Catalogue - Metropolitan Museum of Art

98
This handle is in the shape of an exquisitely
and naturalistically modeled fallow deer.
Although found in Siberia, it is of Iranian
manufacture. The spots on the body and
the horns (now missing) were gilded. The
bent knees would originally have rested
on the vessel's rim.
Leaping fallow deer, handle from a silver
vase. Silver gilt, height 16 cm. (614 in.).
Iranian, 4th-3rd century B.C. South Altai,
near Bukhtarma. Acquired from G. F. Miller,
1735. Hermitage, S 273.
Artamonov, Sokrovishcha sakov, p. 216.
99 (Color plate 22)
This plaque depicts a fantastic creature-an
eagle or griffin-clutching a contorted
goat in its talons. Note the explicit and
different ways the texture of the creature's
body is delineated: parts are covered with
cloisons that originally contained colored
insets to simulate scales. The captured
animal also has numerous areas for inlay,
with a surviving bit of black glass in his
eye. Remnants of light blue and cherry red
enamel are reminders of the magnificent
colors with which this dazzling ornament
once glowed. Power and vitality radiate
from this work of art: imagine it
bedecking a warrior's headdress, with
real plumes flying atop the griffin's tail,
and the polychrome inlays and cloisonne
glittering against the shining gold.
Eagle or griffin holding a goat, possibly a
headband ornament. Gold, height 15.4 cm.
(61/6 in.), width 16 cm. (65/6 in.), weight
209.78 gr.
Eastern Iran or Central Asia, 4th-3rd century
B.C. Siberian collection of Peter I. Acquired
from M. P. Gagarin, 1716. Hermitage, Si
1727, 1/31.
Artamonov, Sokrovishcha sakov, pp. 189-
190, fig. 241.
98
Altai culture
6th-3rd centuries B.C.
The northern nomads' textiles and
woodcarvings are as strikingly
characteristic a part of their art as the
famous Siberian gold treasure of Peter the
Great (see nos. 93-99). More perishable
than the metal objects, which were found
in many places, these have not been known
to any extent in the modern world until
five kurgans (the Russian term for a burial
mound) near the hamlet of Pazyryk in the
central Altai Mountains of Siberia were
opened by Soviet scientists in the second
quarter of this century. Here-and in similar
burials nearby-frozen in the ice resulting
from a combination of long, cold winters,
the deep frost level of this mountainous
terrain, and the fortuitous (for us) hacking
open of the burial chambers by early grave
robbers (which permitted the entry of a
great deal of quickly frozen moisture), was
preserved a record of the life of a tribe of
highly civilized nomads of the 5th to 4th
century B.C., who were in touch with
Achaemenid Persia on the west and feudal
China (Chou period, about 1027-256 B.C.)
on the east.
Wood rarely survives in the climates of
Near Eastern and Central Asian countries,
therefore the examples from the Altai
are particularly valuable. The beveled
carving of the surface is distinctive, and
this treatment was deliberately reproduced
by the goldworkers who made some of
the large animal figures found in the
Scythian tombs in the Black Sea region
(see nos. 18, 28, 77). Many of the wooden
pieces were covered with gold leaf in
order to give the appearance of that
precious metal.