I 24. Belt hook with wolf and dzo

Northwest China, Fd century B.C. Bronze with traces of gilding Height 2% in. (7 em); length 8 in. (2o.3 em) Ex coll.: Eskenazi Ltd., London

This unusual belt hook depicts an animal-combat scene The way in which the dzo' s horn in this plaque pierces the between a wolf and a dzo. Cast in openwork within a plain wolf's throat is similar to that in which a yak pierces the tigers' rounded rectangular border, it tapers to a hook, now broken ears on a gold belt buckle dated to the third century B.c. that was off, on the wearer's right side. The wolf is shown biting the excavated at Aluchaideng, Hanggin banner, southwestern Inner dzo in the neck while holding it down by the horn with one Mongolia. 2 This close association suggests that the Thaw belt paw. In return, the dzo has pierced the wolf's throat with the hook and the Aluchaideng plaques are roughly contemporary. other horn. The wolf has a long muzzle with a sharp fang, The present example belongs to a group of similar hooks strong clawed paws, and a tail curled between the hind legs, that all depict animal-combat scenes between a wolf and a and the dzo is characterized by a tufted tail and the shaggy fur dzo. One is in the Osaka Municipal Museum of Art; 3 another, on its belly and upper legs. The belt hook is lost-wax cast and in the Stoclet collection, was published by Umehara;4 and a once had mercury gilding, the remains of which are only third is in the Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities, StockholmJ faintly visible. Root marks from burial surroundings are All these scenes display similar compositions and use the same embedded in the corrosion on the back. narrative devices, showing the victim with its tongue lolling In many lower regions where yaks are found, they are often out, for example, and the wolf holding down the dzo's horn interbred with the local cattle, resulting in a hybrid known as with one paw, suggesting that all four plaques may have been a dzo. The hybrids can surpass their parents in strength, are cast at the same foundry. less stubborn, and can survive in lower altitudes than yaks, all of which makes them more useful as domesticated animals. 1