Landscapes of Belief: Structured Religious Practice in Iron Age Central Eurasia

Summary

Realistic, symbolic and metaphorical representations of animals (i.e., Animal Style Art), and associated themes ("griffins"/animal fusion, combat, geometric design within animal) depicted on artifacts attributed to Scythian, Saka, and Xiongnu, from Iron Age (ca., 1,000-100 BC) north central Eurasia are the focus of statistical analyses identifying structured usage amongst the regions, linked to religious beliefs. Common expression of symbolic subject matter and themes on artifacts is analyzed with Integrated Distance Analysis (IDA), a GIS-based approach.

Religion, for this purpose a structured system of beliefs and symbols that permeate everyday life, expressed through symbols and metaphor on material culture compounded with mobile lifestyles are a direct link to landscape utilization to identify and study the structure and expression of religious belief on a continental scale, or macro-scale landscape, in north central Eurasia. This paper demonstrates evidence that widespread display of distinctive and predominantly animal iconography on artifacts associated with the Scythian, Saka, and Xiongnu is a primary line of inquiry for identification of the way Iron Age peoples in central Eurasia interacted between groups throughout the region and structured their lives.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 82nd Annual Meeting, Vancouver, BC (2017)   •
• Ongoing Research in Eurasian Archaeology: Assessing the Implications of New Evidence

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 16672