Conceptualizing Composites: The Central Eurasian Perspective

Whether depicted as ferocious hybrid predators, unrecognizable zoomorphic junctures, or entwined theriomorphic creatures, composite beings dominate the complex visual language of the Eurasian steppe belt. The present study delves into the process of image-making in ancient portable art by placing a particular emphasis on the increased circulation and prominence of composites in the interconnected cultural spheres of early Iron-Age pastoral nomads.
I venture to investigate the visual tropes employed in the making of a politically-motivated visual code-language across the vast grassland stretching from the Mongolian steppes all the way to the Crimean Peninsula. Among these elaborate devices, the repetitive occurrence of “visual synecdoche”, a trope used to replace a complete, anatomically-accurate animal with one or more of its anatomical parts, seems particularly noteworthy. This study is not only concerned with the cognition behind the process of creating zoomorphic assemblages but it also touches upon the transferability and omnipresence of composites across media: fantastic hybrids appear in luxury metalwork, funerary textiles (both of which are portable), as well as larger ritual monuments such as the "deer stone" monoliths dispersed across Siberia and Mongolia. How does one account for this shared visual formula and its local variations (visual topolects) and what is the link between this visual rhetoric and issues of collective memory and political clout in non-sedentary Inner Asian alliances? Drawing from archaeological material from tombs and hoards in Mongolia, Siberia, Kazakhstan and Crimea, this paper aims toward a broader conceptual framework of composites in a non-sedentary cultural zone.