Iconography of Mounted Archery of Western Han Dynasty

[serindia]

On Feb, 2004, Xi'an Institute of Cultural Relics & Archaeology excavated a necropolis in the south suburb of Xi'an City, which locates in the new campus of Xi'an University of Technology. Within more than 40 tombs, archaeologists discovered a series of huge mural in M1 and M2, including the icongraphy of the mounted archery (hunting), dinner, dance, and gods of orientation, etc. According to the size, standard and typology of the tomb, the typology of the antique, especially the numismatics, mural's content and art style, etc, scholars dated two tombs as the late Western Han Dynastic remains.

Comparing with the art style of the horse, I even regarded it as Tang Dynastic remain, before I read the excavating report. It reminded me to rethink about the ideaology of the art history. Indeed, it is a traditional topic in the Classical World. The great mosaic of "Battle of Issus" of Pompeii is also a copy of the 3rd c. BC. The discovery of the necropolis of Xi'an University of Technology proved the phenomenon again.

The precise and wonderful iconography absorbs the fun of the mounted archery.


Hunting musk deer by "Fen Zong She"


"Fen Zong She", shooting over the mane


"Fen Zong She", shooting over the mane


Hunting the musk deer by "Dui Deng She"


"Dui Deng She", shooting level with the stirrup


"Mo Qiu She", so called "Parthian Shooting"


Hunter collects his prey


Mounted archer of Western Han Dynasty

[Bede]

Notice how well the archer aligns his shoulders with the arrow for maximum strength in drawing. This is a good selection of pictures. The bone tips applied to ends of the bow are clearly drawn.

[serindia]

Bede, you can use the resource, because Xi'an Institute of Cultural Relics & Archaeology has already published the report in Wenwu(Cultural Relics), on May, 2006.

The iconography of the saddle is also important. In Xinjiang, this kind of saddle was discovered in the northeast of Tarim Basin, which is dated as the Han Dynasty. There is another early typle of saddle, which was excavated from Yanghai cemetery. The shape is as same as the one in Terra-cotta Museum of Qin Dynasty.

According to the comparative date, the Yanghai saddle is founded in the No.2 cemetery, which is dated from the late Spring & Autumn Period to Warring State Period. The former one with the long "Jian" is in the same age of Niya or Khotan archery ware.

A study team of Cambridge collaborated with Xinjiang, and reconstructed those saddles. I'm waiting for their formal report.

[Bede]

The Yanghai saddles are very close in design to the saddles excavated in the Pazyryk Valley in Siberia and to the saddles shown in Scythian metal work from the Kuban area and the Ukraine.

I knew from bronze figurines that the Han Dynasty had developed an new type of saddle, probably with a rigid frame ("tree" in English). This was the saddle that led to later saddles used all over East and Central Asia. A different type of saddle developed in Western Europe, but they eventually had many of the same features because they were trying to solve the same problems. later there were cross over designs in Europe because of the Avars and the Hungarians.

[serindia]

The Yanghai saddles are very close in design to the saddles excavated in the Pazyryk Valley in Siberia and to the saddles shown in Scythian metal work from the Kuban area and the Ukraine.

Bede, after the 3rd National Cultural Heritage Census, I'm almost sure that, if we don't think about the ethnic name, which is recorded in the historical text, the culture of Sayan-Altai and Turfan Basin is the same from the Spring & Autumn Period to the Warring States Period.

We found the petroglyph in the Tien-Shang Mountain, which is to the north of Turfan Basin. They are complete as same as the design of the gold objects of Arzan 2 in Tuva Repbulic, Russia. Furthermore, the funeral ritual and remain are also the same. The only different is the environment. However, we should know that there is no pure nomad in the world. The nomadic society is always duality. That's why, in the Han Dynastic text, for one kingdom, you always find "Foreside X Kingdom" and "Backside X Kingdom". They are the same. At present, in Xinjiang, many nomadic administrative divisions also have two settlements, one for the summer, the other is for the winter.

[Bede]

Serinda,
I have been reading some linguistic analyses of the early pronunciation of Chinese characters in the Western Regions which support that argument. There is a theory that one of the tribal confederations in the early Han era was pronounced close to the name Saka which is the Old Persian name for the Scythians. Another might have been pronounced Tokhar which is the name of one of the Indo-European language groups in the area. Another name might be related to Sugd or Soghdiana. Since this isn't a linguistic forum, I will leave this point alone. (PM me if you want the references.)

The suggestion is that the nomads were more closely related to the town dwellers than previously thought.

[jiao]

i can not see the pics and i want to see it , thanks

[Justin Ma]

This is very cool, Bede. Thanks for sharing.

[Csikos Balint]

Beautiful images! Amazing how the fine detail and those bright colors survived 2000 years. Even seams on clothes can be seen and note the stripes on the legs of horses! I can't identify any quiver or bow holster though.

[daryush]

These bows don't seem to show a great deal of recurve at the tips - do you think they may be related to Yrzi bows?

[Bede]

Excavated Han composite bows have straight tips. Many Han artworks show straight tips. There are a few depictions of Scythian style bows on bas-reliefs and graffiti.

They are not precisely like the Yrzi bow since there appears to be an angle between the bending part of the limb and the rigid end. Also the setback in the handle is more abrupt.

[serindia]

Serinda,
I have been reading some linguistic analyses of the early pronunciation of Chinese characters in the Western Regions which support that argument. There is a theory that one of the tribal confederations in the early Han era was pronounced close to the name Saka which is the Old Persian name for the Scythians. Another might have been pronounced Tokhar which is the name of one of the Indo-European language groups in the area. Another name might be related to Sugd or Soghdiana. Since this isn't a linguistic forum, I will leave this point alone. (PM me if you want the references.)

The suggestion is that the nomads were more closely related to the town dwellers than previously thought.

There are many works, which talk about the Indo-European lingustic group in Central Asia. But, it is my first time to hear that, it also relates with Chinese characters? Anyway, generally, I appreciate with the theory of Dr. V. Mair.

As for the pre-historical lingustic, I heard that, Kazak archaeologists discovered some characters on the remain. I forget whether it is kind of pre Sogdian. Some scholars regard it as the lingustic of Kangqu Chiefdom, which is recorded by Hinterland China's history.

[serindia]

Excavated Han composite bows have straight tips. Many Han artworks show straight tips. There are a few depictions of Scythian style bows on bas-reliefs and graffiti.

They are not precisely like the Yrzi bow since there appears to be an angle between the bending part of the limb and the rigid end. Also the setback in the handle is more abrupt.

Aha, I read the analysis report of the Yrzi bow in the Excavation Report of Dura Europos. Quite interesting.

[serindia]

Well, during these days, I found two cavalries with bows on the mural. Comparing with other iconography, probably, they are women, or female hunters.

Is there any female archer image in the early history in East Asia?

[Bede]

Fu Hao of the Shang Dynasty was buried with a thumb ring and there were reports of her leading military expeditions. I remember Tang Dynasty murals of women riding, but there is some indications that on the steppe women's riding gear would have been the same as the men's so the distinction would not show up in paintings.

To give an example of how hard it is to tell the sexes apart in paintings, in the Dietz album of with its paintings of Mongols in Iran in 1330, the married women wear distinctive clothing with special head gear. Their female attendants are wearing exactly the same clothes as the men, but with contrasting collars and cuffs on their under robes. Unbearded young men are painted identically except the collars and cuffs are the same colour as the robes. Admittedly this is much later, but it does illustrate the problem.