Libmonster ID: JP-1362
Author(s) of the publication: S. A. Yatsenko (Moscow)

The article analyzes the images on two well-known artistic products of the Late Antique period1 . These are a silver bowl (cup) from the "royal" Sarmatian-Alan burial of the first century AD in the Astrakhan region (Kosika, grave I) 2 and bone ornaments of the belt (plate) from the looted burial in the Orlat burial ground (Kurgan-Tobe) of the Samarkand region of Uzbekistan 3 (below we consider first of all images on large paired buckles). Both the bowl and the belt belonged to noble warriors and may have been associated with one area of the body of their bearer (which is important in traditional nomadic culture) .4 For both subjects, this article used several options for drawing images.

On both products in two tiers (Pigtail) or on two complementary and interlocked plates of the same type (Orlat), two compositions are presented, apparently closely related to each other: a) the hunting scene of two or three horsemen; b) the battle of two pairs of warriors (in Orlat, the last composition is repeated twice). As you know, war and hunting among nomads were considered the most worthy of a man's occupation. Anthropomorphic characters (and zoomorphic ones in Orlat) move from left to right 5 . Therefore, if the proximity of both scenes is not accidental, then it turns out that hunting in Orlat precedes battles: on complementary large Orlat plates, movement from left to right begins with hunting (Fig. 2, a-b), and the two-tiered image of the Kosik bowl was probably "read" from top to bottom, from the neck of the vessel. which is also addressed by animals on handles.

Let's try to answer the question: what does the coupling of these two subjects mean in the monuments of early nomads and why was it essential for a noble customer who provided them with the most important attributes inherent in an aristocratic warrior? This requires, first of all, a detailed description of the images themselves (complementing the publications of G. A. Pugachenkova and M. Y. Treister), a broad comparison of the iconography of images on both objects with those products of Eurasian nomads and their settled descendants on which there are a couple of such subjects; analysis of the specific shape of the products (especially the vessel of a clearly cult character); comparison with before us, mythological and epic texts of the Iranian (as well as Turkic and Caucasian) peoples.

1 The original version of this article was written in 1989 for the collection of the Museum of Oriental Studies, the manuscript of the article for the VDI-at the end of 1994. The conclusions were first presented in a report read in the Scythian-Sarmatian sector of the Institute of Archeology of the USSR Academy of Sciences in December 1989. Later articles by other researchers on attribution of images on these two objects could be used by me only partially. In addition, in this aspect, they cause me a number of objections.

Dvornitchenko V. 2 Savromaternas och sarmaternas gravar vid nedre Volga // Scyther och Sarmater frun Don till Ural. (Katalogen). Oreboro, 1990. S. 31; Dvornichenko V. V., Fedorov-Davydov G. A. Sarmatian burial of skeptukh I c. n. e. near the village of Kosika in the Astrakhan region / / VDI. 1993. N 3. Fig. 5; Treister M. Yu. Sarmatian School of Artistic Torevtics. (To the opening of a service made of Pigtails) / / VDI. 1994. N 1. Fig. 1, 7.

Pugichenkova G. A. 3 From the artistic treasury of the Middle East. Tashkent, 1987. Fig. on pp. 58-59; Antiquities of Southern Uzbekistan. (Catalog). (Edited by G. A. Pugachenkov). Токио - Ташкент, 1991. N 244-250; Ilyasov J.Yu., Rusanov O.V. A Study on the Bone Plates from Orlat // Silk Road Art and Archaeology. V. 5. Kamakura, 1998. PI. IV, VIII.

4 The Kosik cup, according to the steppe custom, was probably also attached to the rider's thigh, its size fully admits this. See about the manifestation of this custom even on the barbarized Bosporus of the IV century AD.:

Zasetskaya I. P. On the place of making a silver bowl with the image of Constantius II from Kerch. Issue IV. Simferopol, 1995. p. 231 pp.

5 On the Kosik bowl, the boars in the upper tier, when attacking both riders, naturally face in the direction opposite to the general movement.

page 86

1 . Dating and ethnic attribution of products

Both subjects seem to be genetically related to the eastern "Saka" fringe of the vast Iranian-speaking nomadic world. The specific shape of the Kosik bowl with two vertical handles-sculptures of wild boars-has only one close analogy: an earthen vessel from Yuezhi Bactria 6 . At the same time, the manner of depicting people and animals on it is in many ways unique and cannot be compared with the Central Asian traditions known to us. We are talking about a special, local style of toreutics, which originated in the first century AD in the European steppes and was conditionally named by M. Y. Traister "Ampsalak school "(the name of the master used only among the Sarmatians of the Northern Black Sea region on one of the stylistic similar objects of the Kosik"service").

An opinion was expressed about the production of a" service " by torevt from Don aorses during the possible stay of the latter in Armenia in 35-41 AD7, to which I cannot join 8 . In 1989, I put forward an assumption about the production of

Pugachenkova G. A. 6 Iskusstvo Baktriya epokhi Kushan [The Art of Bactria in the Kushan era]. Moscow, 1979. Fig. 229. Among the nomads of Sarmatia of the first and second centuries AD, a series of "cups" is known not only from silver or gold (Simonenko A.V., Lobay B. I. Sarmatians of the North-Western Black Sea region in the first century AD Kiev, 1991. p. 58), but also wooden ones, hollowed out of maple kapa, as in the burial ground Vysochino VII (Bespalyi E. I. Wooden dishes in the mounds of the I-III centuries AD on the Lower Don / / Scythia and Bosporus. Novocherkassk, 1989, p. 120). However, all of them have only one zoomorphic handle.

7 See: Vinogradov Yu. G. Ocherk voenno-politicheskoi istorii sarmatii v I v. AD [Essay on the military and political history of the Sarmatians in the first century AD]. Sarmatian school...

8 The reasons for my doubts about the dating of the vessels of Kosika as early as the first half of the first century AD and in the Aorsian attribution are as follows. 1. The stylistically unified Kosik "service" includes a silver pixid with a mytho-epic scene that has no analogies in the art of the ancient and Indo-Iranian world and, apparently, is ethnically specific (Traister. 4). Two similarly dressed archers on foot hunt three birds, one of which is already wounded; below is a chain of fish. All this corresponds in detail to the text of the oldest and key Ossetian myth about the origin of the dominant clan Akhsartagata (the latter was documented in the medieval Alans as early as the 13th century). The twin brothers Akhsar and Akhsartag hunted three magical birds with bows. One of them was wounded; she disappeared under the waves of the sea and turned out to be the daughter of the sea god Dzerassa (who soon became the wife of Ahsartag and the ancestor of the Ahsartagata clan). It is difficult to assume that the Alans and then the Ossetians adopted the legend of the origin of their ruling elite precisely from the Aorsi who previously dominated the Steppe, and then were defeated and dispersed by the Alans.

2. On the mentioned pixid, characters shoot arrows with special Hun tips (tiered arrows with a three-bladed striker) from their bows. In Sarmatia, they became known not earlier than the second half of the first and beginning of the second centuries AD (Simonenko, Lobai. 7,5; Gushchina I. I., Zasetskaya I. P. "The Golden Cemetery" of the Roman era in the Kuban region. St. Petersburg, 1994. p. 63. N 344; for the date, see N 343).

3. The burial in Kosik is mainly related to a new, Middle Sarmatian culture, the connection of which with the Aorsi, who dominated the steppes from the second century BC to the beginning of the first century AD, is more than problematic. See Skripkin A. S. Asiatic Sarmatia. Problems of chronology, periodization, and ethnopolitical history. Scientific report... as a dissertation of Doctor of Historical Sciences, Moscow, 1992, pp. 6-14, 22-38.

4. Sources do not report anything about any long-term military presence of nomads in Transcaucasia around 35-41 as part of garrisons, etc. Such facts are documented only from the 70s of the first century AD and are always associated with another ethnic group-the Alans (Mroveli L. Life of the Kartli kings. Extracts of information about the Abkhazians, the peoples of the North Caucasus and Dagestan / Translated by G. V. Tsulaya, Moscow, 1979, pp. 34-35, 37).

5. A rare family tamga on the handle of a knife made of Pigtail (Dvornichenko, Fedorov-Davydov. Uk. op. Fig. 12, 3) is also known in several North Caucasian complexes of the I-III centuries AD (for a stone slab with a cluster of tamgas from the Novocherkassk Museum, see Fig. Solomonik E. I. Novi pamyatki z sarmaticheskimi znakami [New pamyatki with Sarmatian signs] / / Archeologichni pamyatki URSR. Vip. 11. Kiiv, 1962. Fig. 10; bangle 1904 g. from Armavir: Anfimov N. V. Drevneye zolotoe Kubani. Krasnodar, 1987, pp. 228-229). If we date these complexes to the middle of the first century AD, it turns out that the same family of aristocrats lived safely for centuries on the territory of completely different (and often hostile) tribal unions - the "upper" Aors of the Volga region, the Aors of the Don region and the Kuban Siraks, despite all the political cataclysms!

6. Mound 28 of the Vysochino VII burial ground, where a "service" from the same "Ampsalak workshop" was found, according to ancient imports, definitely dates back to B. A. Raev at the boundary of the I-II centuries AD (oral communication, June 1990).

page 87

"sets" from Kosika and Vysochino VII (kurgan 28), as well as a number of other "eastern" products of the European steppes of the mid - first and early second centuries AD by the Alans 9 - an ethnic group, the core of which can be fairly confidently derived from Central Asia 10 . The opinions of various authors regarding the dating of the Orlat plates are known to be sharply divided, ranging from the turn of our era to the IV-V centuries. However, the analysis of the burial inventory determines the date rather in the framework of the I-II centuries AD11 .

As for the ethnic attribution, it is the unanimous opinion of all authors that the plates represent nomads rather than local sedentary Sogdians. Most likely, we are talking about neighboring Kangyu people, possibly having a small admixture of Xiongnu 12 .

2. Description of images

2.1. Pigtail cup (Figs. 1 a, b). The surface of the product is badly damaged, but the plot, fortunately, is completely restored. In the upper tier, a similar scene is repeated twice: a rider sitting without a saddle, spears a boar that rushed at him from the right. The character has no other weapon (Fig. 1, a). Only the boar's pose (a greater or lesser tilt of the head) and the poses of two dogs attacking each boar differ.

The giver of the Kosik cup was a certain king Artevazd, identified by Yu. G. Vinogradov with the nameless king of Armenia 37-41 AD. It seems to me no less likely that we may be talking about one of the Parthian subordinate rulers of the neighboring Media Atropatene with Armenia (where such a royal name also existed).: Vinogradov, Uk. op. p. 158), after the victorious invasions of the Alans in 72/73 and 75.

Yatsenko S. A. 9 Antropomorfnye izobrazheniya Sarmatiya [Anthropomorphic images of Sarmatia]. Vladikavkaz-Tskhinval, 1992. pp. 193-194; on. Tsentralno - i sredneaziatskie traditsii v iskusstve Sarmatii [Central and Central Asian traditions in the art of Sarmatia]. Novocherkassk, 1992. p. 77 el.

10 See, for example: Skripkin. Asiatic Sarmatia ... pp. 37-41; Yatsenko S. A. Alanskaya problema i tsentralnoaziatskiye elementy v kul'tury kochevnikov Sarmatii rubezha I-II vv. n. e. [The Alanian problem and Central Asian elements in the culture of nomads of Sarmatia at the turn of the I-II centuries n. e.]. PAV. Issue 3. SPb., 1993. pp. 60-70; Tsutsiek A. A. Alany Srednoi Azii (1-1 V vv. n. e.): problemy etnogeneza: Avtoref. dis... Candidate of Historical Sciences. Vladikavkaz, 1999, pp. 14-18.

11 One part of researchers, starting with V. K. Guguev and B. Brentjes, dates this burial (and the plates found) to the 1st-11th centuries AD (Breiitjes B. Incised Bones and a Ceremonial Belt: Finds from Kurgan-tepe and Tillya-tepe / / Bulletin of the Asia Institute. V. 3. N 5. 1989. P. 39-44; llyasov, Rusanov. Op. cit. P. 130; Mislov V. E. On the dating of images on belt plates from the Orlat burial ground / / Eurasian Antiquities. Moscow, 1999. pp. 219-236), the other, according to the depicted attributes , is later: 11-1 II centuries AD (Nikanorov V. P. Armament of ancient Sogd (V century BC-IV century AD) / / Uzbekistan - contribution to civilization. (Theses). Issue III. Part I. Bukhara. 1995. P. 13; oral information of the Academy of Sciences of B. A. Litvinsky 18.09.1998) or even IV-V centuries AD (oral information of P. P. Azbelev, St. Petersburg, and M. V. Gorelik, Moscow, 1993-1994). The versions of supporters of late dating were not argued in detail.

12 At the same time, a number of authors share the version that Yuezhi are depicted here, or it is supposed to depict the battle of Yuezhi and Kanpoi (llyasov, Rusanov. Op. cit. P.134). However, we do not have any reliable information about their control over Sogd at any time. But there is information from Chinese sources about the control of certain parts of Sogd of the neighboring powerful Kangyu. The appearance of the characters (the costume presented in the hunting scene) does not confirm the "Yuezhi" version. For example, if trousers with a simple mesh pattern in one case are still known to the Yuezhi (casket from Takhti-Sangin: Nikanorov V. P. The Armies of Bactria 700 BC-450 AD. V. 2. Stockport, 1997. Fig. 27), then the specific type of hairstyle (short, evenly cut hair above the forehead, with a sharp wedge above the ears and a miniature "goatee" on a mongoloid face) is not represented in numerous images either in the Yuezhi Bactria or in the Kushan Empire (see Yatsenko S. A. Costume of the Yuech-Chihs / Kushans and its Analogies to the East and to the West // Silk Road Art and Archaeology. V. 6. Kamakura (in print). In Sogd (Afrasiab) there is only one (possibly imported from Bactria) a type of terracotta where the character is actually dressed in the actual Kushan costume (Meshkeris V. A. Sughd terracotta. Dushanbe, 1989, No. 43). Especially significant is the belt with a spear-shaped suspension at the place of fastening, which is characteristic of the Kushans (but already imperial time) (cf., for example: Rosenfield J.М. The Dynastic Arts of the Kushans. Berkeley - Los Angeles, 1967. PI. 2, 8, 13, 22, 62, 67; XII, 236-239).

page 88

Fig. 1. Frieze of a cup made of Kosika (Astrakhan region), according to V. V. Dvornichenko, V. K. Guguev

The high social status of the characters is indicated by special metal bracers on the right hand (known among the Sarmatians of the second half of the first century AD only in the graves of the "royal" rank 13) and, possibly, the unique cut of kaftans-kurtak (both shelves of their camp were cut from two approximately equal triangular panels converging at the waist at an angle; a similar cut is still known only among the soldiers on the Scythian "helmet" of the IV century BC from the Perederieva grave 14).

In the image in the lower tier, each of the two riders finishes off a fallen enemy with a spear (Fig. 1, b). In both cases, the enemy's horse was wounded by an arrow in the withers and probably threw the rider. All horses have soft saddles. The social rank of the two winning heroes is different here. One of them, in a carapace shirt, completely covered with metal plates, hits the enemy with a long spear, on his head he has a tiara-band 15 . He is the only character depicted on the full-face cup. His partner is dressed in a simple caftan and is armed not with a spear, but only with a bow. All characters in the lower tier (battle scene) have longer hair than characters in the upper tier, and they wear swords.

2.2. Paired large plates from Orlat (Kurgan-tepe).

The left plate (Fig. 2, a ) shows a scene of three horsemen hunting ungulates. The hunt takes place against a backdrop of wooded mountains, with a large bonfire burning at the top of one of them. Each rider for some reason pursues animals of the same species and at the same time-males (only the lower character catches up with three animals, of which one is female): the upper rider is argali, the middle rider is kulan, and the lower rider is deer. This is undoubtedly a common theme in the mythology and epic of the Indo-Iranian peoples of the "miraculous hunt". The horsemen drew their bows, but without arrows! They carry empty quivers at their belts. Strictly speaking, they cannot kill the animals they are chasing, since they have no other weapons 16 . The average character's clothing looks more modest than the other two, but he is the one who has taken the lead a little. No less strange is the smell of the kaftans of all hunters-from left to right, the opposite of the usual Indo-Iranians,

13 Porogi, grave 1; Kosyka, grave 1 (see, for example: Simonenko, Lobay. Uk. soch. p. 47).

14 See A. Moruzhenko .А. Скiфський курган Передерiева Могила // Археологiя. 1992. N 4. Fig. 7,/.

15 The remains of such headbands, embroidered with gold brocade, are known in the burials of male aristocrats of the Lower Don in the first and second centuries AD. See Gudimenko I. V. Raboty I Primorskogo otryada v 1989 g. [Works of the First Primorskiy Detachment in 1989] / / Istoriko - arkheologicheskie issledovaniya v g. Azove i na Nizhni Donu v 1989 g. Issue 9. Azov, 1990.P. 10. (Krasnogorovka III, kurgan 18/1).

16 Cf. a typologically close, but only at first glance, scene among the Don Alans of the turn of the II-III centuries AD from a 1983 mound in Rostov-on-Don, where a horseman chases a deer with a sword with an empty quiver (Raev V. A. Roman Imports in the Lower Don Bassin / / BAR International Series, 268). Oxf., 1986. PI. 58; Yatsenko. Anthropomorphic images of Sarmatia. Table 10.5), which has direct parallels in the texts of the Ossetian Nart epic (the episode of hunting is referred to the" daughter of the Sun " goddess Atsirukhs in the form of a fallow deer: A sled. Ossetian Heroic Epos, Moscow, 1989; 177).

page 89

early Turks, etc. (in world folklore, this applies to characters who fall into another world, the dead, and some deities). (However, if we are looking at the type of distant eastern newcomers who appeared in the IV-V centuries, we could assume that they adopted the Chinese manner of wrapping clothes [17], but this dating is now rejected.)

On the right-hand plate (Fig. 2, b), the images are arranged in two tiers, each of which shows a similar scene: a battle between two pairs of soldiers.

In the upper tier, two bearded horsemen hold a circular defense against attacking enemies, to which replenishment comes from the left (parts of the bodies of two more horses are visible from the edge). The fight is deadly. On the right, one of the defending horsemen pierces through the chest of a foot enemy with a sword, but he is hit in the forehead with a peck. Only the main character in the center of the composition remains unharmed: he cuts the enemy's forehead with a sword along with a helmet, and he only wounds his horse in the chest with a spear. The main character is distinguished from the rest primarily by the details of the horse's appearance: on the left thigh of the latter is depicted a generic tamga (compare the images of a horse on a Sarmatian cup of the first century AD from the Rapids and a rider on a flask of the third century AD from the Khorezm Koi-Krylgankala 18), a severed head of a the harnesses are decorated (solar crosses).

In the lower tier, two bearded horsemen attack the beardless one and his walking partner. Help is coming to the attackers (the upper part of the figure of another horse is outlined on the edge). The main character's figure occupies about half of the area of this tier. A battle standard in the form of a pole with an inflatable colorful cloth schematically depicting a dragon (its head was made of metal) is attached to his saddle on the left. The birthplace of such standards was the eastern part of Central Asia, where they first appeared among the Xiongnu (see such standards in disassembled form in Noin-Ul) and where similar images existed in the early Middle Ages .19 The main character throws the enemy off his horse (after wounding the latter in the withers with an arrow) and hits him in the stomach with a long spear (one spear broke on the enemy's armor earlier), he defends himself with a sword. Two partners of heroes shoot each other with bows.

The ethnographic appearance of the images of warring groups of both tiers is almost identical (similar design of armor, weapons and bridles; the presence, along with others, of trousers decorated in the form of a grid of diamonds with a dot in the center, etc.). I note that the main ("positive") character on both tiers of the right plate, unlike all other characters, is dressed in white (light?) harem pants. It is interesting that on both tiers, the junior partners are represented in all four cases to the right of the main persons, while the "enemies" always have them on foot.

The manner in which the faces are depicted on the plates and on the cup is quite standard, so it is unclear whether the main character is represented here in both scenes or different people. This gave B. I. Marshak a reason to consider scenes like the ones in Orlat not related to the heroic epic, but having mainly magical functions .20

17 The right-to-left smell was common in the nomadic world until the fourth and fifth centuries A.D. At this time, nomads who invaded the disintegrated China gradually began to adopt the Chinese style (smell from left to right). Among the Turks, this smell became popular by the 9th century and was then brought by them to the Middle East and Eastern Europe.

18 In the Western and Central Ciscaucasia, where customs associated with Tamgs, in all known elements, go back to the Sarmatian-Alan tradition (see Yatsenko S. A. Signs-tamgs of the Iranian-speaking peoples of antiquity and early Middle Ages, Moscow, 2000. In print. Section 1,1), such a manner of branding a horse (high on the left thigh) was recently considered as evidence of the princely dignity of its owner. See Yakhtinigov H. H. North Caucasian tamgas. Nalchik, 1993. p. 78.

19 See, for example, Esin E. Tos and Moncuk. Notes on Turkish Flagepole Finials / / Central Asiatic Journal. V. XVI. N 1. Wiesbaden, 1972. PI. II, d. On the distribution of similar dragon standards among the Sarmatians and Romans, see Coulston. I. C. N. The "Draco" Standard/ / Journal of Roman Military Equipment. L., 1991. V. 2.

Marshak B. I. 20 Warriors in the art of Sogd and Central Asia // Severnaya Evraziya ot drevnosti do srednevekovye [Northern Eurasia from antiquity to the Middle Ages]. Tez. konf. SPb., 1992. p. 210 sl.

page 90

Fig. 2 a, b . Large bone belt plates from Orlat (Uzbekistan), by G. A. Pugachenkova

page 91

3. Frieze of a vessel from the village of Starokorsunskaya (Kuban region)

The researcher does not take into account that the individuality of the main characters in the art (as in the texts of the epic) of nomads could be distinguished by attributes - the design of the costume and hairstyle, horse equipment (which is observed in our case).

Below we will consider analogies (a couple of named plots on one product) known in contact zones on the periphery of the Iranian nomadic world, as well as among medieval settled Iranian ethnic groups.

Thus, a product combining both subjects (hunting and combat) was found in the Kuban, in the soil necropolis of the Meoto-Sarmatian settlement No. 2 near the village of Starokorsunskaya (I century AD). Primitive images represent a ring frieze of a flat-bottomed polished pot; the hunting scene, as on the Orlat plates, is shown to the left of the image. battles. However, here, in the zone of Sarmatian subsidence and their mixing with other places, in the corresponding scenes we see not horsemen, but foot soldiers. All figures are shown in profile (fig. 3) 22 . In the hunting scene, a foot spearman attacks a deer surrounded by two dogs; an arrow flies at the other, placed to the left. In the center of the battle scene are two heroes - foot spearmen. On the sides of them are depicted with spears on one "squire" of smaller stature. In the center, above the warring groups, a schematic figure of the deceased is visible,

In addition to those described, I know of another find of a product that combines these two subjects, outside the Iranian world, but in the immediate vicinity of it: on Tashtyk wooden slats of the IV-V centuries AD from Tepsei (Southern Siberia, Minusinsk basin). Some iconographic correlations between the Orlat plates and later Tashtyk monuments are quite obvious. 23 They indicate the Iranian influence on the art of the inhabitants of the Minusinsk basin of this time.

As a rule, on one side of the Tepsei slats (N 2-4) there is also a scene of a "public hunt" (only startled, running animals, mostly deer), and on the other - a battle 24. M. P. Gryaznov and B. I. Marshak expressed doubts that epic scenes are depicted here, since missing selected protagonist characters 25 . One might disagree with this. So, on the bar N 4, a battle scene attracts attention, where two warriors in a boat confront numerous enemies advancing from both sides .26

A medieval analogy can be considered the Alan pagan idol with a Greek inscription found on the Etoka River in Ciscaucasia .27 It shows a number of the following features:-

Marchenko I. I. 21 Sarmatians of the steppes of the Right bank of the Kuban in the 2nd half. IV century BC-III century AD (based on the materials of burial mounds): Author's abstract... Candidate of Historical Sciences, L., 1988, pp. 15-16.

22 Masterpieces of ancient Kuban art. Exhibition catalog, Moscow, 1987. Fig. 75-76.

Azbelev P. P. 23 Kul'turnye svyazi stepnykh narodov predtyurkskogo vremeni (po materialam Tepseyskikh i Orlatskikh miniatyur) [Cultural relations of the steppe peoples of the Pre-Turkic period (based on the materials of the Tepseysk and Orlat miniatures)]. Severnaya Evraziya ot drevnosti do srednevekovya. Tez. konf. SPb., 1992. See table on page 213.

Gryaznov M. P. 24 Miniatures of the Tashtyk culture (from the works of the 1968 Krasnoyarsk Expedition). 13. L., 1971. P. 104. Fig. 3-4.

He is. 25 Drevneyshie pamyatniki geroicheskogo eposa narodov Yuzhnoi Sibiri [Ancient monuments of the heroic epic of the peoples of Southern Siberia].

Gryaznov. 26 Miniatures ... Fig. 4, 1-2.

Miller V. F. 27 Echoes of Caucasian beliefs on grave monuments / / Materials on the archeology of the Caucasus, Issue 3, Moscow, 1893, pp. 120-126. Tables LX1II, LXVI; Yatsenko S. A. Problemy etnografii osetin [Problems of Ethnography of Ossetians], vol. 2. Vladikavkaz, 1992, p. 68. V. A. Kuznetsov's attempt to attribute the monument to the Turks of the XVII century does not seem convincing.

page 92

related scenes: a) a foot archer hunting deer (upper tier); b) a battle between two foot archers (lower tier). This part of the images on the Etok idol is close to the composition of the Orlat plates.

Another medieval analogy that can also be associated with the art of the Alans is the bone pommel of the Saltov wineskin from Sarkel, kept in the Hermitage 28 . The lower tier shows a duel between two horsemen. The left-hand man uses a long spear to stab his armored opponent in the neck, who staggers and drops his sword. The scene is framed from the top and sides by three different creatures: a bird, a fish, and a snake. The dying "enemy" is surrounded on four sides by four circles of different sizes. The corral hunting scene is shown above. Three dogs chase three different animals - a hare (?), some kind of ungulate and a bear (?). In the middle is a foot hunter striking a boar (?) with a spear.

For the Turkic peoples of the early Middle Ages, such double compositions on one product are not typical. In part, a similar pattern is known only among the Khazars, whose empire included the Iranian-speaking Alans and the Iranized Bulgarians. So, on a bucket from Kotsky gorodok, two warriors hunt different animals side by side and the hero fights (though not with a man, but with a girl-hero 29 ). Other details of the iconography of both scenes on the Khazar ladle are also alien to the early examples of Iranian peoples described above, although they probably reflect the influence of medieval Alans.

The peripheral and later analogies discussed above are characterized by the fact that one character appears in the hunting scene (always on foot), and in both scenes on products from the Ciscaucasia (Starokorunskaya, Etoka), associated with the settled and mixed Iranian population, all the characters are on foot.

3. Two-item sets with two learning stories

We encounter a very special case in one of the burials of the European Scythians-Skolots. In Solokha, the royal burial mound of the late fifth century BC, the bowl with the hunting scene formed a single set with a golden crest and a battle scene, much like the Orlat 30; both items, according to field documentation, lay side by side (and isolated from the rest) at the right shoulder of the deceased.

In the Kosik cup, the same animal (boar) is duplicated twice on the handles and in the story frieze (in the latter case, in the scene of a duel with people) 31 . In the Solokhskaya thicket, this principle is expressed somewhat differently: two lions confront people in the hunting scene, and they also gnaw each other in an intermediate area, once-

28 Archaeological Bulletin. 1992. N 1-2. M., 1992. Fig. on p. 19. We can assume that a significant stratum of the Iranian-speaking (Alan) settled population lives in the western part of this fortress. This is suggested by the analysis of both written sources and craniological materials, as well as the specifics of the local funeral rite, which is largely genetically related to the carriers of the catacomb tradition of the Central Ciscaucasia (manuscript of the article by O. B. Bubenko "Alans-Yases in Sarkel - Belaya Vezha", kindly provided in July 1998).

29 M. P. Gryaznov considered her a man. See Steppes of Eurasia in the Middle Ages, Moscow, 1981. Fig. 49, 2. Cf. Darkevich V. P. Ladle from Khazaria and the Turkic heroic Epic / / KSIA. 1974. 140. An Iranian silver ladle of the second half of the seventh century (from the circle of possible Khazar prototypes), found recently on the Lower Don in mound 2 of the Podgornensky IV burial ground, also depicts the hunting of two warriors for different animals. The main character (on foot, in a ceremonial suit, with a sword) shoots an arrow at a rearing lion, and his unarmed partner, holding a saddled horse by the reins with his right hand, casually defeats an angry bear with one left hand (Naumenko S. A., Bezuglov S. I. Uz Bizanci e. s Irani importleletek a Don-videk sztyeppeirol // A Mora Ferenc muzeum evkonyve. Studia Archaeologica, II. Szeged, 1996. Ker. 3-4).

Mintsevich A. P. 30 Kurgan Solokha, L., 1987, pp. 57-60.

31 It is characteristic that the Sarmatian-Alans of the Central Ciscaucasia of the 1st I-IV centuries mainly depicted wild boars on vessels with zoomorphic handles (see Petrenko V. A. Chronology of the Sarmatian burial inventory of the Middle Preterech region / / Problems of Chronology of the Sarmatian culture. Saratov, 1992, p. 40). In the Alano-Ossetian mythology, wild boars had a special patron god-Khuydzhyry (Dzadziev A. B. et al. Ethnography and mythology of the Ossetians. A short dictionary. Vladikavkaz, 1994. p. 183 p.).

page 93

sharing "hunting" scenes 32 . The Solokha bowl also undoubtedly shows the "miraculous hunt" of a pair of horsemen (in this case, on fantastic animals: a lioness with the horns of a mountain goat and a lion that has never been found in Scythia and neighboring countries) .33 As in the Pigtail cup, the beast (lion) is attacked by two dogs, and the main character acts with a spear, while his partner uses a bow. In both scenes in the Solokhskaya thicket, the main character is distinguished by sharp-nosed shoes and a predominance of crosses in the decor of trousers (the assistant in both cases has a predominant decor of circles). Such decor is very important for understanding the subjects of Scythian toreutics (see below). The Orlat plates with the image of the "miraculous hunt" are also supplemented with small plates showing the duel of two male animals (camels) 34 . Apparently, the combination of hunting and fighting scenes of males of the same species in two cases is not accidental.

Scythian bowls of the V-IV centuries BC from Solokha and Gaiman's grave, like the Kosik one, are made of silver, have two side handles with the image of ungulates and are found in the graves of men from the highest aristocracy. One of the indicators of the proximity of the Kosik vessel to the Scythian ones is also the presence of two mytho-epic scenes on the last two - a "wonderful hunt" (Solokha) and two pairs of armed noble warriors (Gaimanova grave) .35 One of the pairs, where the left character passes an object to the other with one hand, and in the other holds a sacred "round-bodied cup", is flanked on both sides by "servants". However, no less significant are the differences in the design of Scythian and Kosik two-handed goblets .36

On Solokhsky ridge 37, we meet the already familiar scheme: the "main character" with a walking partner attacks the enemy with a spear, under which the horse is killed and who defends himself with a sword; both main opponents are in armor shirts and helmets, but the" hero " helmet is imported (Greek), and the armor occupies a large area. Characters are distinguished by the specific decor of harem pants: in the case of the victorious, they are decorated with crosses, and in the case of the defeated, they are decorated with circles (this feature is probably inherent in compositions with male characters in the Greco - Scythian toreutics as a whole 38 ). Both of the main opponents are men with full beards, at the same time-

Mantsevich. 32 Uk. soch. p. 88-91.

33 The closest habitat of lions was the mountain forests of the Balkans, which by the end of the fifth century BC did not reach the Scythians. At this time, however, there were close dynastic ties between the Scythian royal clan and the Thracian kingdom of the Odrissi.

Pugachenkova. 34 From the art treasury ... Fig. on pages 58-59.

35 Thanks to the help of A. Y. Alekseev, I was able to study the details of the most famous items of Greco-Scythian toreutics in the Special Storeroom of the Hermitage in June 1993 (during its renovation) and get acquainted with his own interesting observations. I am also grateful to L. S. Klochko for the opportunity to get acquainted with the" helmet " from the Perederieva grave in the Museum of Historical Jewels (Kiev) before the restoration of this object.

36 On the Solokha bowl, the hero and his assistant hunt a dangerous predator together twice, and on the Kosik cup, they hunt separately. The first variant (but with wild boar hunting) is known in Scythian times and in other areas of the Indo-Iranian world (in Achaemenid Iran: Raevsky D. S. Ocherki ideologii skifo-sakskikh plemen [Essays on the ideology of Scythian-Saka tribes], Moscow, 1977, p. 83; na belnykh plastinakh iz sibirskoy kollektsii Petr I: Gryaznov. Ancient monuments... p. 21. Fig. 8). Pairs of soldiers on a bowl from Gaiman's grave are depicted not in battle, but in an episode of the alleged "trial for the kingdom" (Rayevsky. Uk. op. pp. 37-39).

37 See Schiltz V. Les Scythes et les nomades des steppes VIII siecle A.V.J.-C. - I siecle apr. J.-C., P., 1994. P. 136-140.

38 Thus, at the great rithon of the fourth century BC in Karagodeuashkhe, trousers were worn in "circles" only on the corpses of defeated enemies. The character in such trousers has a lower status in the eyes of the customer and in the scene of a duel between two soldiers with a griffin on a gold medallion from Chersonesos. He, unlike his partner, attacks the monster only from behind (shoots with a bow). Another such character is represented on a round-bodied cup from Frequent mounds near Voronezh. He holds a whip in his hands (?) and talking to another man. It is he who has the opposite of the usual smell of a caftan from left to right ("the smell of a dead man", like a warrior dying in the paws of a monster on the Gaiman ridge and kneeling male servants (?) on the Sakhnovskaya plate). In other words, bloomers with such a decoration are depicted in the younger or unsuccessful companion of the hero, defeated enemies, subordinates. At the same time, on small items

page 94

mya as "partners", as if they look younger (and do not have either a shell or a headdress). All these details were also found on the products discussed above 39 . In the lower tier of the image on the crest, as well as on the bowl from the same "set", pairs of lions are opposed to each other (one lion is also depicted in the center).

So far, we have only considered products with a combination of battle and hunting scenes. However, it is possible that in some cases, monuments of Iranian ethnic groups with only one of these scenes can provide additional information to clarify the origin and semantics of scenes. Let's turn to the most detailed and detailed compositions.

4. Analogies to one of the plots 4.1. Battle scenes. It is very interesting to compare the details of the iconography of the scenes of the duel between two pairs of soldiers in the upper tier of the right Orlat plate and on the damaged stone relief found in 1986 in the Western Kuban region (Taman, Yubileyny State Farm), which was dated by E. A. Savostina to the second half of the IV century BC40 and is on display in the Moscow Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts 41 . The relief from Yubileyny, according to the author of these lines and D. S. Rayevsky, is alien to the Scythian cultural tradition. It can be attributed to the circle of monuments of the Greco-Syrak circle of the Western Kuban region42, which show the men's costume of a new eastern, "Saka" appearance for the European steppes (a short narrow cloak, an overcoat with a deep triangular neckline, etc.) associated with the first wave of Sarmatians43. The finds in Orlat and Yubileyny are probably several centuries apart, and

toreutics of Scythia, on which, for some important reason, the same type of costume decor of a single or two characters was additionally engraved (plaques from the kurgans Kul-Oba and Patiniotti, in Nosaks that do not have the motif of a conflict of characters), trousers are always decorated only with"crosses".

39 And these analogies do not allow me to agree with the version of A. Y. Alekseev that the crest from Kul-Oba represents an allegory of the real internecine conflict of the sons of King Ariapith-Skil, Oktamasad and Orik (Alekseeva A. Yu. On identifying the burials of the Solokha mound // Abstracts of the International conference "Problems of Scythian-Sarmatian Archeology of the Northern Black Sea Region" - II. Zaporozhye, 1994, pp. 7-8).

Today, there are very widespread versions that the famous products of the nomads of the ancient era represent, allegedly, either episodes from the real military exploits of the customer or his recent ancestor (a cup from burial 1 in Kosik) and the greeting of the king on the battlefield to his subordinates (a riton from Karagodeuashkh), or sexual contact of a particular shaman-meeting with the patron goddess (carpet from mound 5 in Pazyryk), etc. This trend, which has clearly emerged in recent years, seems to be clearly modernizing, taking little account of the specifics of the archaic consciousness of nomads (it goes without saying that such versions remain practically unprovable). In this case, we are not talking about real historical figures who eventually became epic heroes (this usually takes up to two or three centuries, although sometimes in the history of world folklore it happens much faster). There is no doubt that the traditional nomad art (not counting tombstone stelae) most often depicted deities, epic heroes and legendary ancestors.

40 According to J. R. R. Tolkien This relief is dated to the Late Hellenistic period. See Treister M. Y. Essays on the Bronzeworking and Toreutics of the Pontus / / Colloquia Pontica. V. 1 / Ed. G. R. Tshetskladze. Oxf., 1996. P. 119. Not. 26.

41 Antique Sculpture, Moscow, 1987, pp. 186-187. The costume, hairstyle and general appearance of the characters here are all male in all elements (having exact analogies in Scythian and Sarmatian costumes), so it is still difficult to agree with the opinion of E. A. Savostina about the "warriors" represented on the relief.

42 Yatsenko S. A. Anthropomorphic images in the art of the Iranian-speaking peoples of Sarmatia of the II-I centuries BC. 2000. N 1. St. Petersburg-Kishinev (in print).

Yatsenko S. A. 43 Scythian and Sarmatian elements in anthropomorphic images of the Kuban region kon. IV-beginning. Nomads of the Eurasian steppes and the Ancient world. Novocherkassk, 1989. p. 121, 124. Regardless of whether Diodor Sirakov mentioned or not the events in the Kuban region around 310 BC, in the second half of the IV century BC, a new population of eastern steppe origin is archaeologically recorded in Kuban. Unfortunately, the opponents of the" Sirak version " never mention this fact. See Marchenko I. I. Problemy istorii Sirakskogo soyuza v Prikuban'e [Problems of the history of the Sirak Union in the Kuban region]. Krasnodar, 1988. pp. 68-72.

page 95

also about 2500 km distance directly. However, in both cases, in the main characters ' duel scene, the winning "hero" acts with a sword, while his opponent on the left acts with a spear. The battle image on both items is two-tiered. On the chest of the horse are suspended the severed heads of slain enemies. Unfortunately, the Prikubansky relief is represented only by a fragment, and we do not know whether there was a scene of a "magic hunt"on it.

A partially similar version of the battle between two pairs of soldiers is attested on a fragmented gorite from the same Scythian Solokha 44 . Here, a pair of young heroes confronts a pair of old enemies, who are helped by a new recruit (a fragment of a figure on the side depicting a young but ugly warrior). The main character is also presented in the center and also knocks down an opponent who is defending himself with a sword; his partner is dressed more modestly. The "positive" characters seem to be caught off guard and, as in the image in the upper tier of the Orlat plate, are forced to defend themselves with a sword and an axe, while their opponents use spears. Both warring groups are dressed in trousers decorated with crosses (the well-known graphic reconstruction of B. V. Farmakovsky, as A. Yu. Alekseev found, is inaccurate in this regard).

Similar to the other compositions reviewed, this one shows a duel between two fantastic predators (horned and winged lions) on a smaller scale on the side. As in the later and also made by the Greek master Syracuse relief from the Jubilee (see above), the hero grabs the opponent by the hair.

However, on Solokhsky gorit (in comparison, for example, with the Orlat plate), the characters seem to have changed places: young and beardless men are "positive", and the master Hellenic may have deliberately depicted the old enemies as ugly 45 . In Scythology, it is a popular opinion that Gorita represents a scene from the legend of the return of the Scythians from Near Asia and their successful war with the young descendants of slaves (Herod. IV. 3-4). If we assume that it is true, then we will have to admit that the Solokhsky gorit illustrates the version of tributary tribes that were defeated and then completely defeated by the Scythians...

With even less success, this interpretation can be attributed to another Scythian product - a gold "helmet" of the IV century BC from the Perederieva grave in the Donbass 46 (the original version of A. A. Moruzhenko). It also shows the battle between two groups of characters of the same ethnographic appearance. In each of the groups, judging by the poses and details of the costume, an old man and a young man are fighting for a wounded young warrior. In the first scene, the wounded man apparently belongs to the" squad " of the old man, in the second - on the contrary.

M. Y. Treister, following M. I. Rostovtsev, believes that the origins of the battle scenes described above among nomads go back to the art of Iran in the Achaemenid period47 . In fact, quite similar analogies appear in Iran only more than two centuries after the creation of the Kosik cup, on the rock reliefs of the third and early fourth centuries AD in Firuzabad and Naqsh-i Rustam .48 The Firuzabad relief commemorates the victory of Artashir I over the Parthian king Artabanus V and features scenes from

Manievich. 44 Uk. op. Fig. on p. 74.

45 However, it is possible that for some reason the special anthropological type of the "group of old men" is emphasized here (oral report by D. S. Rayevsky, 1996).

Moruzhenko. 46 Uk. op. Fig. 7: Schiltz. Op. cit. P. 333, 370. Both well-known drawings of the" helmet " have a number of serious inaccuracies. See Lagrand S. Mysterious golden object from the Perederieva grave mound. // RA, 1998, N 4.

Traister. 47 Sarmatian school... Note 48-49. For the alleged Persian roots, see also Gall G. von. Scene of a duel of horsemen on a silver vase made of Pigtails. (Sources and perception of an Iranian motif in Southern Russia) / / VDI. 1997. N 2. pp. 174-198. The last paper was submitted to the editorial office almost two years later than my article, but it was published three years earlier.

Ghirshman R. 48 Iran. Parthes et Sassanides. P.,1962. PI. 163-166, 220; Iranische Felsreliefs, I. The Sassanian Rock Relief at Naqsh-i Rustam. В., 1989.

page 96

battles between two pairs of armed horsemen in armor. Here ,the "hero" is also in each scene on the left, he pierces the armor of the opponent on the stomach with a long spear, the opponent's horse throws the rider. The Nakshi-Rustam relief similarly depicts the victory of Hormizd II. To the left of it is a truncated image of a mounted standard bearer. In both cases, the main character is distinguished by a ceremonial (royal) headdress and hairstyle, as well as the decor of the horse blanket.

At the same time, the differences between steppe scenes and Persian ones are quite obvious. On the latter, the opponent's horse throws the rider off, but he is not yet on the ground; the horse is not wounded in the withers; the poses of the characters are noticeably different (for example, on the Orlat plates, the scenes are more static), etc.

4.2. Hunting scenes. Hunting of three horsemen on three different animals is depicted on the golden hilt of an Achaemenid sword of the fifth century BC, discovered in the Scythian kurgan Chertomlyk 49 . Archer riders gallop in a row behind male mountain goats of various species, wounded by arrows in the withers. The riders themselves are almost identical in appearance (they are distinguished only by the fact that they pull the bowstring with their right or left hand), as well as their horses. It is possible that the" missing " battle scene was on the ceremonial scabbard (which has not reached us).

Two images found in Bactria: These are the Achaemenid silver umbon of the V-IV centuries BC from the Amu Darya hoard 50 and the bone plates of the Kushan casket no earlier than the 1st quarter of the III century AD from Takhti-Sangin 51 .

One of the long plates of the chest shows the hunt of two horsemen-archers on a deer and a hare. On the end plate, we see, as if, a similar, but absolutely fantastic picture. Two men are resting peacefully (one of them is reclining, the other is standing), and next to them the hare and deer mentioned above are playfully chasing each other, not afraid of people (both animals are the same height).

On the Amu Darya Umbon, two horsemen also hunt deer and hare, as well as goats, but in a number of features this composition is close to the Orlat one. Like the dagger from Chertomlyk, it shows three hunters chasing animals of three different species, although along with mountain goats and deer, a hare is represented instead of onagers. In addition, in both subjects, one of the riders stands out from the rest; on the Umbone, the hare hunter is armed not with javelins, but with a bow, and the top of his headdress is a different shape.

5. Semantics of paired plots

Above, we compared a series of very diverse and diverse products of the Iranian peoples from the fifth century BC to the developed Middle Ages. On closer inspection, some general, extremely specific details of the iconography of the hunting and battle scenes are surprising, clearly reflecting a stable tradition (rather, it is manifested not so much in the pictorial embodiment as in the generality of the details of the oral presentation of the heroic epic by the narrators of various groups of Iranian peoples) 52 .

The Orlat plates and the Kosik cup are found in different parts of the Iranian world, and

Alekseev A. Yu., Murzin V. Yu., Rolle R. 49 Chertomlyk (Scythian royal mound of the IV century BC). Kiev, 1991. Fig. 68, 1-5 .

Kuzmina E. E. 50 Semantics of images on the silver disk and some issues of interpretation of the Amu Darya treasure / / Art of the East and Antiquity, Moscow, 1977. Fig. 1.

Pichikyan I. R. 51 Pervye otkrytiye pamyatnikov iskusstva antichnoi Baktrii [The first discoveries of art monuments in ancient Bactria]. Issue 5. Moscow, 1982. Fig. on p. 225, 229. The date is indicated by Academician B. A. Litvinsky in December 1999.

52 Cf., for example, for Turkic-speaking groups of nomads (Kazakhs): "In all the most remote parts of the steppe, especially poetic sagas are transmitted in the same way and when compared were literally identical, like lists of one manuscript. Strange as this incredible accuracy of the oral sources of the nomadic, illiterate horde may seem, it is nevertheless a real fact that cannot be doubted" (Valikhanov Ch. Collected Works in 5 volumes, vol. 1. Alma-Ata, 1961, p. 391).

page 97

they are made in completely different artistic traditions. However, in both works, the main character hits his opponent knocked down from his horse with a very long spear in the stomach; in the Orlat image, one spear broke on the enemy's chest even earlier, and in the Kosik image, an arrow sticks out in his side; the enemy's horse is wounded by an arrow in the withers. The main character's assistant is depicted to the right of him and is armed not with a spear, like the first one, but with a bow.

These are probably episodes from the emerging heroic epic, which probably retains, especially in the scenes with the "miraculous hunt", clear elements of ancient myths.

In general, in the considered episodes of the battle, we see first of all the scene of a duel between two heroes. The main character (in detailed images) is noticeably distinguished by his costume and equipment, he is often represented in the center of the composition, he is accompanied by a more modest-looking partner (Alans, European Scythians), and sometimes the enemy also has him (Kangyuans). The hero finishes off the enemy with a spear, whose horse has fallen (wounded )and who defends himself with a sword, but the hero himself remains unharmed.

It is unlikely that we will be able to find any exact correspondences of the two episodes considered in the heroic epics of settled Indo-Iranian peoples with established statehood that have come down to us in later records (even in such gigantic vaults as the Shah-Nama and the Mahabharata). After all, our images illustrate the epics of specific nomadic tribes of the Steppe - Scythians-Skolots, Siraks, Alans and Kangyu people. They disappeared without a trace, with the exception of the Alans, whose direct Ossetian descendants preserved the richest and still insufficiently studied Nart epic, which was perceived in its main elements by their ancient Caucasian neighbors. It is to him that we must turn.

Due to the similarity of images of fighting warriors in most scenes and the variety of details of such images, it is more convenient to start with the "miraculous hunt"scene to find out the range of specific subjects presented in them.

E. E. Kuzmina, following the guess of V. F. Miller, compared the scene of a hare hunt on the Amu Darya Umbon with the text of the Ossetian Nart epic about the capture of Khamyts at the end of the earth in the image of an immortal white hare of his future wife, descended from underground btsentov-one of the progenitors of the nart-Alans. 53 Two other hunters chase deer and mountain goats, animals that are associated with the goddess Atsirukhs/Agunda in the Nart epic. Exiled, in order to marry her, had to pay kalym with these ungulates, which the patron god of animals Afsati himself helps him catch. So, in the Ossetian epic, both scenes are the core of important ethnogenetic legends.

Above was the description of the" miraculous hunt " on the left Orlat plate. In the Nart epic, there is a cycle whose versions of the tales seem to explain many of the details of this Kangyu scene. This is a cycle about the hunt of three narts-Uryzmag, Soslan and Khamyts-for a magical fox with a golden (or black) skin (an incarnation of the god Uastyrdzhi himself), the capture of which, for a reason already unclear to the storytellers, should bring great benefit to the whole people and the skin of which is declared public property 54 . After the capture, the obligatory stories of each of the hunters follow, necessarily including the motif of the "sacred marriage". Interesting coincidence of the details of the legends and the scene on the plate: in both cases, the participants of the hunt

Kuzmina. 53 Semantics of images... p. 204 p. similar scenes in the art of the Sarmatians (Yatsenko. Anthropomorphic images of Sarmatia... p. 196. N 30).

54 At the "Indo-Aryan" kalash of the Hindu Kush, during the winter festival, a sacred fox hunt was organized, during which it was enough to at least see this animal, which was considered a companion of one of the main male deities, and this signified prosperity and fertility in the New Year. See Jettmar K. Religions of the Hindu Kush, Moscow, 1986, pp. 374, 394, 408. See additional argumentation of the marriage symbolism of such hunting among the Alano-Ossetians: Chochiev A. R. Narty-arii i aryiskaya ideologiya [Narts-Arias and Aryan ideology]. Moscow, 1996, pp. 14-17.

page 98

three; the most successful of them - the youngest and most modest Soslan, the hunt takes place in the mountains, against the background of the forest, a big role is played by a lit fire; unknown forces prevent the heroes from successfully organizing the chase, etc. 55

The Nart epic presents an episode of the same Soslan hunting a magical deer-the goddess Atsirukhs ("Divine Light"), when the arrows do not enter her body, they fall out of the quiver by themselves, and the bow immediately breaks, etc. 56 A detailed illustration of one of the variants of this epic text is probably presented on the Alan bridle turn of II-III centuries AD from Rostov-on-Don 57 . Note also that in the Abkhazian versions of the Nart tales, Soslan is often called "the chief hunter", "the lord of game", etc. 58

In the Ossetian epic, Atsirukhs and the daughter of btsentov appear before the hunter usually in the guise of a female of this or that animal. Recall that on the Orlat plate, at the very bottom of the image, the only female (deer) among the hunted is visible. It is possible that the rider also hunts a hare on the Amu Darya umbon. On the Solokhskaya bowl, a lioness appears in one of the hunting scenes (which is not quite usual for Scythian art). However, the details of the plots with them too clearly do not correspond to the currently known texts about Atsruhs, and the question remains open.

The scene of a lone horseman hunting a wild boar with a spear, similar to that of Kosik, is also represented in synchronous images of the first and second centuries AD in other parts of the Iranian world (the painting of crypt No. 9 in Scythian Naples 59 , the golden plate at the Saksan-Ohur settlement in Northern Bactria 60). The rider always moves to the right. Such "hunting" scenes in the art of Indo-Iranians initially had a pronounced cult load: during the" magic hunt", a demon appears in the form of a boar 61 . In the Alano-Ossetian epic, the main plot of this kind is a magical duel between the same Soslan and the giant Eltagan (see below) in alchiki: a boar jumped out of the abandoned alchiki of the latter, and a pair of dogs jumped out of Soslan's alchiki. The duel ended with the death of Eltagan, whose scalp with golden hair completed the decor of Soslan's unusual fur coat.

I do not know of any close textual correspondences to the Kosik scene of two horsemen hunting two boars (unless it is the same animal).

55 See, for example: A sled... Troichnoi strukturu kollektivnykh okhot i osobennoe rol ' v them neugasimogo ogna u tyurko-mongol'skikh kochevnikov: Zhambalova S. G. Oblavnaya okhota kak fenomen kul'tury kochevnikov - skotovodov [The trinity structure of collective hunts and the special role of the inextinguishable fire in them among the Turkic-Mongolian nomads: Zhambalova S. G. Oblavnaya okhota kak fenomen kul'tury kochevnikov-skotovodov]. Mezhdunarodnaya konferentsiya "100 let hunnskoy arkheologii. Nomadism". Part I. Ulan-Ude, 1996, p. 120.

56 Narty... p. 150, 177.

Yatsenko. 57 On succession... p. 77. N 3 (see above). Here, two horsemen with swords (!) (with empty quivers at their belts) hunt for a griffin and a winged doe (?). The composition is accompanied by a male deity with large animal ears presented on the chest. A series of his images among the Sarmatians and Alans, on petroglyphs of the Saka circle, is associated by me with the patron god of animals such as the Ossetian Afsati (Ibid., p. 65. N 1; see also Guriev T. A. Heritage of the Scythians and Alans. Essays on words and names. Vladikavkaz, 1991, pp. 4-19), who, according to epic texts, actively helps Soslan marry Atsirukhs. A completely different story about the hunt of a single rider for a deer near a tree is known on a Scythian plate of the IV century BC from Gunovka. There are two direct parallels to it in the Ossetian Nart epic: 1) Ahsartag's hunt for a fruit - stealing deer under a magic tree (an incarnation of the sea goddess); 2) Uaryzmag's duel with the cruel eastern ruler Skhualia, who took the form of a deer and owned a country with magic early-maturing trees (Narty... pp. 27, 48). See Yatsenko. On continuity ... p. 76 sl.

Inil-Ipa Sh. D. 58 Monuments of Abkhazian folklore. A sled. Acans. Sukhumi, 1977. p. 47.

59 See color reproduction: Unbekannte Krim. Archaologische Schatze aus drei Jahrtausenden. Heidelberg, 1999. Abb. 8-10. Here the hunter is assisted by black and red dogs. Date-II-beginning. III centuries by Yu. L. Zaitsev.

60 Antiquities of Tajikistan. Exhibition catalog. Dushanbe, 1985. Photo on page 88.

Rayevsky. 61 UK. op. p. 83. In Alan mythology, the giant boar is an instrument of revenge of the patron god of animals Afsati. See Guriev. Uk. op. p. 13.

page 99

But in one case, a story familiar to us from the Soslan cycle about the siege of a fortress in connection with the extraction of a wonderful wife (see below) was correlated with the Refugee and his hunt with the cowardly and envious Gurgen for a Juakheti boar. The hero has to fight a demon in the form of a boar, who bathes daily in the heavenly milk lake (the hero's task is to get the jaw / head of a magical animal) 62 .

Thus, the hunting scenes of one or three horsemen can in many cases be typologically compared with one of the plots of the oldest and most popular in the Alan - Ossetian Nart epic cycle about Soslan. This opens up the possibility of interpreting the second plot - the battle of a pair of heroes (one of whom acts as an assistant and looks more modest) with two (or more) opponents, who sometimes take the former by surprise.

In the Nart epic, there are not so many stories about the exploits of two heroes. Close attention should be paid to one of them, which also belongs to the cycle about Soslan and is also connected with the motif of the "sacred marriage". At the time of Exiled's marriage to the sun's daughter, the goddess Atsirukhs/Agunda, she is abducted by the ruler of the eastern "pernicious land" of spirits, Chelakhsartag, and hidden in the fortress of Khiz, guarded by supernatural beings. To fight the forces of evil, the famous heavenly Batraz goes as Soslan's junior partner (according to another version, this is Dzeh or an unknown young hero who is dying inside the fortress from an enchanted arrow 63 : cf.images of the upper tier of the right Orlat plate). All sleds are mobilized, but the real feats are performed by two named characters. After many adventures, the enemy is killed , the fortress is taken by the enemy, and Soslan gets a treasure-the magic Cerek shell, which jumps out to the owner when shouting "fight!". The epic claims that this carapace was once presented by the sun god to one of the progenitors of the narts - Uarkhtanag, as a future father-in-law (in connection with the latter's marriage to another daughter of the deity).

In the Abkhazian versions, the extraction of Soslan (Sasrykva) inside the fortress is much more important: here he discovers a lot of unknown cultural plants .65

As is known, V. I. Abaev revealed the similarity of the described Alan-Ossetian plot about the hero's siege of a fortress to free his kidnapped wife (the obligatory elements are the active intervention of the gods, the hero's loss of his friend, putting on the skin of an animal, and the single combat of two main opponents that does not decide the outcome of the war) with the supposed main plot of the Greek "great Iliad". He gave a number of arguments in favor of the fact that the common core of these plots may date back to the time of Indo-European unity .66 Later, in the Middle Ages, a similar plot, known to both the Persians and the Caucasian bearers of the Nart epic, passed into Georgian folklore and was reflected in one of the episodes of the famous poem by Shota Rustaveli. 67 The described plot, in turn, is typologically similar to scenes from

62 Monuments of folk art of Ossetians. March folk tales. Issue 1. Vladikavkaz, 1925. pp. 114-121. Only in one text, the goddess who has shown treachery and an evil disposition turns Uryzmag with the help of a magic whip into a boar, on which he lets down dogs (ibid., p. 69).

63 See, for example: Narty... p. 118-121.

64 Ways and circumstances of taking a fortress (mining, etc.) in the epic of the Turkic and Mongolian peoples differ from those of the Iranians. Cf. Lipetsk R. S. Images of a batyr and his horse in the Turkic-Mongolian epic. Moscow, 1984.pp. 107-110.

Inal-Ip. 65 Uk. op. p. 23. Cf. in the Turkic Karakalpak epic " Forty Girls "(in which the ancient Sako - Massaget "Amazonian" and other motifs are generally recognized), a maiden fortress made of metal called Meuli ("Having fruits/fruits").

66 Abaev V. I. The Trojan Horse. Caucasian parallels / / Abaev V. I. Izbrannye trudy [Selected works]. Vol. 1. Folklore. Religion. Literature. Vladikavkaz, 1990. p. 336 p., 348 p., 364.

67 P. Abaev V. I. O fol'klornoy osnove poemy Shota Rustaveli "Vityaz v barsovoi shkure" [On the folklore basis of Shota Rustaveli's poem "The Knight in the Leopard skin"].

page 100

the Iranian "Shah-nama" about the campaign of the hero Rostem on the country of demons-devas Mazen-deran (also with the aim of freeing prisoners). Rostem's assistant is Avled. On the battlefield, Rostem defeats the demon hero Juya, and later their king himself (in both cases, he pierces their armor at belly level with a long spear; cf. Kosik and Orlat images) 68 .

Now we can go back to the image of a boar hunt (or the same boar?) at the Kosik cup. Does it relate to the story of Soslan's duel with the kidnapper of his wife discussed above? It also has the most direct meaning - the Nart epic provides several similar examples. So, in one of the Abkhazian versions (in a similar plot, Soslan is replaced by Khvazharpys), the hero learns that the soul of the kidnapper is stored in a distant gorge in the body of a wild boar with a golden bell around its neck .69

We have an opportunity to partially verify the validity of the assumption about the connection of the depicted plots with the Soslan cycle. As already noted, the pictorial analogy of the Orlat and Kosik scenes is the composition on the Alan idol with the Etoka river. In general, the idol represents the figure of a certain deity. In its upper part, the sun and moon are depicted to the right and left of the head. In Alano-Ossetian mythology, there is only one character with these luminaries on his shoulders - Soslan 70. (This is also reported in relation to one of the Kafir gods - Mandi.) The two-tiered scene of the battle of two pairs of soldiers on the idol has already been compared by me with the plot about one of the main exploits of Soslan - the battle with the guardian of the " 10 golden gate"the entrance to the underworld," the son of Frost, " one of the four vayugs by the giant Mukara, and then by his brother Bibits at the Black Mountain far to the north." Indeed, in the first case, the opponents fought on horseback, and in the second case on foot, etc. 72

Let us briefly discuss the meaning of the image of Soslan. He, like his wife Atsirukhs, are characters of the solar nature. In Alano - Ossetian mythology, Soslan (an analogue of the Scythian Kolaksai) appears as a demigod and a great cultural hero who received sacred gifts from heaven and preserved the bright features of the deity of dying and resurrecting nature, the giver of rain, etc. IV. 5-10). In the Adyghe-Circassian versions of the Nart epic, Soslan (Soziryko) becomes King of Rome 73 . Some groups of Ossetians still trace their origins back to Soslan. He is the only Nart hero revered as a deity even today (the latter is characteristic of Ossetians-Digors).

As I have tried to show in a separate publication, stories similar to the Ossetian cycle about Soslan have been known among European nomadic Scythians since the fourth century BC, and in the Bosporus cities since the first century AD. They are reconstructed by analyzing the details of several close multi-figure scenes involving 9-10 characters 74 . At the turn of the II-III centuries AD, Tanais is the most barbarized city of the Bosporus settlement-

Ferdowsi. 68 Shakhnameh. Vol. 1. Moscow, 1957. p. 400 sl., 404. Obraz Rustam/Rostema probably dates back to a historically real prince of Sakastan in the first half of the first century AD. A.Sh. The Parthian Origin of the House of Rustam // Bulletin of the Asia Institute. New Series. V. 7. Bloomfield Hills, 1993. P. 160.

Inal-Ip. 69 Uk. op. p. 37.

70 Narty... p. 151.

71 Ibid., pp. 128-135; Tsitsoity Yu. A. Narts and their neighbors. Geographical and ethnic names in the Nart epic. Vladikavkaz, 1992, pp. 202-218.

Yatsenko. About 72 techniques... p. 68.

Nogmov Sh 73 History of the Adyghe people. Nalchik, 1982. p. 61 sl.

74 This is a Scythian plate from Sakhnovka, a painting in the Panticapaean "crypt of Anfesteria" and part of the relief composition of the medieval Alan crypt on the Kryvyi Rih. See Yatsenko S. A. On the Sarmatian-Alanian plot in the Panticapaean "crypt of Anfesterium" / / VDI. 1995. N 3. pp. 188-192; on. Sarmatian funeral rituals and Ossetian ethnography / / RA. 1998. N 3. Note 5.

page 101

It is considered a large group of Alans. Only here the specific name Exiled is documented/Sozir 75 .

So, both main plots of different Iranian peoples, apparently, are typologically close to the preserved Ossetian texts describing the" holy marriage " of Soslan/Kolaxaya and Atsirukhs / Tabiti. It is interesting that D. S. Rayevsky, for other reasons, came to the conclusion: the two-handed bowl from Gaiman's grave contains an episode of the legend of the Kolaxai cycle 76 .

Above, the sequence of the studied pair scenes on a series of images was noted (first - "sacred hunt", and then-a duel of warriors). The proposed interpretation of their semantics explains this feature well.

We have reviewed a series of items that are connected in reliably documented cases with the everyday life of men from the military aristocracy of the V century BC-II century AD. They present two complementary subjects. Probably, these episodes of tribal legends emphasized the social status of their owners.

Of course, such items in some cases could perform other functions at the same time. For example, some items with similar scenes are vessels (Kosika, Solokha, Starokorsunskaya, Sarkel). Meanwhile, it is known that in the early Middle Ages, the Iranian-speaking Sogdians of the Semirechye region used specially made images of a duel of warriors, as well as males of various animals, for the rite of causing rain (cf. the image of the Alan-Ossetian Soslan as a rain giver).

For the first time, such subjects were pictorially embodied as if on the western outskirts of the Great Steppe, where the Greek masters of the Bosporus fulfilled the orders of the Scythians and Syraks (Solokha, Yubileyny) (their almost simultaneous, iconographic-specific incarnation in Achaemenid Iran is not excluded) 78 . However, it is unlikely that the latter had any influence on the later products of the more northern regions.

Some researchers have drawn attention to the fact that the Hellenic Torevts were not completely alien to the mythological scenes ordered by the Scythians, due to the initial proximity of Indo-Iranian and archaic Greek cosmology .79 However, such judgments can hardly be applied to the stage-related late steppe epic, which is colored by the specifics of nomadic life and worldview.

75 See Abaev V. I. Slovar ' skifskikh slov [Dictionary of Scythian words]. Drevneiranskiye yazyki [Ancient Iranian Languages], Moscow, 1979, p. 319 pp.

Rayevsky. 76 Uk. soch. p. 19-39.

77. Belenitsky A.M. The White Horse in the cults and ideological representations of the peoples of Central Asia and the Eurasian steppes in the Ancient and Early Middle Ages. 1978. 154. P. 36. Eastern neighbors of the Sogdians-Indo-European inhabitants of Kuchi, according to "Tanshu", "in the New Year, 7 days are amused by the battle of sheep, horses and camels, in order to guess from their fight whether the year will be harvested or not" (Bichurin A. Ya. Collection of information about the peoples who lived in Central Asia in ancient times. Vol. II. Moscow, 1950. p. 296 sl.), compare with the scenes of fights of male animals on the products described above, as well as the image on the walls of the struggle of different "male animals of the same species in the description of the famous palace of Dzhangar in the Kalmyk epic "Dzhangar". Typologically similar, apparently, is the New Year's Eve custom common in pre-Muslim Iran and Central Asia of the struggle between two halves of the city's population "for the camel's head", known according to Maqdisi reports (see Tolstov S. P. Ancient Khorezm, Moscow, 1948, pp. 94-95).

78 Co words of Hares of Mytilene (Athen. Deipnosoph. XII) (late IV century BC) it is known that not only the Persians, but also other "barbarians living in Asia" in the V-IV centuries BC in temples, palaces and private homes depicted episodes of an epic tale of nomadic origin, the central theme of which was the love of the Massaget king Zariander and Odatida - daughters of Omart, King of the Zasyrdarya Sakas. In the families of the Persian nobility under the Achaemenids, the name of the main heroine of the legend was also popular, often given to her daughters (see Barthold V. V. On the history of the Persian epic / / Barthold V. V. Sochineniya. Vol. VII. Moscow, 1971. pp. 385-387).

79 See, for example: Lelekov L. A., Rayevsky D. S. Inokulturny myth v grecheskoi izobrazhitel'noi traditsii [Inocultural Myth in the Greek visual tradition], Zhizn mifa v antichnosti, ch. I. M., 1988, p. 222 sl.; Savostina E. A. Antichnost 'i varvary: vozmozhnost' sopravleniya kul'tury [Antiquity and the Barbarians: the possibility of comparing cultures]. Novocherkassk, 1992. p. 167 pp.

page 102

In conclusion, I would like to note that one of the most likely reasons for the proximity of the plots of the Kosik bowl and the Orlat plates can be considered the ethnopolitical connection of their creators in the chronological framework of the I-III centuries AD with the largest power of Turkestan - Kangyu with its capital in Bityan on the Middle Syr Darya. This" nomadic empire", however, had on its territory a dense network of fortresses, small towns and irrigated land .80 Many researchers believe that the Kangyu people controlled Sughd for a long time. The ethnogenesis of the Chionites of the III-IV centuries is associated by some authors with the former vassal of Kangyu-the Eastern Aral region of Yancai. The nomadic possessions dependent on Kangyu in the first and second centuries A.D. extended far to the west to the Daqin country (Rome), i.e., they included the nomadic countries of Yancai/Alanliao in the Aral Sea region, Yan (Southern Urals?) and Lu (Sarmatian tribes of the Volga-Don). According to the official Chinese chronicle "Wei Lue", describing the events of the 20-60s of the third century AD, only shortly before this time did the strong dependence of these countries on Kangyu completely cease .81

This article is the first attempt to compare the iconography and find out the semantics of a large series of supposed epic scenes of nomads of the Early Iron Age. Time will tell how effective it was. Now there is every reason to believe that, for example, the Sarmatian-Alanian epic was already in the cyclization phase in the I-II centuries AD, at which it was found by the first researchers of the XIX century.

* * *

AN EPIC SUBJECT OF THE IRANIAN-SPEAKING NOMADS IN THE ANTIQUITIES OF THE EURASIAN STEPPES

S.A. Yatsenko

The article deals with two objects found in aristocratic men's burials of nomads from Eastern Europe and Turkestan (lth-2th centuries AD), both of which represent two potential mutually complementary epic scenes. These are two or three horsemen hunting ungulate animals; (b) combat of two pairs of warriors (the silver vessel from Kosika, made by the Alans, and bone beltplates from the Orlat/Kurgan-tepe burial, usually attributed to the Kang- Kuians.

The author traces an analogy between these scenes and the ones on some Scythian artefacts from the 5th-4th centuries ВС (a vessel and a comb from the Solokh mound, placed near the dead person's shoulder), as well as with the ones of the Kuban Siraks in the end of the 2th century ВС (a relief from Yubileinoye) and of the Tashtyk culture in Southern Siberia (wooden plates from Tepsey). Of crucial importance are also similar paired scenes in the medieval Alan culture (a stone idol from the Etok river dated back to 1130, the mouth of a leather winebag from Sarkel).

Both objects feature a battle scene in which the protagonist has just unhorsed his opponent and is piercing his belly with a long spear. The horse had earlier been wounded in the head. To the right of the protagonist stands a somewhat more modest "assistant", armed with a bow instead of a spear. The protagonist can be told by specific details of his gala costume and expecially by the equipment of his horse. The faces of the characters however are usually alike.

The Orlat scene obviously features a "magic" hunt, since the horsemen have neither arrows on their bowstrings, nor any weapons for killing animals. Of some interest in that respect are the similar "hunting" scenes on the silver disc from the Treasure of Oxus, on the Achaemenian dagger from the Scythian mound of Chertomlyk, and on the Kushanian bone chest from Takhti-Sangin.

The nomadic tribes who created these objects have vanished without a trace - all except the Alans

80 History of Kazakhstan from ancient times to the present day, vol. I. Alma-ata, 1996, pp. 277, 280, 282-286.

81 See Chen Shou. San go zhi. Beijing, 1959 (in Chinese), p. 419; Zuev Yu. A. Sarmatian-Alans of the Aral Sea region (Yancai/Abzoya) / / Culture of nomads at the turn of the century: problems of genesis and transformation. Alma-ata, 1995, p. 393.

page 103

whose descendants, the Ossetians, still inhabit the Caucasus and have preserved many traditions of the ancient religion as well as the archaic "Nart" epic cycle. If we examine this cycle, we can discover two subjects which are quite close to those discussed above. Both of them are connected with a male protagonist, the demi-god and cultural hero Soslan, and his marriage with Atsirukhs, the goddess of fertility. In the first case Soslan catches a sacred animal into which the goddess has transformed herself. In the second case Soslan helped by a friend tries to rescue his bride from the kidnapper Tchelakhsarton, ruler of the land of evil spirits, finally killing him. Thus, we are dealing with important ethnogenetic legends.

The iconographic stability of the two studied scenes during many centuries among different nomadic Iranian peoples is an evidence for close relationship of their epic tales. There are no visible traces of their being influenced by highly developed art traditions of Iran and Greece.


© elib.jp

Permanent link to this publication:

https://elib.jp/m/articles/view/AN-EPIC-STORY-OF-IRANIAN-SPEAKING-NOMADS-IN-THE-ANTIQUITIES-OF-STEPPE-EURASIA

Similar publications: LJapan LWorld Y G


Publisher:

Nikamura NagasakiContacts and other materials (articles, photo, files etc)

Author's official page at Libmonster: https://elib.jp/Nikamura

Find other author's materials at: Libmonster (all the World)GoogleYandex

Permanent link for scientific papers (for citations):

S. A. Yatsenko (Moscow), AN EPIC STORY OF IRANIAN-SPEAKING NOMADS IN THE ANTIQUITIES OF STEPPE EURASIA // Tokyo: Japan (ELIB.JP). Updated: 17.06.2024. URL: https://elib.jp/m/articles/view/AN-EPIC-STORY-OF-IRANIAN-SPEAKING-NOMADS-IN-THE-ANTIQUITIES-OF-STEPPE-EURASIA (date of access: 10.02.2025).

Publication author(s) - S. A. Yatsenko (Moscow):

S. A. Yatsenko (Moscow) → other publications, search: Libmonster JapanLibmonster WorldGoogleYandex

Comments:



Reviews of professional authors
Order by: 
Per page: 
 
  • There are no comments yet
Related topics
Publisher
Rating
0 votes
Related Articles
SEN KATAYAMA AS A HISTORIAN
Catalog: History 
11 days ago · From Haruto Masaki
A. I. KRUSHANOV. VICTORY OF SOVIET POWER IN THE FAR EAST AND TRANSBAIKALIA (1917-APRIL 1918)
Catalog: History Bibliology 
11 days ago · From Haruto Masaki
THOMAS HUBER. THE REVOLUTIONARY ORIGINS OF MODERN JAPAN
11 days ago · From Haruto Masaki
POLITICAL EXILE IN SIBERIA AT THE END OF THE XVIII-BEGINNING OF THE XX CENTURY. SOURCES AND HISTORIOGRAPHY
Catalog: History 
12 days ago · From Haruto Masaki
AINU PEOPLE
Catalog: Anthropology History 
16 days ago · From Haruto Masaki
M. I. SVETACHEV. Imperialist intervention in Siberia and the Far East (1918-1922)
Catalog: History Bibliology 
16 days ago · From Haruto Masaki
KURILORUSSIA
17 days ago · From Haruto Masaki
ONCE AGAIN ABOUT TSUSHIMA
Catalog: History 
17 days ago · From Haruto Masaki
VICTORY IN THE FAR EAST
17 days ago · From Haruto Masaki
STRENGTHENING OF NEOCONSERVATIVE TENDENCIES IN HISTORICAL AND POLITICAL STUDIES OF BOURGEOIS AUTHORS IN JAPAN
17 days ago · From Haruto Masaki

New publications:

Popular with readers:

News from other countries:

ELIB.JP - Japanese Digital Library

Create your author's collection of articles, books, author's works, biographies, photographic documents, files. Save forever your author's legacy in digital form. Click here to register as an author.
Library Partners

AN EPIC STORY OF IRANIAN-SPEAKING NOMADS IN THE ANTIQUITIES OF STEPPE EURASIA
 

Editorial Contacts
Chat for Authors: JP LIVE: We are in social networks:

About · News · For Advertisers

Digital Library of Japan ® All rights reserved.
2023-2025, ELIB.JP is a part of Libmonster, international library network (open map)
Preserving the Japan heritage


LIBMONSTER NETWORK ONE WORLD - ONE LIBRARY

US-Great Britain Sweden Serbia
Russia Belarus Ukraine Kazakhstan Moldova Tajikistan Estonia Russia-2 Belarus-2

Create and store your author's collection at Libmonster: articles, books, studies. Libmonster will spread your heritage all over the world (through a network of affiliates, partner libraries, search engines, social networks). You will be able to share a link to your profile with colleagues, students, readers and other interested parties, in order to acquaint them with your copyright heritage. Once you register, you have more than 100 tools at your disposal to build your own author collection. It's free: it was, it is, and it always will be.

Download app for Android