Page 235 - The Art & Architecture of the Ancient Orient_Neat

PART two :
THE PERIPHERAL REGIONS
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l °d andbonc. and such obJccts l^vc actually been found, for instance near Minu

^^rr Slbem; teXti^eXam?1CS WC1'e Prescrvcd s°™wliat to the south,
at I azyryk m the Altai mountains. The earliest Scythian gold-work, with its
compact

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Figure ioi. Silver disk, Sakkiz treasure. (Courtesy Dr and Mine Ghirshman)

shapes and its sweeping planes meeting with sharp ridges, recalls the shapes of the earlier
carvings in wood or bone. The gold ibex from the hoard of Zawiyeh conforms in every
detail to this style.
The three motifs engraved on the silver dish are also characteristically Scythian. There
is a stylized head of a bird of prey - commonly called the Scythian beakhead; a hare,
and a compact crouching figure, found also, for instance, on the gold hafting of a Scy -
ian axe from Kelermes in the Kuban valley.17 It has been called a lynx,18 and has ecn
recognized on a fragment of a gold scabbard, also found at Zawiyeh,19 where it is mere >
a mask with pointed ears appearing at the crossings of a network of scrolls wine ax
cumscribe the figures of ibexes and stags; the stag shows the well-known Scy mn1P®
„ with kgs folded underneath the body, head thrown up, and antlers, wi i
ta les pressed against the hack. The chape of the scabbard shows two small an.
cur
206