Tomb of Kazanlak Hellenistic period UNESCO World Heritage Site€¦ · Tomb of Kazanlak Hellenistic...

of 22

Heavenly horse source 6/18/18, 19:55

Tomb of Kazanlak Hellenistic period - UNESCO World Heritage SiteAlmost ink brush strokes and chiaroscuro lack of detail are unlike Greek work and reflect that of native Thracian artists. The representation of the horses body front graduates stylistically straight up 90 deg. from the horizontal axis. The frontal image starts with long, slender animated legs that join a robustly volumed chest and lower neck that elevates to a relatively slender throat. The horses' heads reflect a similar attenuation as the erectly arched neck, from deep jaws and relatively wide forehead with well spaced, alert eyes to, flat, relatively narrow bridge of nose and small chin-muzzle girth behind flared nostrils. The eyes are most individualistically expressive, lively and as much forward as side directed. And the tail is always held high with forward movement. Overall these features reflect the size and refinement of the Arabian, Greek, and Scythian evolved horses that found there way to Ferghana

of 22


and Bactria as the "Heavenly Horses" so desired by the Chinese to supplement and enrich their more indigenous Mongolian horse stock. By contrast, the Mongolian horse, which still closely resembles the Asian Steppes wild Przewalski horse, is of stocky build, with short legs, thick, short neck and a head that is quite short in length of nose and ear size, as well as being large in relation to body and length of neck. The nose bridge is slightly convex while the Egyptian, Persian, Arabian prototypes are slightly concave to flat from between the eyes to waist of muzzle. The magnificently erect, arched neck posture of the fore mentioned horses is not anatomically possible for the stubby necked Mongolian horse, and the influence of select breeding resulting in hybrids of the two can be traced in Chinese art from at least the W. Han Dynasty horse of Emperor Wudi. The well known V&A Han dynasty horse "head" (actually chest, neck, and head), with arched neck and chin tucked enough to pull

of 22


the head into a vertical plane, is a perfect example of the influence of a non hybrid western "heavenly horse" of Greek or Scythian origin. In the process of my research on this subject, I happened on photographs of the Icelandic horse, originally taken there presumably by the Vikings. Rather astoundingly, the pictures indicated a variation in appearance from the wild Przewalski horse to the modern Arabian, quite similar to that of art history. The main difference between the most beautifully proportioned Arabian of today and the equivalent Icelandic horse is the length and slenderness of neck possessed by the Arabian and even seen in the image below of the Classic period Thracian horse. The Thracian horses, however, may have found these ideal proportions via stylization, as is their art in general compared with the realism of the same period Greeks, whose horses, as rendered their art, looked remarkably like those of Iceland. The same can be said with the apparently Greek

of 22


influenced "Royal" Scythians who lived north of the Black Sea and traded and inter married with Greeks settled there. If we stack up two examples of realism that had horses over 2,000 years ago looking like the best of the geographically isolated Icelandic horses today against the Thracians of similar Greek and Scythian era, whose more stylized art showed horses looking like the most selectively bred Arabian horses of today, we must conclude that the Thracians were precociously tasteful and ultimately accurate in styling an ideal horse of size and proportion that would take millennia of breeding to realize. show photos of icelandic horses Why?

Thracian Horses

of 22


of 22


"The earliest horse skeleton discovered in ancient Egypt, in 1700 B.C., bears all the physical characteristics of the Arabian horse: elongated wedge-shaped head, large eye sockets and small muzzle." This was also the time the Hyksos invaded Egypt and introduced the horse drawn chariot." University College London: Horses in Ancient Egypt "Hyksos, group of mixed Semitic-Asiatics who immigrated into Egypt’s delta region and gradually settled there during the 18th century bce. Beginning about 1630, a series of Hyksos kings ruled northern Egypt as the 15th dynasty (c. 1630–1523 bce)." Britannica (horse ref. also)

Read more: Egyptian Horse Information | eHow.com http://www.ehow.com/about_6494987_egyptian-horse-information.html#ixzz2BQT1OAn6"Starting about 3500 years ago, the Egyptian empire expanded its borders, and the civilizations of the Indus Valley mixed with the cultures of Mesopotamia. The empires of the Hurrians, Hittites, Kassites, Assyrians, Babylonians, Persians, and others rose and fell, and the Arabian "pony express" provided a means to connect the vast empires (Origins of the Arabian Horse).""...by 1500 B.C. the people of the East had domesticated the Arabian horse (Origins of the Arabian Horse). The Arabian had become a necessity for the Bedouin people to ensure their survival (History and Heritage of the Arabian Horse). The horses were of great importance to the tribes, and "the head men of the tribes could relate the verbal histories of each family of horse in his tribe as well as he could each family of Bedouin

http://www.digitalegypt.ucl.ac.uk/foodproduction/horse.html

http://www.digitalegypt.ucl.ac.uk/foodproduction/horse.html

http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/180468/ancient-Egypt

http://www.ehow.com/about_6494987_egyptian-horse-information.html#ixzz2BQT1OAn6




of 22


(History and Heritage of the Arabian Horse)." "The Arabian horse grew and flourished in the rich grass along the Fertile Crescent, now Syria, Iraq, Iran, and the Arabia peninsula (History and Heritage of the Arabian Horse). The origin of the name "Arab" is unclear; possibly derived from the concept of nomadism "Arabha," Hebrew for a dark or steppe land, or "Erebh," opposed to the ordered life of stationary communities (Origins of the Arabian Horse). "Arab is a Semitic word meaning 'desert' or the inhabitant thereof, with no reference to nationality...the Arabian became known as the hot-blooded horse of the 'Arabas' (Origins of the Arabian Horse)." Though the origin of the Arabian horse remains a mystery, his lineage traces back five thousand years. His ancient ancestors were slightly smaller than the Arabians of today, but otherwise the modern Arabians are exceptionally similar in appearance (The History of the Arabian Horse)."

of 22


Byford, et al. "Origination of the Arabian Breed." 6 April 1998. Available:http://www.net-link.net/frontier/Explorehome.html

"History and Heritage of the Arabian Horse." 5 April 1998. Available:http://www.arabianhorseamerica.com/history/index.html

"Origins of the Arabian Horse." 5 April 1998. Available:http://www.arabianhorseamerica.com/history/origin.html

Whitman, Susan. "Bedouin Source." 3 April 1998. Available:http://www.preservationist.com/

http://www.net-link.net/frontier/Explorehome.html

http://www.arabianhorseamerica.com/history/index.html

http://www.arabianhorseamerica.com/history/origin.html

http://www.preservationist.com/

of 22


of 22


"In the sweet grass oasis along the Euphrates and Tigris Rivers in the countries that are now known as Syria, Iraq, and Iran, and in other parts of the Arabia peninsula, this hearty horse developed and would soon be known as the Arabian horse." Horse of the Desert Bedouin (Arabian Horse History and Heritage) http://www.arabianhorses.org Arabian Horse Assoc."Authorities are at odds about where the Arabian horse originated. The subject is hazardous, for archaeologists' spades and shifting sands of time are constantly unsettling previously established thinking. There are certain arguments for the ancestral Arabian having been a wild horse in northern Syria, southern Turkey and possibly the piedmont regions to the east as well. The area along the northern edge of the Fertile Crescent

of 22


comprising part of Iraq and running along the Euphrates and west across Sinai and along the coast to Egypt, offered a mild climate and enough rain to provide an ideal environment for horses. Other historians suggest this unique breed originated in the southwestern part of Arabia, offering supporting evidence that the three great river beds in this area provided natural wild pastures and were the centers in which Arabian horses appeared as undomesticated creatures to the early inhabitants of southwestern Arabia.""About 3500 years ago the hot-blooded horse assumed the role of king-maker in the east, including the valley of the Nile and beyond, changing human history and the face of the world. Through him the Egyptians were made aware of the vast world beyond their own borders. The Pharaohs were able to extend the Egyptian empire by harnessing the horse to their chariots and relying on his power and courage. With his help, societies of such distant lands as the Indus Valley civilizations were united with Mesopotamian cultures. The empires of the Hurrians, Hittites, Kassites, Assyrians, Babylonians, Persians and others rose and fell under his thundering hooves. His strength made possible the initial concepts of a cooperative universal society, such as the Roman empire. The Arabian "pony express" shrank space, accelerated communications and linked empires together throughout the eastern world.""Because the interior of the Arabian peninsula has been dry for approximately 10,000 years, it would have been difficult, if not impossible, for horses to exist in that arid land without the aid of man. The domestication of the camel in about 3500 B.C.

of 22


provided the Bedouins (nomadic inhabitants of the middle east desert regions) with means of transport and sustenance needed to survive the perils of life in central Arabia, an area into which they ventured about 2500 B.C. At that time they took with them the prototype of the modern Arabian horse." Origin of the Arabian Horse (Arabian Horse History and Heritage)

Mongabay.com

of 22


of 22


The Sun Chariot of Trundholm is a late Bronze Age artefact, which is dated to the 14th and the 15th centuries BC. It was discovered in 1902 in the Trundholm moor near Nykøbing Sjælland, Denmark.

Horse and Swallow, bronze sculpture from the tomb of General Chang, Leitai, Wuwei county, Gansu province, 2nd century ad, Eastern Han dynasty; in the Gansu Provincial Museum, Lanzhou, China. Height 32.4 cm. "Bronze Galloping Horse Treading on a Flying Swallow is believed to be a portrayal of the "heavenly steed" of Chinese legend. It is of high craftsmanship, fully expressive of the horse-breeding culture of China's western regions." http://www.cultural-china.com

of 22


Ho

of 22


of 22


Han bronze horseSarmatian (w.

scale armour?) horses or Roman?

of 22


Tomb of Kazanlak Hellenistic period UNESCO World Heritage Site€¦ · Tomb of Kazanlak Hellenistic...

Documents

Transcript of Tomb of Kazanlak Hellenistic period UNESCO World Heritage Site€¦ · Tomb of Kazanlak Hellenistic...