THE PORTRAYALS OF HORSES, HORSE-RELATED SCENES AND MYTHOLOGICAL CREATURES WITH ELEMENTS OF HORSE’S APPEARANCE IN THE ARTISTIC ICONOGRAPHY OF URARTIAN BELTS
Öz
This particulararticle titled“The portrayals of horses, horse-related scenes and mythological creatures with elements of horse’s appearance in the artistic iconography of Urartian belts” is next one in series of monographic writings wholesomely devoted to animal personages appearing in the iconography of Urartian belts. Being entirely dedicated to horse as to the third most important animalin urartian society, the article continues series of studies aimed to uncover the roots behind the traditional, cultural and worshipping bonds of ancient urartians to their Sacred Animals, somewhat similar to what we recently went throughon the most comprehensive investigation of iconographical images of lions and bulls in Urartian belts. Although this article dedicated to horse’s appearances in Urartian belts shares a lot in principle with previous ones, nevertheless, there are some principal and profound differences. From the archaeological point ofview, we are entirely missing any evidence of material culture connected to lions and bulls, but, on the contrary, as it goes to the subject of horses, we have huge archeological material heritage from urartian past that makes the entire process of this investigative analyses peculiarly distinctive. That is a reason why we decided to deviate from traditional format of two previous animal personages’ studyand included in the whole article the introductory mini-article part, wholly covering the archaeo-material implications of horse culture in Urartu. We called it – Part I – Archaeological material evidence of horse culture in Urartu (Pre-Article)and included in Part I the extraordinary and tangible evidence cases of horse’s utilization in urartian society during peaceful construction activities, throughout many wars and numerous military campaigns, providing some unique and most interesting samples of urartians’ distinctive horse culture. Urartian sources about horses other than Urartian belts include many factors: actual horse’s remains, writing sources about the role of horses, cavalry and war chariots in urartian wars and politics, archaeo-material and artifacts’ classification by material type and performing functions, list of horse-handling gear types, iconographical varieties of horse’s depiction in urartian artistic representations according to types of artifacts, weaponry types used from horses and chariots, typological implications of war chariots from engineering prospective, and, finally, included some brief summary of functional particularities of horses in ancient Urartian state. Part II – The Portrayals of horses, horse-related scenes and motives with mythological creatures with elements of horse’s appearance in the iconography of Urartian bronze belts (Core Article) got dedicated to Iconography of Urartian bronze belts - symbolical implications of horse culture, crafty artistic representations of allegorical topics and emblematic presentations of horses in imagery, motives and scenes in iconography of Urartian bronze belts. Depictions of horse in Urartian beltsas a common (non-mythological) animalare shown, including in that horses as common animals portrayed separately, horses as draft animals for horse-riders, horse as draft animals for war chariots, with plentiful varieties of iconographical scenes: Hunt Sceneswith horses–including hunt scenes with horses as draft animals and horse-riders, hunt scenes with horses as draft animals for war chariots, as well as mixed hunt scenes with the avail of both horsemen and war chariotsshown in mixed panoramic view; Battle Scenes with horses – includingbattle scenes with horses as draft animals and horse-riders, battle scenes with horses as draft animals for war chariots, mixed battle scenes with the avail of both horsemen and war chariots. Then the description of horsemen portrayed with special artistic emphasis, out of ordinary standards and common clichés that portrays the horse-riders in parading outfit and festive mood concludes the overview of horse as common (non-mythological) animal in Urartian belts. After that follows the defining characterization of mythological (non-ordinary, composite) horse creatures, comprising from four main types: Winged Horses, Mythological horse creatures with human’s body and the head of the horse, Mythological horse creatures with horse’s body (partially or whole) and the head of the human, and, Horses as standing platforms for urartian gods and deities. The article is concluded with Conclusions part, where those studies are considered to be in continuum, i.e. not overwhelmed with finalization formulations and not finite in derivative conclusion points, yet, the rational core of the studies and analytical covering of above-presented data create some newer types of opportunities to continue those urartological studies with ostensible success and enrich the Urartology with essential elements of more deeper understanding of ancient urartian society’s core values and cherished principles of religious, sacral, mental and ideological nature.
Anahtar Kelimeler
Kaynakça
- Referemce 1 - Edik Minasyan, Professor of History, Dean of the History Faculty of Yerevan State University.
- Reference 2 - Hayk Avetisyan, Professor of Archaeology, Chief of Archaeology Department of Yerevan State University
Ayrıntılar
Birincil Dil
İngilizce
Konular
Arkeoloji
Bölüm
Araştırma Makalesi
Yazarlar
Saak Tarontsi
*
Armenia
Yayımlanma Tarihi
11 Temmuz 2018
Gönderilme Tarihi
9 Haziran 2018
Kabul Tarihi
24 Haziran 2018
Yayımlandığı Sayı
Yıl 2018 Cilt: 3 Sayı: 4