Пазырыкские татуировки как художественное свидетельство древних войн и бракосочетаний

Abstract

The Pazyryk culture of the Altai mountains (second half of the 1st millennium ВСЕ) is famous forits well-preserved organic materials which survived due to the permafrost beneath the barrows. Of all the extant objects that come from five burials the oldest tattoos in Animal style, found on seven human mummies, attract special attention. Pioneering is the author’s approach to the finds based on the principles of mapping main tattoos on the body with its interpretation: the development of the principles is traced according to territorial and chronological spreading of iconographic analogues. Finds of this kind allow us to propose certain preliminary systematization: it is possible to distinguish sustainable sets of images different for males and females.Meaning of a tattoo correlates to the role which a body part that bears it played in a person’s life. Large images of predators placed closer to the heart make us recall that it is heart that is often considered to be the seat of courage, rage, and other characteristics by many folks associated with large predators. Ungulates shown in agonyas defeated animals or victims are placed on forearms — it is with their hands that people fight, hunt, and makesacrifices. On legs, which are to be fast and strong, there are running herbivore animals chosen from among themost fast and hardy. All this is common for Animal style as a magic mascot that was believed to influence the carrier of a certain image. An image of a hoofed griffin is quite a special phenomenon originating from Northern China and Mongolia.The Pazyryk images of these griffins are imitative; the Altai nomads should have associated the image of this monster with their neighbours endowing it with the idea of victim, and not only they knew the “owners” of theimage, but also feuded and fought with them. Analogies to the composition with predators surrounding tortured ungulates are found to the West of the Altai mountains. Communicative vector which is presented here corresponds with the Western analogies to the finds and imported items that come from the Fifth Pazyryk barrow. Perhaps, the woman buried there, born in Eastern Kazakhstan or in South-West of Siberia, could have arrived to the Altai via marriage as a result of strengthening ties between the Pazyryk culture and the West, to the detriment of connections with South-Eastern neighbours. It is possible that the Pazyryk tattoos in Animal style depict the system of the Pazyrykculture’s contacts and their dynamics in the 4th–3rd centuries ВСЕ.