tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-80796991335248748862024-03-17T22:03:48.292-05:00Sarmatian in the SCAA resource of information on the Sarmatians and my experiences in the SCAAritê gunê Akasahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03619166885106439477noreply@blogger.comBlogger98125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8079699133524874886.post-69969040969761074872017-03-08T22:29:00.002-06:002017-03-08T22:29:48.377-06:00Rejected Princesses<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
If you haven't heard of <a href="http://www.rejectedprincesses.com/">Rejected Princesses</a>, it's an amazing project. The breadth of information and the author's storytelling ability (not to mention his art skills!) are fantastic. He tells the tales of women in history or folklore who aren't as well known as they should be, or whose entire stories don't often get told. Usually they're admirable sorts, but he also has rapscallions and villians.<br />
He's covered two Iranian steppe nomads: <a href="http://www.rejectedprincesses.com/princesses/tirgatao">Tirgatao</a> and <a href="http://www.rejectedprincesses.com/princesses/tomyris">Tomyris</a>. Tirgatao is a web entry, so she gets a graphic short story. Tomyris is one of the book entries, so she has a short write-up and a single image.<br />
I highly recommend buying <a href="http://www.rejectedprincesses.com/book">the book</a>. He has it set up in a way that makes it easy to pick which stories to tell any kids you may read them to. Much like movies, he has a ranking system for how mature the stories are, as well as which mature themes are in them.</div>
Aritê gunê Akasahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03619166885106439477noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8079699133524874886.post-5335279588674892582017-03-04T14:24:00.000-06:002017-03-04T14:24:05.474-06:00Of Ph.D.s, scrolls, and cats<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
The big hurdle that made me stop updating the blog is over. I got my Ph.D. in December. But I'm not over research burnout (I've had it for a few years now...), and there's no immediate need for me to continue making myself miserable pushing it, so it's going to be a good while before I start making regular or in-depth posts here again. And career research is going to take priority over fun research when I'm able to do research again until I have at least one paper accepted. But I've amassed a few books in the meantime that I'm going to scour for topics and information, and also still have travelogues from my trip to Inner Mongolia to post.<br /><br />
I've been making little forays into getting active in the SCA again. I've been to a few events and local group meetings. I've attended a couple kingdom heraldry meetings and occasionally commented on KLOIs on OSCAR. At some point I'd like to take on vacant and will-be-vacant heraldry and A&S officer positions in my barony and canton, but I'm having to be very, very mindful of how much responsibility I shoulder. Now that the dissertation's done, I can actually work on healing from all the burnout, anxiety, and depression it caused. I agreed to be a local officer in my union because it was needed (and this is a bargaining year...), but that meant delaying being an SCA officer again. Which is fine. It will happen. All the self care I'm doing is paying off and I'm much happier than I was in December, though I still have a ways to go before I can operate at near-full capacity again.<br />
<br />
I took on a scroll assignment (Caid does all scrolls by request; very different from Calontir's AoAs-as-preprints system). I found a calligraphic hand from the right time and place for the person, taught myself to make it, then made the scroll from start to finish....then my cat stepped on it while the ink was still wet.<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEja4LiBz-7xbZuU25UvqR-ujvUa5cFosUs-CyOqKZF7z8U2GGZjMN-BM5ypjWMROSmi4ybLvUZPch80HBHD04olrz5tKlZCnLKuT9KXaho2MJKV4JRqn7waOROWkvbptD54d6oA_aEwYlfl/s1600/after+cat.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEja4LiBz-7xbZuU25UvqR-ujvUa5cFosUs-CyOqKZF7z8U2GGZjMN-BM5ypjWMROSmi4ybLvUZPch80HBHD04olrz5tKlZCnLKuT9KXaho2MJKV4JRqn7waOROWkvbptD54d6oA_aEwYlfl/s320/after+cat.jpg" width="248" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Stupid cat...</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
And it isn't even obvious pawprints, so I can't just shrug and say "it's period!" (even though it is). It just looks like I've smudged it. It's on bristol board so I don't think I can scrape it well (and it turns out I made a typo in the final draft that wasn't in the rough drafts anyway, so bleh). It was frustrating and I was still in the midst of dissertation frustration with some upsetting parallels, so I put it down for a while. When I finally felt like picking it back up...I finished the calligraphy and the cat <i>immediately</i> hopped up on the table and it. *headdesk* But I'm bound and determined to get it done in time for summer coronation. I think I may lock the cat away while I'm working and before the ink dries this time.</div>
Aritê gunê Akasahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03619166885106439477noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8079699133524874886.post-88876652733967513322017-03-04T13:53:00.000-06:002017-03-04T13:53:30.939-06:00"Scythian" (sensu lato) population genetics<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Here's <a href="http://www.nature.com/articles/ncomms14615">a paper</a> that's hot off the press (it came out in Nature Communications yesterday). The tl;dr is that Eurasian steppe nomads were highly mobile in the Iron Age to the point that there was a lot of genetic exchange between East and West.</div>
Aritê gunê Akasahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03619166885106439477noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8079699133524874886.post-24427810244719758702016-10-01T09:51:00.002-05:002016-10-01T09:52:36.283-05:00Nart Saga Storytelling in Berkeley<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
If you're in the Bay area of California, there's an excellent storytelling show being put on by another SCAdian with a Sarmatian persona, Csenge Zalka (mundane name). And John Colarusso, the linguist who did the oh-so-excellent translation of most of the Nart corpus into English will be there!<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhWwLMxlVD7vBDRTu2NWHlzzltqOvSXQ-S2eVTqmJqZoWLAolvQy_wJ10su4b1NcKtnF6vWIiXyw0dpkYtXbWrAPNHBl6blvCEVrqv_osQ7SyM0aBI0MMlL2_GCCVMxUm-Umju6ehyYldIG/s1600/csenge.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhWwLMxlVD7vBDRTu2NWHlzzltqOvSXQ-S2eVTqmJqZoWLAolvQy_wJ10su4b1NcKtnF6vWIiXyw0dpkYtXbWrAPNHBl6blvCEVrqv_osQ7SyM0aBI0MMlL2_GCCVMxUm-Umju6ehyYldIG/s640/csenge.jpg" width="492" /></a></div>
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Aritê gunê Akasahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03619166885106439477noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8079699133524874886.post-10052571380818776182016-07-13T00:33:00.000-05:002016-07-13T00:33:12.734-05:00A Kickstarter Project You Might Want to Back, Plus General Update<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
The woman I took an amazing class on kaftans from at Dragon*Con a few years back is writing a book on kaftan design. I just found out about <a href="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/71001114/the-caftan-project-tailored-garments-of-central-as?ref=thanks_share">the Kickstarter she's running for it</a>. Only three days left!<br /><br />Late last year, I got a job in and moved to Caid. Have been to an event and hung out with people a couple times and I think I'm going to very much enjoy this canton/barony (Mons Draconis in Dreiburgen). Graduation has been delayed. Again. At least I got the defense behind me... I'll be graduating in December come hell or high water, and hopefully my sanity will start creeping back in then.<br />
But I'm kind of sick of research at the moment. Have been for quite some time, actually. This dissertation has been slowly killing me... I don't know how long after I finish I'll be willing to start up persona research again. Might be immediately, might be a few months, but the unfortunately-long hiatus from posts that aren't just links to news on other sites will definitely be over sometime next year.</div>
Aritê gunê Akasahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03619166885106439477noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8079699133524874886.post-195719156710807582015-09-06T09:45:00.003-05:002015-09-06T09:45:59.736-05:00Blocking Cookies<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
I just saw a notice that EU laws require Blogger to tell people that they use Google Analytics and AdSense. It's not something I can block on my blog, but if you don't like them, you can block them yourself with a script filter. I use NoScript, which is a script filter for Firefox. I've used it for years and don't get viruses anymore. The only downside is that you have to allow pages you want to see and that gets tedious when a page needs multiple scripts to run properly, but you aren't sure which ones they are. That happens most for pages with pictures embedded from elsewhere or videos.</div>
Aritê gunê Akasahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03619166885106439477noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8079699133524874886.post-63492561607536865012015-08-20T07:37:00.001-05:002015-08-20T07:37:47.662-05:00New Grave Find and Iranian Nomad Social Media Group<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
A new group of Sarmatian kurgans has been found with at least 29 graves! They opened one up and found a double burial of what they are assuming to be a married couple.<br />
<br />
And since my dissertation struggles have meant I've avoided spending time doing SCA stuff, Holly Herda over at <a href="http://sarmatian-in-the-usa.blogspot.com/">Sarmatian in the USA</a> was kind enough to set up that Iranian nomad social media group I talked about a while back. I got an equal number of votes for Facebook and Google Groups. Since there's already a good and relevant group on Facebook, <a href="https://www.facebook.com/groups/214594512001726/">Mongols and Russians and Scythians, Oh my!</a>, we went with Google. She found out that Google is planning to phase out Google Groups, unfortunately, so SCA Iranian Steppe Nomads is a Google+ community.</div>
Aritê gunê Akasahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03619166885106439477noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8079699133524874886.post-32438452438815734652015-06-05T19:52:00.000-05:002015-06-05T19:52:17.043-05:00Solid Gold....Bong? -_-*<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Well that's one aspect of steppe nomad culture I will <i><b>not</b></i> be recreating. The news outlets have been calling it a bong, but they were cups used to drink a brewed opium drink while cannabis was burned nearby.<br />That is some awesome repousée work, though.<br />http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/solid-gold-scythian-bongs-cannabis-opium-discovered-russia-1503725</div>
Aritê gunê Akasahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03619166885106439477noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8079699133524874886.post-39277042567118647722015-06-02T07:55:00.001-05:002015-06-02T07:55:26.271-05:00Storytelling at a Museum<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Follow the link to read about another SCAdian's storytelling gig at a Hungarian museum's Sarmatian day. Includes short blurbs on some of the Nart Saga tales she told.<br /><a href="http://multicoloreddiary.blogspot.hu/2015/06/storytelling-in-sarmatia-archaeology.html">http://multicoloreddiary.blogspot.hu/2015/06/storytelling-in-sarmatia-archaeology.html</a></div>
Aritê gunê Akasahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03619166885106439477noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8079699133524874886.post-35353303387221332432015-05-14T11:18:00.001-05:002015-05-14T11:24:13.668-05:00Horse Archers<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Briefly popping in to share a video recently posted to YouTube. I'm
still too deeply embroiled in dissertation and career stuff to play in
the SCA at the moment.<br />
<br />
Every fighting style has its pros and cons. Here's a video by Lindybeige discussing the cons of mounted archery in battle. Sarmatians mostly raided small villages with no fortifications, so the main point he discusses wasn't a frequent concern for them.<br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" class="YOUTUBE-iframe-video" data-thumbnail-src="https://i.ytimg.com/vi/d4b5IclFJ8Q/0.jpg" frameborder="0" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/d4b5IclFJ8Q?feature=player_embedded" width="320"></iframe></div>
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Aritê gunê Akasahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03619166885106439477noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8079699133524874886.post-16044247694699298782015-01-29T13:38:00.004-06:002015-01-29T13:38:56.822-06:00The Face of a Saka<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Quick linkshare- The Pazyryk mummy with the awesome tattoos has had her face reconstructed. <br />http://www.ryot.org/frozen-mummy-tattoos-princess-ukok-siberia-taxidermy-reproduction/919290<br />
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Aritê gunê Akasahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03619166885106439477noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8079699133524874886.post-85888110112551492712015-01-14T17:59:00.002-06:002015-05-06T19:42:07.815-05:00Life Update and Nomad Games<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
My last Ph.D year continues to be insanely busy. I have no time to attend SCA events and when I take a break from work, I need to actually give my brain a rest, not do a different type of research. I haven't even felt like picking up the book I mentioned in the last post. When I've read anything, it's been a fantasy novel that lets me immerse myself in someone else's world for a bit. <br />
It won't let up anytime soon. I'm fully expecting it to continue until graduation (and beyond, as I continue my thus far unsuccessful job search). Which means I won't be completing my Persona A&S Challenge by the deadline set by the organizer, though I may still be able to do it by the time the SCA's actual 50th birthday rolls around a year later. It also means I won't be doing any persona research for quite some time (or posting those very belated posts from my travels).<br />
<br />
But I did run across one thing today that I'm sad I didn't know about before and wanted to share.<br />
http://worldnomadgames.com/en/</div>
Aritê gunê Akasahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03619166885106439477noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8079699133524874886.post-23012822423566605632014-09-16T12:49:00.000-05:002014-09-16T12:49:10.399-05:00New Book to Buy<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
If you haven't already, pre-order this book! Battle pathologies on female skeletons!<br /><a href="http://www.c-span.org/video/?321162-11/book-discussion-amazons">http://www.c-span.org/video/?321162-11/book-discussion-amazons</a><br />
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Aritê gunê Akasahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03619166885106439477noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8079699133524874886.post-81146099338055976232014-09-06T15:41:00.000-05:002014-09-07T11:53:49.900-05:00Of Ancient Norse, Egalitarian Societies, and Burial Practices<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Some of you may have seen an internet article <a href="http://www.tor.com/blogs/2014/09/female-viking-warriors-proof-swords">like this one</a> going around recently for a study that was actually published three years ago. But if your local library doesn't have the access to go behind the paywall of <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1468-0254.2011.00323.x/abstract">the original article</a>, you might also find yourself being mislead. Here's <a href="http://www.themarysue.com/vikings-women/">a more accurate write-up of it close to the time of publication</a>, and here's <a href="http://www.themarysue.com/viking-warrior-women-disappointed/">a write-up explaining where the newer misleading ones went wrong</a>. I recommend reading through the comments of the last one; some of them are quite informative.<br />
<br />
I first got wind of this study through one of the newer studies. I had a brain fail and didn't check the primary reference (shame on me!) before commenting on a friend's post that I wasn't surprised. The Norse did give us Valkyries and shieldmaidens, after all. And I'd heard from SCAdians with Norse personas that women in those cultures had much more freedom than more stereotypical medieval European societies. But then I saw the post explaining the errors and I was also not surprised. The game of Internet Telephone and bad science journalism strike again... <br />
<br />
One of the comments reminded me of something that I've never explicitly stated (and I apologize for not doing so before)—when you hear or read about egalitarian societies of the past (or today)—it doesn't necessarily mean they're egalitarian because they believe in equality. It might be because they don't really have a choice.<br />
<br />
<tangent>To bring in another of my bio/paleo analogies, terrestrial vertebrates can be bipeds or quadrupeds, but the description doesn't end there. They can be obligate or facultative bipeds or quadrupeds. There's a difference between an organism being bipedal because it <i>has</i> to be vs. bipedal because it <i>wants </i>to be. Raccoons, for example, are quadrupeds normally, but I've seen them pick up food in their front paws and run away on their hind legs. It was more useful for them to be bipedal at that point in time because they could carry more food that way.<br />
</tangent><br />
<br />
In her book, Davis-Kimball recounts some time spent with a modern nomad group. Their chief was a woman. She asked the men what they thought about having a female leader. They looked at her like she was an idiot and told her she was their chief because she was the most qualified to be their chief. End of story.<br />
<br />
If you're like me, you probably have a pretty privileged life. Living inside a decent building. Your access to the internet is good enough that you can afford to spend time on it reading my blog instead of doing necessary things like checking if your boss has e-mailed you recently. You can likely go to a nearby grocery store to buy your food. Maybe you even have the fallback of living with your parents if your job doesn't pan out.<br />
<br />
But if you live a nomadic life on the steppes, or you're looking for new farmland across the sea, the future quality of your life is much less certain. You can't afford to tell half the population "No, stay home. We'll take care of everything here" or "You can't fight or be a leader because we want you to sew things and cook, even if you aren't terribly good at it". What an individual does is dictated by necessity as much as by their skill. If a male Viking spends all day raiding a nearby village, he's not going to be able to stay home and tend the fields. If your group needs a leader, you pick the best because you may not fare well in the winter if you don't. The way "civilized" society has been set up, we have more leeway with the mistakes we make. Crops didn't do well this year? That's okay. We've got plenty from last year in the freezer.<br />
<br />
But having all that leeway means the powerful also have more wiggle room to let their personal preferences creep in. And in Western society, that means assuming males are more competent than females in many jobs and deserve more pay. Now before you counter that the pay gap is false, I've read the same 70% statistic as you and, like you, disregarded it because the study that number came from failed to account for various factors that would cause it to look more serious than it should. I didn't see any reason to believe the pay gap diatribe until I read <a href="http://www.pnas.org/content/109/41/16474.full">this horrifying study</a>. It's in an open access journal, so you have no excuse not to read it.<br />
<br />
But if you're in a rush, here's the take-home message (before you go read the full thing later): Give people (male or female; it's so ingrained in our culture that it doesn't matter!) the resume of an applicant for a STEM field position. If the gender of the name is masculine, they are more likely to hire that person, offer them a higher salary, give them more career mentoring, and consider them more competent.<br />
<br />
The thing that makes this study so convincing is that the <i>only</i> thing that changed on the resume was the gender of the name. <i>Everything else</i> on the resume—the achievements that actually tell you how good a candidate a person is—was the. <i>Exact. Same.</i> And there have been plenty of other studies showing similar biases (which is why female authors often abbreviate their names).<br />
<br />
...So back to my original point—when you read about female warriors of the past, or female leaders of modern nomadic tribes, don't assume it means that society believes/d everyone is created equal. It might just be because they had/ve no choice but to act that way.<br />
<br />
Remember the post on the Nart Sagas I linked to? Where there's a prophecy that "one day men and women will live peacefully as equals"? At first glance, it sounds all warm and squishy because it means they accept that it's possible for people to be equal regardless of gender. But also remember that wife kidnapping was a thing there. And forcing an unrelated woman to treat you like a son by doing something that, in our society, is sexual harassment was an accepted practice.<br />
<br />
Early Sarmatian (or maybe just Sauromatian, I forget if it stopped with them) graves with weapons may have been 20% female, but that practice died off. By the time you get to Late Sarmatians, there are no more female warriors defending their tribes against the Huns or raiding nearby Roman settlements. And as for that 20% number, again, things aren't necessarily what they seem. Just because someone is buried with an object doesn't always mean they regularly used that object in life. Ancient Egyptians were buried with a book; that doesn't mean they were all librarians.<br />
<br />
Like the Book of the Dead, the steppe nomad practice of burying weapons with people could be a ceremonial or religious thing (from what I've read, they did practice a sort of sword worship). Maybe that noblewoman was buried with a sword because her tribe felt that people of note should be buried with a symbol of power. Or maybe their mythology had dead souls paying their way to the afterlife with a sword, like the coins for Charos (note: I completely made that one up; I have no reason to actually believe that). Who knows? One could come up with any number of theories, both substantiated and unsubstantiated. The same goes for the occasional steppe nomad man buried with both weapons and mirrors (normally associated with female graves)—doesn't necessarily mean he was something like a Two-Spirit, which Davis-Kimball suggested. The assumption that grave goods are solely representative of use in life is rife with errors and where Davis-Kimball's book falls flat.<br />
<br />
On the other hand, it doesn't mean that every case of being buried with weapons was like that. It is common practice, after all, to bury people with things they were attached to in life. Just remember that's it's not going to be a 1:1 correlation. If you want to be sure about a particular find, look for data like whether a particular sword was worn from use and whether the skeleton shows skeletal pathologies consistent with being a warrior. <br />
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Aritê gunê Akasahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03619166885106439477noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8079699133524874886.post-79802629665830648802014-08-26T18:21:00.000-05:002014-08-28T08:16:08.489-05:00Saka "Golden Woman" Reconstructions<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Two years ago, a new, undisturbed find of a wealthy Saka woman from the 4th to 5th centuries BC in western Kazakhstan made the news. Finding an unlooted kurgan is always great news. So many of them were
looted in both distant and recent history (in modern cases, many looters
melt the gold down, which means all cultural information is lost). A week ago, images of many of the artifacts in her grave, along with reconstructions of some things (like her clothes and her comb) were published <a href="http://en.tengrinews.kz/science/Reconstruction-shows-how-ancient-Scythian-Princess-discovered-in-Kazakhstan-255482/">here</a>. Take a look through them! It's pretty awesome. <br />
The claim that her symbols represent a belief in Zoroastrianism confused me. Maybe something was lost in translation, but worshiping a sky/sun god is kind of an ancestral Indo-European thing (discussed in <u>The Horse, The Wheel, and Language</u>), so it should by no means be indicative of Zoroastrianism over other religions in that category.<br />
Side note 1: The tall hat would have been made of felt over a wooden frame. I don't know more details than that; it's something that was briefly noted in <u>Warrior Women</u> by Davis-Kimball.<br />
Side note 2: The "Golden Man" is also a woman. But because the archeologists in charge of reporting her operated in a highly patriarchal paradigm, they failed to report it, even though some of them suspected it. It ruffled their feathers that she was buried with a warrior's accoutrements. Davis-Kimball also recounts how she independently figured it out and the reception of her findings in her book.<br />
One thing I should note before anyone rushes off to recreate her outfit: just because someone is buried in something, doesn't mean they would have worn it in life. It could be funerary clothing. Someone noted on <a href="https://www.facebook.com/groups/214594512001726/">this facebook page</a> that a hat like that is impractical, so why would someone living on the steppes wear it? Couldn't it get blown away by the wind? All I have to offer to counter that is that there are depictions of steppe women wearing tall hats while alive in their goldwork. See <a href="http://sarmatianinthesca.blogspot.com/2012/06/zoomorphic-art-as-illumination-take-two.html">this post</a> for one example. However, it's still possible that they were specifically for ceremonial purposes, rather than for everyday use.<br />
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<dt><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Anthony, D.W., 2007, <i>The Horse, The Wheel, and Language: How Bronze-Age Riders from the Eurasian Steppes Shaped the Modern World</i>, Princeton University Press, pp. 553.<br />Davis-Kimball, J<i>.</i>, and Behan, M., 2002, <i>Warrior Women: An </i><i><i>A</i>rchaeologist's </i><i><i>S</i>earch for </i><i><i>H</i>istory's </i><i><i>H</i>idden </i><i><i>H</i>eroines</i>, Warner Books, pp. 268. </span></span></dt>
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Aritê gunê Akasahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03619166885106439477noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8079699133524874886.post-37660295786067771182014-08-22T10:44:00.000-05:002014-08-26T22:42:42.620-05:00Sarmatians et al. in the SCA<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
I've started hearing from more and more SCAdians with Sarmatian personas. I think it would be nice if we all had a way to contact each other and share what we know. Maybe even start a household. :)<br />
So if you have a Sarmatian or other Iranian steppe nomad persona and are willing to be included on this list, could you e-mail me (or comment here with) your SCA name (or mundane if you're trying to decide or want both listed), kingdom, and local group? If you have more specific persona info, (century, tribe, geographic area...) you can opt to give me that as well.<br />
If you've e-mailed me in the past and I haven't accidentally deleted the conversation during an inbox purge, I'll contact you separately to ask. But if you haven't heard from me by this Monday (August 25), assume I lost it and contact me again. If you've commented on a previous blog entry but not included your e-mail address, I probably won't have a way to reach you, so please also comment here again.<br />
I haven't decided what the best way to make a contact circle would be. I could hyperlink e-mails here (with your permission). We could start a Yahoo or Google group. What's everybody's preference?<br />
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<ul style="text-align: left;">
<li>SCA name: <a href="mailto:celticdragon38@yahoo.com">Aritê gunê Akasa</a><br />Mundane: Jess Miller-Camp<br />Tribe: Undecided<br />Time: Undecided<br />Place: Undecided<br />Kingdom: Calontir<br />Local: Shire of Shadowdale </li>
</ul>
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<li> SCA name: Undecided<br />Mundane: Csenge Zalka<br />Tribe: Undecided<br />Time: Undecided<br />Place: Undecided<br />Kingdom: Middle Kingdom<br />Local: Barony of Red Spears </li>
</ul>
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<li>SCA Name: Storanê Sauromatis<br />Mundane: Carol Botteron<br />Tribe: Undecided<br />Time: Undecided<br />Place: Undecided<br />Kingdom: East<br />Local: Barony of Carolingia</li>
</ul>
<ul style="text-align: left;">
<li>SCA name: Maiôsara Sauromatis<br />Mundane name: Sarah Mitchner<br />Tribe: Roxolani<br />Time: 5th century<br />Place: Tomis<br />Kingdom: Middle<br />Local: Barony of the Flame</li>
</ul>
<ul style="text-align: left;">
<li>Sarmatian Name: Undecided<br />Real Name: <a href="http://sassyhorsefreaknm2@gmail.com/">Holly Herda</a><br />Tribe: Iazyges<br />Time: Late 2nd Century AD<br />Place: Sarmatia (Hungary) / Britain<br />Location: Texas, USA</li>
</ul>
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<li>SCA Name: Minythia<div id="yui_3_16_0_1_1409110608294_3637">
Mundane: Rachel Baltz</div>
<div id="yui_3_16_0_1_1409110608294_3653">
Tribe: Scythian/Sarmatian (intermarriage)</div>
<div id="yui_3_16_0_1_1409110608294_3651">
Time: 6th Century BCE</div>
<div id="yui_3_16_0_1_1409110608294_3639">
Place: Nomadic- Don River to Altai Mountains</div>
<div id="yui_3_16_0_1_1409110608294_3641">
Kingdom: Caid</div>
<div id="yui_3_16_0_1_1409110608294_3643">
Local: Barony of Calafia </div>
</li>
</ul>
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Aritê gunê Akasahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03619166885106439477noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8079699133524874886.post-12919854342389297742014-08-21T15:33:00.000-05:002014-08-22T10:50:09.326-05:00Sarmatian-related Objects in the British Museum<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
I was actually able to find some Sarmatian-related things in the British Museum! Yay! Many of them were artifacts from sedentary cultures that were either traded from or influenced by their steppe neighbors, be they Sarmatian or contemporaries of the Sarmatians.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0Irsen8qA7LyX8b9DthnjvxxmlYTPif8AcjmerLwxevtB77WhbgX4Q-IX2QJtoDUeephZNhbCxM5I_BrZMeUlhamr8KQquOPxeb-nmdpy436DXyxstrT0NtiO20pzgs3dn5Ck_7EWo2Qw/s1600/IMG_0751.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0Irsen8qA7LyX8b9DthnjvxxmlYTPif8AcjmerLwxevtB77WhbgX4Q-IX2QJtoDUeephZNhbCxM5I_BrZMeUlhamr8KQquOPxeb-nmdpy436DXyxstrT0NtiO20pzgs3dn5Ck_7EWo2Qw/s1600/IMG_0751.JPG" height="240" width="320" /></a></div>
First up is something a sedentary culture picked up from either the Sarmatians or a contemporary steppe culture. They liked to sew gold plaques on their clothing. There were some in a case of Parthian items from the 1st century AD.<br />
There are tiny holes on the edges for the thread. Not pictured above these were some gold leaves mimicking early Greek head wreaths. The label notes that the wreath was probably placed on a corpse, so in this case the gold plaques may have been a funerary-specific thing. <br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8vh6Z6LotZ-Gj_yTk-QFb1lBGcfvBfBjT8XJz1fj4YY5EoMXfw9jdcDDIKFC7XFNXATaEH00Zjyl0dn3FMeuoY1MP-bBy50K1zS0d1YvBt29tYp5lw8jbJ7kKivA5hDUpr8wXiv-J30ik/s1600/63.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8vh6Z6LotZ-Gj_yTk-QFb1lBGcfvBfBjT8XJz1fj4YY5EoMXfw9jdcDDIKFC7XFNXATaEH00Zjyl0dn3FMeuoY1MP-bBy50K1zS0d1YvBt29tYp5lw8jbJ7kKivA5hDUpr8wXiv-J30ik/s1600/63.jpg" height="200" width="183" /></a><br />
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There were also a type of small, three-sided arrowhead which were apparently indicative of Central Asian steppe cultures before some sedentary ones decided they were awesome and started using them themselves. They were apparently quick and easy to make and good at piercing armor. They were fired out of recurved bows—also introduced form the steppes.<br />
These are from a soldier's cemetary (Deve Hüyük) from the mid-6th to 4th century BC in northern Syria, which was then part of the Achaemenid Empire.<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBwlf_rQzWyuL0nXmjnszGx68EQkNVC3vFNDeMpO63bs20i1uIL0ajFsHsxysOSSc0hym_5U0BBzvJbrSM5BbfAFnCOEmQgQvB34ynrafyOuadc5Ze12NcxRv3TGdV_K8csBV37mGXMYLl/s1600/IMG_0768.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBwlf_rQzWyuL0nXmjnszGx68EQkNVC3vFNDeMpO63bs20i1uIL0ajFsHsxysOSSc0hym_5U0BBzvJbrSM5BbfAFnCOEmQgQvB34ynrafyOuadc5Ze12NcxRv3TGdV_K8csBV37mGXMYLl/s1600/IMG_0768.JPG" height="240" width="320" /></a><br />
This horse bit is from the same site as the arrowheads. Nothing was said about whether the style was native Achaemenid or steppe-influenced, but I've included it here since it's contemporary and may be of interest to equestrians.<br />
I wouldn't advise actually using these on your horses, though. The label noted that the knobs on the snaffle, while allowing control with very small movements, would be uncomfortable for the horse.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhK-lhUZnltM2T078IgZ1l-G6DYk2CDi1u-6F04gZN3o4iZ4L30EduikRbTMF13rAB59U14SJWWFOkLxlNNbWzPVnW92kU2NDS5EI2O7VSxwW4GlVc1Dq7DcY8S7Ry48gG_WScXm-GohA7k/s1600/64.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhK-lhUZnltM2T078IgZ1l-G6DYk2CDi1u-6F04gZN3o4iZ4L30EduikRbTMF13rAB59U14SJWWFOkLxlNNbWzPVnW92kU2NDS5EI2O7VSxwW4GlVc1Dq7DcY8S7Ry48gG_WScXm-GohA7k/s1600/64.jpg" height="200" width="117" /></a><br />
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They also found items in at least one female grave there. Bronze mirrors were also ritually buried with priestesses in steppe nomad kurgans. It used to have a wooden handle. The bone tube used to have a lid and contained some sort of makeup. The other items are a cloak brooch and bracelets with stylized calf's head motifs.<br />
Anyone know what the burial practices of an Achaemenid garrison would have been? Would they bury wives of soldiers there as well? Would they have had a religious leader there? Or did women sometimes fight in their culture like the Sarmatians? The labels didn't say if these were found alongside martial artifacts or not.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWJXcu1gY8Bb7IerAU7OPxNJ_gcBkJn6oV3cOHmLs97XzgoET-tJ7pc7qFUm4ccUNKeSEef_wIymrxUmfiILeZRabLdurqgX4C154xoX7bALezutJo47HVevmLsMMA0DRTE3iubDxCsoGa/s1600/65.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWJXcu1gY8Bb7IerAU7OPxNJ_gcBkJn6oV3cOHmLs97XzgoET-tJ7pc7qFUm4ccUNKeSEef_wIymrxUmfiILeZRabLdurqgX4C154xoX7bALezutJo47HVevmLsMMA0DRTE3iubDxCsoGa/s1600/65.jpg" height="193" width="320" /></a> Fast-forward in time to the Sassanian Empire—the last Iranian empire before the spread of Islam. They made seal stamps out of various minerals. People, animals (real and mythical), plants, and inanimate objects were all possible images on the seals. ...So were tamgas. :)<br />
The BM display only had the one tamga seal (no provenance given), but you can see quite a few more in a private Austrian collection on <a href="http://www.sigilla.at/HtmlEn/main_catalogue_7.html">this website.</a><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmF28htE3H6tBJJhZI4JdK7qV6fUlLENt4QS_1W87MCqTKuT5DYQ4zuFxc8I_AP87w-t7-hyQULyCjbascTkEyB6rKP-AhzFhcBFu4mEE8EYDgpj5ZCpN8dOLrqO62gD2Ry3zv6bCIvwDU/s1600/IMG_0832.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmF28htE3H6tBJJhZI4JdK7qV6fUlLENt4QS_1W87MCqTKuT5DYQ4zuFxc8I_AP87w-t7-hyQULyCjbascTkEyB6rKP-AhzFhcBFu4mEE8EYDgpj5ZCpN8dOLrqO62gD2Ry3zv6bCIvwDU/s1600/IMG_0832.JPG" height="320" width="240" /></a> And, finally, there was the Ribchester Hoard. The hoard itself is too early to belong to any of the Iazyges Sarmatians that were stationed there, but other, later Roman artifacts were displayed in the same case. And some of them looked to be lifted from the Sarmatians. One of the re-enactment groups I'll talk about soon discussed how Romans
tended to absorb weapon and armor styles from the people they
conquered.<br />
There were a number of weapons in this case—swords, daggers, etc...—and one of them is a ring pommel sword. Ring pommel swords were popular among Sarmatian from the 2nd century to the 2nd century AD (mentioned in the Osprey book on them). They were also used by other Central Asian peoples, though it doesn't seem like they were very popular until later according to the discussion on <a href="http://www.swordforum.com/forums/showthread.php?7728-Ring-Pommel-Swords">this forum</a>. About the time the Iazyges were first drafted into the Roman army, ring pommel sword became popular amongst Romans.<br />
This sword is from the 2nd-3rd century AD, Pevensey, East Sussex. It was found with coins from Emporer Commodus' reign (176-192AD). It was buried in the ground intact. The wood and leather scabbard(?) (I think they may have meant to say grip there...) rotted away, but the tin-coated bronze pommel is intact.<br />
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I'll talk more about the Ribchester Hoard and the Sarmatian ala there in an upcoming post on the Ribchester Roman Museum. <br />
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Aritê gunê Akasahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03619166885106439477noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8079699133524874886.post-62484020461522255812014-08-21T08:17:00.001-05:002014-08-22T10:47:43.030-05:00Quick Update<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
I am working on the next few posts. I have quite a few I want to get out! I still have a couple from my Europe trip, plus now a quick archeology news share and updates based on some of the books I've been reading while on planes, trains, and buses in both Europe and the paleo dig in Wyoming. I've just been getting more work stuff square away, but my goal is to get one out by tomorrow afternoon.<br />
Also, I've made a last-minute decision to go to Cattle Raids this weekend. Anyone want to meet up? I think I'll load the Roman re-enactor videos (complete with cavalry and horseback archery!) back onto my camera and take it, so you can get a sneak peak if you find me. :) I'll be wearing some...uh...totally non-period lime green Thai pants...'cause I ruined my only pair of period pants trying to resize them...-_-* At least they're linen? <br />
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Aritê gunê Akasahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03619166885106439477noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8079699133524874886.post-49602215562843922192014-07-26T23:23:00.000-05:002014-07-26T23:34:46.950-05:00Scythian and Scythian-related Objects in the British Museum<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
I was quite happy with the British Museum (BM). They had many steppe nomad and steppe nomad-related artifacts on display. And, because they're an archeology museum, their labels were much more informative than the Louvre's. Also, there's so much I want to talk about that I've decided to split my visit there into two posts--this one focused on the Scythians and the next on the Sarmatians.<br />
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<span style="font-size: small;"><b>The Oxus Treasure</b></span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEikRBpOFnaGCo-iueQt12Sbe7GfWozw1k3XUrJl5K5CC_ws-Tznx-xQWfD2M47EIETwUhjGkB6jGjBvXycyStySbT2LVxEtxEJqz6ppgN-_Xhb8Hom9BxhD2Kq9HRmuDPADAq9KZKrWQyVn/s1600/56.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEikRBpOFnaGCo-iueQt12Sbe7GfWozw1k3XUrJl5K5CC_ws-Tznx-xQWfD2M47EIETwUhjGkB6jGjBvXycyStySbT2LVxEtxEJqz6ppgN-_Xhb8Hom9BxhD2Kq9HRmuDPADAq9KZKrWQyVn/s1600/56.jpg" height="198" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Scythian feline on a ring biting its tail. <br />
Similar to <a href="http://sarmatianinthesca.blogspot.com/2012/07/steppe-nomads-at-met.html">the pommels at the Met</a>.</td></tr>
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The Oxus Treasure is a collection of Achaemenid-period metalwork and coins found in modern-day Tajikistan just across the border with Afghanistan. Much of it was unfortunately cut or melted down for bullion by the merchants the finders originally sold it to, so museums only contain part of the find now. The art styles in the hoard are highly variable, so one hypothesis is that the hoard was temple tribute, with individual pieces being of various ages and originating from various cultures. The BM dates the metalwork to the 5th or 4th century BC. Some of them are the steppe nomad's Animal Style. Others simply demonstrate interactions with them.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Scythian bracelet with two<br />
interlocking monsters.</td></tr>
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<b>Luristan Bronzes</b><br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEise-F4liEEFqeUMUie7dyRO_Vv_PiN7tJSw7inuU9xr4LvKQam-uIxmq_GhQEX-Hnl-tNKYI96J_0BCKEtdgxgGH9x9uM-mDrXPtT4I1SKUdw0T3BznWagvAYF1TEqTbcDGNjHqKpZ0OAS/s1600/57.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEise-F4liEEFqeUMUie7dyRO_Vv_PiN7tJSw7inuU9xr4LvKQam-uIxmq_GhQEX-Hnl-tNKYI96J_0BCKEtdgxgGH9x9uM-mDrXPtT4I1SKUdw0T3BznWagvAYF1TEqTbcDGNjHqKpZ0OAS/s1600/57.jpg" height="200" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The most adorable little Scythian monster ever!<br />
Originally, it would have had stone inlays<br />
and may have been on a hat or hair accessory.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPDxf1FpKl45zFWv1jqD9PYoh1Ue5vLgYoN_BkB15jFY-yFcKsS9csBV79FJ97QBCLI3Z-NHxLHoC9HbJop39I0jtCnSbSuCosHVJPDKCpwucdgsWT4EGL5w1BBipDJEEX18jhZ2pMMy62/s1600/58.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPDxf1FpKl45zFWv1jqD9PYoh1Ue5vLgYoN_BkB15jFY-yFcKsS9csBV79FJ97QBCLI3Z-NHxLHoC9HbJop39I0jtCnSbSuCosHVJPDKCpwucdgsWT4EGL5w1BBipDJEEX18jhZ2pMMy62/s1600/58.jpg" height="200" width="99" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">This Achaemenid piece shows a<br />
Persian hero killing steppe nomads.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
I finally found out what those deer-ibex motifs in the Louvre are--they're from a group of artifacts called<b> </b>the Luristan Bronzes. They're from the Early Iron Age of west-central modern-day Iran. Some pieces are ornamentative, some ceremonial, and others had more practical purposes (e.g., the weapons). The BM had more on display, including some that looked like humans shaped to be rather, uh...phallic. I haven't included any pictures of this collection.<br />
<br />
<b>Caucasian artifacts</b><br />
There was an entire section on the early first millennium BC Caucasus as the "gateway to the north" for Iran. Some of the artifacts in this section were of Scythian style from northwest Iran, while others were Caucasian (Koban culture).<b> </b>Below are gold fragments from late 8th century belts from Ziwiye in north-east Iran, which would have been sewn onto cloth or leather backings and are daggers from Iran and Georgia.<br />
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgAafxO293OInvQkawyg_k9_SsklU4S8EOjTAOAEe28ilfi-tY0VYhUnTaVJp0ay4m7BUdC47m2w7GN_Jnz4sAYO641KmVYLLy9Nshy_ac49HmicxF80Z5WdgjIGQ54arodZyQsU6CncMvb/s1600/60.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgAafxO293OInvQkawyg_k9_SsklU4S8EOjTAOAEe28ilfi-tY0VYhUnTaVJp0ay4m7BUdC47m2w7GN_Jnz4sAYO641KmVYLLy9Nshy_ac49HmicxF80Z5WdgjIGQ54arodZyQsU6CncMvb/s1600/60.jpg" height="100" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Scythian-style feline motifs with missing stone inlays</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqHo1JQmpmQk_ZblXYtmzjzkdf4kWNgcDjb3_HPOxfmlEh2whBmKpVZ-DVZmRP_6GcCd8wMz5co1Kq6DAszsesM_hg5iaeohLViLVx2WUAL3nbzBpAFnGGtCkuc6as9BUMU654EowRg2gb/s1600/19.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqHo1JQmpmQk_ZblXYtmzjzkdf4kWNgcDjb3_HPOxfmlEh2whBmKpVZ-DVZmRP_6GcCd8wMz5co1Kq6DAszsesM_hg5iaeohLViLVx2WUAL3nbzBpAFnGGtCkuc6as9BUMU654EowRg2gb/s1600/19.jpg" height="176" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Look familiar? The label here gave more information on this<br />
artifact than the one in the Met, some of it conflicting. I'm<br />
not sure if they're two pieces of the sameartifact with the<br />
Met either getting the less battered piece or restoring their's<br />
more nicely, or if they're two separate artifacts made by the<br />
same person. There are two different styles here.<br />
The stags and ibexes are done in Scythian style. The motif<br />
encasing them is more along the lines of Near Eastern art.<br />
I do wonder about its identification as apiece of a belt...that<br />
would have to be a pretty wide belt...even wider for the Met's.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgh8d7Zq3vMg_NYeFLvny6hiJohJPWIF2EHim_nfcqO-d3eQHO4lqkYkcx-If14S5EA_FhCOg8nOtAslKTqHsYiG_BbGf3FLhTvAyITJYDRI5dbTCvbfRuAttwa14EnuAYz5MoaP2Cs3rRE/s1600/62.jpg" height="320" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" width="70" /></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">10th-9th century BC Iran<br />
The style is similar to some found in both northwest Iran and Georgia. <br />
The handle was covered in wood held attached with small cooper<br />
rivets. The edges have been sharpened, so it has actually been used<br />
as a weapon.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgCHTNAsn5vNqbYVU3GbOOmtsMshyzmO-yJ5X-0Upe6IjaBCmp4qy9cvFqDVXn2YHqMxpGpdNQZDlvcZ8RzhHMrAd9jWA5N2TWy0wwasOuMJE8PIky8QEzl-CtNslgL6QQpoEuSoIw2ZZuK/s1600/61.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgCHTNAsn5vNqbYVU3GbOOmtsMshyzmO-yJ5X-0Upe6IjaBCmp4qy9cvFqDVXn2YHqMxpGpdNQZDlvcZ8RzhHMrAd9jWA5N2TWy0wwasOuMJE8PIky8QEzl-CtNslgL6QQpoEuSoIw2ZZuK/s1600/61.jpg" height="320" width="158" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">14th-9th centuries BC, Georgia<br />
These are types of Caucasian daggers.<br />The left is of a style often found with<br />
other weapons (swords, axes, spearheads)<br />
in graves in Armenia and Georgia. The<br />
right is younger and of the Koban culture.<br />
The style with animals facing each other<br />
on the handle may have influenced later<br />
Scythian handles.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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Aritê gunê Akasahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03619166885106439477noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8079699133524874886.post-67361682824253686692014-07-09T15:51:00.001-05:002014-07-26T08:55:56.521-05:00Maybe Scythian Stuff in the Louvre?<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Apologies for the wait. Between collections work, sightseeing, some professional service work, keeping up another blog to meet one of the requirements for one of my fellowships,and resting from doing all that, I'm only now getting time to write stuff up here. But more will follow shortly. :)<br />
<br />
It turns out the Louvre doesn't actually have any Sarmatian stuff. I wish I'd saved the link that pulled Sarmatian stuff up on a search because I have no idea why it told me they did. They have one thing in the collections which references the Sarmatians (a <a href="http://www.louvre.fr/en/oeuvre-notices/fragment-architectural-relief">Roman relief</a> commemorating some of Hadrian's victories over them), but no actual stuff of their's according to a search through their online database. I went through the Iranian area (Iranian meaning cultures-and-empires-based-in-Iran, not all Iranian ethnicities) just to see what was there.<br />
<br />
The database mentions an <a href="http://www.louvre.fr/en/oeuvre-notices/bracelet-decorated-incrusted-lions-heads">Achaemenid bracelet</a> that might have been made by the Scythians. I found some artifacts on display that look familiar after having looked at a lot of pictures of Scythian metalwork. But there's no way to be sure they actually made it because the Louvre is an art museum and art museums do this thing where they hardly give you any information on the labels. Just name, material, date, donator, and date of aquisition.<br />
<br />
---Dear art museums,<br />I know you want us to spend our time looking at the art pieces, but I would be able to appreciate them more if you'd give me a contextual framework in which to appreciate them. I know I could have rented an audio guide, but I highly doubt you consider the pieces I'm interested in important enough to tell me about them in there. And I know you sometimes have guided tours, but same thing there. So....more informative labels, please? <br />Sincerely, <br />Me---<br />
<br />
So, given the lack of information (I only knew they were found within the boundaries of an Iranian empire because that's what the rooms' themes were.), there's no way for me to know if those pieces were: 1) made by the Scythians and traded to someone in an Iranian empire; 2) made by someone in an Iranian empire copying Scythian art style; or 3) representative of that Iranian empire's art style which happens to be similar to the Scythian's because they used to be the same people way, way back in the day. That being said, here are the artifacts I saw which might fall in one of the three categories above.<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgYkh5rymi7tku9262U9ygqPSBoxh610oTZas-1ikeXkDSDLzatJ5nX70T0KviG88VgyUzPoAvQsB5G8TfFY7JQ3fY2ayhf9grIzI7Uv3LP6UXnnECWCsl9a-KyQo0jV_v3mf-wg0Go47-2/s1600/IMG_0723.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgYkh5rymi7tku9262U9ygqPSBoxh610oTZas-1ikeXkDSDLzatJ5nX70T0KviG88VgyUzPoAvQsB5G8TfFY7JQ3fY2ayhf9grIzI7Uv3LP6UXnnECWCsl9a-KyQo0jV_v3mf-wg0Go47-2/s1600/IMG_0723.JPG" height="157" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Colored relief of Assyrian griffins. </td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Assyrian griffins look different from Scytho-Sarmatian griffins, but still quite fun. They have lion heads instead of eagle heads, horns instead of fin manes, and eagle back feet instead of lion back feet. But notice the colored blotches on their flanks? Look reminiscent of <a href="http://sarmatianinthesca.blogspot.com/2012/06/zoomorphic-art-as-illumination-take-two.html">some Scythian style art</a> you've seen before on this blog?<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4qQD_tmf9Yi1FLKtaYRPMtBDkKbxG1VdjnqkM-xCIrWa_2BD5q2HA7UKNqFJ5jiUAsMPx0T9Xq68HO4qd7EtokjPGaPaqDlWSYBg5_Ci2hm9r1eZz66sQZ0ozosaP4vyXEH_OMOobfQM9/s1600/IMG_0726.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4qQD_tmf9Yi1FLKtaYRPMtBDkKbxG1VdjnqkM-xCIrWa_2BD5q2HA7UKNqFJ5jiUAsMPx0T9Xq68HO4qd7EtokjPGaPaqDlWSYBg5_Ci2hm9r1eZz66sQZ0ozosaP4vyXEH_OMOobfQM9/s1600/IMG_0726.JPG" height="320" width="240" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Bronze quiver plates (leather's rotted away) and arrows. 8th-7th centuries BC</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
The designs on the cases look nothing like Scythian cases (aside from griffins attacking a prey animal in the upper right being a familiar motif). But the cases themselves are the same type of design- bronze on leather with panels of scenes on them.<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiDsR8VQC8sW-Am4zDakk1SfmXvzGNZJqnbyLqXqog9kASNUCWVEp-gK8nLW6U5twBDleiiuXAc7nJrk2PgKhevL5W7MV1BlykrMgG9OOTyVKRLHRTlFmGVO_NL5WYkD2k1SQWaJXHZEj3n/s1600/IMG_0734.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiDsR8VQC8sW-Am4zDakk1SfmXvzGNZJqnbyLqXqog9kASNUCWVEp-gK8nLW6U5twBDleiiuXAc7nJrk2PgKhevL5W7MV1BlykrMgG9OOTyVKRLHRTlFmGVO_NL5WYkD2k1SQWaJXHZEj3n/s1600/IMG_0734.JPG" height="240" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Bronze bracelets, 8th-7th centuries BC</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Torses ending in animal heads were common in Scytho-Sarmatian jewelery, though these specific designs don't ring any bells for me. <br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEguPyPARIWOVnTF9gzYX0RL2nvXuHo_NPhQy6eAiRDEYeQuIhb-wLocIwVuz8m6incH5RfIRVl_I-pqxqdnF_X6R2Daxrbd4krjsnwTcTa9M3jwnNbTAVFrAKVnMaPcwCHx4gu1edqy5URx/s1600/IMG_0736.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEguPyPARIWOVnTF9gzYX0RL2nvXuHo_NPhQy6eAiRDEYeQuIhb-wLocIwVuz8m6incH5RfIRVl_I-pqxqdnF_X6R2Daxrbd4krjsnwTcTa9M3jwnNbTAVFrAKVnMaPcwCHx4gu1edqy5URx/s1600/IMG_0736.JPG" height="192" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Something made of bronze. That's all the label said.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
The label called these branches. They look vaguely reminiscent of the "Tree of Life" motif, but I don't know if it's an actual correlation or the human tendency to see patterns even when they aren't there.<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjY1Ud9FaqSRBiY-37PHQBysHraljeMJfvmjSaGs6_iFwkjF-3u7iXPFFZkQn7c6r1fevcE_OXmFP20ZRpQxtN5OF3msWM1elTBeHFIC7qwHpxwOsnKNP3s-ESi1p1KI-40tooxVndQEXan/s1600/Untitled.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjY1Ud9FaqSRBiY-37PHQBysHraljeMJfvmjSaGs6_iFwkjF-3u7iXPFFZkQn7c6r1fevcE_OXmFP20ZRpQxtN5OF3msWM1elTBeHFIC7qwHpxwOsnKNP3s-ESi1p1KI-40tooxVndQEXan/s1600/Untitled.jpg" height="320" width="209" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Bronze plaque. Label says "Fin du Fer I"....End of the Iron Age?</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
There were several openwork plaques similar to the above. From far away they look like deer heads seen from the front. Close up, they're made of a pair of ibexes, sometimes with extra ibex or dragon heads popping out of strange places. They reminded me of Scythian art, though no particular pieces are coming to mind. And since I'm traveling, I don't have my books with me to search for them.<br />
<br />
So that was the Louvre. Next up, the British Museum, where I had a bit more luck.<br />
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Aritê gunê Akasahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03619166885106439477noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8079699133524874886.post-79680996116823091362014-07-05T04:55:00.000-05:002014-07-05T04:55:04.970-05:00The Nart Saga<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
The Nart sagas are a collection of tales from the Caucasus about a group of ancient heros running around doing epic things–epic here meaning both the original definition and also sometimes hilariously awesome. Both Caucasian people (sensu stricto) and Ossetians tell stories of the Narts to one another and scholars think parts of them preserve ancestral Indo-Iranian mythos.<br />
<br />
They certainly do have a lot of parallels with other Indo-Iranian ethnicities. For instance, there's an trickster like Loki and a story very similar to the Greek story of how Prometheus brought fire to humans. One big difference is that the leader of the Narts is a matriarch, not a patriarch. The Ossetians call her Satana, but variations of her name in other cultures include Satanaya and Sela-Sata.<br />
<br />
The general tone of the sagas is remarkably matter-of-fact. If a Nart has to do something extraordinary, the fact that it's unusual is oftentimes remarked upon. Then again, there are unusual things that are treated like normal, everyday occurrences...like the story of how Satana got her son. And no...it is nothing like what you think. Very weird, though. I'm not going to go into that here because it's the sort of thing that should go behind an adult filter in our culture. I may still post some of the stories later, but with a specific warning that it's not my usual type of content.<br />
<br />
I have John Colarusso's translations of the Caucasian versions into English (Circassian, Abkhazian, etc...), but at the time of printing he was only just starting to work on learning Ossetian. Which means I can't personally compare the Caucasian versions to the Ossetian to try to find bits that are uniquely Ossetian (and thus, Sarmatian in origin) and which bits are uniquely Caucasian. But fortunately, there's another Sarmatian in the SCA who knows Hungarian and there <i>is</i> a Hungarian translation of the Ossetian Nart Sagas. She's been reading through them recently and has posted some of <a href="http://multicoloreddiary.blogspot.co.uk/2014/07/10-reasons-why-nart-epics-are-epic.html">her favorite excerpts</a> here. I recommend taking a look. :)</div>
Aritê gunê Akasahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03619166885106439477noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8079699133524874886.post-43997763405487022492014-06-04T09:42:00.002-05:002014-06-04T09:42:21.292-05:00Oldest Pants<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Eurasian steppe nomads--bringing you pants since at least 1000 BC.<br />
https://www.sciencenews.org/article/first-pants-worn-horse-riders-3000-years-ago<br />
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1040618214002808</div>
Aritê gunê Akasahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03619166885106439477noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8079699133524874886.post-14013886956258233592014-05-21T13:40:00.001-05:002014-05-21T13:40:18.858-05:00Gearing up for Europe<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
I'm heading to Europe this summer for paleo research, but I'll have downtime during evenings and weekends. I'd like to do some sightseeing. My interests are in pre-modern historical sites and the outdoors. For the outdoors, I'm specifically interested in places that are good for birding. For the historic sites, I'd be interested in a variety of things, but what I would most like to see is anything relating to Sarmato-Alan history. So far, I've found four of the latter type of places I'm interested in:<br />
<br />
I'm going to visit the Louvre while in Paris and heading straight to their steppe nomad art. I'll just avoid the crowds around the Mona Lisa; she doesn't appeal to me anyways.<br />
<br />
I'll also be going to the British Museum in London. They have items in their collection, but it doesn't look like anything's on display. Maybe they'll have something tangentially related, though. Even if they don't, they'll have other interesting exhibits.<br />
<br />
I'm planning on taking a side trip to Ribchester in England to visit their Roman museum. Ribchester is one of the places Sarmatian auxiliary units were stationed. My trip lines up perfectly with a big celebration they're having with Roman re-enactors and a 3D recreation of what Ribchester looked like when it was a Roman fort.<br />
<br />
I'd like to visit a museum or historic site on the Vandal-Alan coalition that invaded Gaul before heading into the Iberian peninsula. Anyone know of a place like that? Or a museum on a broader subject that displays their artifacts? I know there's the Gallo-Roman Museum in Lyon and I could stopover there for a few hours. But I can't tell from their website if they talk about the Vandals and Alans at all in the exhibits.<br />
<br />The places I'm going to are: Paris and Marseille in France; London, Isle of Wight, and Ribchester in Englad; Brussels, Belgium; Basel, Switzerland. I may also stopover in Luxembourg just to cross off another country.<br />
In the fall, I'll be heading back and going to several places in Germany.</div>
Aritê gunê Akasahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03619166885106439477noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8079699133524874886.post-34647375552593210172014-04-28T10:00:00.000-05:002014-04-28T10:00:06.789-05:00Extreme Schnoz: Saiga<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<b>Scientific name:</b><i> Saiga tatarica</i><br />
<b>A higher clade it's part of</b>: Antilopinae<br />
<b>Conservation status:</b> Critically endangered<br />
<b>Current range: </b>Patches in Russia, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, sometimes Turkmenistan, and Mongolia<br />
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I'm ending the Extreme Animals series with one that the Sarmatians <i>definitely </i>encountered. We know this because it was important enough to be a subject of steppe nomad art. Also cool enough to be in two of my three forays into zoomorphic steppe art as illumination.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgq32thQwUlnWFwD0KvYr9vsLaJwqzfaocrShWgn9lYrSH4T_ynxEbWpJ34U_qdRGei1md5lgN8Z_MnorufrQGpBRlhQ-Nl9OwJLZEyDW5JfYd5D-Elxg9yV_Dv5r71QPkf3ruqExysjC0D/s1600/saiga.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgq32thQwUlnWFwD0KvYr9vsLaJwqzfaocrShWgn9lYrSH4T_ynxEbWpJ34U_qdRGei1md5lgN8Z_MnorufrQGpBRlhQ-Nl9OwJLZEyDW5JfYd5D-Elxg9yV_Dv5r71QPkf3ruqExysjC0D/s1600/saiga.jpg" height="150" width="320" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjOJEa0Jg_WhGhqd1ocM8-Mt92LNIjLLai86XiLDAdCbuogua6J3H2gEaaZuYGyZhXzEZvBz-EDyV9q25ATL9iaX_cklipnHhSQG-oNrBixafruzFGiiZdxAP-jd3G5UA6Me3vkiP451LRm/s1600/saiga2.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjOJEa0Jg_WhGhqd1ocM8-Mt92LNIjLLai86XiLDAdCbuogua6J3H2gEaaZuYGyZhXzEZvBz-EDyV9q25ATL9iaX_cklipnHhSQG-oNrBixafruzFGiiZdxAP-jd3G5UA6Me3vkiP451LRm/s1600/saiga2.png" height="197" width="200" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhvJkZf3daiTWaqvKZqq3eN_fkPw9Wh8c7_n31qCxKSBq0kOs6AN3RgdI86LQxo3DF0AoGKj8OXw1NE2V4X_uJ_ZntWn6qJJF220EHv57xFDmF9hqHH0IrPl0QeWiN6opk2gsS1AZy-J0_-/s1600/saiga1.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhvJkZf3daiTWaqvKZqq3eN_fkPw9Wh8c7_n31qCxKSBq0kOs6AN3RgdI86LQxo3DF0AoGKj8OXw1NE2V4X_uJ_ZntWn6qJJF220EHv57xFDmF9hqHH0IrPl0QeWiN6opk2gsS1AZy-J0_-/s1600/saiga1.png" height="136" width="320" /></a></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.wild-wonders.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2009/06/ish_iii_01.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://www.wild-wonders.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2009/06/ish_iii_01.jpg" height="235" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.wild-wonders.com/blog/?p=3769">Source</a></td></tr>
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The saiga is an antelope that's trying to be a tapir. They're only 2 to 2 1/2 feet tall at the shoulder. Adorable! Only the males have horns, but they all have giant noses. Their closest relative, another cold-adapted antelope called the Tibetan antelope, doesn't have this adaptation.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://cdn1.arkive.org/media/1C/1C760241-A98E-4F24-862B-8FBAE09FEC22/Presentation.Large/Newborn-saiga-antelope-being-weighed.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://cdn1.arkive.org/media/1C/1C760241-A98E-4F24-862B-8FBAE09FEC22/Presentation.Large/Newborn-saiga-antelope-being-weighed.jpg" height="212" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.arkive.org/saiga-antelope/saiga-tatarica/image-G85945.html">Tiny baby!</a></td></tr>
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Mammals are warm-blooded, which means we have to work to keep our body temperatures up. One of the easiest ways to mess with that is to breathe in air that's hotter or colder than our optimal body temperature...which is impossible not to do when you live in the cold steppes of Russia during the winter, like saigas, or the hot climate of the Sahara (like camels). There are two ways mammals work to counteract this with their nose: nasal turbinates and giant noses.<br />
Nasal turbinates are small, thin, mucosa-covered shelves of bone that stick out into the nasal passageway. They're called "concha" in humans, and, having dissected one, I can tell you--ours are pretty pathetic. But as tiny and simple as ours are, you can still feel the effect that have on the temperature of the air we breathe. Go outside on a cold, cold day in winter. Breathe in through your nose. Then breathe in through your mouth. You will cool down much more quickly if you do the latter. Now imagine how much more effective that would be if you have turbinates like the seal below! Turbinates work this way because they're more surface area for the numerous blood vessels full of hot blood in their lining. This hot blood contacts the cold air and its temperature is evened out before it reaches your lungs.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUcOg_VvIDz5-Q5Bf_pKGP0TTmY38Kj2fCGnLNdJ6mesx1gawq6HHF82eIFomwO_k5rcX36UW-sGUtBAFqFjHM8D9dTLeUhlG9Ie973s_nNSBDC1lL6IFarPInyeBTZvlGubOf5INujA30/s1600/seal.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUcOg_VvIDz5-Q5Bf_pKGP0TTmY38Kj2fCGnLNdJ6mesx1gawq6HHF82eIFomwO_k5rcX36UW-sGUtBAFqFjHM8D9dTLeUhlG9Ie973s_nNSBDC1lL6IFarPInyeBTZvlGubOf5INujA30/s1600/seal.jpg" height="213" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A Hooded Seal at the Museum of Osteology in<br />
Oklahoma showing nasal turbinates very well.</td></tr>
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Saiga have complex nasal turbinates like most mammals living in extreme climates, but they also add a giant fleshy nose. A saiga's turbinates don't stick out into the fleshy part of their nose--in fact the bony portion is quite far back in their head. But the fleshy part is still able to heat incoming air because it's bulbous (increased surface area) and has plenty of blood vessels running through it. <br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.izw-berlin.de/tl_files/images/Services/Reconstruction%20of%20a%20computed%20tomography%20scan%20of%20a%20male%20saiga.%20Photo%20R.%20Frey.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://www.izw-berlin.de/tl_files/images/Services/Reconstruction%20of%20a%20computed%20tomography%20scan%20of%20a%20male%20saiga.%20Photo%20R.%20Frey.jpg" height="236" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.izw-berlin.de/morphological-collection.html">Their noses are mostly fleshy</a></td></tr>
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There are two subspecies: one in western Mongolia and one everywhere else. There range is extremely constricted compared to today. When the Sarmatians were around, they inhabited the steppes in an unbroken swath save for a small break between the ranges inhabited by each subspecies. Even farther back in time (into the Pleistocene), they were also found in North America. They're actually the only antelope that made it to the New World (Pronghorn aren't actually antelope; <i>cattle</i> are more closely related to saigas and gazelles than pronghorn are.).<br />
Their population has been bouncing back and forth. They were almost driven extinct in the '20s, but were able to bounce back. Then the World Wildlife Fund got the bright idea to suggest people use their horns instead of rhino horns in Traditional Chinese Medicine. Because that makes so much more sense than telling people to just eat their own fingernails since it's<i><b> </b>made out of the same freakin' stuff</i> and <i><b>none of it does diddly-squat</b></i> to help your cancer, virility, or <i><b>anything</b></i> else TCM practitioners claim...can you tell this subject makes me angry? I had to work not to violate my own no-cursing-on-the-blog policy. Surprise!--their populations dropped drastically. The timing of this suggestion unfortunately lined up very well with the fall of the Soviet Union. That meant economic troubles drove many of the now-poor people in these regions to turn to poaching saiga because their horns are easy cash and their meat fed their families. The fact that the males are larger and also the only ones to possess horns meant that they reached a point where there weren't enough males to mate with the females during rutting season, causing the population to crash even harder.<br />
Saigas have been protected in parts of their range since the '90s and were starting to recover, but their populations dropped again when a deadly, infectious disease started spreading through some of the herds, killing almost half of the population in the Kazakh Urals.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://saiga-conservation.com/tl_files/images/SaigaPopulationChanges80-07Copyright.gif" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://saiga-conservation.com/tl_files/images/SaigaPopulationChanges80-07Copyright.gif" height="216" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Graph produced by the <a href="http://saiga-conservation.com/home.html">Saiga Conservation Alliance</a></td></tr>
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But there's still hope. There's a captive breeding program at the <a href="http://en.kalmsaiga.com/home.php">Center for Wild Animals of the Republic of Kalmykia</a> in Russia. The <a href="http://saiga-conservation.com/home.html">Saiga Conservation Alliance</a> actively works to save these animals through research and public awareness campaigns. This includes both study of the animals themselves as well as where they're being hunted, who's poaching them, and why. <br />
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Lastly, here's<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q7gnDwpd2NE"> a documentary</a> for my Russian-speaking readers (sorry, the uploader isn't letting me embed it). The saiga show up at about 3:35. The first couple minutes look like they're about some sort of rodent. A birch mouse, maybe? Skip to 10:27 to see some cute jumping and trotting and 11:00 for headbutting. And here's a video of a <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ZOBJCTPEu0">baby saiga</a> because why not? </div>
Aritê gunê Akasahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03619166885106439477noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8079699133524874886.post-85278651674891864232014-04-21T11:40:00.000-05:002014-04-21T11:40:00.103-05:00Extreme Cuteness: Tadpole-gobies<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.ittiofauna.org/webmuseum/pesciossei/perciformes/gobidae/benthophilus/benthophilus_magistri/images/b_magistri-01.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://www.ittiofauna.org/webmuseum/pesciossei/perciformes/gobidae/benthophilus/benthophilus_magistri/images/b_magistri-01.jpg" height="224" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.ittiofauna.org/webmuseum/pesciossei/perciformes/gobidae/benthophilus/benthophilus_magistri/index_big.htm">Azov Tadpole-goby</a> </td></tr>
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<b>Scientific name:</b> <i>Benthophilus </i>(20 species)<br />
<b>A higher clade it's part of</b>: Gobiidae (gobies)<br />
<b>Conservation status:</b> 8 Least Concern, 12 not evaluated<br />
<b>Current range: </b>Fresh and brackish water in Caspian and Black Sea basins<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.ittiofauna.org/webmuseum/pesciossei/perciformes/gobidae/benthophilus/benthophilus_nudus/images/b_nudus.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://www.ittiofauna.org/webmuseum/pesciossei/perciformes/gobidae/benthophilus/benthophilus_nudus/images/b_nudus.jpg" height="170" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.ittiofauna.org/webmuseum/pesciossei/perciformes/gobidae/benthophilus/benthophilus_nudus/index_big.htm">Black Sea Tadpole-goby</a></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/b/b2/Benthophilus_durelli,_Don_River.jpg/606px-Benthophilus_durelli,_Don_River.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/b/b2/Benthophilus_durelli,_Don_River.jpg/606px-Benthophilus_durelli,_Don_River.jpg" height="316" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benthophilus_durrelli">Don Tadpole-goby</a></td></tr>
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Tadpole-gobies are just adorable. Especially Don Tadpole-gobies! These abundant little fish live in the Caspian and Black Sea basins. Most of them couldn't have been encountered by Sarmatians because they live in deep brackish water or because they only live in parts of the Caspian Sea not adjacent to Sarmatian lands. Three species- the Don, Black Sea, and Azov Tadpole-gobies could have been encountered by them. They probably wouldn't have taken much note of them, though, because they're so tiny (2.6-5.9 in [6.6-15 cm]). These three live on the bottoms of lakes, deltas, and rivers.<br />They're carnivorous, eating small molluscs, insect larvae, and crustaceans. The species mentioned above live on sandy or muddy bottoms (depending on the species) with scattered empty shells. They need the shells because they hide their eggs underneath or inside them. They only live a year or so and die after spawning.<br />
Tadpole-gobies diverged from the tribe they're most closely related to (Neogobiini) about 9 million years ago. <i>Benthophilus</i> diverged from the only other genus in its tribe (Benthophilini), <i>Caspiosoma</i>, about 5 Million years ago, coincident with the separation of the Black and Caspian Sea basins as they dried out. Tadpole gobies (at least, the ones sampled in the phylogenetic analysis listed below) diverged from one another about 2 million years ago, near the onset of the Pleistocene ice ages.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<span style="color: white;">Neilson, M. E., & Stepien, C. A. (2009). Escape from the
Ponto-Caspian: evolution and biogeography of an endemic goby species
flock (Benthophilinae: Gobiidae: Teleostei). <i>Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution</i>, <i>52</i>(1), 84-102.</span></div>
Aritê gunê Akasahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03619166885106439477noreply@blogger.com1