Chapter 4 - Scythian / Saka Art

143
unity has been conveyed by the use of the terms “animal style" and
"Scytho-Siberian animal style."
The deer is probably the most common motif in the so-called animal-
style art of the steppe nomads. The deer motif in the Scythian art is
generally associated with the reinder which is native to northern Siberia
and the forest steppes as far west as Eastern Europe. The early Scythian
gold reindeer (Plate 84) from Chilikta, in eastern Kazakhstan, 1 and the gold
deer (Plate 63) from the royal Scythian burial at Kostromskaia,2 in the
Caucasus, for instance, have a typically Scythain folded pose. Both have a
balanced composition and smooth gold surfaces. The Kazakhstan deer
plaque dated in the second half of the eighth century B.C.- the first half of
the seventh century B.C., was hammered over a mould in low relief. Its
large antlers have one branch to the front and four to the rear, and they
bear a more naturalistic rendering. This was a characteristic of the eastern
region, than the more stylized depictions of stags in the Scythian art of the
Pontic steppes. The Kostromskaia deer plaque dated in the end of the
seventh century B.C. is typical of the Scythian artistic tradition of
combining realism and abstraction, and complemented by additional
I
ornamental antlers, which appear as a row of rhythmically repeated S-
1 Gol.De.Eur., PL. 170.
² Ibid., Pl. 140.