From: george knysh
Message: 64706
Date: 2009-08-12
--- On Tue, 8/11/09, tgpedersen <tgpedersen@...> wrote:
Shchukin:
http://tech. groups.yahoo. com/group/ cybalist/ message/64635
He has a further note on the 'Zolotoe kladbishche' , the "Golden Cemetery":
'*** It was possibly this wave of nomads which brought to Eastern Europe the fashion for gold objects in the animal style, lavishly decorated with turquoise. In the east these objects are amply represented in the "Siberian Collection" of Peter I 31, and in the materials of the excavation of the necropolis at Tillya-tepe in northern Afghanistan 32.
****GK: I have no online description of this necropolis though there are many sites dealing with its objects. However for a contemporary "Asianic" tomb at Koktepe near Samarkand, cf.http://frantz.grenet.free.fr/index.php?choix=koktepe#princesse
and
http://www.archeo.ens.fr/spip.php?article502
The structure of the grave is clearly of Alanic ("catacomb") or Aorsan ("podboy") type.
This nomadic population dominated the state of "Kangju" in modern Uzbekistan (which for a time was suzerain of its western neighbours, the historical Alans of Aral and Caspia), and was allied to the Kushans of Bactria and India (whose ruling class was in effect also "Asianic" [or just plain Alanic if we follow Ammianus Marcellinus and look at the Kushan gakks and cranial deformations). Note the "multicultural" aspect of the objects inventory at Koktepe and Tillya Tepe. But it was still an Asianic princess! Does Shchukin deal with grave structure anywhere at all in his 1989 work??*****