이식 쿠르간(Issyk Kurgan) 의 동물양식 금공품과 사카의 세계관

Abstract

Pastoralism that keeps livestock in the dry areas of grassland is the most appropriate economic activity. The work of art in which the aesthetic sense of nomads is best exhibited in grassland nomadic culture is the animal style metalwork. Saka people established grassland Silk Road connecting the East and the West, mainly around the nomadic economy in which they kept livestock like sheep in dry steppes. Saka’s elite class Kurgan shows the common aspect of gold jewelry or the decoration of golden artifacts on the costume, although there was a certain difference in the level of the kind or quantity of the grave goods. It is judged that these animals were related to the identity of the upper class that ruled the Saka society. Animal styles consist of imaginary animals, in which several animals were mixed like Griffin or twisted animals distorted with a posture, hard to see in the actual nature. There is an opinion that these animals were expressed out of a shamanistic hope for the power not possessed by humans, but it is judged that they were an expression of the worldview of the nomads who lived in the grassland in the dry climate. This study examined the animal styles of the golden tile decorations on a golden man’s hat and belt of Issyk Kurgan between the 4th century BC and the 3rd century BC, located in the Jetísu area, Kazakhstan, which was Saka people’s central zone. The golden man in the period when Saka people had an ancient state system of the league was a figure in the elite class. This study considered the golden man’s costume a special dress worn at the ritual of Saka. Various animals such as sheep, tiger, bird, deer, and horse were those composed, reflecting the Saka people’s worldview. Saka people considered the universe a vertical axis consisting of the lower world, the middle world, and the upper world and identified the highest peak as the sun. Accordingly, it was judged that a golden horn sheep symbolizing the sun was decorated at the tip of the golden man’s hat. In addition, the belt where bird-headed antler tines were expressed was interpreted as serving as a mediator in ascending to heaven. The hat with gold horn sheep decorated at the top was found also in the golden man in the Arzhan-2 Tomb in the 7th century B.C., a much earlier period than Issyk Kurgan. In addition, on the hat worn by Priestess of Sarmatian Taksai-Ⅰ No. 6 Tomb No. 3, gold horn sheep was also discovered at the top. In addition, on this hat, long gold pendants were hanging on both sides, passing the human temple part. These pendants were judged to mean the staircase ascending to heaven.