Orlat Battle Plaque\'s Importance

[Alanus]

I eat my words. I said my previous post would be my last on this subject; however, if we look at the history of art, we find similar styles within several cultures. In this instance, referring to stylized leaves ("shwubry" as Monty Python would say) and the "flying gallop," we find both in artwork west and north of Chinese artists. AND WE FIND IT EARLIER.

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A western Scythian at flying gallop while killig a lion; also extremely remenicient of the non-Chinese rider killing the boar, depicted in my post above. The artist was Greek.

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The extended front legs of the flying gallop carved onto a piece of Altai horse tack. I don't think the artist was Chinese.

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Ah! The same leaves ("shwubry") that we found on the plaque shown in my post above. The only difference from the tentitively and "expertly" identified Ordos bronzes is this plaque's ID as 6th Century BC Siberian (see Aleckseev and Barkova, p 290).

When it comes to art, everything arguable. I opened up my art studio in 1968 and have since that time painted historical subjects, most of which are steppe oriented. When I think that a certain style originated with some specific culture-- say for instance the KooKoomanians or Skatians (who drew pictures on ice) I am constantly surprised by something NEW, which invariably turns out to be OLDER.

I'm sure that we can argue about art for weeks, perhap years. We can always wonder why the artists who designed the Ordos bronzes showed furry Europoid barbarians rather than depicting themselves (if they were indeed Asio-mongoliod or even extraterrestials). We could argue that there is no link between a chariot society and a riding society, and we would be foolish to do so. They are inextricably linked. We could argue about just about anything where documentation is lacking. But I'm tired of it. We are spinning our wheels, running over chickens and eggs.

On the intitial post of this thread, I simply wished to point out an uncanny likeness the Orlat plaque had with the later Roman cavalry. I'll leave it at that... and retire from this redundant and humorless thread.