint of a tail. There is a bird resting in the set of antlers and a larger bird to the left, apparently standing on its back. Mud, Ladakh Byang-thang. Protohistoric period. Photograph courtesy of Quentin Devers.

to have its head turned backwards, and shorter antlers, and the outline of its body is much curvier than the stag from Ru-thog (Fig. 7.11).351 Also, there are no indications that the Zanskar deer is being menaced by a predator. Despite these contrasts, the two cervids belong to a closely aligned genres of EAS art on the Western Tibetan Plateau.

stylistic trait in Ladakh and North Inner Asia, is rare North-west Tibet.353 The pointed hooves of the front pair of legs on the stag in Fig. 7.13 is an uncommon feature in Ru-thog. However, it is a defining feature of EAS art in North Inner Asia and Ladakh (and Northern Pakistan), as seen on the deer from Ladakh on the left side of Fig. 7.14. Given its peculiar traits, the Ru-thog stag in Fig. 7.13 appears to be of direct Ladakh, Northern Pakistan or North Inner Asian inspiration, again illustrating the highly fungible nature of EAS traditions. Perhaps such exotic rock art documents the movements of individuals engaged in trade, pilgrimage, raiding or any other manner of exchange or intrusion.

The horns of the deer from Ru-thog in Fig. 7.13 and one of the deer from Khaltse shown in Fig. 7.14 have antlers with some common elements. Otherwise, these two cervids are depicted differently, highlighting clear differences in the EAS rock art of the two regions. EAS wild ungulates with unadorned bodies are not infrequent in Ladakh, Northern Pakistan and Xinjiang but rare in Ru-thog. The rectilinear body of the Ru-thog specimen is a canonical feature in EAS rock art of that district of North-west Tibet.352 This schema is based on indigenous models, but it is hardly seen in the EAS rock art of Ladakh. The separate front and rear volutes of the Ru-thog stag, while a frequent

The branching antlers of the two stags in Fig. 7.15 confirm the taxon of the animals. They were carved on a panel with two less well-defined cervids that also belong to the EAS. The two volutes of the specimen on the left recall EAS rock art of both the Western Tibetan Plateau

351 For this Ru-thog specimen, see also Bellezza 2002, pp. 226 (Fig. XI10d); October 2014 Flight of the Khyung, Fig. 17. 352 For this deer, see also October 2014 Flight of the Khyung, Fig. 23.

353 For another example of this same decorative treatment in Ru-thog, see the equid with front and rear volutes connected to the belly at Lu-ring sna-kha (sic) in Suolang Wangdui 1994, p. 56 (Fig. 16).

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Fig. 7.11. EAS stag rock art with body ornamentation comprised of three interconnected volutes, being pursued by a carnivore, Skabs-ren, Ru-thog. Iron Age.

and North Inner Asia, appearing as a kind of artistic and semiotic bridge between the double volute of the former territory and the fully isolated twin volutes of the latter. This transitional form in arcuate body ornamentation reflects the relative placement of North-east Tibet in the larger geographic scheme of Inner Asia. The sinuous contours of this stag are a familiar feature in EAS rock art in Inner Asia. The body ornamentation of the stag on the right side of Fig. 7.15 appears to be a localised version of the curvilinear motif. The more rectilinear outline of this petroglyph reinforces its provincial origins, a feature it shares with some EAS rock art in Ru-thog. EAS petroglyphs in North-east Tibet have been recently found in Ser-shul, northern Khams. In addition to the tiger discussed in chapter four (see pp. 59–77), several much smaller EAS wild ungulate carvings on the same rock panel exhibit curvilinear body ornamentation, including one specimen with front and rear volutes connected to the underside of the animal.

Fig. 7.12. EAS stag rock carving adorned with three interconnected volutes. Char, Zanskar (Zangs-dkar). Iron Age. Drawing by Rebecca C. Bellezza, after Francfort et al. 1992, pp. 153, 154 (Fig. 20).

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Fig. 7.13. A bounding EAS stag rock carving decorated with front and rear volutes and antlers with broad beams and four points. Ri-mo gdong, Ru-thog. Iron Age.

Fig. 7.14. Two EAS stags with no body ornamentation. The rock carving on the right has antlers with broad beams and four points, and the one on the left has finely branching antlers. Khaltse, lower Ladakh. Iron Age. Photograph courtesy of Quentin Devers.

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In Tibet: Transfer of the Eurasian Animal Style to the Plateau and parallel processes affecting China bellies of the two animals are double-curved. However, the more rigid legs and flat feet of the Ru-thog specimen contrast with the flexed front leg (the rear leg is missing) terminating in a pointed hoof of the example from Ladakh. In fact, this difference in form and aspect of the legs distinguishes much rock art in the two regions. Another defining feature of each branch of the EAS on the Western Tibetan Plateau is the degree of fluidity in executing the animals. Those made in Ladakh are more apt to capture the pliancy and gracefulness of EAS art in North Inner Asia, while Ru-thog specimens are frequently rendered more stiffly, with divaricating lines.

Fig. 7.15. Two EAS stag petroglyphs from North-east Tibet, one with two volutes twisting around the body and one with a modified figure-of-eight motif. Gser-khams, Khri-’du county, Yul-shul. Iron Age. Drawing by Rebecca C. Bellezza, after Wang and Zhang 2018, p. 332 (Fig. 4); Nyi-ma rgyalmtshan 2016, pp. 331, 332.

The long tail (partially visible) and the absence of horns quite convincingly identify the carving in Fig. 7.18 as that of an equid (wild ass?). Two or three other equids in the EAS have been recorded in Ru-thog.355 In the carving from Ru-thog in Fig. 7.18, the double volute takes up about half the total length of the animal’s body. On the other hand, the double volutes in the petroglyphs from Ladakh shown in Fig. 7.19 are proportionately larger and more elaborate. The two Ladakh equids are easily identifiable by their body shape, long and splaying tail as well as by the mane in the upper specimen. These equids and the horseman and other figures visible appear to comprise at least three different compositions. The lineaments of the EAS equids in Figs. 7.18 and 7.19 vary greatly. As a general rule, EAS rock art subjects in Ladakh tend towards more complexity. However, which of these differences in style are due to regional preferences and what is attributable to the tastes of individual artists is not well defined. Other than the artistic features noted in the captions of Figs. 7.20 and 7.21 and their approximate age, the wild carnivores (tigers) depicted have few stylistic traits in common. The double volute is entirely enclosed within the angular contours of the body in the carnivore from Ru-thog,356 a standard type of ornamentation in that district. The top of the more elaborate double volute in the Ladakh specimen forms the back of the carnivore, complementing the other curves of the body. As has been discussed, the joining of volutes with the outer lines of the body is characteristic of Ladakh, Northern Pakistan and North Inner Asia, but is seldom encountered in Ru-thog. Similarly, the rectilinearity of the Ru-thog specimen and the curvilinearity of the Ladakh specimen help define the two branches of EAS art on the Western Tibetan Plateau. Other differences between the two carnivores are the four legs and small head of the Ru-thog tiger, compared to the two legs and larger head of the Ladakh example. The sites in which the ostensible tigers in Figs. 7.20 and 7.21 occur are approximately 160 km apart, but they belong to different regions and now even different countries. The historical roots of the administerial and jurisdictional status of Ru-thog and Ladakh can be traced back to the time of the

Fig. 7.16. EAS wild sheep rock carving with a curvilinear body and double volute body ornamentation, upon which a more recent imitation of an EAS animal was superimposed. Ri-mo gdong. Protohistoric period.

The lightly cut carving from Ru-thog in Fig. 7.16 appears to depict a wild sheep.354 The partly damaged specimen from Ladakh in Fig. 7.17 may also portray a wild caprid. The curvilinearity and double volute motifs of these two wild ungulates are salient features of the EAS in the rock art of Ru-thog and Ladakh. In this subgenre, the backs and 354

355 See November 2014 Flight of the Khyung, Figs. 61–64; Bellezza 2020b, pp. 491 (Figs. 178, 179), 492 (Fig. 182). 356 See also November 2014 Flight of the Khyung, Fig. 65.

See also October 2014 Flight of the Khyung, Fig. 28.

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Fig. 7.17. EAS wild ungulate petroglyph with a double volute adorning its curvy body. Rock art site between Lehdo and Chumitang, lower Ladakh. Iron Age. Photograph courtesy of Quentin Devers.

Fig. 7.18. An ostensibly equid rock carving with double volute body ornamentation. Rzong-chung, Ru-thog. Iron Age.

The carnivore hunting scene in Fig. 7.22 is situated approximately 190 km south-east of that in Fig. 7.23. They are so close in style and aspect that a common cultural and/ or artistic source must be behind their creation. In these two compositions we once again see sweeping elements of the EAS in Inner Asia, as well as those that more narrowly delineate the Tibetan Plateau as whole, the Western Tibetan Plateau as a subset of EAS art in Tibet and, finally, those attributes that define the Ladakh and Ru-thog branches of this artistic tradition. These varying levels of specificity in the EAS tradition have already been considered in some detail. Presumably, the carnivore portrayed in these two compositions is the tiger. Although the number of legs varies in each depiction, the tigers are both depicted with prominent calcanei and pointed feet. The two felines also possess curved stripes, open, nipple-like jaws, and S-shaped tails rising over the back. The three deer in the two scenes have curvilinear body ornamentation (including detached volutes) and similarly shaped antlers, and look back to face their attacker. Despite the many artistic commonalities, the carnivore hunting scene from Ladakh is more intricate in form and more polished in execution than the one from Ru-thog, fundamental contrasts in rendering that apply to a substantial amount of EAS rock art in the two regions.

Gu-ge kingdom (tenth century to 1630 CE). Nevertheless, the rock art record is unambiguous in showing that certain cultural indicators of regional differentiation reach back to the Late Prehistoric era.

The peacock in Fig. 7.24 is one of no less than 16 in the same style documented in lower Ladakh (Vernier and Bruneau 2017: 325 (Fig. f)). This style is characterised by the depiction of crest and tail feathers rendered boldly as lines terminating in circles, extended or pointed beaks, 134

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Fig. 7.19. Petroglyphs comprised of two EAS equids with double volute body ornamentation, separated by a horse-rider and other subjects. Kiari, upper Ladakh. Iron Age or Protohistoric period. Photograph courtesy of Viraf Mehta.

Fig. 7.20. Rock art consisting of an EAS wild carnivore emblazoned with a double volute, V-shaped ears, gaping jaws and a tail curling over the back. Brag-gdong East, Ru-thog. Iron Age.

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Fig. 7.21. A petroglyph of an EAS wild carnivore whose body is dominated by a double volute motif. It is also endowed with two upright ears, open jaws and an upward-pointing tail that ends in a curl. Kiari, upper Ladakh. Iron Age. Photograph courtesy of Viraf Mehta.

Fig. 7.22. A rock art composition consisting of an EAS striped carnivore chasing a stag. Much of this composition has been obscured by the superimposition of engraved letters forming a Buddhist mantra. Ri-mo gdong, Ru-thog. Protohistoric period.

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Fig. 7.23. A rock art composition consisting of an EAS striped carnivore in pursuit of two stags. Stang-rtse, upper Ladakh. Protohistoric period. Photograph courtesy of Quentin Devers.

and eye-shaped bodies. The circles simulating the eyes or ocelli of the feathers have an inner circle as well. There are three such motifs on the head and five make up the tail.

wear and possesses a whitish patina. Each of the peacocks stands inside a square frame formed by a single ridge on all four sides. The bodies of the birds are squatter than in the rock art example illustrated in Fig. 7.24, but they share similarly formed curved necks. The two small legs of the peacocks on the plaque form a V-pattern rather than having the long, flexed legs of the rock carving. Nevertheless, most of the birds in the same group of peacock rock art in Ladakh have smaller legs not unlike those on the copperalloy plaque. There are three circle-and-stem motifs for the crest feathers and four for the tail feathers on the plaque. In

The plaque in Fig. 7.25 was expertly cast with a pair of confronted peacocks. These comely birds were created in the same style as the petroglyph in Fig. 7.24, indicating that the object was produced on the Western Tibetan Plateau. No information on the provenance of the plaque was obtained from its owner in Lhasa. The object exhibits very little corrosion, but it has undergone considerable

Fig. 7.24. An EAS peacock petroglyph carved high up on the face of a large boulder, along with several EAS wild ungulate figures (not pictured) carved using a similar technique in the same time frame. Dartse, lower Ladakh. Photograph courtesy of Quentin Devers.

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Fig. 7.25. Copper-alloy plaque emblazoned with two peacocks with crest and tail feathers conspicuously depicted as stems terminating in circles (8.2 cm × 3.8 cm). This thokcha-class object has two loops on either side of the object for attachment. Private collection. Drawing by Tenzin Dhargyal.

the decorative regime on the wooden vessel are not supplied in the Chinese publication (Institute of Archaeology, CASS and Cultural Relics Conservation Institute of Tibet Autonomous Region 2015). It is also unrecorded whether the body and foot of the vessel were made as separate pieces of wood. The pair of peacocks and horn-like subject appear to be painted in a red ochre. From the photograph provided in the Chinese publication, it is not clear if these designs were first scored into the wood. The pair of ostensible horns is connected to a stalk-like motif, a form also seen in one genre of caprid thokcha. In a spectacular gold mask also recovered from Chu-’thag there is also a close association between birds and wild caprids, recalling archaic funerary themes in Tibetan literature. In the shape of a modern gravy boat, the jug appears to be related to the oinochoe of the ancient Greeks and Etruscans, which was used to

additional to their variable size, the crest and tail feathers are differentiated by the latter having an inner circle as well. Two bars, each around 5 cm in height, span the lower and upper sides of the rear of the plaque. An integral part of the casting, each of these bars is perforated with a series of small, highly worn orifices. Perhaps cords were strung through these holes for attachment to the body or another object. There is also a low-relief diagonal line spanning the reverse side of the peacock plaque. The wooden jug or pitcher with a pouring spout and handle in Fig. 7.26 is one of the only objects featuring EAS art in Tibet to be discovered in a controlled excavation. Dating to an early phase of the Protohistoric period, this Chu-’thag vessel furnishes us with a critical chronological indicator for other EAS art on the Western Tibetan Plateau. Details of

Fig. 7.26. A shallow, smooth-walled wooden vessel with a spout, turned-up tab handle and tall, tapering base. A pair of confronted peacocks resting on what might be a pair of wild ungulate horns enliven one side of the blocky foot. Excavated from tomb M4, Chu-’thag/Chu-thags, Gu-ge. The length of the body of this vessel (excluding spout and handle) is 19.9 cm and it has a height of 14 cm. The length of the base is given as 10 cm; ca. first century BCE to second century CE. Drawing by Tenzin Dhargyal, after Institute of Archaeology, CASS and Cultural Relics Conservation Institute of Tibet Autonomous Region 2015, p. 44.

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In Tibet: Transfer of the Eurasian Animal Style to the Plateau and parallel processes affecting China serve libations such as wine and mead. On the head of each peacock there are two or three stem-and-circle motifs for the crest and six such motifs (in two groups) forming the rectrices of the tail. The stem-and-circle motif composing the crest and tail feathers is smaller and less well developed than on the peacocks in the petroglyph and copper-alloy plaque. The more summary design of this motif on the wooden vessel from Chu-’thag may possibly indicate that this particular declension of EAS art is somewhat later than the Ladakh petroglyph in Fig. 7.24 and the copperalloy plaque in Fig. 7.25.357 In any case, this rock carving and copper alloy object can quite confidently be placed in the ca. third century BCE to second century CE time frame. Finally, the existence of cognate EAS avian art in lower Ladakh and Far Western Tibet may well delineate the geographic bounds in which the copper-alloy plaque in Fig. 7.25 was made.

to the relationship a particular individual or group had with EAS art. In addition to the positive dimension, these articles and carvings may have had an unfavourable rating in certain Tibetan social contexts. As in other territories, Tibetan EAS art may have been wielded as an instrument of social control, the advantages it gave one person or group being detrimental to another. The material-cultural and ethnic affiliations attributed to Saka and Saka-like populations is not uniform throughout North Inner Asia, nor does their EAS rock art perfectly match that of the Western Tibetan Plateau. While there is much overflow in styles, motifs and patterns of execution, taken as a whole, the EAS petroglyphs of North Inner Asia and the Western Tibetan Plateau constitute different bodies of artistic expression. EAS rock art in Ladakh illustrated in the work of Bruneau and Vernier (2010) reveals a process of transformation of the northern canon, characterised by less curvilinearity, sharper-angled geometric body motifs, double volute and S-shaped body ornamentation, and many deviations in the styles of horns and antlers.358 As explained, Ru-thog acquired its own EAS artistic lexicon, some of which was shared with Ladakh.359

The significance of regional differentiation in the EAS rock art of the Western Tibetan Plateau is still difficult to gauge. Graphic dissimilarities in the EAS rock art of Ladakh and Ru-thog may reflect social, cultural and possibly ethnic variations, the extent of which is undetermined. Thus, we should not expect that an EAS image of a deer in Ladakh had precisely the same import to its makers and original viewers as one in the adjoining regions of Ru-thog and Northern Pakistan. While they are closely interrelated in form, their semantics and functions may have diverged in each region as expressions of local identity and affiliation. Ideological contrasts between EAS art in North Inner Asia and on the Tibetan Plateau can be expected to have even been greater. Attempts to parse the original uses and significance of EAS rock art, however, remain speculative, a question of possibilities in an unfixed scheme of meaning and function.

The artistic constitution of EAS rock art on the Western Tibetan Plateau came about through a process of alteration, a geographic and aesthetic extension of changes to the EAS canon in the southern Tarim Basin, the Pamirs and Northern Pakistan. The induction of EAS rock art on the Western Tibetan Plateau was also distinguished by variations in the bestiary (addition of wild yaks and antelopes) and in the new kinds of scenes being portrayed. Peculiar compositions in Ru-thog include what might be hunters and wild ungulates in mythic or ritual contexts and anthropomorphic figures riding horses.360 Although mythic and oral-historical threads may possibly have entwined the EAS on the Western Tibetan Plateau (and in North-east Tibet) with that of northern territories and peoples, the acclimatisation of this art to local conditions was brought about through reinterpretation. Implicit in

Ideological aspects of EAS rock art and objects on the Tibetan Plateau can be probably divided into two broad categories: socio-political and religious. Socio-political associations may have variously included identifiers of lineages, clans and tribes, markers of social rank and prestige, and martial symbols and emblems. Religious associations of Tibetan EAS art could have embraced signs of cultic affiliation, paeans to animals held sacred or essential, magical and ritual devices, tokens of good fortune, and cosmological and eschatological symbols. The socio-political and religious factors that lent EAS art value to Tibetans were the motive force behind their investiture and propagation on the Plateau. The large expenditures of time, resources and productive capacity involved in the conceptual shaping, fabrication and dissemination of the rock art and objects in this study (and others like them) were justified by the advantages they were perceived to confer upon their makers, users and viewers. Moreover, these benefits may have varied significantly according

358 Vernier (2016: 79, 90–92) reports around 20 EAS figures (mostly ibex and wild yaks and one deer) in Zamthang, the largest rock art site in Zangs-dkar (a southern region allied to Ladakh). However, he provides no description of the rock art he categorises as EAS. Vernier characterises Zamthang as a major repository of the EAS art in Ladakh, which represents a ‘degeneration of the original stylistic model’ due to multiple transmissions and geographic isolation. Nevertheless, Vernier (ibid., 92, 98) also holds out the possibility that the EAS art of Zamthang is ‘a rather late and adapted mode’, ‘a local interpretation of an outside iconography’. Some clarification of Vernier’s observations is called for. There was no single or original model for EAS rock art in Ladakh or Ruthog; it developed organically through a mixture of artistic, cultural and technological influences originating in various spatio-temporal contexts. Moreover, viewing the indigenous development of EAS rock art on the Western Tibetan Plateau as a ‘degeneration’ or a ‘bastardisation’ (ibid., 92) overlooks its innovative artistic qualities, which in some compositions is marked by a high level of attractiveness and proficiency. Most crucially, looking at EAS art of the Western Tibetan Plateau through the prism of northern cultures marginalises indigenous cultural inventiveness. 359 On matching graphic elements of EAS rock art in Ladakh and Upper Tibet, constituting a major facet of what we call the ‘Western Tibetan Plateau Style’, see Bruneau and Bellezza 2013, pp. 123–29 (Figs. IV.11– IV.21), 143 (Fig. V.24), 144 (Fig. V.25). 360 See October 2014 Flight of the Khyung, Fig. 10; November 2014 Flight of the Khyung, Figs. 35, 51, 55, 63, 64.

357 A wooden comb, bowl standing on four long legs, trencher, and tablets with deep relief carvings were also found in the burials of Chu-’thag and Gur-gyam (Institute of Archaeology, CASS and Cultural Relics Conservation Institute of Tibet Autonomous Region 2015). For a review of these burial sites and their dating, see Bellezza 2020b, pp. 196–203.

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Tibetan Silver, Gold and Bronze Objects and the Aesthetics of Animals in the Era before Empire settlements.362 The construction of a network of fortresses and defended settlements in the region accords well with hunting and combat rock art, bespeaking a people and polity of considerable military capabilities. Furthermore, the very high elevation conditions of the Western Tibetan Plateau (particularly Upper Tibet) would have posed fundamental physiological challenges to Saka coming from lower-lying northern lands. Before they could effectively produce an entire body of rock art, the company of artists needed to be thoroughly acclimatised to the rarefied environment. Finally, if the Western Tibetan Plateau had been overrun and occupied by Saka-affiliated peoples, there should be far more archaeological evidence to show their presence there, including Saka-type bronze armaments and ornaments, tombs and ceramics, as is regularly found in Xinjiang and other parts of North Inner Asia.

the acculturation of EAS rock art on the Plateau was its affective and cognitive appropriation by makers, viewers and users, resulting in their ownership and espousal of the tradition. Thus, EAS rock art of the Tibetan Plateau is best referred to as ‘Saka-related’, making ample allowance for redevelopment and repurposing by Tibetan peoples. Similarly, the silver bowls and gold finial in the Pine collection and the copper-alloy bird-spouted jar of this monograph imbibed northern cultural patterns reimagined and reconstituted as Tibetan symbols and articles. Relying on the small amount of EAS rock art on the Western Tibetan Plateau known in the late 1980s, Francfort et al. (1992: 147) assert that Andronovo-descended peoples and Saka tribes were present in Ladakh and Far Western Tibet until at least the fourth century BCE. They add that the people who made EAS rock art on the Western Tibetan Plateau were probably nomadic or seminomadic shepherds related to the Saka or other peoples of the steppes, who may have moved onto the Western Tibetan Plateau for summer grazing (ibid., 180). Vernier and Bruneau (2010) also identify EAS rock art in Ladakh at sites such as Domkhar as belonging to the Saka or of a Saka type.361 It is certainly possible that members of populations associated with the Saka entered the Western Tibetan Plateau to create EAS rock art resembling that of North Inner Asia. However, the hypothesis of foreign visitors or demic infusions tendered by Francfort et al. and Bruneau and Vernier cannot be adduced through rock art alone, for to do so conflates cultural and ethnic identity with material culture. That EAS rock art on the Western Tibetan Plateau resembles EAS rock art in North Inner Asia attributed to the Saka and Saka-related tribes is no assurance that any of it was made by the latter groups.

It seems more likely that any North Inner Asian peoples bringing EAS art with them to the north-western and north-eastern reaches of the Tibetan Plateau did so as herders, traders, artisans or technologists, whose arrival was countenanced by indigenous populations. Other potential bearers of EAS art to the Plateau may have included individuals on diplomatic or religious missions. It is also possible that EAS art was introduced by an elite stratum of a Saka-affiliated society that merged with one or more local Tibetan populations. This could have been effected through intermarriage and/or acquiring positions of leadership diplomatically. The arrival of any Saka-affiliated peoples on the Tibetan Plateau could have involved more than one of the scenarios laid out here.363 The testing of these hypotheses, however, must await the molecular analysis of ancient human remains on the Tibetan Plateau. Inasmuch that the Saka actually came to the Western Tibetan Plateau to make rock art in their accustomed styles, indigenisation there indicates that this was but an initial chapter in its development.

Even when allowance is made for Saka-affiliated peoples having brought EAS art directly to the Tibetan Plateau, this poses the question of who and how. The restricted distribution of EAS rock art in Ladakh and Upper Tibet may possibly be a sign of foreign incursion, with more interior areas spared from its impact. However, Sakaaffiliated invaders or raiders who stopped long enough to carve animals in Ladakh and Ru-thog would have been under very considerable pressure from defenders operating on home ground. The rock art record of the Western Tibetan Plateau is unambiguous in showing that local inhabitants were well armed with recurve bows, spears, swords, battleaxes and other weapons and conversant with tactics of ambush and coordinated attack necessary for taking down large and powerful game such as the wild yak. Far Western Tibet in the Iron Age and Protohistoric period had a strong sedentary component, complete with citadel-centred

It is also worth considering the possibility that EAS rock art in Tibet was solely the handiwork of local populations. As discussed in chapter six, there is archaeological and genetic evidence to suggest that inhabitants of the Tibetan Plateau intermingled with populations bearing a Saka-type or an earlier mobile pastoralist material culture in southern Xinjiang (Khotan and Tashkurgan in the west and Lop Nor in the east). This furnishes a potential mechanism for Tibetan populations having become acquainted with EAS art outside the bounds of their Plateau. Therefore, it may have been the Tibetans themselves who carried the EAS, in part or in whole, to their own lands.364 Weighing all the evidence considered, it can be concluded that the hand of the Saka in the actual creation of EAS rock art on the

On inconclusive mythological material preserved in Bu-ston’s history of Buddhism and the Dpag bsam ljon bzangs, Thomas (1952: 116) claims that, when invading India, the Saka penetrated Tibet. A prophecy contained therein about the decline of Buddhism that appears to refer to a Greek, Persian and Scythian king (Obermiller 1932: 173) is of highly ambiguous historical value. Thomas read far too much into this account by extending its purview to Tibet. Even if the prophecy draws from an actual historical event, it is best attributed to the Indo-Scythian period, with no allusions to earlier Saka migrations.

On these citadel settlements, see Bellezza 2014a; 2008, pp. 30–53; 2020, pp. 275–303. 363 There is body of folklore in Ru-thog concerning a figure named Bshanpa rme-ru-rtse/sme-ru-rtse, a northerner (probably from Xinjiang) who is said to have taken control of the region in early times. See Bellezza 2001, pp. 102–04; 2014a, p. 153 n. 2. 364 On the possible ethnic and linguistic affiliations of peoples inhabiting Upper Tibet prior to the Early Historic period, see my footnote in Bruneau and Bellezza 2013, pp. 79, 80; Bellezza 2018.

361

362

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or even material remains in the Iron Age archaeological records of Upper Tibet and Ladakh. While Chinese rock inscriptions in Ladakh may possibly date as early as the Han dynasty and Chinese military campaigns in Xinjiang, there is no epigraphic evidence for a Chinese cultural presence in Upper and Central Tibet in the Protohistoric period.365

The two silver bowls and gold finial of the Pine collections and the copper-alloy bird-spouted pitchers and trapezoidal plaques all share aspects of EAS figuration. Produced in the Late Prehistoric era, this zoomorphic art has subjects and curvilinear modes of decoration observed in Tibetan EAS rock art. This rock art resonates with the lines, shapes and patterns of North Inner Asian counterparts. The volutes carved on the lions of the silver bowls, teardrop-shaped motifs on the gold finial, the bird protome of the copperalloy jars and tigers of the copper-alloy plaques unite this art with northern genres.

Francfort et al. (1992: 155, 156, Fig. 21) compare feline rock art from A-lci and Khalatse in Ladakh and Ri-mogdong in Ru-thog as well as a deer from Choktsi (Ladakh) with Chinese narrative bronze vessels of the seventh to fifth century BCE.366 This Chinese EAS art also rests upon a curvilinear schema, and some of it is distinguished by arcuate body ornamentation.367 Francfort et al. (ibid., 172, 173) see the petroglyphs of Ladakh and Ri-mo-gdong as related to both the EAS of the steppes and Chinese narrative bronzes. According to Francfort et al. (ibid., 180), affinities between Eastern Zhou bronzes and EAS petroglyphs on the Western Tibetan Plateau may be due to the export of Chinese objects serving as a model influenced by steppic art or through symbiotic currents of exchange. Francfort et al. (ibid., 180) label this Tibetan rock art as ‘Sino-steppic’ and date it to the first half of the first millennium BCE. This term has the same shortcomings as similar ones like ‘Sino-Thracian’ and ‘Sino-Siberian’, which were once used freely by scholars. These labels confuse territoriality with resident populations, harking back it seems to an old cultural-historical model of diffusion predicated on the long-distance migrations of large groups of people whose culture moved with them en masse.368 The label ‘Sinosteppic’ implies that the figures on the Chinese narrative bronzes are older or more determinative than those from Tibet; however, the dating of the introduction of EAS rock art onto the Tibetan Plateau has not been fixed with any precision. This term also conflates North Inner Asian and Chinese EAS art, suggesting that they form a unitary source as regards the genesis of the Tibetan EAS. An examination of the Tibetan rock art, though, suggests that it may be just as old as the Eastern Zhou bronzes.

As in North Inner Asia, the earliest EAS rock art on the Tibetan Plateau can be attributed to the first half of the first millennium BCE: older than most of the objects central to this study. This suggests that EAS rock art furnished a historico-cultural backdrop for the manufacture of these sundry objects. Other EAS rock art in Tibet is datable to the second half of the first millennium BCE and the first half of the first millennium CE, making it contemporaneous with the silver bowls, gold finial and copper-alloy jar and trapezoidal plaques. We might expect, therefore, that later EAS rock art and portable art informed one another, incorporating elements found in one medium into the other. Although there is not yet sufficient evidence to document specific instances of cross-fertilisation between Tibetan EAS rock art and the objects of this study (with the exception of the peacocks in Figs. 7.24–7.26), the nearly identically styled tigers, yaks, antelope and deer of the openwork plaques and petroglyphs are indicative of close cultural correspondences. This art belonged to the same mosaic of early cultures on the Tibetan Plateau, reinforcing osmotic tendencies. There are also conspicuous contrasts in Tibetan EAS rock art and objects. Differences in artistic media, regional vernaculars and target audiences notwithstanding, this suggests that the genesis of these art forms was the consequence of varying mixes of northern factors, which may have entered Tibet at different places and times.

A significant Chinese cultural presence (primarily in art and architecture) in Upper and Central Tibet is not discernable in the archaeological and historical records until the time of the Yuan dynasty. There is little evidence for Chinese cultural influence in Ladakh subsequent to the creation of the Chinese rock inscriptions there. Like those in the Arabic, Sogdian and Tocharian languages in Ladakh, Chinese rock inscriptions in the region herald contacts with peoples circulating around North Inner Asia (cf. Bruneau 2011: 179). 366 For EAS figures on Chinese bronze vessels, see Weber 1968, Figs. 61–71; 1967, Figs. 35–39, 42–48. Hauptmann (2007: 27) writes that the S-shaped motif filling the bodies of wild ungulates in Ladakh and Ruthog seems to reflect Eastern Zhou zoomorphic designs on bronze vessels and on bronze plaques from the north-western frontier of China, with counterparts in the art of Southern Siberia and Central Asia. Tang and Zhang (2001) also compare zoomorphic designs on Eastern Zhou bronze vessels with EAS Tibetan rock art. 367 Jacobson (1988: 205, 206) sees the interior scrolling adorning animal images in Eastern Zhou art as probably modelled on this widespread decorative tradition among steppe peoples in the Early Iron Age. 368 As Psarras (1998–99: 67, 68) observes, while Francfort establishes parallels between deer and feline petroglyphs in the upper Indus, Mongolia and Southern Siberia and animals depicted on Eastern Zhou bronzes, the chronological and cultural attributions of the rock art as well as the means by which its iconography was transmitted remain unclear. 365

Referring to EAS rock art on the Western Tibetan Plateau, Francfort et al. (1992: 147) claim that the upper Indus region was in contact with the empires of China and Persia from no later than the fourth century BCE. Yet, they acknowledge that it is not easy to find analogues in EAS rock art of the Western Tibetan Plateau, Kazakhstan, Southern Siberia or Mongolia (ibid., 181). In my opinion, Francfort et al. overstate the case for Tibetan contacts with the Persians and Chinese. As the evidence presented in this monograph indicates, intercourse with the Achaemenids was most probably through intermediary channels. Any exchanges between the Western Tibetan Plateau and China prior to the Han military campaigns in Xinjiang in the first century BCE were also very likely to have transpired through intervening groups and agents. In fact, there are no signs of a Chinese presence, direct influence 141

Tibetan Silver, Gold and Bronze Objects and the Aesthetics of Animals in the Era before Empire Tibetan rock art and in Chinese bronze vessels appears in disparate media exhibiting variable technological standards and possibly targeting different elements of their societies must be considered in any comparative exercise.

Although there are affinities in the forms of figures, the EAS art of Tibetan petroglyphs and Eastern Zhou bronzes represent different iconographic traditions, each boasting distinctive thematic and stylistic conventions. The respective iconographies of Tibetan and Chinese EAS art do not privilege one output over the other as being more formative. In the first place, EAS rock art on the Western Tibetan Plateau includes antelope, ibexes and wild yaks, subjects not found on Eastern Zhou bronzes. As can be seen in Fig. 7.27, Chinese cervids and felines have deeply flexed, S-shaped bodies and their own peculiar body ornamentation (they do not sport double volute or S-shaped motifs centred in the body of figures), and some felines have horn-like extensions. Like Tibetan felines, Chinese counterparts have upright tails, but these do not extend over the body to the extent of those in rock art examples from the Western Tibetan Plateau or those on the trapezoidal openwork plaques.

The strongest asset of the Francfort et al. analysis discussed above is its suitability for the comparative dating of Tibetan EAS art. Nevertheless, the chronological analogies they make are only applicable to the early phase of EAS rock art on the Western Tibetan Plateau, not to its Protohistoric manifestations. The next part of this chapter details the adoption of EAS art in the Central Plains of China. As I demonstrate, these parallel Iron Age cultural phenomena have little or nothing to do with bilateral interactions between China and the Western Tibetan Plateau. Parallel developments in the east Cultural and technological innovations transmitted to Tibet through North Inner Asia detailed in this work orient the Plateau in an Inner Asian compass beginning no later than the Late Bronze Age. The adoption on the Tibetan Plateau of western plant domesticates (barley, wheat and peas), western animal domesticates (sheep, goats and horses), horse and ovicaprid ritualism in the mortuary context, funerary menhirs, northern rock art (mascoids, chariots, big game hunting etc.), northern forms of bronze metallurgy, the introduction of Indo-European vocabulary and the possible absorption of Indo-Iranian customs and traditions all point to a North Inner Asian nexus of transmission. As we have seen, the appearance of EAS art on the Tibetan Plateau is likewise traced to North Inner Asia, flowing through channels of cultural and technological exchange active since the Bronze Age and Late Bronze Age.

The precisely modelled and presented Chinese EAS figures on bronze vessels are integral to a highly sophisticated technological and cultural tradition belonging to an elite social component. The artistic standards of EAS rock art of the Western Tibetan Plateau fluctuate greatly and the medium of naturally occurring stone surfaces is more pedestrian than bronze, suggesting that this art form was available to a wider social spectrum. That the EAS in

Located due south of steppe and desert regions, Tibet was and is in many regards a geographic and cultural extension of Inner Asia and is treated as such in this work. The western and northern parts of the Tibetan Plateau share borders with the Indo-Iranian marches, the Tarim Basin, the Pamirs, greater Mongolia and the Northern Zone. Thus, Tibet’s geographic position facilitated its absorption of the EAS and other northern cultural assets in the Iron Age. Eastern Zhou China was also situated south of the vast steppes, mountains and deserts peopled by North Inner Asian cultures, but it occupied a more outlying geography in Eurasia than Tibet. The Central Plains of China were flanked to the north by mobile pastoralist groups, the long history of interaction between them enabled by relatively easy geographic access. The Scythians, Sarmatians, Saka, Yüeh-chih, Xiongnu etc. had a number of fundamental artistic and technological features in common (such as the so-called Scythian triad), serving as purveyors of an interrelated Iron Age cultural and technological bequest to Tibet and China. Drawing from the same or similar northern sources, the material cultures of Tibet and China were both heavily affected by the EAS. In accordance with their respective cultural trajectories, the EAS evolved differently in

Fig. 7.27. Figures of felines and deer from Chinese bronze and pottery vessels and a Chinese painted musical instrument, ca. 550–450 BCE (after Weber 1968, Fig. 70, g–z). Drawing by Aado Phuntsok Palden.

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In Tibet: Transfer of the Eurasian Animal Style to the Plateau and parallel processes affecting China Zhou China was a time of cultural openness and political dynamism, in which nomadic artistic motifs shorn of their original mythological significance were borrowed by the Chinese for their own purposes (Jacobson 1983: 227). Jacobson (1988: 218, 220–22) observes that naturalism in the depiction of animals in the steppes was established in rock art as early as the Neolithic; by contrast, in China, naturalism in zoomorphic depiction emerges suddenly as a self-conscious style in the sixth and fifth centuries BCE. Circa 500 BCE, animal subjects that had dominated Chinese zoomorphic representation in the Bronze Age underwent significant transformation under pressure from the art of the steppes and Near East (Bagley 2006: 17; Psarras 1998–99: 72).371 Curling animals, animals forming a circle and some predatory scenes in Eastern Zhou art are distinctive steppe motifs (Weber 1966a: 130–32).372 Bunker (1983–85: 71) also acknowledges animal combat, recumbent deer and certain other kinds of curvilinear animals on Eastern Zhou pictorial bronze vessels as themes and subjects of steppe origin. The kinds of steppeinfluenced animal depiction associated with zoomorphic art in China are mostly missing from Tibetan EAS art. By and large, Tibet was more impervious to embracing specific northern artistic styles than China. Fig. 7.28. Deer in the EAS rock art of Ru-thog (Rwa-’brog ’phrang site), Iron Age. Carved at different times, some of these petroglyphs have been retouched. They all exhibit double volute (scroll) body motifs typical of the region. Drawing by Lingtsang Kalsang Dorjee (after Bellezza 2001: 345 (Fig. 10.52)).

The appropriation and modification of EAS art from northern sources making it compatible with cultural traditions prevailing in Tibet had its complement in China. The twin processes of aesthetic and ideological indigenisation are defining features of their EAS canons. Tchlenova (1963: 199–201) understood that while the pictorial art of late (Eastern) Zhou bronze vessels was influenced by western sources, it is not of western origins (the evolution of designs is traced back to earlier Chinese art).373 Jacobson (1988) examines Eastern Zhou and pastoralist relations and assesses material culture and adaptive economic patterns on the steppes in the Late Bronze Age and Early Iron Age, finding a wide range of nomadic influences in Eastern Zhou art.374 Regarding Chinese bronze art in the mid-first millennium BCE, Rawson (2006: 83) holds that the Eastern Zhou borrowed western and central Asian animal scenes as status symbols, indigenising them for use in their own cultural environment, as also seen in parallels between Chinese burial structures of the Han dynasty that were cut into mountainsides and Achaemenid tombs. No such

Tibet and China, spawning unique artistic and material manifestations in both territories, as seen in Figs. 7.27 and 7.28. Their contrasting abstract and material expressions are evidence for parallel processes in the assimilation of northern aesthetic inflows. Like the Tibetans, the Chinese of the Central Plains purchased artistic traditions from the Eastern Steppe and Northern Zone by adjusting them to conform to their own cultural values and sensibilities. In the Late Bronze Age and Iron Age, the Tibetans and Chinese also took in technological resources from North Inner Asian neighbours.369 Irrespective of migration, cultural exchanges consisting of ideas and objects account for a range of designs and materials, such as the fantastic animal designs, sharp-edged weapons and trilobate arrowheads adopted by the Chinese, in which inventive centres in Central Asia, Siberia and the Northern Zone played a major role (Watson 1972: 140, 146).

Diagrams of various corresponding animal figures (felines, birds and cervids) from the Shang (ca. 1650–1046 BCE), Western Zhou and Eastern Zhou periods are provided in Weber (1966a, Fig. 16). Eastern Zhou animal iconography is patterned on earlier Chinese traditions, but animals assume a more sinuous shape; decorative lineaments become more complex and include the use of spirals and volutes to decorate the haunches. 372 For more pictorial designs comprised of curvilinear animals (birds, cervids, felines) on Eastern Zhou bronze vessels reminiscent of the steppes, see Weber 1967. On certain non-formative artistic elements in Eastern Zhou probably issuing from steppe cultures and aided by the Chinese propensity to modify borrowed motifs, see Jacobson 1988, pp. 202, 211. 373 For an early assessment of pre-Scythic Siberian influences in Zhou zoomorphic depictions, see Loehr 1949. 374 For example, evidence for long-distance contacts with the pastoral world is seen in a mirror ornamented with animals belonging to the Scythic Maiemiric culture of the Altai and Southern Siberia (eighth to seventh BCE), which was found in a tomb in Shangcunling (Bunker 1993: 32, 33). 371

As cultural and political conditions evolved, China became more receptive to foreign artistic influences as a response to contacts with the north and west.370 Eastern 369 Animal-headed daggers found in tombs of the Late Shang and early Western Zhou period are of a Karasuk type, an early example of the transmission of steppic forms to China (Jacobson 1988: 202, 203). See also Honeychurch 2015, p. 195. For a review of the effects of early bronze metallurgy in the Eastern Steppe and Northern Zone on the Central Plains, see March 2016 Flight of the Khyung. 370 In the late ninth century BCE, the Eastern Zhou were attacked by Hsien-yün, which was contemporaneous with invasions associated with the Cimmerians and the Scythians (Jettmar 1981: 149).

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Tibetan Silver, Gold and Bronze Objects and the Aesthetics of Animals in the Era before Empire variants, these fantastic creatures often have prominent crests versus the horns of Tibetan khyung.

structural affinities in the mortuary architecture of Upper and Central Tibet of the late first millennium BCE have been detected. This evidence accords well with pictorial documentation indicating that Tibet was less imitative in its adoption of the EAS than China.

Interactions between various pastoralist groups on the northern periphery of China in the Warring States period are traceable through gold and bronze belt plaques and Pazyryk tattoos,379 etc., which depict mythical animals with raptorheaded attributes. While steppe-style raptors coloured the Chinese artistic canon, not much evidence for these birds has been found in Tibet. It appears that Tibet’s wellanchored tradition of raptor iconography helped deflect steppe varieties that were introduced into China.380 After the Warring States period, there was an intensification of contacts between mobile pastoralist groups and northern Chinese states (Kost 2017). During the Han period, dynamic movements of nomadic peoples and the Chinese along the north-west frontier led to the acculturation of nomadic peoples into the Chinese way of life but also introduced foreign customs and beliefs to China (Watt 2003: 200).381 Certain styles and themes brought to China, such as the animal combat scene, became a permanent part of her artistic repertoire but were given new meaning in consonance with Chinese conventions and tastes (ibid., 201).

The figured bronze vessels of the Eastern Zhou are a salient part of its Iron Age material repertoire. No such vessels were made in Tibet. Similarly, the silver bowls of the Pine collection and copper-alloy bird-spouted jar featured in this monograph have no Chinese counterparts. Yet, northern influences are in evidence in all these vessel types, the work of dual modes of induction, which gave rise to the classes of EAS art seen in Tibet and China. The coextensive nature of the absorption of northern cultural and technological elements in Tibet and China is highlighted by the lack of substantive bilateral relations between Tibet and the Central Plains in the Iron Age. Even on the eastern frontier, the art forms characteristic of the Tibetan Plateau in the Iron Age are distanced from those of the Central Plains by the productions of intervening cultures in Yunnan and Sichuan. Rather than figured bronze vessels, steppe influences in Tibet in the middle of the first millennium BCE are mostly manifest in rock art and smaller metallic articles. The forerunners of much of this Tibetan art and technology can be traced to Late Bronze Age traditions on the Plateau. In addition to a fondness for imitative themes and scenes, the choice of zoomorphic subjects in China was at variance with Tibet. As in North Inner Asia, the deer is a key animal in the Tibetan bestiary, appearing in the earliest stratum of rock art.375 In contrast, Weber (1968: 186 n. 62) observes that the deer was not a common animal in Chinese decorative arts before the fifth century BCE.376 Another example of how Tibet’s antecedent artistic traditions helped constitute its EAS art differently than in China is the prominent role of raptors in the rock art of the Plateau. Tibet developed its own birds of prey subjects, the most salient being a horned variety. Known as the khyung, this fabulous eagle can be traced to rock art in Upper Tibet dated as early as the Late Bronze Age (the khyung has retained an important cultural position in Tibet to the present day).377 On the other hand, China appropriated its raptor art from the steppes in the Iron Age.378 Like northern

Although a major component of Chinese art in the last few centuries before the Common Era was related to the EAS of nomads in the Altai, Southern Siberia, Tian-Shan and Central Asia, it is not yet possible to track the route or mode of transmission of the formative ideas and motifs involved (Watt 2003: 204, 205). The discovery of Chinese objects in Pazyryk indicates that the actual movement of goods took place (loc. cit.). Conversely, royal tombs of the Western Han period contain goods with affinities to objects excavated in the steppes, including real and hybrid animal art and animal combat scenes (Kost 2017). But these tombs also have articles that reference and resemble steppe art produced locally for Chinese consumption (ibid.). Jacobson (1985: 146, 147) adds that while the Han were receptive to substantial pictorial and conceptual elements coming from the nomadic world, they were absorbed selectively and with modification to reflect their own views of the natural world. Kost (2017) argues that steppe and steppe-like objects in royal tombs of the Western Han period represent more than just a fascination with exotic goods or a display of Chinese power as being equal to that of foreign rulers; these objects possessed prime social functions. Kost sees these objects as reflecting wider social interactions with steppe peoples, as well as social factors related to the strengthening of the position of the Han kings and other elites in Chinese society.

375 A survey of cervid rock art in Upper Tibet is part of a forthcoming book. 376 For a comparative study of Scythic and Chinese stag images ornamenting a variety of objects, see Loehr 1955. 377 On the khyung in rock art of the Western Tibetan Plateau, see Bellezza 2018, pp. 62–65; 2017a, pp. 26–30; 2008, pp. 172 (Fig. 303), 175 (Fig. 310); 2002, pp. 134, 140, 216 (Fig. XI-17c), 217 (Fig. XI-18c), 234; 2001, pp. 217–19, 358 (Fig. 10.78); 2014c, pp. 181, 188, 189; January 2012, January 2013 and January 2015 Flight of the Khyung. 378 The symbolic system of raptor-headed attributes was adopted by interrelated pastoralist groups across Central Eurasia from the seventh or sixth century BCE to the first century CE (Bunker 1992). The varied iconography and styles of objects with raptor-headed attributes were the product of related tribes practising mounted warfare moving east from both Central Asia and Southern Siberia, probably in different waves, to China’s north-west frontier (ibid., 102–04). The appearance of raptorheaded figures in China coincides with the Zhou King Wuling’s critical decision to adopt nomadic tactics and equipment in warfare; viz., mounted archers and nomadic-style dress (ibid., 102, 103).

One such tattoo from Kurguan 5 of Pazyryk depicts a caprid with a double volute on the right leg of an adult male (Barkova and Pankova 2005: 54 (Fig. 10)). 380 However, Tibet was not completely inured to the EAS raptor-headed art of the steppes. An example is found on a copper-alloy cheekpiece attributed to Tibet, which bears a remarkable similarity to griffins on widely distributed wooden cheekpieces of Scythic cultures. See March 2016 Flight of the Khyung, Figs. 30, 31. 381 For example, in a tomb probably belonging to Liu Fei (died 128 BCE), a king of Jiangdu (Jiangsu province), burial goods from Iran, the Eastern Steppe, South Asia and south-west China were found (Kost 2017). 379

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In Tibet: Transfer of the Eurasian Animal Style to the Plateau and parallel processes affecting China Although indigenisation of EAS art in Tibet and China paralleled each other, the motive socio-political forces and their impact on artistic traditions were not alike. This discrepancy was amplified by an apparent lack of direct relations between the Tibetan Plateau and the Central Plains. Moreover, unlike in the Central Plains, few burial goods of a northern provenance have been documented in Tibet. The paucity of objects and monuments of North Inner Asian origin on the Tibetan Plateau in the first millennium BCE indicates that the vibrant and sustained interactions between pastoralist groups and the Chinese did not characterise Tibetan relations with northerners. Furthermore, burial structures, fortresses and other architecture that characterise China more broadly in the Iron Age are absent from the Tibetan archaeological record. Reckoned through the material-cultural record, it appears that Tibet was quite well insulated from the socio-political maelstrom besetting the Central Plains and Northern Zone in that time. This insularity became even more pronounced in the Protohistoric period. Exchange between Tibet and China through intermediaries is attested in the Protohistoric period but it appears to be highly restricted in scope.382 Archaeological evidence indicates that the intensification of relations between pastoralist groups and the Chinese on the frontier in the Han period does not have a correspondent in Tibet. The corpus of Tibetan copper-alloy objects and rock art attributed to the Protohistoric period reveals no appreciable increase in northern influences. Instead, it appears that a major divergence was under way at the end of the first millennium BCE: as China became ever more entangled with its roving northern neighbours, the Tibetan Plateau was progressively removed from them. The high elevation and harsher environmental conditions of the Tibetan Plateau must have acted as a barrier to the wholesale penetration of populations from the Northern Zone in the Iron Age and Protohistoric period. They are by no means an insuperable geographical obstacle, though, and exchange and acculturation, not migration and assimilation, appear to have been the main mechanisms of EAS art transfer to the Tibetan Plateau. As in China, EAS art in Tibet in the second half of the first millennium BCE can be imputed to have had a social and cultural imperative regarding the adoption of northern aesthetic forms. This is true of both the rock art and metallic objects showcased in this study. The perceived utility, attractiveness and value of EAS art served as a motivation for its recreation in both Tibet and in China. In the conclusion to this book, mechanisms responsible for the circulation of EAS art on the Tibetan Plateau are examined in more depth.

382 This evidence consists of silk fabrics that appear to have been made in China and tea residue which were discovered in burials at Gur-gyam, Far Western Tibet, and dated to the third and fourth centuries CE. See October 2010, April 2012 and April 2016 Flight of the Khyung. The discovery of more indirect exchanges between Tibet and China, however, is likely to surface as archaeological work on the Plateau picks up pace.

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Conclusion Mechanisms of transmission in the Inner Asian network of exchange

Complex patterns of movement and communications encompassing many regions of Central Eurasia have been painstakingly plotted in this work to identify the multiple cultural and technological inputs which conspired in the creation of the Tibetan art and objects featured in this work. I have expounded upon the geographic channels in which these abstract and material forces were exerted, demonstrating the pivotal role played by North Inner Asia in the augmentation of artistic traditions on the Tibetan Plateau in the Late Prehistoric era. It has been shown that a variety of human agents were active in the Inner Asian network of exchange linking West Asia and Tibet. The means of transmission from North Inner Asia potentially came in the form of demic amalgamation brought about through migration, invasion, raids, political consolidation and intermarriage, altering the cultural and ethnic composition of ancient Tibet. However, definitive archaeological evidence corroborating migration to Tibet prior to the Early Historic period is lacking, as it often is in other regions of Central Eurasia in prehistory. Although migration has often been relied on to explain the temporal and spatial distributions of stone tools, metal objects, ceramics, language and ethnicity in Central Eurasia, links between historical migration and prehistoric migrations are difficult to demonstrate archaeologically (cf. Frachetti 2011: 196, 197). In Central Eurasian archaeology, migration has been presented as an episodic long-distance movement of vanguard groups and as a slow, systematic expansion including much socio-cultural assimilation on the frontiers (ibid., 200).

This monograph presents Tibetan silver, gold and copperalloy objects and related rock art attributed to the Late Prehistoric era. It has delved into the cultural and historical roots of these materials, explicating their endogenous development as well as the debt they owe to other regions and cultures. The centre of gravity for many of the cultural and technological milestones described in this work is North Inner Asia and other parts of Central Eurasia, a vast territory in which peoples and cultures were being reconstituted and relocated on an almost continuous basis (when viewed from the foreshortened perspective of the present day). As we have seen, this inherent dynamism in human affairs released a creative outpouring of sufficient intensity to infiltrate the Tibetan Plateau. As this work has shown, other parts of Central Eurasia were a repository of ingenuity and industriousness upon which Tibet drew for its own benefit in the Late Bronze Age, Iron Age and Protohistoric period. However, little is still known about the debt owed by other peoples to Tibet. Clearly, Tibetans had trade relations with adjoining regions, the natural resources and geographic position of their territory permitting them to act as suppliers and middlemen in the exchange of goods. The export of high-value musk and gold are but two commodities that probably gave Tibetans a certain degree of economic leverage over their neighbours. Ancient cowrie shells and agate beads appear to be two classes of objects in which Tibetans long acted as mediums of translocation.383 Along with the movement of such goods, Tibetan cultural signals and ideological imprints must have been transferred to other regions and peoples. The highly intricate funerary monuments and ritual traditions of Tibet are two crucial areas in which its cultural impact was felt beyond the Plateau in the Protohistoric period.384 How other seminal cultural innovations springing from the Tibetan milieu may have had an effect on North Inner Asia and lands farther afield in antiquity is a moot point.

Promethean benefactors of culture and technology are represented in traders, emissaries, religious figures, leaders, technologists, artisans etc. who may have travelled to the Tibetan Plateau, carrying ideas, techniques and materials that contributed to the genesis of the art and objects of this study. Envisioning these contacts between foreigners and the inhabitants of Tibet as bilateral in nature, however, is an over-simplification of the vectors of transmission involved. Aggregates of people functioning as multivariate agents of transfer are more in accord with mechanisms of abstract and physical transfer on the level of human organisation we call ‘culture’. The meshwork of peoples transmitting and receiving information and things was not static. Like living organisms, cultures are in a state of flux, their social fabric and material output inherently dynamic.

On the exchange of cowrie shells, see May 2014 Flight of the Khyung. On cowries recovered from tombs in Spiti, see January 2016 Flight of the Khyung, Figs. 3, 4. On the trade in agate beads, see January 2016 Flight of the Khyung. 384 Turkic funerary sites in North Inner Asia, consisting of rows of small standing stones and enclosures in the fifth and sixth centuries CE, share strong morphological affinities and directional bearings with the concourses of long-stones (menhirs) appended to mortuary tombs raised in Upper Tibet in the Late Bronze Age and Iron Age. See Bellezza 2008, pp. 106–08, 556; September 2008 and January 2017 Flight of the Khyung. This is compelling evidence for Tibetan cultural outreach to northern territories. However, Upper Tibet’s potential role in the spread of menhirs in North Inner Asia prior to the late Protohistoric period is obscure. 383

I have used the concept of a ‘network’ to describe the complexities inherent in an archaeology of exchange to which the objects and rock art of this study belong. To characterise these interrelationships in terms of a network at this juncture, however, is scarcely more than a metaphor. 147

Tibetan Silver, Gold and Bronze Objects and the Aesthetics of Animals in the Era before Empire fellowship, devotion, duty etc.) or imposed through coercive means (e.g. threats, violence, servitude, economic exploitation, extortion etc.). Both positive and negative interactions are highly persuasive in conveying information between human beings. Although intimidation and terror are effective methods of modifying human behaviour, they are not so efficacious in spreading artistic, cultural and technological knowledge in the long run. In acquiring and applying such knowledge, the consent and preferences of partaking individuals and groups is critical, even if they are spurred on by initial traumatic events. Leaving aside whether transcultural communications contributing to the rock art and objects of this study came about in favourable or unfavourable circumstances, I shall probe the social and psychological mechanics responsible for them.

As this study has illustrated, the system of exchange for the widespread dissemination of ideas, materials and technologies to which objects and rock art belong is best characterised as a transcultural web of communications. This web was continually being restrung as new physical and abstract inputs were added to the lines of intercourse. Although network analysis is a potentially potent instrument in structuralising interactions contributing to the birth of the Tibetan art featured in this work, relations between the human actors, ideas, objects and technologies defy easy qualification. The cultural and technological plexuses in which our rock art and objects were ensnared is composed of many unknown locational, chronological and cognitive ligatures, hampering a modelling of Iron Age interchange in an adequately representative manner. Even when stringent limits are placed on the material and temporal criteria used, the challenges of formulating an empirically sound network analysis remain daunting.385

Openness to or identification with other individuals is of course fostered through shared experiences. A common frame of reference is built upon the liaison of two or more people subjected to similar social, religious, cultural, economic, political and/or environmental conditions. Social situations, especially conducive ones, often facilitate a common sense of understanding, purpose, perception and/or sentiment. Composed of interrelated cognitive (intellective and imaginal) fluxes and corollary sensory inputs, emotional states and physiological responses, a rapport established by two or more people allows information to flow between them, thus opening new avenues of learning and expression. In the case of EAS art, information appeared in the way of beliefs, behaviours, empirical knowledge and technical skills. At the collective level, vigorous interplay between individuals can ignite a social contagion passed on through personal contacts, second-person accounts, symbols and objects. Given sufficient impetus, these constituent currents of a contagion amplify, crossing tribal, cultural, ethnic and linguistic divides to potentially achieve regional or even continental proportions, as in the relatively rapid spread of EAS art across much of Eurasia.

Bereft of tools to more accurately structuralise the transfer and transformation of the objects and rock art of this study, further discussion on the nature of the network of ideas, art and skills engendering them would serve little purpose. While the relative impact of the agents of transmission considered in this study remains largely unqualified, it is self-evident that the ideological, aesthetic and technological wherewithal supporting the genesis of the objects and rock art central to this monograph rested upon the strength of human bonds. In that every type and scale of exchange is essentially anthropocentric in nature, I turn to psychocultural factors to further explicate intercommunication pertinent to the creation of ancient art in Tibet. As we know, a wide spectrum of peoples adopted interrelated forms of zoomorphic art in Eurasia in the first millennium BCE, which I call the ‘Eurasian Animal Style’. That disparate cultures and societies over a vast territory fashioned artistic representations with certain aesthetic traits in common is an outgrowth of intercommunication, the relaying of ideas, art and technical achievements among various peoples. This responsiveness to the undertakings of others can be fostered voluntarily (e.g. through trade,

The intercommunication of knowledge, motives, convictions and feelings recognised through cultural, social, economic and political channels was at the core of artistic interchange in first millennium BCE Eurasia. This psychocultural understanding of artistic transmission does not negate the role of long-distance migration and other agents of exchange. Rather, it discerns experiential processes underlying the physicality of demic flows, sociopolitical demonstrations of power and prestige, economic transactions and religious movements. To account for the formation of expanding confederacies in the Iron Age, models of socio-political consolidation have been put forward. Models of the role of eco-social tessellation in the spread of Bronze Age technologies have also in recent years enhanced our appreciation of globalised connectivity in Central Eurasia.386 These models have much utility in

If it becomes feasible to thoroughly catalogue EAS rock sites throughout Inner Asia, tabulating the quantity of specimens, meticulously categorising their forms and classifying their physical qualities and, not least of all, accurately dating each carving, it should be possible to build a formal network model of their ultimate sources, patterns of diffusion and indices of artistic transformation – one having mathematical rigour. The nodes of such a network might be represented by the locations, contents, forms and techniques of EAS rock art. The vertices could be the centres of cultural innovation in Inner Asia from where the various genres of this rock art originated. The lines of diffusion may be exemplified by the conveyance of EAS rock art specimens from one node to another with little or no resulting change in conceptualisation and form. However, fractional transmissions, whereby elements of the conceptual and physical framework of EAS rock art were disjoined, the resulting pieces moving between nodes to be recombined in new forms, are inherently more difficult to simulate. These more nebulous transmissions would demand the addition of many more nodes and lines in a network model. The edges of this hypothetical network are the age values of EAS rock art, defining its temporal configuration. This, in simplified terms, is how a formal network might one day be fashioned to model the spread and transformation of EAS rock art, provided sufficient data become available.

385

386 A well-articulated socio-political entanglement model for Mongolia and the Northern Zone in the Iron Age has been put forward by Honeychurch (2015), while Frachetti (2008) sets forth an eco-social scheme of pastoralist interactions in the steppes of the Bronze Age.

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Conclusion assessing interactive impulses behind the distribution of funerary sites and burial goods, settlement dispersion and spatial patterns of trade, travel and migration. However, they do not make allowance for the interpersonal dynamics incumbent in the social, economic and political processes they clarify. Rather, models of socio-political consolidation and eco-social tessellation are based on macro-level non-cognitive interactions. Most pointedly, they do not address the facility of another seminal energy in human affairs, religion, in the interregional transfer of ancient art among diverse peoples. The rock art and objects featured in this monograph were almost certainly associated with symbolic, mythic, ritualistic and magical perspectives, informing the architecture of belief and cult practice in sundry parts of Late Prehistoric Inner Asia.

by a low degree of customary intent. In this type of transference there was only minimal or peripheral interest in the history, functions and conceptual groundwork of appropriated objects. Exemplar transmission resulted in the recreation of objects and rock art resembling the original forms or certain aspects thereof but with tangible and ideological modifications made to them. 3. Inadvertence transmission: The unselfconscious adoption of elements of objects and rock art with no customary intent. The inheritors had no recognition of or interest in how these things and images may have been used or thought of by their original creators. Inadvertence transmission resulted in objects and rock art with limited likeness to earlier forms, produced and used with altered practical and conceptual qualities.

Psychocultural mechanisms of transmission and the channels in which they unfolded provide an alternative framework for grappling with the complexity of Inner Asian networks of exchange in antiquity. It was ultimately through the interpersonal dimension that the conception and production of Tibetan objects and rock art became enmeshed with those of other regions of Central Eurasia. The affiliation as well as the differentiation of EAS art through time and space had as its core human relatedness, played out in face-to-face encounters or through proxies for human contact. In attempting to negotiate the meaning and value things might have had for others who were not encountered face to face, whether obtained through conferral, trade, plunder or the recovery of discarded assets etc., proxy human relationships were established. These relationships transpired on the imaginal plane, in lieu of or as a supplement to direct engagement with the actual producers and users.

The psychocultural transmission of the ideological, artistic and technological aspects of EAS objects and rock art incorporates two major modes of intercommunication: direct transference and indirect transference. Direct transference occurred when an individual or group came into direct contact with the producer or primary user of an object, who was then able to convey information about its function and value (utilitarian, political, mythic, ritual, magical etc.). Direct transference was also possible through intermediaries who handed down a producer’s or primary user’s understanding (technical, functional, aesthetic etc.) of rock art and objects to others. Indirect transference occurred when an adopting individual or group of people encountered rock art or objects bereft of the producer’s or primary user’s direct or indirect input. In this mode of intercommunication, adopters refashioned the physical forms and meanings of objects and rock art according to their own inclinations, capabilities and exigencies, or copied them from intermediary producers and users who had already altered the composition of these things. Indirect transference also accounts for exposure to rock art and objects devoid of human go-betweens, such as through happenstance or excavation, where no information about them could be obtained from living sources.

In the archaeological model of psychocultural interaction I have devised, avenues of transposal are laid out that underlie all manner of agents of exchange, from war and migration to the most fungible of ideas and sentiments. The vectors of transmission active in the multifaceted transference of EAS art to the Tibetan Plateau can be classed in three types: 1) prototype transmission, 2) exemplar transmission and 3) inadvertence transmission.

Prototypic transmission must have occurred as direct transference. Exemplar transmission could have been based on either direct transference or indirect transference. Inadvertence transmission would always have been by indirect transference. In whatever way these interpersonal dynamics actually unfolded in ancient times, human agency, not impersonal phenomena, emerge as the lynchpin in the system of ideological, artistic and technological transactions to which the objects and rock art of this study belonged. Focusing on relations between peoples humanises ancient exchange, offering an intimate perspective on how other cultures induced the creation of EAS art in Tibet. As vital as they are to grasping the tenor of human relatedness in ancient Inner Asia, political, economic and ecological approaches to understanding exchange neglect or minimise the psychosocial magnitude of interaction, offering an incomplete picture of the transmutability of art and objects over time and space.

1. Prototype transmission: The borrowing of objects and rock art and their symbolic import in recognition of their original historical and contemporaneous sources. This kind of transfer was characterised by a high degree of customary intent, heightened social regard and even veneration of the historical, cultural and instrumental significance of the objects acquired. Prototype transmission resulted in the recreation of objects and rock art designed to imitate or approximate their original forms and functions. The conceptual underpinnings of reproduced things may have departed somewhat from the intellective and affective constellation of the original producers, but this is not easily determinable from the physical evidence. 2. Exemplar transmission: The appropriation of the aesthetic and physical elements of objects marked 149

Tibetan Silver, Gold and Bronze Objects and the Aesthetics of Animals in the Era before Empire The psychocultural model of transmission I have described is predicated on the contiguity of human and proxy human interactions and their expression in a variety of forms, whereby spatio-temporal links can be postulated. It does not elucidate non-transmission in instances of true independent innovation, in which peoples completely isolated from one another with no intercommunication through intermediaries or portable objects and symbols developed cognate ideas, art and technologies entirely on their own resources. Going by the stringent standards of this definition, examples of independent innovation in ancient Eurasia appear to be very uncommon. Parallels in environmental conditions (climate change, geological tumult, celestial disturbances), structural evolution (predictable changes in patterns of cultural development) and ecological responsiveness (relationships with nonhuman lifeforms) can be invoked to explain independent innovation. Nevertheless, the long-distance transposition of abstractions and materials in ancient Eurasia seems much more frequently to have been dependent on exchanges between exogenous groups, however subtle and diffuse. It is the human mind and the myriad thoughts, perceptions and responses emanating from it that are at the heart of all artistic endeavour, past and present. Human creative potential and its manifold social expressions, both synergistic and conflictive, generate and mediate all productions and activities, including the ancient matrix of exchange from which sprung the aesthetically complementary objects and rock art of this study. Such Tibetan archaeological resources in the EAS treasury delineate the Plateau’s place among the centres of innovation and pathways of Eurasian interaction set forth in this monograph. These Tibetan signs of human ingenuity are materialisations of human bonds that bridged numerous cultures, languages and regions, a testimony to the globalised relationships enriching Eurasia in antiquity.

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Index boar 88 n. 225, 112, 123 n. 339 bon 31, 81, 82 bracteates 80 Brag-sgo 63, 65–67, 71–73 brass 9, 31, 43 Bru-sha 36 Bshan-pa rme-ru-rtse 140 n. 363 btsan 67 btsan-po (Tibetan emperor) 22, 27, 29 Buddhist / Buddhism 1, 12, 17, 28 n. 54, 31, 35, 37 n. 85 and 87, 40, 41 n. 98, 43, 46 n. 115, 50, 51, 103 n. 278, 108, 136, 140 n. 361 Burusho 91 Byang-gter 50 Byltai 101 n. 268

’Ol-mo lung-ring 81 n. 197 ’Phyong-rgyas 27, 28 acanthus leaf 26, 32 n. 70 Afanasievo 97 n. 252, 98 n. 256, 122 n. 329 Afghanistan 79, 83, 87, 88, 92 n. 235 agate 12, 36 n. 84, 72, 73 n. 170, 86, 87, 101, 102, 147 agriculture / farming 9, 76 n. 180, 84 n. 210, 85, 92 n. 233, 97, 98, 102, 103 n. 275, 124 agriculturalists 84, 98 agro-pastoralist 84, 101, 102, 104 Aksu 100 n. 266 A-lci 141 Anatolia 32, 49 n. 124, 57 Andronovo 81 n. 195, 86, 96 n. 248, 97 n. 252, 98 n. 256, 104 n. 281, 122 n. 329, 140 antelope 42 n. 101, 43, 64–71, 73, 89, 95, 98, 117, 123, 124, 128, 139, 141, 142 apotropaic 37 n. 85, 40 Arab 29, 30 n. 59 Arabic 141 n. 365 Aral Sea 79, 80 Aria 79 armour 22, 29, 30 Arpauzen 88, 96 arsenical copper 9, 53, 71, 72 n. 169 Artaxerxes 32 n. 71 Arzhan 102 n. 270, 114 Assyria / Assyrian 33, 57, 79, 82, 91 n. 232 Avestan 85 n. 212 A-zha 1 n. 2

carnelian 44 n. 107, 86 caryatids 26 n. 43 Caspian Sea 83 Caucasus 44 n. 109, 48, 51 n. 135, 79 cauldron 54–57, 91, 100 celestial realm 42, 67 Celto-Germanic 114 Celtic Europe 52 cenotaph 114 Central Eurasia / Central Eurasian 1, 5, 25, 39, 45, 46, 52, 61, 62, 83–86, 92 n. 233, 113, 114, 119, 121, 122 n. 333, 144 n. 378, 147–49 Central Plains 3, 46, 72, 73, 102, 142–45 Central Steppe 84, 86, 89, 97 n. 252 chariot 49, 77, 81 n. 195, 94 n. 239, 96 n. 248, 100 n. 264, 122 cheekpiece 45 n. 112, 49, 102, 115 n. 314, 144 n. 380 Chengdu 12, 93 n. 238 Cherchen 100 Chinese Cultural Revolution 12 Chitral 91 Cholpon-Ata 88 Chorasmia / Choresm / Choresmian 29 n. 56, 33, 79, 85 n. 212 Chos-’byung 31 Chu-gong 63 n. 153, 98 n. 256 chu-srin 48, 51, 110 Chust culture 98 n. 258 Chu-’thag / Chu-thags 44, 56 n. 141, 138, 139 Cimmerians 79, 84 n. 210, 143 n. 370 Cleveland Museum of Art 22, 23, 28, 34 comb 103 n. 275, 139 n. 357 costume 22, 24, 66, 112 cowries 147 n. 383 craniometric 86, 97 n. 252, 98 n. 256, 101–04 Crimea 44 n. 109 crocodile / crocodiloid 48, 51, 110

Bactria / Bactrian 29 n. 56, 33, 80, 81 n. 195, 86, 87, 89 n. 230, 91 Bactria-Margiana Archaeological Complex 83 Bactrian camel 24, 44 n. 107, 100 n. 264 Badakhshan 80 n. 191, 91 Baga Oigor 75, 117, 118, 126 n. 347 Balkans 45 n. 110 Baltistan 8 n. 8, 12, 45 n. 112, 93 n. 238, 101 n. 268 bamboo 72 Bar-khams 56 n. 140, 72 barley 22, 77, 84 n. 210, 103 n. 275, 142 Bashadar 76, 77 Ba-shu culture 72 battle-axe 122 beads 12, 36 n. 84, 46, 72, 73 n. 170, 86, 87, 101, 102, 147 beer 17, 22, 24, 30 n. 58 Beijing 12 bestiary 35, 41 n. 94, 95, 119, 139, 144 bicephalous 49 n.128 binary cosmology 47 Black Sea 32, 79, 80, 83, 85, 116 n. 317 165

Tibetan Silver, Gold and Bronze Objects and the Aesthetics of Animals in the Era before Empire cupellation 17 n. 26, 39 n. 91 Cyrus 79, 80

Greco-Roman 30 n. 60, 41, 101 n. 268 Greece / Greeks 9, 29 n. 56, 30 n. 60, 32, 45 n. 110, 52 n. 138, 82, 83, 86 n. 216, 87 n. 222, 114, 140 n. 361 griffin 22 n. 34, 52 n. 138, 69, 91 n. 232, 110, 117 n. 320, 144 n. 380 Gri-gum btsan-po 31 gsas 42 Gshen-rab 81, 82 Gtsang 28, 63 Gtsang-po 63 Gu-ge 30, 31 n. 65, 44, 45, 56 n. 141, 74, 100–03, 123 n. 337, 124, 138, 139 Gur-gyam 44, 56, 103 n. 275, 139 n. 357, 145 n. 382 Gu-rib / Gu-rub 103 gzi 36 n. 84, 41 n. 99, 86 n. 219

Darius 80, 83, 86 Dartse 123 n. 341, 137 Deb ther dmar po 31 deer 23, 26, 34, 43 n. 104, 47 n. 117, 57, 74, 75, 88, 93 n. 238, 95 n. 246, 98–100, 115–19, 122 n. 333, 123, 128–30, 134, 139, 141–44 deer stone 73 n. 173, 95, 97, 114–16 deer-stone-khirigsuur (DSK) 115 Dian culture 72 dmu 42 Dmu-ber skya 103 Domkhar 74, 117 n. 321, 123 n. 340–42, 126–28, 140 Don river 83 dough moulds 51 Drugu 102 n. 269 duck 42, 53–55, 57, 72, 82, 92 Dulan 22, 28, 36 n. 82, 43, 52 n. 138, 96 n. 248 Dung-dkar 31 n. 65

Haladun culture 98 n. 258 Hami 98, 104 n. 281 Han dynasty 30 n. 58, 46 n. 115, 61 n. 148, 73 n. 171, 103 n. 275, 105, 108, 110, 141, 143–45. hare 39, 112 headgear 50, 52, 66 Hebei 89 n. 230, 108, 109, 112 n. 305 Helan Mountains 73–75, 100 n. 264 Hellenic / Hellenistic / Hellenised 29 n. 56, 33, 34, 83, 87, 92 n. 233 Herodotus 79 Hindu Kush 51 n. 135, 82, 83, 87, 92, 96 n. 249 honey 30 n. 58 honeysuckles 43 n. 104 Hong Kong 12, 13, 39 horned lion 22 n. 34, 33 n. 76, 80 horse lineage 31 horse-riding / horseback 74, 85, 97, 98 n. 255, 103, 113, 118, 119, Hunno-Sarmartian 114 hunter / hunting 32 n. 73, 33, 70, 80 n. 233, 85, 88 n. 227, 93, 94 n. 239, 95 n. 246, 98 n. 256 and 260, 105 n. 287, 109, 114, 115 n. 313, 122, 126, 134, 139, 140, 142 hunter-forager 86 n. 215 Hyecho 30 n. 60, 32

eagle 25 n. 41, 26 n. 48, 31, 75, 93 n. 236, 110 n. 298, 117 n. 320, 144 earrings 44, 46, 47, 50, 102 Eastern Zhou 41 n. 94, 46, 52, 61, 70, 72, 141–44 Egypt / Egyptian 45 n. 110, 91 n. 232 eight auspicious symbols 108 Elamites 34 n. 79 endless knot 17–19, 108, 109 felt 80, 84, 114 Ferghana valley 83, 86, 88 n. 224, 92, 98 n. 258 fetish 54 fibula 11, 26 n. 48, 28, 29, 36, 37, 39, 41, 42, 45, 47–52, 60 n. 146, 87 finger ring 43, 47, 93 n. 238 foraging 85 four-wheeled wagon 80 n. 190 frog 108–10 fruit 72 funerary ritual / funerary text 17 n. 29, 22 n. 34, 27, 30 n. 58, 31, 40, 42 n. 100 and 102, 52, 63 n. 153, 95 n. 243, 102 n. 269, 115, 116, 147 funerary mask 44, 45 funeray sculpture 28 n. 52 funerary traditions 44 n. 109, 65, 95 n. 243, 115

ibex 32 n. 69, 42 n. 101, 48, 51 n. 135, 64, 66, 68, 69, 80, 88, 89, 92–94, 116–18, 123, 128, 139 n. 358, 142 Indo-Afghan 97 n. 252 Indo-Iranian 77 n. 183, 79 n. 185, 81, 82, 100, 142 Indo-Parthian 87 n. 222 Indus Kohistan 80, 81 n. 193, 92–94 Inner Mongolia 6, 38 n. 90, 42 n. 101, 55, 56, 58, 60 n. 146, 69 n. 162, 73–75, 89 n. 229, 96, 100 n. 264, 104–06, 108, 109, 111, 113 insignia 25, 26, 46, 66, 84 International Council of Museums (ICOM) 11 n. 14 invasion 93, 119, 143 n. 370, 147 iron 2 n. 3, 25 n. 40, 31, 48, 59 n. 145, 62, 63 n. 152, 63 n. 153, 96, 97 n. 251, 101, 102 Issedonians 84 n. 205 Issyk-Kul 88

Gandhara 80 Gansu 83, 84, 96, 104, 105, 110, 113 goose 26, 29, 30 n. 58, 42, 53, 72 Gilgit 30 n. 60, 91–93, 121 Gnam-ri slon-btsan 103 gnyan 42 n. 101, 65, 67 good-fortune-bestowing 37 n. 85 gorytus 80, 88 n. 227, 96 n. 248 grain 8, 30 n. 58, 32, 72, 84 n. 210 Greco-Bactrian 83, 87 n. 222 Greco-Parthian 34, 87 n. 222 Greco-Persian / Irano-Hellenistic 81 n. 193, 82 166

Index jade 34, 46 n. 115, 72, 108 Jilin 104 n. 284, 107 Jin 103 n. 275 Jo-khang / Gtsug-lag-khang 23

maral 115 Margiana 33, 81 n. 195, 83 Margiana-Bactria 89 mascoid 94 n. 239, 122 Massagetae 79, 83, 84 Matho 122 n. 333, 129 mchod-rten (stūpa) 28, 29, 36, 96 n. 249 meat 72 Medes / Media / Medians 79, 80, 82, 114 n. 310 Mediterranean 23, 34 n. 79, 39 n. 93, 44 n. 109, 46, 87, 97 n. 252 menhirs 106, 115, 116, 121, 142, 147 n. 384 Mesopotamia 32, 79, 114 n. 310 Metropolitan Museum of Art 25, 34 Miho Museum 23 n. 35 millet 84 n. 210, 98 n. 257 Ming dynasty 34 Minoa 34 Minusinsk Basin 39 n. 93, 75, 84 n. 210, 92 n. 233, 111, 115, 117, 118, 122 n. 328 Mi-nyag 1 n. 2 mirror 24 n. 39, 60 n. 146, 62, 63, 80 n. 190, 93 n. 238, 112 n. 302, 143 n. 374 Mohenjo-Daro 41 n. 96 Mongol / Mongolians 60 n. 146, 102 n. 274, 105 n. 287 Mongolia / Mongolian 6, 11, 37, 57 n. 142, 73–75, 77, 83–85, 89, 96, 100 n. 264 and 265, 102, 104, 105 n. 287, 106, 112 n. 303, 113 n. 306, 114–16, 121–23, 141, 142, 148 n. 386 Mongolian Altai 75, 114, 115 n. 311, 117, 118 monkey 39, 40, 42, 43 Moutuo 71–73 Mtsho-sngon bod kyi rig-gnas rten-mdzod-gling museum 24 n. 39, 43 n. 104, 111 n. 299 Musée du Louvre 57 musk 30, 147 Mustang 31 n. 65, 44, 45 Muztagh Ata 100 n. 264 Mycenae 34, 45 n. 110

Kabul 38 n. 90 Karakorum 83 Karasuk 72 n. 167, 83 n. 201, 85, 96 n. 248, 114, 122 n. 328, 143 n. 369 Kashgar 83, 97, 98 Kashmir 30 n. 60, 91, 98 n. 256, 100 n. 265, 101 n. 268 Kaspian 83, 91, 101 n. 268 Kathmandu 12, 36, 111 Kazakhstan 57, 84 n. 210, 86–89, 95–98, 100 n. 263, 102, 112 n. 303, 114 n. 310, 116, 141 Keriya river 98 Khaltse 130, 132 Khirigsuurs 116 Khitans 45 n. 110 Khorasan 121 n. 325 Khotan 82, 98, 101, 103, 140 Khrom-chen 28 kīrtimukha 36 klu / klu-mo 42 n. 102, 65, 67, 108, 109 n. 296 knucklebone 121 n. 325 Koban culture 79 Kucha 100 n. 266 kulan 69, 70 Kumaon 30 n. 60, 44 Kunlun Mountains / Kunlun 96–98, 100–102 Kurdistan 57, 79 Kushano-Sasanian 38 n. 90, 52 Kyrgyzstan 45 n. 101, 83, 87–89, 95, 96 La dwags rgyal rabs 30, 31 Labrang (Bla-brang) 12 labyrinths 60 n. 147 Lanzhou 12 lapis lazuli 80 n. 190 Levant 32 lha 31, 42, 51 n. 135, 65, 67 Lha-rtse 28 Lhasa (Lha-sa) 12, 23, 24, 29 n. 56, 36, 43, 60, 63, 98 n. 256, 111, 137 Liangshan 73 n. 171 libation 17, 22, 29 n. 56, 31, 32, 139 Liushui 101, 102 Ljang 1 n. 2 Lokeśvara 50 long stone 115 n. 311 and 315, 121 n. 327, 147 n. 384 Lop Nor 98 n. 256, 104 n. 281, 121 n. 326, 140 Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) 49, 52, 55, 56 Loulan 103 n. 275 Luristan 48–52, 57, 79, 87, 109, 110

Nakhi 102 Nan-Shan 104 Neolithic 81, 86 n. 215, 98 n. 256, 143 Nestorian seals 60 n. 146 Newark Museum 10 n. 13, 44 Ningxia 69 n. 162, 73–75, 100 n. 264, 104 n. 284, 105, 110, 113, 119 n. 324, 123 n. 340 Niya 103 n. 275 nomadism 85, 97, 115 n. 311, 116 n. 318 octogram 20 Okunev 83 n. 201, 94 n. 239, 97, 114, 115 n. 312, 122 Old Tibetan (language) 17, 22, 30–32, 51 n. 135, 52, 82, 95 n. 243, 102 n. 269, 115 Old Turkic (language) 102 n. 269 onager 42 n. 101, 68–70 oral tradition 10, 11, 51, 66 Ordos 46, 61, 70 n. 163, 73, 83–85, 104–06, 108, 111, 113, 116 n. 317 owl 67, 73

magic bomb 42 n. 101 Maiemiric culture 143 n. 374 ma-mo 51 n. 135 Manchuria 111 167

Tibetan Silver, Gold and Bronze Objects and the Aesthetics of Animals in the Era before Empire Oxus / Trans-Oxus 23, 86 n. 217, 101 n. 268, 104 n. 281 Oxus Treasure 87

Seleucid-Parthian 34 Semirechiye 57, 92, 97 serpent / snake 3, 64–71, 73, 93 n. 238, 109, 110 Ser-shul 76, 77, 131 Shang dynasty 72 n. 167, 98 n. 256, 143 n. 369 and 371 shang-shang 22 Shigatse (Gzhis-ka-rtse) 12 Sichuan 46, 56 n. 140, 63, 72, 73 93 n. 238, 144 Silk Road 30, 83, 96 113 n. 307 silk 30, 31, 80 n. 190, 145 n. 382 Sino-Siberian 141 Sino-steppic 141 Sino-Thracian 141 Sino-Tibetan 66 n. 158 sky burial 81 n. 194 Slab Grave culture 76 n. 178, 106, 115 sman 51 n. 135 Sna-dkar-rtse 26 n. 44, 43, 44 Sogdian / Sogdiana 22–24, 29 n. 56, 33 n. 77, 34, 79, 81, 83, 85 n. 212, 87, 141 n. 365 soul 45, 65, 66 Soviet 36, 101 spiral 20, 43, 60–63, 69, 74 n. 174, 75, 84, 88, 100, 119 n. 324, 143 n. 371 Spiti / Spitian 26, 30 n. 60, 41 n. 95, 60 n. 147, 69, 73 n. 172, 74, 81, 89, 115 n. 313, 124, 147 n. 383 Spu-de gung-rgyal 31 Spu-rgyal 1 n. 2, 27, 31 Srong-btsan sgam-po 22 n. 33, 24 stacking 113 stag 47 n. 117, 52 n. 138, 93, 94 n. 240, 98, 99, 114–18, 121 n. 326, 123–27, 129–33, 136, 144 n. 376 Stang-rtse 137 State Hermitage Museum 46 Stockbreeders 85 Subeshi 98 n. 255, 103 n. 276 Sum-pa 1 n. 2 Suvarnabhūmi 30 Suvarṇagotra 30 Swat 96 n. 248, 98 n. 256, 100 n. 265 Syr Darya 86 Syria 32

Palaeolithic 81 palmettes 22, 34 Pamirs 3, 30, 33, 51 n. 135, 83, 86 n. 218, 87, 91–93, 96, 100 n. 264, 101, 139, 142 parī  51 n. 135 Parthia / Parthian / Parthians 29 n. 56, 33, 34, 44 n. 108, 79, 81–83, 85 n. 212, 87, 94 n. 242 pastoralist 3, 42 n. 101, 44, 46, 58, 74, 76, 80 n. 190, 82, 84, 86 n. 215, 97, 98, 101, 103, 106, 112, 117, 122 n. 329, 140, 142–45, 148 n. 386 Pattan horde 93 n. 236 Pazyryk 52 n. 138, 80, 82, 87 n. 222, 104 n. 282, 114, 116, 144 peacock 41, 42, 45, 47, 48, 63 n. 153, 65, 93 n. 238, 123 n. 341, 124, 134, 137–39, 141 peas 77, 142 Persepolis 80 phoenix 43 n. 104, 52 n. 138 Phyi-dbang 31 n. 65, 72 n. 168 Phywa 31 plunder 80, 149 Proto-Indo-European 81 n. 195 psychopomp 31, 52, 102 n. 269, 115 n. 314 Ptolemy 30 n. 60, 101 n. 268 Qawrighul (Gumugou) 97 n. 252, 98 n. 256, 104 n. 281 Qiang (Ch’iang) 40, 56 n. 140, 72, 101, 104 Qilian Mountains 96 Qin 72 n. 167 Qinghai 69, 74 n. 174, 84 96 n. 248, 102, 104, 121–23 Ra-bang 74, 124, raptor 41 n. 94, 45 n. 113, 76 n. 181, 91, 110, 112 n. 303, 115 n. 314, 144 recurve bow 76, 88 n. 228, 118, 119 n. 323, 140 Rgya-gling thang 31 n. 65, 72 n. 168 Rgyal rabs gsal ba’i me long 31 rhyton 22, 23, 28, 34, 91 Ri-mo gdong 122–25, 132, 133, 136, 141 ritual thunderbolt 50 Rnga-ba Provincial Museum 56 n. 140 Rome / Roman 1, 9, 13 n. 17, 34 n. 79, 83 Rwa-’brog ’phrang 99, 143

T’ang dynasty 21, 22, 24, 26, 28–30, 32, 34, 66 n. 158 tablets 139 n. 357 Tagar culture 75, 86 n. 215, 92 n. 233, 114, 115, 117 n. 321 Tajikistan 83, 86–89, 91, 93 Taklamakan 98, 100, 102 n. 274 talisman / amulet 11, 12, 25 n. 40, 46, 54, 60 n. 146, 108, 121 n. 325 Tamgaly 88 n. 226 Tashkurgan 97, 100, 140 tattoos 84, 118, 144 Tepsej 118 textile 11, 30, 32 n. 72, 44 n. 109, 72, 80 Thalpan 74 n. 174, 80, 92–95 tho 116 thog-rde’u 25 n. 40 Thracian / Thracia 32 n. 72, 79 , 114 n. 308

saddle 44 n. 106 saddle blankets 80 Saimaluu Tash 88 n. 224 salt 30 Sarmatian 45, 83, 85 n. 212, 87, 92, 114 n. 308, 142 Sarmato-Alanian 45, 46 Sasanian 24, 29 n. 56, 32–34, 43 n. 104, 52, 81, 83, 108 Satma Mazar 98–100 Sauromatians 83 Sayan-Altai 114, 116 n. 317, 118 n. 322 Scythian triad 84, 85, 142 sedentarism 85 Seleucid 29 n. 56, 83 168

Index three spheres of existence 65 Thugs-rje chen-po 50 Tian-Shan 44 n. 107, 83, 86, 87, 97, 98 n. 255, 100, 102, 103 n. 276, 122 n. 329, 144 Tibet Museum 63 n. 153 Tibeto-Burman 101, 102 tiger-skin 66 Tiglath-Pileser III 32 Tillya-Tepe (Golden Mound) 87 Tocharian 104 n. 282, 141 n. 365 Transbaikal 106, 107, 115 Transoxiana 83 Transpontine steppe 85 trencher 139 n. 357 trilobate arrowheads 87, 143 Tsagaan Gol 116 Tu 102 tubers 72 Turco-Mongolian 103 Turfan 98, 101 Turkic 77 n. 183, 95 n. 245, 102 n. 269, 147 n. 384 Turkmenistan 83 Turks 23 turquoise 33 n. 77, 35, 43 n. 104, 44, 45, 72, 73 n. 170, 87 Tuva / Tuvan 85, 92 n. 233, 111, 112 n. 301, 115 n. 311, 118 n. 322

wine 17, 22, 26, 30 n. 58, 32, 139 winged lions 43 n. 104 wool 30, 41 n. 99, 80 Wuling 144 n. 378 Wusun 44 n. 107, 84, 97 Xerxes 81 Xianbei 44, 104–08, 113 Xiangbabai 100, 101 Xiaohe 102 n. 271 Xindian culture 104 n. 281 Xining (Zi-ling) 12, 24 n. 39, 43 n. 104, 111 n. 289 Xiongnu 35, 44, 75–77, 83, 84 n. 210, 86, 93 n. 236, 97 n. 252, 104, 106–08, 111–13, 142 Yamnaya 83 n. 201 Yanbulake 98 n. 258, 104 n. 281 Yar-’brog g.yu-mtsho 43 yogurt 30 Yuan dynasty 60 n. 146, 141 n. 365 Yüeh-chih (Yuezhi) 84, 87, 94 n. 242, 104, 142 Yul-shul 96 n. 248, 121 n. 326, 133 Yungdrung Bon 22 n. 34, 27, 31, 35, 36, 40, 42 n. 101, 52, 66 n. 158, 81, 82, 101 n. 268, 108 Yunnan 72, 73 n. 171, 144 Zamthang 73 n. 172, 124 n. 344, 139 n. 358 Zangs-dkar / Zanskar 121, 123, 130, 131 Zhang-zhung 30–32, 36, 42 n. 101, 52, 81 n. 195, 101 n. 268 Ziwiye 3, 57, 79, 92 Zoroastrian 81, 82 Zurvanite 82

UNESCO Convention 13, 14 UNIDROIT Convention 13, 14 Ur 22 n. 34 Uralo-Altaic 77 n. 183 Urals 32 Urartians 82 Ust’-Tuba 117, 118 Uzbekistan 83, 86–89 vase (bum-pa) 49 Volga river 83, 97 n. 252, 116 n. 317 Volga-Don 83 n. 201 Wakhan 29, 30 n. 59, 88, 91, 96 Warring States dynasty 41 n. 94, 46 n. 115, 55, 71, 72, 98 n. 255, 144 warrior 49, 66, 69, 79, 84, 85 94, 115 warrior spirit 35, 42 n. 100 waterfowl 42, 45, 66 weapon / weaponry 30, 42 n. 101, 49, 72, 74, 80, 84, 86, 96 n. 248, 102 n. 270, 114, 118, 140, 143 Wen-cheng 22 n. 33 Western Steppe 83 n. 201, 92 n. 233, 116 n. 317 Western Zhou 61 n. 149, 143 n. 369 and 371 wheat 77, 84 n. 210, 98 n. 257 and 258, 103 n. 275, 142 wheel 81 n. 195, 100 n. 264 white metal 26, 31 wild ass 69, 70, 133 wild sheep 42, 51 n. 135, 64, 71, 133 wild yak 64–66, 71, 74, 88 n. 227, 95, 98, 100 n. 264, 111 n. 299, 113 n. 306, 121 n. 326, 123–28, 139, 140, 142 169

BAR IN TERNATIONA L SE RIE S 2984 ‘I have never encountered a work of this depth on these regions of East and Inner Asia. What is more, Bellezza demonstrates a deep knowledge of the existing research literature from the past 40+ years and is able to weave his citations and observations together effectively to make a very important argument linking the Tibetan cultural sphere into the larger Inner Asian region. This is a rare, significant, and welcome contribution to academic research on ancient Tibet.’ Professor William Honeychurch, Yale University ‘There is a broad range of scholars who would find this volume of interest, including Tibetologists, art historians of Central and East Asia, archaeologists, and historians.’ Professor Mark Aldenderfer, UC Merced

This archaeological and art-historical study is woven around rock art and ancient metallic articles attributed to Tibet. The silver bowls, gold finial, and copper alloy spouted jars and trapezoidal plaques featured are assigned to the Iron Age and Protohistoric period. These rare objects are adorned with zoomorphic subjects mimicking those found in rock art and embody an artistic zeitgeist widely diffused in Central Eurasia in Late Prehistory. Diverse sources of inspiration and technological capability are revealed in these objects and rock art, shedding light on their transcultural dimension. The archaeological and aesthetic materials in this work prefigure the Tibetan cosmopolitanism of early historic times promoted through the spread of Buddhist ideas, art and craft from abroad. The metallic articles and petroglyphs of this study are markers of relationships between Tibet and her neighbours. These transactions enabled a fusion of Tibetan innovation and foreign inventiveness, a synthesis of disparate ideas, aesthetics and technologies in the objects and rock art presented. John Vincent Bellezza PhD is an archaeologist and cultural historian specializing in the pre-Buddhist heritage of Tibet. Author of twelve books and numerous articles, Bellezza has over many years comprehensively charted archaic monuments and rock art in Upper Tibet and has worked extensively on Old Tibetan mytho-ritual texts.

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