Excavation of the Solokha Kurgan Conducted by NI Veselovski in 1912

ROYAL LION-HUNTING SCENE ON THE SILVER CUP OF SOLOKHA

Osamu SUDZUKI

Professor of Tenri University

Excavation of the Solokha Kurgan conducted by N. I. Veselovski in 1912- 13 near Nikopol on the left bank of the Dnieper was perhaps the last of the great archaeological successes in Czarist Russia(1). The main tomb-chamber under the Kurgan was found completely plundered, but the side tomb involved in the same Kurgan turned out to be one of the richest Scythian graves, including those of Cheltomlyk and Kul-oba(2), all being ascribed to the end of the 4th or the beginning of the 3rd century B.C. The silver cup under consideration is one of six discovered in the same tomb (Fig. I)(3). The cup shows in relief the scene of a lion hunt by equestrian figures under an ivy garland, and we naturally tend to assume it originated from similar scenes on the wall of such Assyrian palaces as Nimrud of Ashurnasirpal (885-860B.C.) or Nineveh of Ashurbanipal (668-626B.C.). But comparing these two, we must say that the latter is much nearer to the present relief in design than the former, in that, the former depicts the lion hunt in chariots only, with no equestrian hunter included. However, the lapse of almost 300 years of time is too great a gap to assume the present piece to be the reminiscent of the Nineveh lion hunt, and the only example

(1) Ebert, Max: RLV. Bd. XII, S. 294 ff. (2) Minns, E. H.: Scythians and Greeks. 1913, pp. 155 ff., 195 ff. (3) Ebert, ibid, Taf. 83: C.

37 which is qualified to interrupt the prescription is the gold dagger sheath of the Oxus Treasure, an illustration of which is partly reproduced here(4) (Fig. 2). According to O. M. Dalton, the dagger is the typical of the Scythian, rather than the Persian, akinakes, measuring 27.6cm in length, without the chape on the end. The lateral projection on the top contains two pairs of lion- hunting scenes, each consisting of two riding figures attacking a lion with lances from both sides, and on the narrow body of the sheath, measuring about 15cm long, are represented five pairs of mounted hunters on galloping horses, each shooting a lion with a short composite bow, all in the same style and in the same direction, though three of these five lions are fleeing while two are attacking the hunters on their two hind legs. Today no one will doubt the authenticity of this sheath, but it is interest- ing to follow the passage, in which Dalton eagerly defends his Median theory, by refering to Herodotus, who writes that the Assyrian King Esarhaddon, having given his daughter to a Scythian prince and the Median King Cyaxares having sent his son to Scythia to learn archery, and he assumes that the sheath was a Median product presented to a Scythian king in the 7th or 6th century B.C. from the analogous example of Vettersfelde, a traditional akinakes of the Scyths, and that the scene of lion-hunting of Oriental kings was selected "as the subject suited to the taste of a nomad huntsman."(5) However, tracing back to the original lion-hunting on the wall reliefs of the North Palace of Nineveh in the British Museum, there we first notice that the scene is not the hunting in the wild field. A lioness is depicted lying in the orchard(6), and some lions creeping out of wooden cages(7); the hunting is anything but wild, though some scenes show the cruelest aspects of killing beasts, as are generally known. Further the culminating scene of them all must be "King Ashurbanipal pouring out libations over four dead lions before the altar,"(8) so familiar to us, and over the scene a cuneiform inscription is engraved in three horizontal lines, and the epigraph in the lower register reads: "I, Assur-bani-pal, king of hosts, king of Assyria, whom Ashur and Belit have endowed with might. Against the lions that I slew I directed the powerful

(4) Dalton, O. M.: The treasure of the Oxus. 2nd ed. 1926, Pl. IX, text p. 10. (5) Ibid, 1st ed. 1905, pp. 55-56. (6) Barnett, R. D.: Assyrian palace reliefs and their influence on the sculptures of Babylonia and Persia, London, n. d., Pl. 55. (7) Ibid, Pl. 93. (8) Ibid, Pl. 97.

38 ROYAL LION-HUNTING SCENE ON THE SILVER CUP OF SOLOKHA

bow of Ishtar, the lady of battle, and I made an offering, and poured out a liba- tion over them."(9) The king is shown holding a bow in his left hand, and the whole scene seems to express the worship of the War and Fertility Goddess Ishtar, or Great Mother Goddess of Asia, first appeared in Elam. According to the Ishtar cult, the king offers the lions, the attribute of Ishtar(10), before the alter of the God- dess and he himself presides over the ceremony as a priest-king, in the arch-classi- cal style of the so-called Shamanism. A rough parallel is obviously perceived in the bear-cult of the Ainu tribe in North Japan, in which a baby bear is killed at the ceremony of sham hunting with a bow and arrow, after a long and affec- tionate breeding, to make their souls happily return to the Heaven, though their god has no particular name. In any respect, it is clear that the royal lion-hunting on the Oxus sheath is no more simple hunting of wild beasts than those on the Assyrian relief mentioned above, and the serpent pattern on the protruding lateral (Fig. 2) will suffice to prove its connection with Ishtar, for a serpent is also an attribution of Ishtar. Thus the equestrian figures hunting lions on the Oxus sheath is considered not having been selected because lion hunting was the fond sport of the nomads, as was explained by Dalton, but been selected for their religious sentiment: Ishtar worship, or rather Anahita worship, as is explained in the following.

If these observations are verified, the figures on the Solokha cup can not be exceptional. It is a matter of regret that the source material on the object, CompteRendu, 1912-16, has not been accessible and the plates of the cup, one in Rostovtzeff(11) and another in Ebert, differ from each other. As is reproduced in Fig. 1, the latter has the flat handles on each side, while the former has none and no trace for attaching them is perceivable, and in addition no measurement is given in either book. (Rostovtzeff also lacks the description of the object.) According to Ebert, the relief consists of two pairs of Scythian riders, each attacking a lion and a horned lioness, and under the handles, two lions in their nest on one side, and two beasts of pray are depicted to come out of the hole on the

(9) British Museum: A guide to the Babylonian and Assyrian antiquities. 3rd ed., 1922, p. 50. (10) Ackerman, Ph.: Cult figurines (A Survey of Persian Art, 1938, Vol. I), p. 204. (11) Rostovtzeff, M.: Iranians & Greeks in South Russia, 1922, Pl. XX: 1, 2.

39 other side. Further he goes to say: "Sehr moglich dass das Ganze eine Art von Opferservice dargestellt(12). (That the whole scene shows an offering service is very probable.)" We wonder on what ground Ebert's assertion is based, but apart from the scene above, we may judge from the peculiar shape of the handles and its round foot that the vessel must be of ritual use, reminding one of the copper kettle of hempseed burner with a round foot used in the Shamanistic rite, which was ex- cavated from the 2nd Kurgan(13) of Pazylk. Ebert was correct in regarding the cup as: "ein kesselartiges Gefass". On the other hand, the fish pattern in repousee on the gold plated wooden vase yielded from the same tomb(14) shows that the vase was used not for Ishtar, but for Anahita, the Iranian goddess of the river Oxus and the protector of fish as well as horses, the indispensable animal for the nomads. Anahita is the Persian version of Ishtar. According to Herodotus, the Persian learnt the worship of Urania, Heavenly Aphrodite, from the Assyrians, and called it "Mitra", and Fr. Cumont may be right in interpreting that it was wrong of Herodotus to say so, and the goddess must be Anahita, instead of Mitra.(15) These facts will show that the Scythian nobles in the Dnieper region also practised a kind of Shamanism, the worshipping of Anahita. The cup is unquestionablly of Greek workmanship, made by the order of a Scythian prince who lived on enormous profits from corn and slave trade with the Greek merchants living in such nearby cities as Panticapeion or Olbia. The Scythian prince must have intended to glorify himself by having his own lion-hunting figure depicted on the ritual cup in accordance with Iranian tradition, as is perceived on the Oxus gold sheath, cited above, and the Greek artisans executed the scene with their own traditional realism. The Greek marble relief, "Lion attacking bull"(Fig. 3), shows the striking similarity in the rendering of lions with the present cup, and this may show that the hunting scene is a pure imaginery product of the Greek artisans; there is a least possibility of practising lion-hunting among the Scythian noblemen.

(12) Ebert, S. 289. (13) Rudenko, S. I.: Kultura naseleniia gornogo Altaia v skifiskoe vremia. Akad. Nauk, 1953, Tab. XXIV: 2. (14) Ebert, Taf. 82: C. (15) Encyclopaedia of religion and ethics, Vol. I, p. 415.

40 ROYAL LION-HUNTING SCENE ON THE SILVER CUP OF SOLOKHA

III

However, if we compare the lion on the Solokha cup with those on the Oxus sheath, we find that the mane covers the head and neck of the Solokha lion, while the Oxus lions have remarkable rows of thick hair along thier sides, besides the manes on their heads and necks. It is possible to trace lions of the same style back to the Maikop canopy in the north(16) (Fig. 5), and to the Assyrian wall reliefs(17), and as far back as the Uruk (Fig. 6) and Akkadian (Fig. 7) seals in the south. It is curious to find that no Sumerian lions (Fig. 8) have side- manes along their sides at all, but generally speaking, all the lion art in the Middle East have had remarkable rows of thick hair on their sides, and the pattern was first established by the Akkadians. On the other hand, another example of the lion of the Solokha style, i, e., the lion without side-mane, is found on the Greek marble relief in the Louvre, "Lion attacking the bull"(18) (Fig. 7), cited above. The lion of this style pre- vailed through all kinds of Greek art, including gems and coins, not to say of the rounded sculptures, such as "Marble Lion from Kerch" in the Hermitage (Minns, 1913, Fig. 211) and "Reclining Lion", early 4th century B.C. (Richter, Fig. 27) in the British Museum. But the most significant example is "Seated lion" in Chaironea (Fig. 4), ca. 338 B.C., giving model to later lions of the Vanezian style, with small heads and slender bodies. The Indian lion sculptures of the Asoka column, Sarnath, and of the Sanchi Gateway also belong to the seated group of the Greek lineage, to say nothing of all the later lions in the Buddhist art. Another group of lion art without side-manes is that of Egypt, headed by the royal hunting scene, such as portrayed on the Tutankamon casket (Fig. 9) of the 18th dynasty, and all the later specimens, including the sketches(19) (Met. Mus.) of the 19th dynasty (Fig. 10), through the New Empire to the Late Period. These facts must show that the Greek lions without side-manes were originally inherited from Egypt.

(16) Rostovtzeff, Pl. IV: 5. (17) Wiseman, D. J.: Gotter und Menschen im Rollsiegel Westasiens. 1958. Taf, 1(Uruk), 18(Sumer), 33(Akkad). (18) Richter, G. M.: Animals in Greek sculpture. 1930, Pl. V: Fig. 13. (19) Metropolitan Museum of Art: Ancient Egyptian animals. 1948. Fig. 34, 35.

41 However, more worthy of note is that the most ancient group of Egyptian lion figures have marked manes on their sides, as are found on Pre-dynastic relics such as the Oxford palette from Hierakompolis(20) (Fig. 11) and on the ivory handle on the Silex knife of the Louvre(21) (Fig. 12), whose manes greatly resemble those of the lions on the Maikop canopy, as mentioned above. But the most remarkable example of the sort is the so-called 'Sphinx of Hyksos' (Fig. 13) from Tanis, or Avaris, the capital of Hyksos (XII Dyn., Cairo Mus.), whose side-mane is executed in a curious way, and the lion pattern on the painted pottery from Kerma of the same dynasty in Boston Mus. (Smith, 1958, Pl. 81: a), which the author assigns to the Syrian origin, also has side-manes. The two lions with side-manes on the Louvre knife undoubtedly signify the existence of Semitic elements in the deepest stratum of the Egyptian civilization, in so much as the man between the lions is clad in the typical Semitic style. But the lions of the same type in the XIIth Dynasty do not necessarily imply the infiltration of Asiatic civilization as represented by the so-called Hyksos invasion. More importance should be put to the complete disappearance of the side-manes in the portrait of lions which took place after the XVII Dynasty, when the political center of Egypt was removed to the Upper Nile, centering in Thebe, to constitute the New Empire.

Now according to Brehm(22), Barbary lions (Felis leo barbaricus Meyer) have side-manes, like Mesopotamian lions. However, those African lions in other parts of the continent: Senegal lions, Cape lions, Somali lions and Massai lions, are all devoid of side-manes. This implies that in ancient times, lions with side-manes like Barbary lions must have lived in the Delta, whereas in the Upper Nile, around Thebes, there lived the species without any side-manes like those stated above, and only the latter species of lions must have been reflected in the later Egyptian art since the Middle Empire period. To quote again from Brehm, Persian lion (F. L. Ferricus Fisch) is the best known among the Asiatic lions, and the smallest of the lion species. The body

(20) Smith, W. S.: The art and architecture of ancient Egypt. 1958, Fig. 3. Cf. Curtius, L.: Die antike Kunst. Bd. I, Abb. 21. (21) Ibid. Fig. 5. Cf. Vigneau, d'A.: Encyclopedie photographique de l'art. Tom. I, p. 2: B. (22) Brehm, A.: Die Saugetiere. Bd. III (Brehms Tierleben. Bd. XII, 4. Aufl. 1915), S. 56.

42 ROYAL LION-HUNTING SCENE ON THE SILVER CUP OF SOLOKHA

colour is light isabell, with its mighty mane of a dark brown colour, mixed with black hair, covering the whole side and back like the Barbary lions, but it does not stretch to the rear beyond the shoulder. If we compare this description with the Assyrian or Persian examples, we find them almost coincide, and we may rightly infer from the descriptions above, that the African lions as a whole have no side-manes with the exception of the Barbary lions, which species might have originally migrated from Asia in the remote times. Lastly, regarding Fig. 2, the scene of royal figures hunting a lion under the Sun-disc is especially rendered with so realistic and grandiose design, reminding one of the equestrian figure of Louis XIV in relief by Coysevox in Ver- sailles, that it may be not without reason that the piece was once suspected of a forgery. But more significant is a specific kind of contrivance perceived in the rear of each rider, and it is most probable that they represent the cantles of saddle, if not the tops of golytus as in the case of equestrian hunters on the silver disc, illustrated in Dalton, 1922, Pl. X. If it is admitted that they are cantles, they represent the oldest saddles in the world, inaugurated by the Medians, in the 6th century B.C. Also, unlike Assyrian, Scythian and Greek counter- parts, the saddle-cloths represented are round. However, the better repro- duction may be necessary to reach the decisive conclusion.

43 Plate I

Fig. 1.

Fig. 4.

Fig. 2.

Fig. 3.

Fig. 13.

Fig. 1. Silver cup of Solokha. 4th-3rd century B.C. (Ebert); Fig. 2. Median gold sheath, detail (Dalton); Fig. 3. Lion attacking a bull, 5th century B.C. (Richter); Fig. 4. Lion of Chaironea, 4th century B.C. (Richter); Fig. 13. Sphinx of Hyksos, with curiously executed side-mane, XII Dynasty. Plate II

(A) Mesopotamian lions-with side-manes.

Fig. 5. Silver plaque of Maikop, Caucasus. Fig. 7. Akkadian seal.

Fig. 6. Seal from Uruk. Fig. 8. Sumerian seal.

(B) Egyptian lions of the New Empire-without side-manes.

Fig. 9. Tutankamon Casket, XVIII Dynasty. Fig. 10. Ostrachon, XIX Dynasty.

Fig. 11. Oxford Pallet. Fig. 12. Louvre Knife.