Origin of the Alans

[Alanus]

~Last Ride of The Hu Warrior: Part 3~

Thanks, Jan, for your insight. En face depictions are not the norm in "Scythian" art, and (like you noted) I have seen very few, examples being mostly tigers, a "chance find" bone plaque in the Hermitage Collection, another from Tuekta Mound 1 made from wood, and a wolf's head also from Tuekta 1. Chinese examples don't show gryphons.


   
This brings us to the nose or muzzle piece of the Hu warrior's horse bridle. Also en face, it's a Himalayan blue sheep looking directly at us; and it's the reason I purchased the collection. We see plenty of argali sheep in Altai art and petroglyphs, lots of deer and horses, but I've never encountered a blue sheep in Pazyryk art, nor is it common in Chinese art.


   
Blue sheep are basically "mountain goats" and have two horn variations, almost straight and sweeping rearward (like on the lost wax nose-piece) or curved (actually recurved like in this photo) and similar to the pieces of Elite Burial M30 of the Yan commander (Origin of the Alans, post #61). The blue sheep has a very interesting geographical range. Not counting the Himalayan Plateau, we find the species located west to east in the following order-- lower Altai, Tien Shan, Qilian Shan, and finally the Helan Shan and Yin Shan right in the middle of Yuezhi/Loufan/Linhu territory.

   
Color variants of the blue sheep run from brown, to dark gray, to light gray with white tipping. The latter variation can easily be identified with the "Clan of the White Ram." The great importance of the male blue sheep can be found in the straighter variations of its horns. The material is ideal for constructing the compressed rear side of composite bows, and cannot be exceeded by ibex horn. This is the great value of the blue sheep.

   
A search for additional en face depictions of blue sheep came up empty-- with the singular exception of this one. It's carved from jade and part of Fu Hao's personal collection. As you might be aware, an increasing number of historians and anthropologists are concluding that Fu Hao was not Chinese but a woman of the "northwestern tribes," the current belief of Katheryn Linduff, Emma Bunker, Anthony Barbieri-Low, and others. This places the origin of Fu Hao in the pastoral regions (either north or south) of the Yinshan.


   
Here are more depictions of sheep-like creatures on Karasuk to Anyang knife finials. If we start at Minusinsk and the Karasuk culture (considered part of the Andronovo horizon) and follow a natural migrational trail, we would head south along the Ob and Irtish Rivers, following the Irtish around the lower western Altai, then eastward just north of the Tienshan, continuing past the Qilian Mountains, and ending at the Yinshan... or at Hetao ("Bend in the River")... now commonly called The Northern Zone. This proposal may give us an idea of the route taken by the easternmost Indo-Iranians-- Fu Hao's people and also the Yuezhi and Loufan.