Orlat plaques 1st-4th C. CE

September 27, 2023

Orlat plaques 1st-4th C. CE

From Wikipedia & Smithsonian: "The Orlat plaques are a series of bone plaques that were discovered in the mid-1980s in Uzbekistan. They were found during excavations led by Galina Pugachenkova at the cemetery of Orlat, by the bank of the Saganak River (a tributary of the Zeravshan), immediately north of Samarkand.

The plaques are thought to have been decorative belt buckles. They are decorated with battle scenes between soldiers armed as cataphracts, and one hunting scene. The plaque with the battle scene depicts a clash with armored warriors. There are soldiers battling on foot, and before them there is a horseman brandishing a sword clashing with another horseman relying on his lance. A warrior has been deprived of his horse down to the right. His lance is broken and he prepares, with his sword, to fight his opponent, a horseman lunging on him with a lance. According to Markus Mode, the composition was originally larger, and it was copied from another source.

One hypothesis is that the plaque depicts a battle between the sedentary Sogdians and the nomadic invaders. In it, the Sogdian hero, leader of his group, repels the attacks of the groups of nomads. For the Sogdians the nomadic incursions were a real threat.

Yury Khudyakov found numerous similarities between the plaques and other Xiongnu-Sarmatian finds from Mongolia and Altay, particularly a group of plaques retrieved from Tepsei Mount near the Yenisey River, usually attributed to Tashtyk culture.

Pugachenkova believes the plaques were made by the inhabitants of Kangju, thought to have been closely related to the Kushans and Tocharians. The Kangjus were probably Scythians, opposed to the Kushans, as seen in Khalchayan. Overall, the soldiers would be either Sogdians or Sakas, much less probably Yuezhis or Parthians."

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From Strabo's Geography 11.8: "The distance from the Hyrcanian Sea to the country of the Arians is about six thousand stadia. Then comes Bactriana, and Sogdiana, and finally the Scythian nomads. Now the Macedonians gave the name Caucasus to all the mountains which follow in order after the country of the Arians; but among the barbarians the extremities on the north were given the separate names "Paropamisus" and "Emoda" and "Imaus"; and other such names were applied to separate parts.

On the left and opposite these people are situated the Scythian or nomadic tribes, which cover the whole of the northern side. Now the greater part of the Scythians, beginning at the Caspian Sea, are called Däae, but those who are situated more to the east than these are named Massagetae and Sacae, whereas all the rest given the general name of Scythians, though each people is given a separate name of its own. They all for the most part nomads. But the best known of the nomads are those who took away Bactriana from the Greeks, I mean the Asii, Pasiani, Tochari, and Sacarauli, who originally came from the country on the other side of the Iaxartes River that adjoins that of the Sacae and the Sogdiani and was occupied by the Sacae. And as for the Däae, some of them are called Aparni, some Xanthii, and some Pissuri. Now of these the Aparni are situated closest to Hyrcania and the part of the sea that borders on it, but the remainder extend even as far as the country that stretches parallel to Aria."

There appears to be a symbol on this horse. I don't recognize it.

The Transoxiana website showed that this might be a partially damaged "tamga" of Samarqand and restored it in the 1-3 pictures. I grabbed some images of Hephthalite/Samarqand coins for reference also. This image is also referred to as a Hephthalite (White Hun) symbol. I don't know I completely buy it, but there does appear to be a diminished circle. More questions than answers.