Chapter 4 - Scythian / Saka Art

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figures on the Kul-Oba vessel (Plates9-12),¹ the Chertomlyk amphora (Plate
16),2 in the Solokha comb (Plate 43)³ and the spacing of animals on the
Bolshaya Bliznitsa pectoral(Plate 32).4
In the later Saka/Scythian art, the respect for monumental and
simple forms was somehow threatened, if not overwhelmed by,
elaborations. To illustrate the loss of the early monumentality and a
subsequent emphasis on stilled, tense forms we may point to the Kul-Oba
phiale.5 In it, the only Scythian element (aside from its find site), are the
rather caricatured images of Scythian males, caught between the flourishes
of Gorgon-Medusas, boar heads and bees. Significantly, the cauldrons of
the western section (whether they had any magico-religious purpose is
uncertain) lost much of their significance. They were hardly found in Śaka
burials. Thus, archaeologically, one common cultural substratum has led
to diverse yet common features, with a scope for new innovations. The
animal style followed remarkably different lines of development according
to the areas concerned. While the Scythian art passed from stylized linear
figures to others which were much more elaborate and complex and finally
'V.Schiltz, op.cit., pp. 173-175, Pls. 125-127.
2 Ibid., p. 195, Pl.144.
3 Ibid., p.414, Pl.359.
4 Ibid., pp.384-385, PL310.
Scy.Art., Pls. 164,165.