Tibet Archaeology

and all things Tibetan

Flight of the Kyung

June-December 2018

John Vincent Bellezza

Welcome to the twelfth anniversary issue of Flight of the Khyung, your vehicle to ancient Tibet! Beginning as a blog about my research activites, this online publication has grown over the years, supplying original articles (general interest and fully annotated varieties) on a range of subjects mostly pertaining to the history, archaeology and art of early Tibet. Starting last year, Flight of the Khyung also features a monograph series.

As regular readers will know, two scholarly monographs, one on tiered shrine rock art in Upper Tibet and one on ancient rock inscriptions of the same region, have been recently published here. The current issue is also devoted to a scholarly monograph. This work explores extraordinary pre-Buddhist silver, gold and bronze objects hitherto unknown to scholars and collectors. It engages in much detective work across the vast expanses of the Eurasian continent to hunt down the sources of inspiration and technical know-how for these precious articles. In the course of this investigation many different cultures and peoples and their relationships with Tibetans before the Buddhist era are introduced. This first cosmopolitan era on the Plateau in the Iron Age was every bit as profound and colorful as the Buddhist variety that followed much later. Please read on and see for yourself!

 

Tibetan Silver, Gold and Bronze Objects in the Era before Empire

Cross-cultural Reverberations on the Tibetan Plateau and Soundings from other Parts of Eurasia
Please note that the book under this title is no longer on the Tibetan Archaeology website. It was freely available here for a full year (June 7, 2018 to June 7, 2019). The manuscript is now being revised with significant new materials added for publication under contract with British Archaeological Reports International Series, Oxford, UK. Publication is scheduled for 2020.

Tibetan Silver, Gold and Bronze Objects and the Aesthetics of Animals in the Era before Empire: Cross-cultural Reverberations on the Tibetan Plateau and Soundings from other Parts of Eurasia
By John Vincent Bellezza
Approximately 120,000 words, 140 illustrations and maps

https://www.barpublishing.com/

 

Synopsis

This archaeological and art-historical study is woven around rock art and ancient metallic objects attributed to Tibet. The silver bowls, gold finial, and copper alloy spouted jars and trapezoidal plaques featured are assigned to the Iron Age and Protohistoric period. These rare objects are adorned with zoomorphic subjects mimicking those found in rock art and embody an artistic Zeitgeist widely diffused in Central Eurasia in Late Prehistory. Diverse sources of artistic inspiration and technological capability are revealed in these objects and rock art, shedding light on their transcultural dimension. The objects and rock art of this work prefigure the Tibetan cosmopolitanism of early historic times promoted through the spread of Buddhist ideas, art and craft from abroad. The metallic objects and petroglyphs of this study are markers of significant relationships between Tibet and her neighbours. These transactions enabled a fusion of Tibetan innovation and foreign inventiveness, a synthesis of disparate ideas, aesthetics and technologies in the objects and rock art presented.

 

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements

Introduction

Overview
The contents of the study
Geographic scope
Provenance
Chronology
Pursuant technical matters

Chapter One
Two Tibetan silver bowls of the Late Prehistoric era: The spread of vessels in precious metals and lion art of West Asia to the Plateau

The silver bowls in the Pine collection
Other Tibetan silver and gold vessels and the lion
The cultural and historical origins of the silver bowls in the Pine collection

Chapter Two
A Tibetan gold finial of the Late Prehistoric era: Transcultural movements discerned in the most incorruptible of metals

The gold finial in the Pine collection
Other Tibetan gold objects of the pre-Imperial era
The cultural and historical origins of the gold finial

Chapter Three
A Tibetan copper jar of the Late Prehistoric era: Tracing a northern arc of cultural connectivity through form and function

A Tibetan copper alloy jar bird-spouted in a private collection
A ceramic bird-spouted jar from Iran

Chapter Four
Tibetan trapezoidal copper alloy plaques of the Late Prehistoric era: Tigers and geometric patterns in the interregional matrix

A copper alloy trapezoidal plaque attributed to Tibet in the Pine collection
A Tibetan openwork trapezoidal plaque in a private collection
Other Tibetan openwork trapezoidal plaques and their cultural significance

Chapter Five
To and from Iran: Scythic links with the north and east

The Achaemenid Empire and its steppe connections
The Saka carriers of culture in Inner Asia
Saka agency in the expansion of zoomorphic art in eastern Central Asia

Chapter Six
To Tibet: Bearers of the Eurasian Animal Style in Northern Pakistan and North Inner Asia

Saka art in the Pamirs and Northern Pakistan
The Saka in the multicultural Tarim Basin
Eastern Xinjiang and the Northern Zone corridor
Cultural crosscurrents in the Eastern Steppe

Chapter Seven
In Tibet: Transfer of the Eurasian Animal Style to the Plateau and Parallel Processes Affecting China

Eurasian Animal Style rock art in Tibet
Parallel Developments in the East

Conclusion

Mechanisms of transmission in the Inner Asian network of exchange

Bibliography

Index

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