Someone needs to read my works about the mass hunting under socialism:
" everyone hunted to survive. You would see cartloads of marmot skins, antlers and wolf parts in the market. Anything with four legs was sought out.”"
www.theguardian.com/environment/...
Thank you for reading my thoughts on the falcon crown from Ar Tsaidam/Aluchaideng!
Xiongnu/Khünnü or not, it's one of my favorite artifacts associated with ancient nomads of the eastern Eurasian steppe.
26/26
In the article, Dr. Andreeva examines how artisans of the Northern Frontier blended the Eurasian animal style with specific Chinese traditions into a unique regional aesthetic.
Her forthcoming book will likely expand on these insights: www.degruyter.com/document/isb...
25/n
On this subject, I highly recommend Petya Andreeva’s "Re-making animal bodies in the arts of early China and North Asia: perspectives from the steppe" (2022: doi:10.1017/eac.2022.7).
24/n
While debate over Aluchaideng/Ar Tsaidam as a Xiongnu/Khünnü site continues, we can appreciate that its falcon crown and other dazzling artifacts represent a beautiful syncretism of Iron Age steppe nomadic and Chinese aesthetics.
23/n
Those skeptical that Aluchaideng/Ar Tsaidam was a Xiongnu/Khünnü site due to its more recent dating have argued that a leader of pre-Xiongnu/Khünnü polities in the Ordos regions.
They generally point to the Hu or (more specifically) Lin Hu, as the polity whose leader wore the falcon crown.
22/n
Scholars previously hypothesized that a Xiongnu/Khünnü chief or even the imperial ruler (shanyu/chanyu/darqa) wore the Aluchaideng/Ar Tsaidam crown.
Today some scholars (and others) still hold this position.
21/n
For example, the archaeologist Bryan Miller posits in a 2015 piece that one of numerous small polities with nomadic practices and/or connections to steppe peoples BEFORE the rise and expansion of the Xiongnu/Khünnü Empire constructed the burials at Aluchaideng/Ar Tsaidam.
20/n
The new evidence hasn’t convinced everyone, but it motivates many scholars to argue that Aluchaideng/Ar Tsaidam by definition cannot be a Xiongnu/Khünnü site.
19/n
Very important is the dating of the Aluchaideng/Ar Tsaidam site.
Newer research indicates that Aluchaideng/Ar Tsaidam likely pre-dated the 209 BC foundation of the Xiongnu/Khünnü Empire recorded in historical documents like the Shi ji and Han shu.
18/n
Honeychurch’s main argument is that the Ordos regions were not the Xiongnu/Khünnü homeland.
But Honeychurch conveys ambivalence about whether Aluchaideng/Ar Tsaidam was a Xiongnu/Khünnü site or simply a steppe-connected site of the Xiongnu period.
17/n
That critique is exemplified by William Honeychurch, recently awarded the highest Mongolian state award (Altan gadas odon, Order of the Polar Star) for his decades of exemplary archaeological work, in his 2015 ‘Inner Asia and the Spatial Politics of Empire’:
16/n
Many archaeologists and historians argue(d) that the Ordos was the cradle of the Xiongnu/Khünnü Empire and remained its imperial heartland.
However, archaeologists working in Mongolia and/or Siberia have critiqued this theory over the last 15-odd years.
15/n
The Ordos regions was a frontier zone of cultural contact and interchange between steppe peoples from the north and Chinese populations to the south throughout the 1st millennium BCE.
[Map from Honeychurch, 2015]
14/n
When Aluchaideng/Ar Tsaidam was first excavated and analyzed, scholars were confident it was a cemetery of the Xiongnu/Khünnü Empire due to its location (Ordos regions), rough time period (mid- to late 1st millennium BCE), and its artifacts up until the last 10-odd years.
13/n
Now comes an important question: who wore the Aluchaideng/Ar Tsaidam crown?
12/n
Although these photos are credited to the Mongolian Natural History Museum and the Mongolian Ministry of Culture, the Ar Tsaidam (Aluchaideng) crown appears to be housed in the Inner Mongolia Museum, China: chinahighlights.com/hohhot/attra...
11/n
Where is the Aluchaideng/Ar Tsaidam crown now?
[ twitter.com/BatzayaCh/st... ]
10/n
The organic materials (cloth, fur) that held these pieces together disintegrated long before 1972, leaving what the complete headdress looked like to the imagination: depts.washington.edu/silkroad/exh...
9/n
According to the Encyclopaedia Xiongnu, gold wire was threaded from the falcon’s beak “through its head, neck and body and tail…Thus, every time the holder of the gold crown moves to the right and the tail also does accordingly” (2013: 50).
[Images: Laursen, 2011]
8/n
Atop the skull cap stands an avian sculpture constructed of lapis lazuli and gold.
Scholars are divided as to whether the bird is a falcon or an eagle.
But static images cannot convey a clever feature of the crown’s design: the falcon moves with the crown’s wearer!
7/n
Second is the upper part of the crown: the golden skullcap and falcon perched atop it.
The golden skull cap is engraved with four mirrored images: a wolf attacking an ibex (yangir).
6/n
The six band ends are decorated with animal profiles: tiger for the upper, sheep (likely argali) for the lower front, and horse for the lower back.
5/n
First is a close-up of the crown’s lower part.
It was constructed of three golden bands, two forming the circle and the third forming the semicircle atop it, joined by small golden pillars and engraved with a woven or lattice pattern.
4/n
The Aluchaideng/Ar Tsaidam crown’s design is intricate and impressive.
We can take a closer look thanks to these high-quality photos: updown.mn/196108.html
3/n
In 1972, archaeologists excavated two monumental burials at Aluchaideng (Ar Tsaidam/Ар Цайдам in Mongolian) in Inner Mongolia [Hanggin banner, Ikh Zuu aimag/Ordos prefecture].
There they discovered this crown along with numerous other spectacular finds.
2/n
The Ar Tsaidam/Aluchaideng crown came up on the Cursed App today.
So let me share my 2022 thread on this amazing artifact associated with Iron Age nomads and the steppe.
A skein/thread: dla.library.upenn.edu/dla/fisher/i...
1/n
Монгол тэмээ, хонгор минь
A rightly proud Bactrian camel mother with her twin calves born in Gov'-Altai Province, Mongolia (in 2022), decked out in blue khadag.
Image source: twitter.com/csen_nomads/...
2/n
2024: the Year of the Camel(ids)!
www.fao.org/newsroom/det...
Camelids include camels (Bactrian, dromedary, wild), llamas, alpacas, wild vicuñas, and guanacos. These animals are key to nomadic lifeways around the world.
What's your favorite camelid?
[Mine is easy to guess ]
1/n
Lever du camp et démontage de la tente. Illustration du Jāmi‘ at-tavārīkh de Rashīd ad-Dīn faite à Hérat au début du XVe s. BNF, ms. Supplément persan 1113, fol. 174r.
🗓️🎁 5/24
La tente ronde, appelée ger et non yourte, est démontable. On superpose les couches de feutre sur un treillis, en laissant au sommet une ouverture à clapet, l'erüke. Les plus grandes ger ne se démontent pas et se transportent posées sur des charriots à boeufs.
