Deer stones culture

Types of stones

Deer stones do not have any human remains attached to them, although Khirigsuur tombs are often found in somewhat close proximity in Mongolia. This suggests that the tombs functioned as cenotaph monuments for departed leaders, and that the bodies were buried elsewhere.

There is no apparent evolutionary chronology for the design of the deer stones, which suggests an earlier and rather accomplished tradition already existed, probably on a perishable material such as wood. Stone probably started being used when metal tools became available. There is also no clear difference of chronology between the different types of deer stones (types I, II and III), which also often occur at the same places. Some of the simpler designs, such as the Saian-Altai stones (Type II) are actually dated among the oldest deer stones (1300 BCE), together with the Mongolian designs (Type I).

Most deer stones originally had an anthropomorphic intent, suggested by the general "pillar" shape, and reliefs or drawings depicting a belt loaded with tools and weapons, a shield in the stone's back, jewelry such as a necklace, earrings, and a symbolic or, rarely, a realistic face, sometimes topped with a hat. The front, if undisturbed, is always oriented towards the east.

The stylistic "flying deer" on the surface of many deer stones may not just be decorative designs, but may actually represent the body tattoos of the specific individuals being depicted. This hypotheses has been reinforced by the discovery of extensive body tattoos of "flying deer" on the skin of individuals from the Pazyryk culture. Deer stones may just be a schematical but complete representation of the tattooed body of the deceased, together with his tools and weapons.

Looking at the various implement and tools depicted on the deer stones, such as the horse implements, the recurved bow and the gorytus, it appears that the people who raised the stone were fully dependent on the horse for their lifestyles and warfare.

V. V. Volkov, in his thirty years of research, classified three distinct types of deer stones.

Type I: Classic Mongolian

These stones are fairly detailed and more elegant in their depiction methods. They usually feature a belted warrior with a stylized flying red deer on his torso. This type of stone is most prominent in southern Siberia and northern Mongolia. This concentration suggests that these stones were the origin of the deer stone tradition, and further types both simplified and elaborated on these. These deer stone are often associated with "Khirgisuur" burials. These Khirgisuur burial sites belong to an earlier archaeological period, but were appropriated by deer stone builders.

Type II: Sayan-Altai

The Sayan-Altai stones feature some of the West Asian-European markings, including free-floating, straight-legged animals, daggers and other tools. The appearance of deer motifs is markedly diminished, and those that do appear often do not emphasise the relationship between reindeer and flying. The Sayan-Altai stones can be sub-divided into two types:

• The Gorno-Altai stones have simple warrior motifs, displaying tools in the belt region of the stone. Reindeer motifs appear but are few. The deer stones of the Altai are regularly associated with the early Scythian Pazyryk culture.
• The Sayan-Tuva stones are similar to the Gorno-Altai but contain fewer images of animals. No deer motifs are present. The artistic style is much simpler, often consisting of only belts, necklaces, earrings and faces. In Tuva, deer stones are associated with the wealthy Saka burials of Arzhan 1 and Arzhan 2.

Type III: West Eurasian

These stones feature a central region of the stone, sectioned off by two horizontal lines or "belts". There are also "earring hoops", large circles, diagonal slashes in groups of two and three known as "faces", and "necklaces", collection of stone pits resembling their namesake. A few monuments classified as "deer stones" have been found as far as the Ural, Crimea or even the Elbe river, in a Scythian context (600-300 BCE).

Imagery

There are many common images that appear in deer stones, as well as a multitude of ways they are presented.

Reindeer

Deer feature prominently in nearly all of the deer stones. They are likely the red deer or maral (Cervus elaphus sibericus). Early stones have very simple images of reindeer, and as time progresses, the designs increase in detail. A gap of 500 years results in the appearance of the complicated flying reindeer depiction. Reindeer are depicted as flying through the air, rather than merely running on land. The anthropologist Piers Vitebsky has written, "The reindeer is depicted with its neck outstretched and its legs flung out fore and aft, as if not merely galloping but leaping through the air." The antlers, sometimes appearing in pairs, have become extremely ornate, utilizing vast spiral designs that can encompass the entire deer. These antlers sometimes hold a sun disc or other sun-related image. Other artwork from the same period further emphasizes the connection between the reindeer and the sun, which is a very common association in Siberian shamanism. Tattoos on buried warriors contain deer, featuring antlers embellished with small birds' heads. This reindeer-sun-bird imagery perhaps symbolizes the shaman's spiritual transformation from the earth to the sky: the passage from earthly life to heavenly life. As these deer images also appear in warrior tattoos, it is possible that reindeer were believed to offer protection from dangerous forces. Another theory is that the deer spirit served as a guide to assist the warrior soul to heaven.

Other animals

Particularly in the Sayan-Altai stones, a multitude of other animals are present in deer stone imagery. One can see depictions of tigers, pigs, cows, horse-like creatures, frogs and birds. Unlike the reindeer, however, these animals are depicted in a more natural style. This lack of ornate detailing indicates the lack of supernatural importance of such animals, taking an obvious backseat against the reindeer. The animals are often paired off with one another in confrontation, e.g. a tiger confronting a horse in a much more earthly activity.

Patterns

Chevron patterns crop up occasionally, usually in the upper regions of the stone. These patterns can be likened to military shields, suggesting the stones' connection to armed conflict. It has also been suggested that chevron patterns could be a shamanic emblem representing the skeleton.

Human faces

The top of the stones is generally rounded or flat, but often sculpted at an angle so that the higher side faces the east. Human faces are a much rarer occurrence and are usually carved into the top of the stone, also facing east. The face is sometimes only depicted symbolically, with a few regular slash marks (//, ///). The neck is generally adorned by a necklace, in the form of strings of beads, and large circular earrings are often depicted on the sides, an apparent Late Bronze Age fashion. These faces seem to be carved with an open mouth, as though singing. This also suggests a religious/shamanistic connection of the deer stone, as vocal expression is a common and important theme in shamanism.

Such depictions suggest burials around central figures, characteristic of rather organized and stratified pastoralist societies. Horse were buried together, as well as horse bits. The powerful nomadic leaders, leading large-scale organized nomadic groups, may have affected the late Shang and early Zhou dynasties of China to the south, and may have some connection with the infamous Xianyun of Chinese history.

Human faces on deer stones sometimes appear as belonging to a Europoid type, with long faces, long noses and deeply carved close-set eyes. Some figures appear hooded in Early Nomadic or Scytho-Siberian style.

Weapons and tools

The leaders depicted in these deer Stones (dated to 1400-700 BCE) were equipped with weapons and instruments of war, such as swords, daggers, knives, shafted axes, quivers, fire starters, or curved rein holders for their chariots. Weapons and tools can be seen throughout all the stones, though weapons make a stronger appearance in the Sayan-Altai stones. Bows and daggers appear frequently, as well as typical Bronze-Age implements, such as fire-starters or chariot rein holders. The appearance of these tools helps date the stones to the Bronze Age.

Deer stones weapons are generally derived from those of the contemporary Karasuk culture to the northwest, a well-known center for ancient metallurgy with influences as far as Shang dynasty China.

Horses and chariots

The earliest domesticated horses in Mongolia belong to the people of the Deer Stone culture.

Although horses seem to have been central to the lifestyle of the deer stone builders, it is unclear if their horses were used for riding or for pulling carts. Actually, among all of the pictures available from the deer Stones, none represent a rider on a horse. So far, the first evidence of horse riding in eastern Eurasia dates to the early 1st millennium BCE in the Altai Mountains, and uncontrovertible evidence in the form of horse saddles dates to 400 BCE only, from the Saka sites of the Pazyryk culture. On the contrary, images of horse chariots appear on some of the deer Stone monuments from central Mongolia, including a two-horse and a four-horse vehicle.

Various tools typical of chariot riding also appear in the drawing of the deer stones, such as rein holders. Rein holders were designed to hold the reins in place to free the rider's hands, and were probably hung to the rider's waist. They worked as rein hooks, attached at the belt, for "hands free" horse control while using weapons.

Origin and purpose

The origins of the art of the deer stones remain uncertain. According to current data, the art of the deer stones could be indirectly derived from an un-preserved tradition of Karasuk-related cultures, with possible antecedents in the depiction of human figures in the Yamnaya culture of the Western Steppes in the 2nd-1st millennium BCE, such as the Kernosivsky idol. Cimmerian stone stelae-Kurgan stelae may be part of the answer. The Siberian Okunev culture (2700-1800 BCE) also has a long tradition of totemic standing stones from the 3rd millennium BCE.

The original artistic impulse for the classical deer stones may have to be found in the animals of the northern Siberian ecosystem and their representations in petroglyphic art, as far as the Neolithic. As explained by Jacobson:

The general reasoning . . . is straightforward: the animals which dominate the archaic Scytho-Siberia style are all animals of the northern forest or forest-steppe. Furthermore . . . the archaic nature of the early nomadic styles and images indicates not only a tradition of bone and wood carving but also a tradition of zoomorphic representation that goes back as far as the Siberian Neolithic. The particular combination of cervids (deer, elk, reindeer), felines (panthers and tigers), caprids . . . and birds-of-prey, evident in the early art of the Early Nomads and that of their immediate predecessors, depends upon the emergence of an artistic tradition among the hunting-dependent Bronze Age cultures of South Siberia and Mongolia.

— Jacobson 1993, quoted in Fitzhugh 2009.

Globally, the Classical Mongolian type does appear to have been the first generation of deer stones, suggesting a pre-deer stone tradition before 1500 BCE, originating in the Siberian northern taiga forest. Deer stones culture then may have spread westward under the pressure of the Slab-grave culture, to meet with an early Scythian Altai tradition, where the Sayan-Altai style of deer stones then developed.

Genetic profile

Genetic analyses of individuals buried in Late Bronze Age (LBA) burial mounds associated with the Deer Stone-Khirigsuur Complex (DSKC) in northern Mongolia, found that these individuals primarily derived from Khövsgöl LBA source (about 4-7% Sintashta and 93-96% Baikal EBA). The individuals were close to contemporary Neolithic and Bronze Age Baikal populations, and clustered "on top of modern Tuvinians or Altaians".

The analysed individuals also included some outliers, with remains in westernmost Mongolia (also named Altai_MLBA) displaying a balanced West-East Eurasian ancestry, with about 45% Sintashta and 55% Baikal EBA, being virtually identical with that of the later Eastern Sakas, particularly from the Chandman culture (Chandman_IA), and remains with an increased Neolithic Amur genetic profile, displaying similarities with the Ulaanzuukh and Slab-grave culture to their East.

The Ulaanzuukh culture, distinct from the "Deer stone culture", and corresponding to burials in Southeastern Mongolia, had a purely Northeast Asian profile (nearly 100% ANA), with one outlier having a western Altai_MLBA profile.

Later cultures are known to have often reused the stones in their own burial mounds (known as kheregsüürs) and for other purposes.

Historiography

In 1892, V.V. Radlov published a collection of drawings of deer stones in Mongolia. Radlov's drawings showed the highly stylized images of deer on the stones, as well as the settings in which they were placed. Radlov showed that in some instances the stones were set in patterns suggesting the walls of a grave, and in other instances, the deer stones were set in elaborate circular patterns, suggesting use in rituals of unknown significance.

In 1954 A.P. Okladnikov published a study of a deer stone found in 1856 by D.P. Davydov near modern Ulan-Ude now known as the Ivolga stone, displayed in the Irkutsk State Historical Museum. Okladinkov identified the deer images as reindeer, dated the stone's carving to the 6th-7th centuries BC, and concluded from its placement and other images that it was associated with funerary rituals, and was a monument to a warrior leader of high social prominence.

An extensive 1981 study by V.V. Volkov identified two cultural conditions behind the deer stones. The eastern deer stones appear to be associated with cemeteries of the Slab Grave culture. The other cultural tradition is associated with the circular structures suggesting use as the center of rituals.

There are several proposed theories for the purpose of the deer stones. There are different viewpoints about the origins of deer stone art. According to H.L. Chlyenova, the artistic deer image originated from the Saka tribe and its branches (Chlyenova 1962). Volkov believes that some of the methods of crafting deer stone art are closely related to Scythians (Volkov 1967).

Mongolian archaeologist D. Tseveendorj regards deer stone art as having originated in Mongolia during the Bronze Age and spread thereafter to Tuva and the Baikal area (Tseveendorj 1979).

D. G. Savinov (1994) and M. H. Mannai-Ool (1970) have also studied deer stone art and have reached other conclusions. The stones do not occur alone, usually with several other stone monuments, sometimes carved, sometimes not. The soil around these gatherings often contains traces of animal remains, for example, horses. Such remains were placed underneath these auxiliary stones. Human remains, on the other hand, were not found at any of the sites, which discredits the theory that the stones could function as gravestones. The markings on the stones and the presence of sacrificial remains could suggest a religious purpose, perhaps a prime location for the occurrence of shamanistic rituals.

Some stones include a circle at the top and stylised dagger and belt at the bottom, which has led some scholars, such as William Fitzhugh, to propose that the stones could represent a spiritualized human body, particularly that of a prominent figure such as a warrior or leader. The decorative flying deer would actually be the tattoos on the body of the deceased, as seen with the tattoos of an ice mummy from Pazyryk. This theory is reinforced by the fact that the stones are all very different in construction and imagery, which could be because each stone tells a unique story for the individual it represents.

In 2006, the Deer Stone Project of the Smithsonian Institution and Mongolian Academy of Sciences began to record the stones digitally with 3-D laser scanning.

Legacy

Animal style

The artistic depictions of animals on deer Stones are the earliest recognized type of Animal style. This style would then spread across Central Asia during the 1st millennium BCE and become a characteristic feature of Scytho-Siberian art. The spread of animal style and Sayan-Altai deer stones was supported by the westward migration of Scythian groups, which came to be known as Saka or Sarmatians in Greek records.

To the southeast, the Upper Xiajiadian culture is considered as the earliest "Scythian" (Saka) culture in North China, starting the 9th century BCE. The development of animal styles there may have been the result of contacts with the nomads of Mongolia in the 9th — 8th centuries BCE.

Contemporary artifacts in western Mongolia

Transmission of chariot warfare and weapon designs to China

Chariots were used for a long time in Western Eurasia, and the development of the horse chariot in the deer Stone culture is an expansion of it, but it also probably impulsed the rise of the horse chariot in Shang dynasty China. The area of the Mongolian plateau corresponding to the Deerstone-Khirigsuurs culture has been identified as a "major region of origin for chariot and horse use in East Asia (and their associated weapons and tools), and also the likely source for the chariots and horses employed at Anyang" (the Chinese Shang capital), contributing weapon technology and designs, as well as the horse chariot itself. Rein holders first appear in China at Yinxu circa 1200 BCE, and were probably introduced in China from the Northern Zones.

The adoption of the chariot in China is dated to circa 1200 BCE, at the time of the Shang Emperor Wu Ding. Major conflicts with chariot-riding northern enemies, called Guifang ("Devil people") or Xianyun by the Chinese, are also reported around that time in Chinese inscriptions.

Various other people probably contributed to the transfer of these technologies from the Mongolian steppe to Shang dynasty China, such as the people of Tevsh-Ulaanzuukh culture of southern Mongolia, who also had hand weapons broadly similar to those of the Deer stones culture. Northern people were seemingly present in large number in the Chinese capital of Anyang, as suggested by the numerous burials in prone position together with charioting equipment. They were probably used by the Chinese for their specialist charioting skills and related warfare techniques. Numerous Chinese artifacts in Northern Steppes style have been identified.

The art of the deer stones may also have influenced Chinese art, particularly the sudden apparition of naturalism and animal themes during the Western Zhou (1045–771 BCE).

Demise and legacy

The "Deer stone culture" was replaced by the Slab-grave culture in central and eastern Mongolia around 700 BCE. To the west, the "Deer stone culture" was replaced by, or evolved into, the various Saka cultures, such as the Uyuk culture, the Chandman culture, and the Pazyryk culture.

While the majority of Slab Grave remains were of primarily Neolithic Amur ancestry, some Slab Grave remains displayed admixed ancestry between Neolithic Amur and pre-existing Khövsgöl/Baikal hunter-gatherers, consistent with the proposed expansion of Ulaanzuukh/Slab Grave ancestry north and westwards and archaeological evidence.