Chapter 4 - Scythian / Saka Art

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spirals. The musculature of the neck is emphasized, definitely more than
its Kazakhstan counterpart. The famous Kelermes deer plaque (Plate 50)¹
from a gorytus (dated in the second half of the seventh century B.C.) was a
formalized version (in stance and modulation of the anatomical parts) of the
Chilikta deer. The Filippovka deer dated in the fourth century B.C. have
top-heavy antlers and bodies covered with decorations. Its stylistic affinity
lay to the east, in the Altai Mountains, where the earlier kurgans (eighth to
seventh centuries B.C.) of Bashadar, Tuekta and Pazyryk yielded objects
with similar over all ornaments on bodies of animals. Such ornamentations
may have arisen, in part, from the ease with which decorative spirals can
be produced in wood carving. This decorative tradition was common on the
eastern steppes not only in wood carving, but also in gold-work (as in the
stag-shaped gold belt ornaments from the Issyk Kurgan, in eastern
Kazakhstan, dated in the fourth century B.C.). Although the monstrous
Issyk stags (Plates 85-86) are in a folded pose, their bodies are decorated
with incisions and spirals, and there are spiral ornaments beneath the
chins.2 The carved horn belt plaque (Plate 76) in the shape of a horse, from
Sagly-Bazhi II, in Tuva,³ shows the same elaborately decorated surfaces as
the Filippovka deer. A gold belt plaque (Plate 119) said to have been found
1 Ibid., Pl.142.
² Ibid., p.7, Figs.4,5.
3 Ibid., Pl. 197.