Review Article: up from the Ice — a Look at Dress in the Iron
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Review Article Up from the Ice — a Look at Dress in the Iron Age Altai Liudmilla L. Barkova and Natal’ia V. Polos’mak. Kostium i tekstil’ pazyryktsev Altaia (IV–III vv. do n.e.) [Costume and Textiles of the Altai Pazyryks (4th–3rd centuries BCE). Novosibirsk: InFolio, 2005. 232 pp. ISBN 5-89590-051-8. Irene Good Research Laboratory for Archaeology and the History of Art, University of Oxford rchaeological textiles hold a unique place way of understanding identity and place in Ain the study of material culture. They are Pazyryk culture. By investigating this unique highly iterative — a record of forms that require body of artifacts in such a manner, it allows us frequent replacement in life. They communicate to explore notions of social space within the style, which is a dynamic process, and they are worldview of the Pazyryk Altai. This is done by made from highly ephemeral materials. Thus, differentiating specifc aspects of inherently local the chance fnds of several fully-outftted sets of Iron Age material culture from more universal, complete garment from the frozen tombs of the pan-Eurasian aspects of style as expressed in Altai represent an extremely valuable record of felt objects, and in garment form, design and past human existence. It is beftting that these decorative details. These important details are remains have a dedicated and accessible volume now more fully evident thanks, in no small part, of high-level scholarship. to the faithful and painstaking (decades-long) The study of archaeological textiles requires a work of textile and conservation specialists, great deal of technical prowess and background in whose research is described and recorded with several simultaneously specialist felds. However, ample photographs and drawings now made through this dauntingly trained specialization we available to us through this important volume. can reconstruct past textile production and use. The authors walk the reader through a careful Because textiles and dress are natural vehicles documentation of the textiles, from whole for generating (and reinventing) genre, aesthetic, garments to small objects of felt or fur. Some and valuation, they are a fnely tuned record of of these objects are well known to us; others critical social processes — offering an intimate have never before been seen, or at least in this understanding of important social phenomena- new light. What makes this volume strong in cultural demarcation, regionalization, the particular, is how well the reconstructions are expression of social boundaries. reasoned and rendered, through new analyses, Since the publication of the famous tombs at and re-study. The text offers functional as well 1 Pazyryk (Rudenko 1953, 1970), scholarly debate as artistic perspectives. Thus, groundwork has has centered around the cultural provenance of been laid out for a closer understanding of how objects in the kurgans and dating (e. g., Lerner dress was used as markers of social and cultural 1991; Rubinson 1990; Böhmer and Thompson identity, boundary and memory, and imbued 1991). The focus of this study is different. This with cosmologically and spiritually symbolic volume examines the textiles, the complete content. male and female dress and accoutrement of the The book discusses textiles preserved from both interred as well as horse dressage including a the Ukok ‘Ice Princess’, Ak-Alakha 3 (Polosmak variety of decorated felts. The approach here 1991a, 1993) and related, earlier-discovered is not only technical but also encompasses a materials from the famous Pazyryk tombs frst kind of formal analysis, offering the reader a published by Rudenko (1953, 1970). This book Copyright © 2011 The Silkroad Foundation Copyright © 2011 Irene Good and holders of rights to individual The Silk Road 9 (2011): 146 – 153 146 images as specifed. is highly valuable in its technical detail, its high discussed in detail. Rudenko had described it as quality images and well-rendered drawings, and a man’s shirt, sewn from hemp fber or kendyr, also in its interpretive discussions of the clothing. of a light color (Rudenko 1953, p. 104; 1970, p. This a welcome departure from much of the 83 and pl. 63). According to the authors’ recent earlier archaeological literature from Russia and re-testing, the fabric was woven from cotton (p. the former Soviet Union, where thin paper and 44) and had been dyed a fugitive red which had black-and-white line drawings, often without any faded. Re-evaluation based in part on comparanda scale, accompanied the vast majority from Ak-Alakha 3 led the authors of archaeological publications. to propose it was in fact a woman’s chemise. The book is organized into three main sections. The frst is Skirts from barrow II were made an introduction to the material from woolen fabric (Rudenko 1953, (pp. 5–10) and a discussion of the pp. 246–247, tab. XCVIII). One was historical and ethnographic parallels reconstructed from a fragment in this important collection of based on parallels observed in archaeologically recovered textiles.2 the skirt from barrow I at Ak- This section is divided into three Alakha 3, and from the discoveries subsequent chapters. Ch. II is on in Xinjiang tombs at Subashi, Pazyryk costume (p. 21–104), Ch. Chärchän, and Djamboulak Khoum III is on the felts and horsegear (pp. (Keriya). One must meet some of 105–38) and Ch. IV a detailed review these reconstructions with a note of the pile carpet and large felt of caution, however. By relying on suzani and several other materials clothing from other more distant from barrow V (139–64). The next sites as proxy, especially when section is an ethnobotanical and contemporaneity is uncertain, materials science-based section on After Barkova and Polos’mak 2005 we may blur important subtle dyes, colorants and dyestuffs (pp. Fig. 1. Headdress recon- distinctions in dress between similar 165–75). The last section is a series structed from Pazyryk groups. of appendices on technical and barrow no. II Some of the most intriguing fnds scientifc studies carried out on the have related to headdress and hair, especially 3 textiles by individual collaborators of their team. the female headgear. An almost complete set The book has a brief summary in English (pp. of elements — including wooden fgurines of 228–9) birds and deer, red wool knitted nakosniki — Dress of the Pazyryk in the Altai was found in Pazyryk Barrow II. Because of the more recent and better-preserved headdress There are several more-or-less fully reconstructed from Ukok, a more complete reconstruction was garments; fur-lined coats and jackets from possible [Fig. 1]. The cap is made from thick, Barrow II at Pazyryk, and from nearby Verkh- dark brown felt, its felds decorated with round Kaldzhin 2. In addition there are numerous leather patches covered with gold foil. It was textile fragments from related tombs. Male and restored from fragments to the headdress in 2003. female dress elements are discussed; even child’s The headdresses of Pazyryk noblewomen were garments are documented. Among the garments worn with coiffed hair built in, and placed on a discussed in this book are several sets of female clean-shaven head. clothing: skirts, shirts; outer garments, and pairs Stunning examples of felt and deerskin leggings of felt and leather leggings, shoes and boots. are described and portrayed on pp.92–97. These Barkova and Polosmak offer variant possible leggings have parallels seen in the Apadana at reconstructions (p. 44, fgs. 2.15–2.17). Persepolis, and some have slippers built in whose One of the nearly complete shirts from Pazyryk designed toe area matches the design of the barrow II, for example, was re-studied and caftan. From Pazryrk barrow II is a pair of leather 147 the back that had the image of a fantastic deer, a remarkable feat of skill in leathercraft. The authors note analogues found at Philippova barrow. On a technical level, remarkable skill in stitching pieces of leather together is discussed — where seams have nearly 20 stitches per centimeter (no doubt to insure windproofng). Another coat shows similar technique and workmanship with an abstract geometric design (pp. 44–45)[Fig. 3]. The skin of a Photo © 2005 Daniel C. Waugh black foal was used for trim Fig. 2. Reconstructed boot from Pazyryk barrow décor on the sable, decorated with lozenge- no. II. Collection of the State Hermitage Museum shaped leather appliqué and covered with gold foil. boots, whose soles are completely embroidered The authors address the topic of the caudate with beads and pyrite crystals [Fig. 2].4 jacket, with historical counterparts and analogues within the Scytho-Siberian arena and beyond, Outer garments looking at its development in the context of horse According to the authors, the outer garment is riding. They suggest that another outer garment of primary signifcance to the Pazyryk people. form, the kandys, stems from Achaemenid While this is certainly understandable from a Iranian origins, a theme shared by other scholars survival point of view, it also can (see Thompson 1965). However be thought of in terms of public it is equally possible that both of vs. private display of identity. In these forms, this garment genre, the fuid interactions of nomadic developed specifcally out of the tribes, where affnities and Altai and were custom-made for the alliances can change in different complex landscape — both social contexts, the way in which a and physical — of early Iron Age person most effectively codifes inner Eurasia and that these forms affliation and rank, particularly were brought to Hamadan from the of noble or leadership rank, is steppes. Indeed it is very signifcant seen through the coat. There are that the tailored forms take hold several types of outer garment within the craft of leatherworking discussed, with particular interest and horse riding, and according to and attention brought to two current evidence only later become distinct Iranian forms: the kandys, transferred over to woven cloth; or tailored jacket, often with lapel frst as sewn tailoring, and later as and vestigial sleeves, and the cut-cloth tailoring [Fig.