UDC 903.27

Institute of Archeology and Ethnography SB RAS 17 Akademika Lavrentieva Ave., Novosibirsk 630090, Russia

E-mail: aseev@archaeolog.nsc.ru

The article is devoted to the analysis of the image of a horseman made with thin carved lines on a fossil fragment of an ostrich egg shell found on a sandblast in the Gobi Desert (Mongolia). The drawing is considered against the background and in comparison with petroglyphs of the Turkic era in Mongolia, the Baikal region, and the Altai and dates from the same time, but not later than the V-VI centuries. The find can be attributed to the cult objects associated with shamanism. The miniaturization of the image on such a fragile material as the shell of an ostrich egg determines its purpose as a fetish that can always be carried with you.

Materials from archaeological sites dating back to the time of the Indo-Iranians ' movement in the second and first millennia BC from the European and, obviously, Eurasian steppes to Near Asia indicate an indissoluble connection between ancient nomads and the horse. During the excavations of the burials, along with the remains of a man and a horse, the earliest forms of bits, the first stirrups and saddles were found. In the era of the Turkic Khaganate (VI-VIII centuries), it was customary to bury noble Turks with an abundance of accompanying equipment, as well as with two or three horses and a large number of horses specially killed for this purpose [Kubarev G. V., Kubarev V. D., 2003, pp. 64-82]. Horse and Rider is a common subject of petroglyphs of the Turkic era, left by Kurykans in the Baikal region and on the Lena River [Okladnikov, 1959, p. 110-155], by Turkic tribes in Mongolia [Novgorodova, 1984, figs. 58, 60] and in the Altai [Kubarev V. D., 2001]. Bronze figures of a horse and rider were found during excavations of the Kopensk Chaatas burial mounds in Khakassia (Kiselyov, 1951, Table XVII). This issue is most fully covered in the monograph of V. B. Kovalevskaya "Horse and Rider", in which only the list of references includes 239 works [1977, p. 142 - 151]. The book has not lost its significance against the background of numerous publications devoted to individual episodes from the life of nomads of the Turkic era. In addition to historical facts, it presents objects of artistic casting, fine plastics, high reliefs and graphic drawings with images of a horse and a man, made of durable materials-gold, silver, bronze, stone, clay. Therefore, they have come down to our days without major flaws and losses. But there are works of ancient masters who used completely unconventional and fragile materials, which also depict a horse and rider. And only thanks to careful treatment of them, dictated, apparently, by sacred motives, in hundreds of years we can get information about social and ethnic processes, as well as about mythology and art in ancient societies. One of these works is a drawing on a fragment of an ostrich egg shell found in 1976 in the Dalan-Zadagat area of the Gobi Desert (south-central Mongolia) in a sandblast among sparse grasshopper vegetation. The size of the fragment is 2.5 x 2 cm (Fig. 1). On its concave surface, the contours of the horse and rider are made in the graffiti technique. The mane is shown as three prongs. In the course of further development-

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by drawing along the contour with deeper lines, the artist gave the image a volume similar to a high relief. Undoubtedly, some role in the deepening of these lines and their grinding for a long time was played by erosion effects. The horse's figure is characterized by realistic, but somewhat heavy forms - a large head with a powerful neck curved at the withers, massive legs. The arch of the back is marked out, turning into a steep croup and a lush, slightly raised tail, along which two lines are drawn in full length, giving it volume. The horse is shown in motion. A thin line from snoring shows the bridle descending to the neck. The rider is depicted full-face, with his arm thrown back at shoulder level. A carved line outlines the outline of the head. An irregular rectangle indicates a short cap or seatpost hanging from the horse's back.

If you look closely at the drawing, you will notice that it copies in detail the images of horses of the Turkic era. They are characterized by the transfer of the mane in the form of teeth (Fig. 2, 3). On this basis, A. P. Okladnikov attributed the drawings found on the Lena River to the Turkic era, and specifically, to the Kurykans [1959, pp. 110-111]. Riders, with rare exceptions, are depicted very schematically; preference was given to the figure of a horse, the details of which are drawn carefully. Illustrative in this regard are the plot drawings on stone slabs from the shaft of the Mankhai settlement, located on Mount Mankhai in the Ust-Horde Buryat National District. Researchers believe that this ancient settlement was inhabited in the first millennium by Kurykans belonging to Turkic tribes (Sedyakina, 1964). Since the materials of the monument were published [Aseev, 1980, pp. 103-127], there is no need to dwell on them in detail. In the context of the problem under consideration, we will pay attention to the drawings on some of the plates (a collection of these plates is located in the vaults of the Institute of Electric Power Engineering of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences). They depict horsemen in armor (Figs. 4, 1-3), with banners (figs. 4, 5), hunting scenes (figs. 4, 4, 8), vaulting (figs. 4, 6), saddled horse (Figs. 4, 7). All drawings are made with a thin carved line. Due to the fact that the slabs were covered with an earthen embankment (hillfort rampart), they retained their original appearance. In many drawings, the horse's mane is represented by three (or more) vertical strokes. In most cases, the harmony of the horse and the plasticity of movements are emphasized, the proportions of the animal's body are observed. The figure of the rider is almost schematic. He is depicted sitting half-turned to the viewer; one arm is usually thrown back, the other he holds the bridle. All this confirms the conclusions of A. P. Okladnikov about the belonging of such drawings to the art of the Turkic era.

Images of horses with scalloped manes and riders sitting half-turned to the viewer are found in petroglyphs of Mongolia, in the Bager Somon of the Gobi-Altai aimag (Novgorodova, 1984). It should be noted that near such drawings on the rocks there are often tamga-like signs in the form of kru-

Figure 1. Image of a rider on a fragment of an ostrich egg shell (enlarged 2 times).

Photo by V. N. Kavelin.

Figure 2. A rider with an unfolded standard. Shishkin's Writings (based on Okladnikov, 1959).

3. Kyrgyz horseman. Shishkin's Writings (based on Okladnikov, 1959).

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Fig. 4. Plot drawings. Manhai hillfort.

gov, kryuchkov, etc., accompanied by Turkic characters. On Mount Khanyn-khad in Bugat Somon in the Yamany-us gorge, a rider on a horse is depicted next to a series of similar signs. The drawing is made in a typical Turkic manner: "A horse with a lean belly, on long legs, the rider has a quiver on his back and a bridle in his hand. In the same part of the rock, a finely scratched Turkic inscription was found..."[Ibid., p. 126]. Appealing to the translation of the text, E. A. Novgorodova writes:: "From a historical point of view, the appearance on the rock of an order for the further advance of the army with the application of the Khan's seal - tamga seems interesting..." [Ibid.]. And further, the author, using the example of the drawings given in the work from the Mankhai settlement (Baikal region) and from the Khar-Khad rock (Mongolia), convincingly shows that the Turks had not only light cavalry armed with bows, but also cataphractaries clad in armor [Ibid., Figs.58, 60]. This is evidenced by some of the images in Figure 4.

When comparing the drawing on a fragment of an ostrich egg shell from Mongolia with the petroglyphs of the Mankhai settlement, many similarities are observed. Obviously, this drawing should also be dated to the Middle Ages, but not later than the V-VI centuries AD. e. It should be noted that most of the rock carvings are located in secret and inaccessible places, which for thousands of years have been sanctuaries for many peoples. Petroglyphs are an invaluable source of information about social and ethnic processes, religion, mythology, and art. The eggshell fragment under consideration with the image of a horseman can be attributed to cult objects. It was probably used for magical purposes and was associated with shamanism-

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iom. On the shamanic costumes of Siberian peoples, including the Turkic-speaking ones, there are very often pendants in the form of figures of various birds, personifying spirits, with the help of which shamans communicate with deities of various elements [Alekseev, 1984, p. 144]. The ostrich is also a bird, although it cannot fly, but in running and endurance it is not inferior to a good racehorse. A fragment of the shell with a horse and rider depicted on it could be a fetish, syncretically denoting the spirit of a fleet-footed horse. The fact that the ostrich lived on the territory of Mongolia was noted by Soviet paleontologists, in particular I. A. Efremov [1962, p. 96]. This can be confirmed by a half-shell of an ostrich egg found in the indigenous deposits of Aeolian sands in Western Transbaikalia, whose territory is climatically and geologically similar to the steppes of Mongolia (Ivanov, 1966, p. 51, Fig. 10).

If we take into account the presence of ostrich images in the Khoyt-Tsenker-agui cave in the northern spurs of the Mongolian Altai [Okladnikov, 1972, p. 54; Novgorodova, 1984, fig. 2], as well as on the petroglyphic monument Aral-Tolgoi (Mongolian Altai) [Kubarev V. D., Zabelin, 2006, p. 87-103; Kubarev V. D., Tseveendorzh, Yakobson, 1999, Fig. 3], then we can suggest a special attitude to this bird in the Neolithic era, obviously associated not only with a large number of animal protein and feathers for decoration, but also with mythology, animistic ideas.

List of literature

Alekseev N. A. Shamanism of the Turkic-speaking peoples of Siberia. Novosibirsk: Nauka Publ., 1984, 233 p. (in Russian)

Aseev I. V. The Baikal region in the Middle Ages. Novosibirsk: Nauka Publ., 1980, 151 p. (in Russian)

Efremov A. I. Doroga vetrov. - Moscow: [First obraztsovaya tip. im. A. A. Zhdanov], 1962. - 365 p.

Ivanov A.D. Aeolian sands of Western Transbaikalia and the Baikal region. - Ulan-Ude: Bur. kn. izd-vo, 1966. - 232 p.

Kiselev S. V. Drevnyaya istoriya Yuzhnoi Sibiri [Ancient History of Southern Siberia], Moscow: Publishing House of the USSR Academy of Sciences, 1951, 642 p.

Kovalevskaya V. B. Kon ' i vsadnik [Horse and Rider]. Chief Editor. East lit., 1977. 151 p.

Kubarev V. D. Plots of hunting and war in the ancient Turkic petroglyphs of Altai / / Archeology, Ethnography and Anthropology of Eurasia. - 2001. - N 4 (8). - p. 96-107.

Kubarev V. D., Zabelin V. I. Avifauna Tsentral'noi Azii po drevnim rasdrazhkam i arkheologo-etnograficheskim istochnikam [Avifauna of Central Asia based on ancient drawings and archaeological and ethnographic sources]. - 2006. - N 2 (26). - P. 87-103.

Kubarev V. D., Tseveendorzh D., Yakobson E. Petroglyphs of the Aral-Tolgoi / / Problems of Archeology, Ethnography, and Anthropology of Siberia and adjacent territories. Novosibirsk: Publishing House of IAET SB RAS, 1999. - P. 407-410.

Kubarev G. V., Kubarev V. D. Pogrebenie znatnogo tyurka iz Balyk-Sook (Tsentralny Altay) [Burial of a noble Turk from Balyk-Sook (Central Altai)]. - 2003. - N 4 (16). - P. 64-82.

Novgorodova E. A. The world of petroglyphs in Mongolia. Chief Editor. East lit., 1984. - 168 p.

Okladnikov A. P. Shishkinskie pisanitsy [Shishkin's Writings]. Irkutsk: Kn. izd-vo, 1959, 210 p. (in Russian)

Okladnikov A. P. Central Asian hearth of primitive art: cave paintings of Hoyt-Tsenker-agui (Sengri-agui). Western Mongolia. Novosibirsk: Nauka Publ., 1972, 75 p. (in Russian)

Sedyakina E. F. Kurykany // Ancient Siberia: (Mock-up of the first volume of the "History of Siberia"). Ulan-Ude: Department of Gum Research. Institute of Economics of the Siberian Branch of the USSR Academy of Sciences, 1964, pp. 427-439.

The article was submitted to the Editorial Board on 24.09.07.

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