Siberian and Central Asian turkic-time personages in three-horned headdresses and petroglyphs of the Wujiachuan rock-art site

In the article, a comparative analysis of images of characters in 3-horned headdresses of various monuments is carried out in a wide space-time range. The main materials are the petroglyphs of the Wujiachuan rock-art site in Jingyuan County of the Gansu Province (China), analogies to which the authors find in burial complexes, stone statues, among the rock carvings and graffiti in South Siberia and Central Asia. The article sets the following tasks: to clarify the dating and reveal the semantics of "3-horned" anthropomorphic images of the Wujiachuan site by analysing similar 3-horned characters and their interpretations on other monuments; to evaluate the significance of this plot of Chinese petroglyphs for further study. The west surface of the Wujiachuan rock-art site has carvings of 8 horsemen and several anthropomorphic figures. 6 of these riders and one standing man are wearing headdresses resembling a crown with 3 ‘horns’. Chinese archaeologists date the site from Neolithic to the beginning of the CE. The standing figure however can also be perceived as a seated one if its very long, downward ‘arms’ are to be considered as the outline of a wide-brimmed robe, and the carved lines within it are the ‘real’ arms folded on the chest or on the stomach with bent legs. This interpretation corresponds with ancient Turkic images of Gorny Altai and other regions. A boulder with engraved ‘knee bending scene’ was excavated in the grave 16 of the Kudyrge burial ground in Altai. A seated woman in a 3-horned headdress with a child is depicted, before whom three much smaller in size dismounted horsemen are bowing. The middle horseman is also wearing a 3-horned headdress. Engraved images of women in 3-horned headdresses were also met on rocks and on bone artefacts from Kirgizia, Kazakhstan and Khakasia. Considering a version that this was a presentation of the ancient Turkic deities or shamans, Yu. S. Khudyakov came to the conclusion these ‘3-horned’ images conveyed the headdresses with a high conical top and side ear-flaps of ancient Turkic women. However, the engraving from Dyalbak in Eastern Altai testifies that such headdress may not necessarily be ceremonial or ritual, but a variation of a conical combat helmet with horns. P.P. Azbelev interprets the ‘knee bending scene’ from Kudyrge as a reflection of the Christian (Nestorian) narrative of worship of the Magi. It can be assumed that the Wujiachuan horsemen in horned headdresses, grouped in threes on the left and right sides of the west surface are rushing to worship the standing (or rather sitting) figure also in a 3-horned headdress. This personage, like on the Kudyrge boulder, surpasses both riders and even their horses in height. Rock carvings of riders in 3-horned headdresses have also been found in North-Western China in the Badain Jaran Desert at the west of Inner Mongolia and in Zhongwei County of the Ningxia Province. The authors believe that plots with 3-horned characters, like images of horsemen with banners, are markers for petroglyphs of the ancient Turkic period.

Keywords

Authors

References