Pazyryk

The interpretation of depictions in petroglyphs belonging to the Bronze Age in South Siberia as shamanic ones is debatable. Obviously, cultic attributes belonging to men were not removed from barrows 2 and 5 in Pazyryk. Their series can be compared with complexes (known to ethnologists) belonging to shamans of Iranian peoples. Such elements of practicing sequential shamanic rituals as divination, use of musical instruments, entering into a trance state, summoning patron spirits and their “feeding”, exorcism of evil spirits can be reconstructed. 

Keywords: Indo-Iranian shamanism, Pazyryk culture shamans, shamans images, South Siberia, material culture

(222 plates of illustrations will be in special file. The pages' numeration is special for each big chapter. For real book numeration move the cursor to the right border of each pages / 222 таблицы иллюстраций будут в специальном файле. Нумерация по техническим причинам – отдельная для каждого большого раздела. Подлинную нумерацию стрнице в книге можно выяснить, подведя курсор к правой границе каждой страницы).
ABSTRACT:
In this book, you will find a complex research of the clothes of Iranian-speaking peoples beginning from their appearance in the world politics and in the written sources of the 7th–6th cc. BC and up to the Islamization of Iran and Transoxiana in the 7th–8th cc. AD. The accessories of the costume (except belts), the military costume, the rulers’ crowns and the costume materials themselves are not the subject matter of the text; but the hairstyle and sometimes tattoos are being under consideration. The first three chapters are devoted to analysis of the main periods of pre-Islamic history of the Iranian world (the time bounds being different for different regions): [1] the Achaemenid-Scythian time (the 7th–6th cc. BC — 4th–3rd cc. BC, for Transoxiana—up to the mid. of the 2nd cc. BC); [2] the Parthian-Sarmatian time (the 4th/3rd cc. BC — the 3rd/4th cc. AD); [3] the Sassanid and Early Medieval time (the 3/4th — the 7/8th cc. AD). The sections of these chapters deal with materials on the 13 peoples: (1) the Persians of the Achaemenian time; (2) the Early Scythians; (3) the Scythians of the “classic” period (the 5th–4th cc. BC); (4) the “Pazyrykians” of the Altai; (5) the Chorasmians (for all the 3 periods); (6) the Parnes—Parthians of Iran; (7) the Sarmatians and Early Alans; (8) the Yuech-chihs / Kushans of Bactria; (9) the Sogdians (the 2nd and 3rd periods); (10) the Indo-Scythians of Gandhara; 11) the Persians of the Sassanid time; (12) the Khotano-Sakas of Southern Xinjiang (the 2nd and 3rd periods); (13) the Tokharistanians (with other ethnic elements). As far as each of the above-mentioned peoples is concerned the above-stated ideas are analyzed and new materials (including unpublished ones) are taken into account, the details of many depictions are defined and the data on peoples are generalized for the first time. First of all, we have studied the costume of these 13 peoples, which gives the most abundant and many-sided information on the costume as clothes in real life are a mass phenomenon and can be studied productively and correctly only in big series (in case of single depictions rare costume elements and the looks of gods of foreign origin are mistakenly taken for typical ones).
The main tasks of the book are: 1. The reconstruction of the look of the ethnic clothing complex for each of the above-mentioned peoples: the silhouette, the cut (the information about the latter is limited) and the decorative prin-ciples, the last task being the most labour-intensive. The results allow of a reliable attribution of many artifacts from museums and private collections. 2. Eliciting the aesthetical ideal of different ethnic groups reflected in the costume; the analysis of the depictions of supposed representatives of a certain people in the art of other countries for defining the degree of the authenticity in the costume depiction and its representativeness for this ethnic group. 3. The comparative analysis of the costume of each separately taken synchronous people in each of the three main historical epochs; the analysis of the costume of each ethnic group in different periods for defining the character of the costume evolution and heredity. 4. The retrospective eliciting of the look of the original costume of the most ancient Iranians and the “costume” traces of the Iranian penetration to the west of Iran. 5. Eliciting the type of the costume contacts of ancient Iranian-speaking peoples and the difference in their importance. 6. The analysis of the summarized data on the least studied significant functions of the costume aiming at eliciting the specificity of the Iranian world and some of its peoples.
We suggest a complex approach including following elements: (1) dealing with all kinds of sources alongside ob-serving the most possible scope of facts on each studied people (in case of a technical impossibility, the representative statistic excerpts are studied); (2) the proper selection of the costume décor remnants from burials under analysis (only the accounts and publications of high quality are used) excluding significantly fragmented and stylized depictions and, for some regions, images of gods; (3) the analysis of the material according to the linguistic and ethnic principles—not a regional one (which is not typical for modern research on the costume history); (4) considering all the main costume attributes of the ethnic group as a single costume complex that reflects the specificity of the people; 5) the description of the costume of each ethnic group according to the common program in chapters 1–3; (6) considering ethnic complexes against the background of the synchronous neighbouring ones and both earlier and later ones up to their successors in the 19th–20th cc. AD (otherwise the rightfulness of most conclusions is difficult to guarantee); (7) the analysis of costume evolution of separate ethnic groups under the influence of different factors; (8) compiling a special summary tables on the costume of each people (each drawing in them not being an exact copy of a definite depiction, but given in the most appropriate foreshortening without unnecessary details interfering with perception).
MORE INFORMATION: 2nd Internet ed., Moscow: X-lab, 2011: http://www.narodko.ru/article/yatsenko/eurazia/ .

CONTENTS:
PREFACE 5
CHAPTER 1. The Achaemenian-Scythian time (7th/6th cc. — 4th/3rd cc. BC) 29
1.1. The Persians 29
1.2. The European Scythians 47
1.3. The Pazyryk culture of the Altai Mountains 83
1.4. The Khorasmians 102
The main conclusions 106
CHAPTER 2. The Parthian-Sarmatian time (3rd cc. BC — 3rd/4th cc. AD) 112
2.1. Parthian Iran 113
2.2. The Sarmatians, the Early Alans and the “Late Scythians” 131
2.3. The Yuech-chihs/Kushans 170
2.4. The Khorasmians 187
2.5. The Indo-Scythians 192
2.6. The Sogdians 197
2.7. The Khotano-Sakas 201
The main conclusions 207
CHAPTER 3. The Sasanian and Early Medieval (Pre-Islamic) time (3rd/4th–7th/8th cc. AD) 212
3.1. Sasanian Iran 213
3.2. The Sogdians 231
3.3. Tokharistan and the neighboring regions to the South 247
3.4. The Khorasmians 262
3.4. The Khotano-Sakas 266
The main conclusions 274
CHAPTER 4. The mechanisms of the costume contacts and
the ways of evolution of the costume of ancient Iranians.
The symbolism of costume 279
4.1. The mechanisms of the costume contacts 280
4.2. The ways of evolution of the costume of various peoples 314
4.3. The sign functions of the costume 322
The main conclusions 362
CONCLUSION 364
APPENDIX. The suggestions on the methods of fixation and description of the costume relics
in burial complexes 367
Glossary 370
BIBLIOGRAPHY 371
Abbreviations 416
List of Iluustrations (in English)          418
List of illustrations (in Russian) 423
Illustrations 435-657
Summary                    658
Contents                      663

Some 2200 years ago, people belonging to the Pazyryk archaeological culture gathered together to bury their dead in mounds on high plateaus in the remote Altai Mountains in the center of Asia. Entire horses—and often groups of horses—were sacrificed at these funerals and interred with the men and women, presumed leaders and commoners alike. By employing an human-animal studies approach to these burials, in this chapter I digress from the archaeological position which views nonhuman animals as calories or constructs to one which includes animal others as impactful upon human social realities.

After grounding this approach in multidisciplinary theory, I bring into the discussion facets of horses, and of human-horse relationships, through both ethological studies of horses and an inside auto-ethnographic research strategy which uses my position within the context of those I shall term working riders: riders who live with and care for horses and possess the ability and knowledge to school them to be ridden. I touch on aspects of human-horse intersubjectivities and situate particular elements of the Pazyryk horse burials. I then attempt to phenomenologically recreate the actual killing of the Pazyryk horse from the perspective of the humans—and the horses—and suggest some mental and emotional processes that might have caused certain behaviors of both at the burial ceremony. Finally I reflect on the viability of creating relational archaeologies of human-animal interactions which allow for both essentialist and constructionist perspectives.

Reconstruction of the Male Headgear from the Pazyryryk Barrow 2

An amazing finial, the pearl of the archeological collection of the State Hermitage Museum comes from the Pazyryk barrow 2. The finial is in the shape of a head of a fantastic eagle holding a deer head in its beak. Full-length figures carrying geese are depicted either side of its neck. It was found in the burial chamber of Pazyryk barrow 2 at the head of the coffin, but S. I. Rudenko never commented on its possible function. After the discovery in some Ulandryk and Yustyd burial mounds of the crest-like wooden finials, the upper part of which resembled a bird’s head, V. D. Kubarev suggested a similar function for that from Pazyryk. More recent excavations on the Ukok plateau and in north-west Mongolia have added further examples.
Three complete headdresses have now been discovered at Ak-Alakha-1 (burial mound 1), Verkh-Kal’dzhin 2 (burial mound 3) and Olon-Kurin-Gol 10 (burial mound 1). All of the headdresses with crest-shaped finials use a standard set of decorative motifs of fantastic hoofed animals and eagles. The eagles are either three-dimensional or appliqued. The hoofed animals either appear as statuettes or in relief with separate heads, and their bodies resemble stylized horses, deer and rams, with separate – usually goat-like – horns, long tails and stylized birds’ heads. All may represent different versions of a hoofed griffin, more complete images of which have been found in Pazyryk tattoos. The bodies of the relief ‘deer’ (usually with goat’s horns) could have images of rams’ heads (on the rump) and saiga or goat (on the shoulder).
A comparative analysis of these headdresses allowed a reconstruction of that from the Pazyryk barrow 2. Such elements include two double symmetrical compositions of leather and wood, depicting fantastic eagles grappling with hoofed griffins. The headdress had them positioned symmetrically, one on either side. The animals’ bodies are made of thick leather with cut-in relief detailing. The wooden heads, added separately, have leather ears, with crests on the eagles and horns on the hoofed griffins. The details on the double compositions are stylistically similar to the finial images, and were surely made by the same craftsman. Although both compositions have sustained considerable damage, it is possible to reconstruct their appearance as they are symmetrical.
It seems curious that the craftsman had not planned for the hoofed character’s head to be made separately, and had positioned its front legs differently. In the original version (without the deer head) the composition is almost identical to that on a gold aigrette with the griffin-vulture with a goat in its talons. The details of the legs of the eagle, and the figure of the goat.
The contest scene was repeated five times, on the common Pazyryk headdresses this was only ever hinted at, and the figures of the hoofed animals and eagles were placed next to one another. All the details were covered in gold leaf and painted red. The finial was considerably larger than common warriors so the chieftain would have stood out among his army. The great height and weight of the finial, which would have been affixed to the felt hood-base, would have demanded substantial reinforcement when the headdress was being constructed. Apart from the ornamental elements, the burial mound contained fragments of the actual hood-headdress, which was made of reddish felt and finished on the outside with red madder-dyed plant-based textile. Vertical strips of the same material were sewn onto the inside of the hood. These secured long and narrow iron plates, 0.5 cm in width and 20 cm in length, three on either side. The chinstraps of the headdress were tied with leather cord.
On the whole, this headdress would have had a rather intimidating effect and may have been worn in the chieftain’s final battle. The heads of the eagle and hoofed griffin on the right-hand side of the headdress have been struck off with a single blow, and the eagle’s wing has been lost. This damage corresponds with the two pointed battle-axe wounds on the right side of the chieftain’s head and the severely disfigured left-hand scene coincides with the area of the third blow. All of the Pazyryk culture headdresses with finials are concentrated in the south-east Altai region, and are dated to the rather narrow period of the late fourth to early third century bc.

Despite recent calls to view nonhuman animals as more than objects within archaeological studies, traditional interpretations of horses in Iron Age Inner Asian communities continue to consider them as relevant only through their functional or symbolic significance to humans. This article argues for a “relational” rather than “domination” model of human-horse interactions, and that a necessary step toward this is a more clear understanding of horses, themselves, as social beings. This is brought to light through ethological studies and the understandings of “working riders,” including the author. Using a case study of the Iron Age Pazyryk human-horse burials, it is then proposed that through this lens the outfits of the horses in the Pazyryk kurgans might be seen to reflect roles and statuses of the horses, rather than of the humans.

Series of artifacts from burials in Pazyryk belonging to the Scythian time are the most important ones. Having survived after robberies in barrows 2 and 5 in Pazyryk, both trustworthy and supposed-to-be cultic attributes belonging to the two men can be in principle compared with complexes documented by ethnologists for Iranian and Indo-Iranian peoples (first of all, for the old man with atypical appearance – a sixty-year-old mongoloid from barrow 2). The possible series of shamanic rituals were as follows: divination with the help of a mirror and/or vessels, use of the harp and the percussion without a beater, use of animal skins and carpets in ritual purposes, going into the state of trance inhaling hemp smoke, summoning of patron spirits and feeding them with a special spoon, exorcism of evil spirits with the help of a knife and a whip. But we do not have a serious ground to assume that such practices were the main activities in the life of those noble warriors and chiefs and deny their performing sometimes some other non-shamanic rites. Judging from the facts we know about the Iranian and Indo-Iranian World, non-shamanic rites could be more significant for their tribesmen, than shamanic actions themselves.