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 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 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 and re-testing, the fabric was woven from cotton (p. the former , 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 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 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. 4]. caudate jacket, or tailed coat. Both The authors link important of these forms are direct ancestors material details of the garments to modern dress in the West. with associated mythological, An outstanding example of a sable coat was found in Pazyryk Fig. 3. Section of sleeve showing detail Barrow II: with a bilaterally of decorative leatherwork on outer gar-

symmetrical leather appliqué on After Barkova and Polos’mak 2005 ment from Pazyryk barrow II.

148 Fig. 4. Detail of tailored shaping in woven jacket from Chärchän. ethnographic, linguistic and folk knowledge. For example, in their discussion of a unique red and blue painted ermine kandys from Katandin’s Barrow at Pazyryk, (excavated in 1865 by Radlov), the authors suggest the use of ermine had symbolic value: as in Iranian mythology, the ermine was considered a mediator between the three planes of the world-axis (Chunakova 2004, p. 87, as cited in Barkova and Polos’mak, pp. Photo © Irene Good 58–61). Animal Style A formal analysis of style Animal Style can perhaps be described as a play between abstract and representational Formal analysis, as a practice, is a systematic visual elements. Overall graphic composition dismantling of visual components in order to is sometimes formalized (i.e. inside borders, objectify what is being studied. By looking at tiered repetitive patterns and the use of bilateral composition, motif, and form on an elemental symmetry), and sometimes it is not (for example level, comparative study can be facilitated. Such in tattooing). Abstract (geometric) forms are an idiom thus brings us closer to an archaeological represented, and representational forms are understanding of the language of a particular abstracted. There is a prominent use of contrasts; style. Style functions as a vehicle of social in solid colors, in space/void, in combatant mediation — a series of varied interpretations. animals, and in composite animals. Although 5 The effects of stylistic interpretation are social. Animal Style is best known from goldwork, it is Style plays on dominant areas of concern within found in other media as well, including carved a cultural context; thus an object has style, wood, cut leather, and appliqué felt. In fact, it is which is simultaneously socially animated and possible that the hallmark elements of what we animating. Archaeologically, an object (such recognize as Animal Style, particularly the use of as cloth) embodies style, which was generated void and solid, and the prominence of fat work through its particular social context, which is and low relief, were derivative of the crafts of cut now inanimate and less visible. Although the leather and appliqué felting. object is at present socially animating, it is as Barkova and Polos’mak discuss a small selection an artifact having temporal disconnection. Of of well-known, roughly contemporaneous (ca. interest to us is to recognize traces of information 500–400 BCE), decorated felts from Pazyryk on the animating aspect that the object once had, barrows I, II and V. These felts have been given within the social context of its origin. Wobst less attention than perhaps deserved in the (1977) explored the idea of style as being a way past, eclipsed by the famous pile carpet. Along of maintaining social boundaries. Pollock (1983) with the Pazyryk felts, the authors include the developed a set of theoretical constructs to more recently excavated felt materials from Ak- look at diachronic changes in style in relation Alakhsa, about 250 km SW of Pazyryk in the to sociopolitical organization. In the present Ukok Valley (excavated by Polos’mak) and also study, style is looked at synchronically, within of a contemporanaeous at the Chinese/ a relatively narrow culture area, and within a Kazakh/Mongolian border, in the vicinity of the narrow medium — textiles and dress. Such a related Berel Mounds, the site of the now famous focus may facilitate closer examination of content ‘Siberian Ice-maiden’, excavated by Polos’mak. and stylistic variation. Each of these burials contained decorated felts.

149 Some felts were used as foor coverings, some fttings for horse harnesses. In the Ukok Valley, were meant as wall hangings, some were part Ak-Alakhsa kurgan contained many such griffn- of chariot outftting or saddlery, and some were like elements in harness decoration. It is tempting decorative elements of dress or accessory. to speculate on the meaning of the griffn motif, Placement of textiles in the actual barrows at especially in light of later mythology, describing Pazyryk, particularly barrows I, II and V, is griffns as guardians of treasure, of gold in immediately informative. Floor felts and wall particular. Perhaps the representation of the hangings covered the inner timber-lined burial griffn on objects in the Pazyryk world offered chambers, reinforcing the defned interior walled some kind of apotropaic power. These small space, as analogous to domestic interior space. objects are somewhat unique in that they are This idea is also borne out by the placement of constructed of two intersecting planes, and are grave goods: tables and ‘hexapods’ with vessels thus three-dimensional, a quality almost foreign containing meals, helped to defne an interior to what we think of as typically animal style. space, separate from the room with horse burials Old Avestan (old Iranian) texts (Gathas) on the and chariots (exterior). Floor felts were of dark creation myth may also offer some insight into the wool and undecorated. Wall hangings were relationship between these entombed decorated of light coloured wool and were decorated. felts and sacred space. Current scholarship Wall felts contained repetitive designs, but of regarding the imagery in certain ritual texts6 of representational images, within a border, for the creation myth point to the idea of a ‘cosmic example from barrow V, the seated deity holding hut,’ where the sky is tied down during the day a ‘branch’ facing the horseman (Rudenko 1970, pl. and rolled up at night. Several texts relate to the 154). From the same wall hanging is the composite story of creation through architectural metaphor, human/lion sphinx fgure; and a fragment of which is also attested in Greek and Old Indic a bird with elaborate tail. By contrast, saddle myths (Kellens 1989; Christol 1987; Skjaervø n. blankets, or shabraks tended to have repeated d.). Skjaervø argues for the possibility of there abstract designs (Ibid., pls. 160–162) [Fig. 5]. One particular shabrak had a very similar element to that found in the border of the large wall hanging mentioned earlier. Abstract repeats are evident in the detailed view of shabraks from the Pazyryk carpet as well. Border designs from felts in barrow II are distinct from one from barrow I; and a familiar treatment of the lion head is found in a saddle cover also from barrow I. The basic differences in overall composition between wall felts and saddle blankets are signifcant in that they are objects with different exposure: the interior wall imagery was private and hidden, whereas the dressage for horses and chariots were publicly displayed and were also highly mobile. At the site of the ‘ice-maiden’ near the Chinese- Kazakh border, a decorated felt saddle was found showing a mythical winged animal, one of many composite animals found in Pazyryk culture. Jacobson (1994) has worked on the cosmological

meaning of composite animals as sacred motif Photo © 2005 Daniel C. Waugh in her study of the deer in Eurasian art. Griffn- like creatures are a common subject in felts, and Fig. 5. Felt shabrak from Pazyryk barrow no. V. also in gold foil-covered leather and also wooden Collection of the State Hermitage Museum.

150 being another, overarching metaphor of weaving garment in the Altai, , , and the for the creation of order. Syr Darya regions is fascinating and informative, It is possible the imagery has to do with not particularly because they interject comparanda a ‘cosmic hut,’ but of a yurt,7 which is made of with folk symbolism and myth. woven bands, and covered with felts, and also In this volume, however, there is often a blur decorated on the interior with felts. In metaphoric between what is scientifc observation and what imagery in the Rgveda, Christol (1987, p. 12) is (nuanced) interpretation. This is problematic, found the following processes: 1. raising an as many readers will be interested, but not armature of wood; 2. stretching a cover over it; expert in, the culture history of the Altai, or of 3. making an opening; 4. spreading a foor carpet neighbouring regions such as the Tarim Basin in inside and attaching it to the walls. This list of Xinjiang, Semirechye or the Mongolian Steppes. processes describes precisely the method of The main audience, therefore, would be unable building a yurt, which is taken down and put up to cast a critical eye on certain details. again, as a reiteration of night passing into day. That said, however, this is a beautiful and Furthermore, the dual house forms of summer generously colour-illustrated volume (119 fgures (yurt) and winter (timber hut), as witnessed in and plates). It is most decidedly not a ‘coffee- contemporary Kazakh dwellings, are integrated table,’ magazine-depth level of documentation. into one in the timber-lined chambered burial It is a scholarly reference of the frst order. This tombs of the Pazyryk culture. The signifcance book is an invaluable reference even for those of the yurt imagery in the Avestan creation texts without knowledge of Russian, as the graphics may well be seen as à propos for the rite of burial are informative, ample and detailed. Textile in Pazyryk culture as well, as a marking out of historians in general, and of Eurasia in particular, ordered space in preparation for the afterlife. will fully appreciate the technical discussions and It is hypothesized here that in one way, the clear disclosure of the clothing and its materials decorated felts functioned as markers of social from these remarkable archaeological fnds, space, as a way of distinguishing interior from rescued and restored from a remarkable part of exterior, public and private domestic areas, as well the world. as distinguishing sacred vs. secular space. These objects also played an important role as vehicles Acknowledgements of the iconographic communication of cultural Thanks are due to Marina Edelman and Tatiana boundaries in the multi-ethnic, multicultural, MacClellan for their help in translation of wide open spaces of the Eurasian steppes in the technical textile terms. later frst millennium BCE. Although today these boundaries are blurred because we recognize About the Author Animal Style as a more or less coherent category, in the mid-frst millennium BCE the creators and Dr. Irene Good is an archaeologist focused on users of these felt objects must have differentiated the later Bronze and Iron periods of western various semantic visual components within , and , trained in the what was to them an iconographic language. American four-feld anthropological tradition Representational images illustrated a Pazyryk (Ph.D., University of Pennsylvania). She is understanding of the supernatural world, also broadly trained in archaeological science through a socially animated style. We can begin (University College, London; Massachusetts to read the animating aspect of this style by Institute of Technology; Boston University). looking at how these felts were used to convey She is an Associate of the Peabody Museum at this world to the world at large. Harvard University and holds a research post at the University of Oxford’s Research Laboratory Summary for Archaeology and the History of Art. Dr. One of the most valuable aspects of this volume Good conducts feldwork in , and her is in the discussion of garment form. The forthcoming book is titled Cloth and Carpet in comparative survey of different forms of outer Early Inner Asia (Brill Inner Asian Library).

151 References Hodder 1990 Ian Hodder. “Style as Historical Quality.” In: Barber 1991 The Uses of Style in Archaeology. M. Conkey and Elizabeth Barber. Prehistoric Textiles. Princeton: C. Hasdorf, eds. New Directions in Archaeology Princeton University Press, 1991. Series. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1990: 44–51. Boardman 1988 John Boardman. The Cambridge Ancient History. Jacobson 1994 Vol. 4. Cambrige: Cambridge University Press, Esther Jacobson. The Deer Goddess in Eurasia. 1988. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1994. Böhmer and Thompson 1991 Kellens 1989 Harald Böhmer and Jon Thompson. “The Pazyryk Jean Kellens. “Huttes Cosmiques en Iran.” Carpet: A Technical Discussion.” Source: Notes in Munchener Studien zur Sprachwissenschaft 50 the History of Art 10/4 (1991): 30–36. (1989): 65–78. Christol 1987 Kubarev 1991 Alain Christol. “Les Huts Cosmiques. Pour un Vladimir D. Kubarev. Kurgany Iustyda. archaeologie formulaire du Véda.” Bulletin des Novosibirsk: Nauka, 1991. Études Indiennes 5 (1987): 11–36. Lamberg-Karlovsky 2002 Chunakova 2004 Carl C. Lamberg-Karlovsky. “Archaeology Ol’ga M. Chunakova. Pekhleviiskii slovar’ and Language: the Indo-Iranians.” Current zoroastriiskikh terminov, mifcheskikh personazhei i Anthropology 43/1 (2002): 63–88. mifologicheskikh simvolov [Pahlavi Dictionary of Zoroastrian Terms, Mythological Personages and Lerner 1991 Mythological Symbols]. Moskva: Izdatel’skaia Judith Lerner. “Some So-Called Achaemenid frma “Vostochnaia literatura” RAN, 2004. Objects from Pazyryk.” Source: Notes in the History of Art 10/4 (1991): 8–15. Farokh 2005 Kaveh Farokh. Sassanian Elite Cavalry AD 224– Pollack 1983 642. Oxford: Osprey Publishing, 2005. Susan Pollack. “Style and Information: an Analysis of Susiana Ceramics.” Journal of Good 2001 Anthropological Archaeology 2 (1983): 354–90. Irene Good. “Archaeological Textiles: a Review of Current Research.” Annual Reviews of Polosmak 1991a Anthropology 30 (2001): 209–26. Natalia Polosmak. 1991. “Un Nouveau Kourgane Good 2002 à ‘Tombe Gelée’ de l’Altai (rapport préliminaire).” Arts Asiatiques 46 (1991): 5–20. ______. “The Interior Sky: Cloth and the Demarcation of Space in Pazyryk Culture.” Polosmak 1991b th Paper presented at the 67 Annual Meeting of ______. “The Search for in the USSR.” the Society for American Archaeology, Denver, Symbols, June 1991: 14–18. Colorado, 2002. Unpublished ms. Polosmak 1993 Greis and Geselowitz 1992 ______. “Scythian Sites Investigations at the Gloria Greis and Michael Geselowitz. “Sutton Ukok.” Altaica 3 (1993): 1–23. Hoo Art: Two Millennia of History.” In: Voyage to the Other World: the Legacy of Sutton Hoo. C. Polosmak 1994 Kendall and P. Wells, eds. Medieval Studies at ______. “A Unearthed from the Minnesota, vol. 5. Minneapolis: University of Pastures of Heaven.” National Geographic 186/4, Minnesota Press, 1995: 29–46. October 1994: 80–103.

152 Rubinson 1991 Notes Karen Rubinson. “The Textiles from Pazyryk: a 1. Hodder (1990) strictly rejects dichotomizing Study in Transfer and Transformation of Artistic the ‘utilitarian function’ of an object from Motifs.” Expedition 32/1 (1991): 49–61. its style, noting that objects have social and Rudenko 1953 ideological as well as utilitarian functions, and that style involves, but does not solely consist Sergei Rudenko. Kul’tura naseleniia Gornogo Altaia of, those functions. I maintain that, heuristically, v skifskoe vremia [The Culture of the Population it is imperative for archaeologists to be able of the Mountain Altai in the Scythian Period]. to distinguish, on a very fundamental level, Moskva: Izd-vo. AN SSSR, 1953. functional (utilitarian) constraints from artistic Rudenko 1970 style as variable aspects of an object’s form. Only ______. Frozen Tombs of Siberia. The Pazyryk in so doing can we move away from using style as Burials of Iron Age Horsemen. Tr. and with a preface a strictly typological tool, and move towards its by M. W. Thomson. Berkeley and Los Angeles: counterpoint, that of using style as interpretation, University of California Press, 1970. i. e., reading an object. 2. Notable in particular as many rare Skjaervø n. d. ancient textiles come to us through illicit and P. Oktor Skjaervø. “Weaving a World of Thought- undocumented excavation. the Myth of the Fravashis and Old Iranian Ritual.” Unpublished ms. 3. L. S. Dovlumova, E. A. Koroliuk, I L. Krevskaia, L. P. Kundo, B. B. Malakhov, B. N. Mamashev, B. Thompson 1965 T. Vasiliev, A. A. Vlasov, and T. T. Vialakina. Georgina Thompson. “Iranian Dress in the 4. Rudenko, 1953, pp. 118–20; tab. XCVI, 1; Achaemenid Period: Problems Concerning the XCII, 1; XXIV, 2; 1970, pp. 93, 95 and pl. 64a; Kandys and Other Garments.” Iran 3 (1965): 121– reconstruction completed by D.V. Pozdniakov. 26. 5. Most notably from the colections of Peter the Wobst 1977 Great in the Hermitage Museum. Martin Wobst. “Stylistic behavior and 6. Most notably the 13th vasht in the myth of the information change.” In: Research Essays in Honor Fravashis. This is mainly the work of P. Oktor of James B. Griffn. C. E. Cleland, ed. Museum of Skjaervø, with ideas of Jean Kellens (1989) and Anthropology paper 61, University of Michigan, Alain Christol (1987). Ann Arbor: University of Michigan, 1977: 317–42. 7. “Yurt” is a Turkic word meaning “place.” The Yatsenko 2010 felt tent is an alaçekh. Sergei Yatsenko. “Costume contacts in .” Archäologische Mitteilungen Aus Iran und Turan 42 (2010): 47–52.

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