Galina G. Korol^a,#

^a Institute of Archaeology RAS, Moscow, Russia

^#E-mail: ggkorol08@rambler.ru

Keywords: Central Asia, Sayan-Altai, Chu valley, non-ferrous small artistic metalwork, decor, “wandering” motifs, the late 1st millennium AD.

Non-ferrous small artistic metalwork refers to objects decorated in a certain style, it mainly includes belt decorations of mounted warriors. This is a distinctive feature of different cultures of Central (Inner) Asia in the late 1st – early 2nd millennium AD. The concentration of such objects is known near the borders of the region: in the north – in the Sayan-Altai and adjacent territories, in the west – in the Chu valley of the Northern Tien Shan, and in the east – near the ridges of the Greater Khingan. The peak of the decor flourishing and the widest distribution of ornamentation fell on the late 1st millennium. Based on the case of two motifs outwardly alien to nomads (“fig flower” in two composition versions and “grape clusters and wine” arranged as “symmetrical clusters”), the author traces “chains” of their finds and visualizes them on a map. As a result, three types of spreading such “wandering” motifs are identified: dispersed – from different sources in different (scattered) directions; linear – associated with the contacts of the Yenisei Kyrgyz during the period of the Kyrgyz Khaganate “expansion” and influence, primarily, on the culture of the inhabitants of the Sayan-Altai and adjacent territories; and multi-vector – from conditionally one region in certain, but different directions.

DOI: 10.31857/S0869606322040092