Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-fscjk Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-26T07:25:08.890Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The reindeer in the prehistoric art of Siberia

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2015

Ian Whitaker
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

The relatively naturalistic representation of animals of the cervidae family has long been recognized as dominating much of the prehistoric art of Siberia. These animals are found in the petroglyphs which date from the Neolithic, but are, perhaps, better known in the bronze items that have been so much sought after in the last 1OO years. I t is my purpose here to examine these artistic products in an attempt to identify the species of animals the artists were intending to represent. In the analytical literature dealing with this subject one finds a noticeable lack of unanimity among the critics, who might be forgiven some biological imprecision, were they not frequently very confident in the ascriptions that they make. Identification of the species of cervidae will enable us better to understand the cultural background of the artists, and may lead to a greater understanding of the purpose underlying their creative activity. I can claim only one special qualification for this task, namely that I have spent almost two years of my life as a reindeer herder during anthropological fieldwork. This experience may, perhaps, better enable me to recognize the species of deer intended by the artist than can other scholars, whose acquaintance with the animal has been restricted to the museum.

Type
Article
Information
Antiquity , Volume 58 , Issue 223 , July 1984 , pp. 103 - 112
Copyright
Copyright © Antiquity Publications Ltd 1984

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Andersson, J. G. 1932. Hunting magic in the animal style, Museum of Fat Eastern Antiquities, Stockholm: Bulletin 4, 221–317.Google Scholar
Appelgren-Kivalo, H. 1912a. Vogelkopf und hirsch als ornamentsmotive in der vorzeit Sibiriens, Festgabe für Vilh. Thomsen (Helsingfors), 290–6.Google Scholar
Appelgren-Kivalo, H. 1912b. Die Grundzüge des skythisch-permischen Ornamentstiles, Suomen Muinaismuistoyhdistyksen Aikakauskirja 26 (Helsinki), 1–20.Google Scholar
Appelgren-Kivalo, H. 1915. Kansallisuusmääräyksistä muinaistieteessä, Suomen Museo 22, 1–27.Google Scholar
Artamonov, M. I. 1970. The origin of Scythian art, Soviet Anthropology and Archeology, 9, 50–83.Google Scholar
Aspelin, J. R. 1877–84. Antiquités du nordfinno-ougrien (Helsingfors). 5 vols.Google Scholar
Borovka, G. 1928. Scythian art (Kai Khosru Monographs on Eastern Art).Google Scholar
Chard, C. S. 1974. northeast Asia in prehistory (Madison).Google Scholar
Chlenova, N. L. 1962. Ob olennikh kamnyakh Mongolii i Sibiri in (ed.) Kiselev, S. V., Mongol’skii arkheologicheskii sbornik (Moscow), 27–35.Google Scholar
Chlenova, N. L. 1963. Le cerf scythe, Artibus Asiae, 26, 27–70.Google Scholar
Diószeci, V. 1961. Problems of Mongolian shamanism, Acta Ethnographica Academiae Scientiarum Hungaricae, 10, 195–206.Google Scholar
Diószeci, V. 1962, Tuva shamanism: intraethnic differences and inter-ethnic analogies, ibid., 11, 143–190.Google Scholar
Dorzh, D. 1962. K istorii izucheniya naskal’nykh izobrazheniy Mongolii, in (ed.) Kiselev, S. V., Mongol’skii arkheologicheskii sbornik (Moscow), 45–54.Google Scholar
Erdélyi, I., Dorjsüren, C. & Navan, D.. 1967. Results of the Mongolian-Hungarian archaeological expeditions 1961–1964, Acta Archaeologica Academiae Scientiarum Hungaricae, 19, 335–70.Google Scholar
Firsov, L. V., Levina, T. P., & Troitskiy, S. L.. 1972. Holocene climatic changes in Northern Siberia, in (eds) Vasari, Y. et al, Climatic changes in Arctic areas during the last ten-thousand years (Acta Universitatis Ouluensis Series A No. 3 Geologica i), 341–9.Google Scholar
Flerlov, K. K. 1960. Fauna of the USSR: Mammals Vol. 1 No. 2 Musk deer and deer (Washington).Google Scholar
Frenzel, B. 1966. Climatic change in the Atlantic/sub-Boreal transition in the Northern Hemisphere: botanical evidence, in (ed.) Sawyer, J. S., World climate from 8000 to 0 BC (London), 99–122.Google Scholar
Gábori, M. 1959. Urjanchaische Waldjäger in der NW-Mongolei und ihre archäologische Beziehungen, Acta Archaeologica Academiae Scientiarum Hungaricae, 11, 457–81.Google Scholar
Gaul, J. H. 1943. Observations on the Bronze Age in the Yenisei valley, Siberia, in (eds) Carleton, S. Coon & James, M. Andrews IV, Studies in the anthropology of Oceania and Asia (Papers of the Peabody Museum of American Archaeology and Ethnology, Harvard University 20), 149–86.Google Scholar
Grach, A. D. 1957–8. Petroglifi Tuvy, Sbornik Muzeya Antropologa i Etnografii 17, 385–428; 18, 339–84.Google Scholar
Gryaznov, M. P. 1933. The Pazirik burial of Altai, American Journal of Archaeology XXXVII, 30–44.Google Scholar
Gryaznov, M. P. 1950. Minusinskiye kamennye babbi v Svyazi s nekotorymi novymi materialami, Sovetskaya Arkheologiya, 12, 128–56.Google Scholar
Gryaznov, M. & Shneyder, E.. 1929. Drevniye izvayaniya Minusinskikh stepey, Materialy po Etnografii, 4, 63–93.Google Scholar
Hančar, F. 1952. The Eurasian animal style and the Altai complex, Artibus Asiae, 15, 171–94.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Heikel, A. 1894. Antiquités de la Sibérie occidentale (Suomalaisugrilaisen Seuran Toimituksia 6).Google Scholar
Jettmar, K. 1951. The Altai before the Turks, Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities Stockholm: Bulletin 23, 135–223.Google Scholar
Jettmar, K. 1964. Art of the steppes: the Eurasian animal style (London).Google Scholar
Kiselev, S. V. 1949. Drevnyaya istoriya Yuzhnoy Sibiri (Materialy i issledovaniya po arkheologii SSSR 9) (Moscow).Google Scholar
Kyzlasov, L. R. 1952. Drevneysheye svidetel’stvo ob olenevodstve, Sovetskaya Etnografiya 1952 (2), 39–49.Google Scholar
Lamb, H. H. 1977. Climate: present past and future Vol. 2 Climatic history and the future (London).Google Scholar
Lauer, Dietmar. 1972. Archäologische Beobachtungen aus dem Bajan-Changor-Aimak der Monogolishen Volksrepublik, Ethnographisch-archäologische Zeitschrift 13, 1–37.Google Scholar
Levin, M. G. 1950. K voprosu o drevneyshem zaselenii Sibiri, Sovetskaya Etnografiya 1950 (3), 157–60.Google Scholar
Martin, F.-R. 1893. L’âge du bronze au Musée de Minousstnsk (Stockholm).Google Scholar
Merhart, G. von. 1923. The palaeolithic period in Siberia: contributions to the prehistory of the Yenisei region, American Anthropologist, XXV, 21–55.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Merhart, G. von. 1926. Bronzezeit am Jenissei: ein Beitrag zur Urgeschichte Sibiriens (Vienna).Google Scholar
Minns, E. H. 1930. Small bronzes from Northern Asia, Ant. J., X, 1–23.Google Scholar
Minns, E. H. 1942. The art of the northern nomads, Proc. Brit. Acad., 1942, 47–99.Google Scholar
Okladnikov, A. P. 1941. Neolitischeskiye pamyatniki kak istochniki po etnologii Sibiri i Dal’nego Vostoka, Kratkiye soobshcheniya o dokladakh i polevykh issledovaniyakh Instituta Istorii Material’noy Kul’tury 9, 5–14.Google Scholar
Okladnikov, A. P. 1950. Neolit i bronzovii vek Pribaykal’ya (Materialy i issledovaniya po arkheologii SSSR 18).Google Scholar
Okladnikov, A. P. 1959. Ancient population of Siberia and its culture (Russian Translation Series of the Peabody Museum 1 (1)).Google Scholar
Okladnikov, A. P. 1966. Petroglyfy Angary (Moscow).Google Scholar
Okladnikov, A. P. 1974. Petroglyfy Baykala—pamyatniki drevney kul’tury narodov Sibiri (Novosibirsk).Google Scholar
Okladnikov, A. P. 1980. Zveri i znaki yarminskogo poroga, in (ed.) Vasil’yevskiy, R. S., Zveri v kamne (Novosibirsk), 96–116.Google Scholar
Okladnikov, A. P. & Mazin, A. I.. 1979. Pisanitsy basseyna reki Aldan (Novosibirsk).Google Scholar
Okladnikov, A. P. Okladnikov, A. P. & Zaporozhskaya, V. D.. 1959. Lenshye pisanitsy: naskol’nyye risunki u derevin Shishkino (Moscow).Google Scholar
Okladnikov, A. P. Okladnikov, A. P. & Zaporozhskaya, V. D.. 1972. Petroglyfy Sredney Leny (Leningrad).Google Scholar
Rostovtsev’, M. 1926. Sarmatskiya i indo-skifskiya drevnosti, Sbornik’ statey, posvyashchennikh pamyati N. P. Kondakova, 239–57.Google Scholar
Rostovtsev’, M. 1929. The animal style in South Russian and China (Princeton Monographs in Art and Archaeology 14).Google Scholar
Rudenko, S. I. 1970. Frozen tombs of Siberia: the Pazyryk burials of the iron age horsemen (London).Google Scholar
Rudenko, S. I. & Rudenko, N. M.. 1949. Iskusstvo Skifov Altaya (Moscow).Google Scholar
Salmony, A. 1933. Sino-Siberian art in the collection of C. T. Loo (Paris).Google Scholar
Salmony, A. 1954. Antler and tongue: an essay in ancient Chinese symbolism and its importance (Artibus Asiae Supplementary Vol. 13).Google Scholar
Savina, L. N. 1976. Soveshaya istoriya lesov Zapadnogo Sayana: po dannym sporovo-pyl’stevogo analyiza pochv (Novosibirsk).Google Scholar
Skalon, V. N. & Khoroshikh, P. P.. 1951. Ob olennykh pisanitsakh Severnoy Azii, Akademiya Sauk SSSR Institut Istorii Material’noy Kul’tury: Kratkiye soobshcheniya 39, 53–62.Google Scholar
Speranskiy, A. L. 1974. Novyye nakhodki naskal’nykh risunkov v Gornom Altaye, in (ed.) Larichev, V. Ye., Bronzovoy i zhelezhnyy vek Sibiri (Materialy po istorii Sibiri : Drevnyaya Sibir’ 4), 167–73.Google Scholar
Talbot Rice, T. 1957. The Scythians (London).Google Scholar
Talbot Rice, T. 1969. Introduction, M. 1. Artamonov Treasures from Scythian tombs in the Hermitage Museum, Leningrad (London), 9–21.Google Scholar
Tallgren, A. M. 1917. Collection Tovostine des antiquités préhistoriques de Minoussinsk: chapitres d’archéologie sibirienne (Helsingfors).Google Scholar
Tallgren, A. M. 1932. Études archéologiques sur la Russie orientale durant l’ancien âge du fer, Eurasia Septentricmalis Antiqua 7, 7–32.Google Scholar
Tallgren, A. M. 1933a. Zum Ursprungsgebiet des sog. Skythischen Tierstils, Acta Archaeologica, 4, 258–64.Google Scholar
Tallgren, A. M. 1933b. Inner Asiatic and Siberian rock pictures, Eurasia Septentrionalis Antiqua, 8, 175–210.Google Scholar
Tallgren, A. M. 1937. The Arctic Bronze Age in Europe, ibid., 11, 1–46.Google Scholar
Teplukhov, S. 1929. Opyt klassifikatsii drevnikh metallicheskikh kul’tur Minusinskogo kraya, Materialy po Etnografii, 4, 41–62.Google Scholar
Tronov, M. K. 1949. Ocherki oledeneniya Altaya (Zapiski Vsesoyuznogo geograficheskogo obshchestva N.S. 9).Google Scholar
Whitaker, Ian 1981. Tuvan reindeer husbandry in the early 20th century, Polar Record, 20 (127), 337–52.Google Scholar
Yetts, W. P. 1926. Discoveries of the Kozlóv expedition, Burlington Magazine for Connoisseurs, 48 (277), 168–85.Google Scholar