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Tibetan Silver, Gold and Bronze Objects and the Aesthetics of Animals in the Era before Empire: Cross-cultural reverberations on the Tibetan Plateau and soundings from other parts of Eurasia
John Vincent Bellezza
This archaeological and art-historical study is woven around rock art and ancient metallic articles attributed to Tibet. The silver bowls, gold finial, and copper alloy spouted jars and trapezoidal plaques featured are assigned to the Iron Age and Protohistoric period. These rare objects are adorned with zoomorphic subjects mimicking those found in rock art and embody an artistic zeitgeist widely diffused in Central Eurasia in Late Prehistory. Diverse sources of inspiration and technological capability are revealed in these objects and rock art, shedding light on their transcultural dimension. The archaeological and aesthetic materials in this work prefigure the Tibetan cosmopolitanism of early historic times promoted through the spread of Buddhist ideas, art and craft from abroad. The metallic articles and petroglyphs of this study are markers of relationships between Tibet and her neighbours. These transactions enabled a fusion of Tibetan innovation and foreign inventiveness, a synthesis of disparate ideas, aesthetics and technologies in the objects and rock art presented.
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Front Cover
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Title page
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Copyright
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Of related interest
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Contents
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List of Figures
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List of Tables
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Introduction
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Overview
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The contents of the study
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Geographic scope
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Chronology and localisation
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Pursuant technical matters
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Provenance
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1. Two Tibetan silver bowls of the Late Prehistoric era: The spread of vessels in precious metals and lion art of West Asia to the Plateau
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The silver bowls in the Pine collection
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Other Tibetan silver and gold vessels and the lion
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The cultural and historical origins of the silver bowls in the Pine collection
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2. A Tibetan gold finial of the Late Prehistoric era: Transcultural movements discerned in the most incorruptible of metals
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The gold finial in the Pine collection
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Other Tibetan gold objects of the pre-Imperial era
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The cultural and historical origins of the gold finial
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3. Tibetan copper-alloy jars of the Late Prehistoric era: Tracing a northern arc of cultural connectivity through form and function
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Tibetan copper-alloy bird-spouted jars in private collections
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A bird-spouted ceramic jar from Iran
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4. Tibetan copper-alloy trapezoidal plaques of the Late Prehistoric era: Tigers and geometric patterns in the interregional matrix
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A trapezoidal plaque attributed to Tibet in the Pine collection
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A Tibetan trapezoidal openwork plaque in a privateb collection
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Other Tibetan trapezoidal openwork plaques and their cultural significance
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5. To and from Iran: Scythic links with the north and east
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The Achaemenid empire and its steppe connections
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The Scythian carriers of culture in the eastern part of Central Asia
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Saka agency in the expansion of zoomorphic art in North Asia
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6. To Tibet: Bearers of the Eurasian Animal Style in Northern Pakistan and North Inner Asia
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Saka art in the Pamirs and Northern Pakistan
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The Saka in the multicultural Tarim Basin
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The Northern Zone connection
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Cultural crosscurrents extending to the Eastern Steppe
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7. In Tibet: Transfer of the Eurasian Animal Style to the Plateau and parallel processes affecting China
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Eurasian Animal Style rock art in Tibet
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Parallel developments in the east
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Conclusion
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Mechanisms of transmission in the Inner Asian network of exchange
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Bibliography
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Index
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Back Cover
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Citable Link
Published: 2020
Publisher: BAR Publishing
- 9781407354316 (paperback)
- 9781407354354 (ebook)
BAR Number: S2984