Author Archives: bbachman

An Expansive View of Altaian Heritage

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Consider Central Asia, where Russia’s Altai Republic intersects with Kazakhstan, Mongolia, and China. Much of the region remains a tractless wilderness, with roads and settlements existing only in the most sparse and isolated sense of the term. Here, tourism is an undertaking of long distance and remoteness, but the history of the Altai Mountains defies the conventional wisdom of such a place.

Long before the storied Silk Roads wound across the Eurasian landmass, Altaian peoples operated within a dynamic interplay of genetics, language, artistry, and culture, at once receiving from others and wielding influence over them. Theirs is an expansive narrative with links to Africa, Europe, the Middle East, India, China, Korea, and even North America that toys with the modern ethnocentric default of “othering” unfamiliar peoples and trivializes the theory that it is possible to delimit distinct branches of humanity.

Figure 1: Cross-section of a Pazyryk burial.

Prominent over 2300 years ago, the Pazyryk people left behind burial mounds called kurgans that today proffer the bulk of data on the history of the Altai Mountains. Evidence from numerous well-preserved kurgans allows experts to claim with “no doubt that this culture was closely linked…to the leading centers of civilization at the time in China, India, and Achaemenid Iran” (Tresilian). By reusing items from other peoples and adapting foreign motifs into their own designs, the Pazyryk demonstrate an eclectic taste that would not have been possible if they were closed off from the exchange of goods and ideas. Some iconography from Western China clearly exhibits inspiration from the style of the Altaian nomads (Tresilian), while the embellishment of Chinese silks to clothe the renowned Pazyryk noblewoman approaches stylistic elements that remain common among the nomads of the region today. From the western side, Altaians absorbed Achaemenid influences and endured observation by the Greeks. Any depiction of a human is rare in Pazyryk art, and yet a bridle carved with the image of Bes, an Egyptian genie that was popular among the Achaemenids, appears in one of the tombs (Rubinson).

Figure 2: Image of Bes, a token of Achaemenid influence in the Altai Mountians.

 

 

When paired with genetic evidence that links modern Altaians to the Iranian-Caucasian lineage of the Pazyryk (“Siberian Princess”) and to ancestral Native Americans (“On Our Mind”) through demographic expansion from the region (Gonzalez-Ruiz et al.), an image of the power of cultural synthesis across history takes shape, an image in which each group of people depends on the accumulated influence of others.

When archaeologists under the auspices of UNESCO propose awareness among local people as if it were an afterthought (Tresilian) and Russian officials cast off pleas for the return of Pazyryk mummies with invocations of science (“Siberian Princess”), they disregard indigenous ways of knowing and transform heritage into an exotic subject of curiosity. The residents of the Altai region may be able to claim a history that transcends the boundaries surrounding them, but the institutions championed by Europe and America continue to put themselves above the rest, deepening divisions and ignoring the profound connections that link every group of people to a shared human story.

 

Sources:

Gonzalez-Ruiz, Mercedes, et al. “Tracing the Origin of the East-West Population Admixture in the Altai Region (Central Asia).” PLOS One, PLOS, 9 Nov. 2012, journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0048904. Accessed 5 Nov. 2017.

“On Our Mind in March.” Altai Project, 27 Mar. 2015, www.altaiproject.org/2015/03/on-our-mind-in-march/. Accessed 5 Nov. 2017.

“On the Path to Celestial Pastures.” Science First Hand, Infolio, 30 Dec. 2014, scfh.ru/en/papers/on-the-path-to-celestial-pastures/. Accessed 6 Nov. 2017.

Rubinson, Karen S. “The Textiles from Pazyryk.” Penn Museum, Expedition Magazine, Mar. 1990, www.penn.museum/sites/expedition/the-textiles-from-pazyryk/. Accessed 5 Nov. 2017.

“Siberian Princess Reveals Her 2,500 Year Old Tatoos.” The Siberian Times, 14 Aug. 2012, siberiantimes.com/culture/others/features/siberian-princess-reveals-her-2500-year-old-tattoos/. Accessed 5 Nov. 2017.

Tresilian, David, editor. “Preservation of the Frozen Tombs of the Altai Mountains.” World Heritage Convention, UNESCO, Mar. 2008, whc.unesco.org/document/100814. Accessed 5 Nov. 2017.

 

Image Sources:

Drawing of Section of Pazyryk Barrow No. 5. State Hermitage Museum, 2007, depts.washington.edu/silkroad/museums/shm/shm06231.jpg. Accessed 6 Nov. 2017.

Image of Bes Confirmed by Identical in Rubinson Publication. Pinterest, i.pinimg.com/736x/46/39/17/463917c441cd869509086b95efaae3fd–hermitage-museum-plaque.jpg. Accessed 6 Nov. 2017.

 

Further Reading:

https://www.forbes.com/sites/kristinakillgrove/2015/12/01/no-the-siberian-ice-maiden-is-not-a-man/#7f401b67605b

http://www.face-music.ch/archelogy/burials_en.html

Suggested Cosmology and Retracted Image: An Analysis of the Newark Earthworks

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Across American society today, prevailing trends purvey an understanding of Eastern Woodland Peoples as naturalistic itinerants with a deep and harmonious awareness of forests, waters, and the bounty offered therein. Almost as a default, ‘structure’ suggests images of impermanent longhouses and wigwams. Likewise, ‘culture’ suggests a reverence for the Earth. People seldom consider Native Americans movers and shapers of the landscapes around them, especially in the context of timelines extending back nearly 2000 years. In archaeological practice, the rigid assumptions of the populace at large endanger objective analysis from the outset, especially when it comes to the identification of significant sites and the decision to interpret evidence.

 

In Newark, Ohio, not far from Columbus, lies what basic historical literature refers to as “the largest set of geometric earthen enclosures in the world” (“Newark Earthworks”). Even though the area surrounding the sites is highly urbanized in a way that engulfs each one as a separate island of greenspace, archaeology is concerned with the ancient context that extends throughout the landscape. Here, sites of interest have been revealed by extrapolating Native American cosmology and mathematics from features on the landscape.

Recent studies using ground and aerial survey techniques emphasize the importance of Geller Hill in understanding the creation and significance of the Newark Earthworks. Plotted on a map in the midst of a flat plain, Geller Hill is a landmark. Using the diameter of Newark’s Observatory Circle (OCD) as a baseline, archaeologists recognize the significance placed on spatial distance by Hopewell peoples. Located approximately seven OCDs from the peak of Geller Hill, the centers of the Newark’s octagonal and circular earthworks appear to form the sides of an isosceles triangle. According to a local source, “the measured Geller Hill, Octagon, Great Circle triangle varies from the geometric ideal by an average of less than one percent,” much like other Hopewell sites (Romain).

Image 1: Schematic plan of the Newark Earthworks

Consistent use of the OCD lends credence to an integrated view of landscape and erodes the perception of Native American societies as hapless in their patterns of settlement and naive in their understanding of the universe. Altogether, the Newark Earthworks compose an extensive natural observatory that people used to position themselves within a valid reality. The triangle’s axis of symmetry “[aligns with] the moon’s maximum north rise point” and thereby associates the site with Hopewell ideas of a balance cosmos. Bradley T. Lepper goes so far as to compare the site with a “gigantic machine or factory” drawing together the energies of the Hopewell universe (Lepper).

Image 2: The Hopewell Cosmos

The People of the Eastern Woodlands clearly possessed a rich cosmological framework enhanced by an understanding of astronomy and mathematics. Subsumed in development, the sites are sequestered from the landscape to form an image that today’s society finds agreeable, an image that archaeologists possess the means to retract.

 

Sources:

Hopewell Archaeology. 2005. National Parks Service, www.nps.gov/mwac/hopewell/v6n2/doc/v6n2_all.pdf. Accessed 18 Sept. 2017.

Lepper, Bradley Thomas. Ohio Archaeology: An Illustrated Chronicle of Ohio’s Ancient American Indian Cultures. Wilmington, Orange Frazer Press, 2005.

“Newark Earthworks.” Ohio History Connection, 2017, www.ohiohistory.org/visit/museum-and-site-locator/newark-earthworks. Accessed 18 Sept. 2017.

Romain, William F. “Newark Earthwork Cosmology: This Island Earth.” The Newsletter of Hopewell Archaeology in the Ohio River Valley, Mar. 2005.

 

Image Citations:

Schematic Plan of the Newark Earthworks. National Parks Service, 2005, www.nps.gov/mwac/hopewell/v6n2/doc/v6n2_all.pdf. Accessed 18 Sept. 2017.

Eastern Woodlands Cosmos. National Parks Service, 2005, www.nps.gov/mwac/hopewell/v6n2/doc/v6n2_all.pdf. Accessed 18 Sept. 2017.

 

Links:

https://www.crt.state.la.us/dataprojects/archaeology/marksville/hopewell-culture.html

https://www.nps.gov/mwac/hopewell/v6n2/doc/v6n2_all.pdf