Old World Jades Outside China, From Ancient Times to the Fifteenth Century

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old world jades outside china, from ancient times to the fifteenth century 193

It is a matter of great satisfaction and fulfillment forme to have been given the opportunity to participatein this celebration of Michael Rogers. His influence hasbeen uniquely important for me; quite simply, it washe who, initially and primarily, introduced me to theenterprise of art-historical work. Even more particularly,my subject relates to an area with which he has longbeen concerned, and concerning which we have longsince had occasion to communicate. I hope that thispresent effort will find favor.

As the present paper developed, it came to be muchtoo large for inclusion in the planned volume in honorof Professor Rogers. When confronted with the neces-sity of radically reducing the size of my submission,I found only one viable course of action: that of cut-ting off and presenting the first part of the work I had

written. The larger version naturally dealt with a broad,representative range of the types of pre-Timurid jadeobjects in the al-Sabah Collection and, in addition to theancient objects here discussed, covered Islamic jades upthrough the fourteenth century. The necessary reduc-tion of the present publication is made less painful by

the project of a volume on pre-Timurid jades plannedfor publication by the al-Sabah Collection in the rea-sonably near future.

FIRST REPORT

In the literature on Islamic art, the first recognition of apre-fifteenth-century Islamic school of jade carving camein my entry in the 1982 catalogue, Islamic Jewelry in the

Metropolitan Museum of Art,for a belt fitting excavatedat Nishapur. I had discovered this piece (which is ofthe type seen in fig. 9ad) in the early 1970s, amonguncatalogued small finds from the Nishapur excavations

in the stores of the museum. I had furthermore exhib-ited the fitting in the Metropolitans Nishapur gallery,which opened in 1975, with the same attribution asin the 1982 catalogue entry: Iran, possibly Nishapur,9th10th century (an attribution by which I still stand).

In the meantime I had communicated with colleaguesabout it, both orally and in writing. I quote here a rel-evant section from the catalogue entry:

Our nephrite belt fitting antedates by five hundred yearsthe earliest previously known groups of Islamic jades...Thelikelihood of Iranian or even Nishapuri manufacture doesnot seem remote given the...pictorial evidence cited andthe number and quality of what are surely local lapidaryobjects unearthed at Nishapur. It is probably merely a mat-ter of accident that no other jade pieces were retrievedby the Museums excavations there. A mate identical tothe present piece was seen on the Tehran art market in1978.1

Despite all this, the conventional and prevailing picture,often repeated in the literature, has been that jadecarving was introduced into the Islamic world onlyin the fifteenth century, under the Timurids. Thus,as recently as 1996, no less an authority than RobertSkelton stated that Although the material [jade] wasthus known in the Islamic lands before the 15th century,there is no evidence of it being worked by lapidar-ies under Islamic patronage until Timurs grandson

Ulughbeg (13941449...) acquired two large blocks ofgreenish-black nephrite in 1425... . These were taken toSamarkand to be carved and inscribed for use as Timurstombstone in the Gur-i Mir... .2 Michael Rogers, forhis part, on the one hand conservatively stated that theearliest attributable Islamic jades are Timurid,3 butalso commented that recent finds of jade (in minutequantities) from Nshpr in a pre-Mongol context...atSirf on the Persian Gulf and at Madnat Suln in Libyashow it to have been worked fairly widely in the Middle

Ages (my publication of the Nishapur piece being theonly citation for the passage).4From the literary side,Ralph Pinder-Wilson long ago pointed out5the impor-

tance of the section on jade in al-Birunis Compilation onGemstones,6written in the 1040s at the Ghaznavid court.But neither he nor any subsequent scholar whose workI am aware of had properly stressed that the passagein question from al-Birunis work makes it perfectly

MANUEL KEENE

OLD WORLD JADES OUTSIDE CHINA, FROM ANCIENT TIMES TO

THE FIFTEENTH CENTURY: SECTION ONE


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clear that in his time it was not only the Turks whoused jade (for their saddles, weapons, belts, etc.), butthat others imitated them in this, making rings andknife handles of it.7

FILLING OUT THE PICTURE

Meanwhile, during the decades after the discovery ofthe Nishapur fitting I noted the existence of more andmore jades from the East Iranian world that clearlypredated the fifteenth century; and, especially fromthe 1990s forward, we in the al-Sabah Collection wereable to build up a range of such jades that (quiteaside from their beauty) can only be described asmonumental in scope. Not surprisingly, the more ourawareness expanded, the greater the range, quality, andquantity of the material seemed. It became more andmore evident that I had indeed, in the work that ledto the 1982 publication, been touching only the perim-eters or branches of a great corpus. We had engagedsomething distinctive and previously unsuspected, withenormous implications; subsequent work allows us tolargely sketch in a proper if not fully detailed pictureof the great industry to which scholarship for so longremained so remarkably blind.

The results of my work with respect to this matter(and subsequent to the 1982 publication) were firstpublicly presented to the scholarly community in a lec-ture before the Islamic Art Circle, London, in 1998,8

giving me, inter alia, my first opportunity to dedicatethese efforts to Michael Rogers as well as to Ralph Pin-der-Wilson and Robert Skeltonall true pioneers in

the study of Islamic hardstones, especially jades. Thepresent paper forms part of an outgrowth of that lec-ture and with respect to the main points and topicsdiscussed in both is largely the same, if considerablyamplified in certain areas while bereft of most of theIslamic material presented there.

SOME DETAIL ON THE LITERATURE

In the following section, I shall enumerate certain pre-valent earlier misconceptions, followed by any com-mentary that seems to me to be appropriate.

1. That jade carving has a very special status within theart of hardstone carving due to technical differencesbetween carving it and carving the likes of rock crystaland the cryptocrystalline quartzes such as agate.

Without going into unnecessary detail, one may simplydismiss this notion. Although modern technical litera-ture on the actual practice of jade cutting often stresses(minor) difficulties associated with producing a mirrorpolish (especially due to a tendency to develop an unde-sirable orange peel surface), in historical times no jade(jadeite or nephrite) posed any special difficulties for

cutters, who seem almost never to have produced orbeen interested in high-sheen finishes, satiny ones ratherhaving been the norm. Jade (specifically nephrite, theonly variety encountered in our material) is slightly lesshard than the quartzes but like them requires the samelapidary techniques: using hard grits and powders suchas garnet, emery, and diamond, delivered in conjunction

with water by tools (usually rotary) of wood, copper,iron, lac, and leather. Indeed, for certain types of work,

jade could be less troublesome, due to its toughness,than crystalline materials like rock crystal. Of course,this same toughness could also prove a disadvantage,e.g., when knocking free cylindrical stumps produced bycore-drills in the process of hollowing out the interiorof a vessel. But as indicated, these are minor detailsin the overall picture, and any differences bear norelation to the implications encountered, which haverepeatedly and grossly misled the uninitiated not merelyin a technical sense but with respect to the historicalissues involved.

2. That jade carving was not practiced in ancient orearlier medieval times in regions that became part ofthe Islamic world.

It would be wrong to leave the impression that therehas been no publication of jades worked in pre-Timurid(indeed, in pre-Islamic) times in the part of the world

with which we are concerned; without any pretense toan exhaustive review, we should try to give a fair impres-sion of the situation. The diligent and learned A. Lucashas cited a number of objects from Egypt that had beenreported as jade; and although he retains the scientistsskepticism (since it was impossible to examine anyof these objects either chemically or microscopically

without destroying them), he does clearly express hisopinion that the double-cartouche signet ring of Tut-ankhamun is almost certainly nephrite, adding that the

fact that at the end of the Eighteenth Dynasty a smallpiece of this material should have reached Egypt fromAsia would not be surprising.9Carol Andrews acceptedas proven fact (without citation) that Tutankhamunsring is securely identified as jade, and indicated that it


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constitutes the single instance of such.10Jack Ogden,on the other hand, struck a more skeptical stance. Inhis text he sums up with respect to Egypt: There areno confirmed examples of any jade although a ringfrom Tut Ankh Amuns tomb was tested by Lucas whosaid it was almost certainly nephrite.11Otherwise, herepresented that this ring was examined by A. Lucas

...and classified as Nephrite jade, then added that itis a unique specimen if confirmed.12

Two further recently published examples shouldbe mentioned here. The first of these is a late Phara-onic (after 600 BC) two fingers amulet, which hasbeen identified as jadeite.13The second is a hololithicnphrite signet ring with elliptical bezel, of the firstcentury BC, which was part of the treasure taken inthe nineteenth century from the Meroitic pyramid of

Amanishakheto.14

The positing of a problem about the presence ofjades in the Islamic world (or the parts of the worldthat became predominantly Islamic) has most peculiarlyaffected the field of Islamic art scholarship, a prob-lem one might even characterize as a kind of mysteri-ous red herring that has resulted in a goodly amountof mischief. Those coming to the issue when focusingon other periods and cultures, on the other hand, haveoften seen no insurmountable problem with jade turn-ing up practically anywhere or at any time (again, seeLucass comment, cited above); this of course reflectsthe real situation. Aside from the often-mentionedEuropean and other Old World usages of jadeitesand nephrites in prehistoric times,15 and the AncientEgyptian case (discussed above), we can (again, with-

out pretense of exhaustiveness), cite some further lit-erature dealing with jades being fashioned where, bythe lights of the Islamic art-historical literature, theyshould not have been:16

For what is now Afghanistan, the earliest reportedinstance of objects thought to be jade that I have comeacross was for objects excavated in the south, at Mun-digak (consisting of beads, period I3II, dating to thesecond quarter of the fourth millennium BC) but notconfirmed as jade.17

Teng Shu-ping relates that there is mention [inHan-dynasty Chinese historical records] of a white-

jade night-shining cup, sent [as tribute] by the people

of the western regions [my italics] to King Mu of Chouin the 10th Cent. B.C.18

William Trousdale reports extensively19on jades fromWestern Asia (including Afghanistan and neighboringformer Soviet republics), South Russia, and Europe,

dating from a few centuries on either side of the timeof Christ, including one example that he has suggestedmay be of Roman origin.20 (In this connection, seebelow for a discussion of a series of particularly tellingancient examples from this region.)

Kamal Giri cites an example of what was thought tobe jade among excavated ancient Indian material.21

This author (in the 1998 London lecture cited above)presented in slides and discussed the Sasanian dish fromSusa that is thought to be jade. This had been men-tioned earlier, in connection with rock crystal exam-ples, in a Christies catalogue,22and was published in2000 by Souren Melikian-Chirvani.23

It is also possible to cite publication of medievaljades from Central Asia (while confessing that othershave probably escaped me). A small exhibition cata-logue from the early 1980s illustrated a pair of neph-rite flat-slab earring pendants of peculiar outline anda Nestorian cross-shaped pendant of basically similar

character preserved in the Institute of History of theNational Academy of Science, Kirghizia, both reportedto be from Krasnorechenskoe settlement and dated tothe eighth or ninth century.24A recent catalogue pub-lished a set of eight jade belt fittings from the region of

Almaty (now in the National Archaeological Museum ofKazakhstan), and dated them to Inizio XIIfine XIIIsecolo.25 (We may remark in passing that these aremore likely to be from the later end of the suggestedrange, to judge from the form of certain pieces.) Finally,

we note the mention of des perles et des pendentifsde nphrite, and une lgante pendeloque de jadeen forme de larme, from excavations at Farab/Otrar,

Kirghizia, with respect to which there is no commentabout the date.26

However, without ignoring the above, it still needs tobe reiterated that whenever the subject of Islamic jades

was at issue, the almost universal picture conveyed bythe literature was that no jade industry existed until theTimurids began one in Samarkand; some conjecturedthat this happened as a result of the Timurids import-ing Chinese craftsmen knowledgeable in the mysteri-ous art of carving jade.

3. That the art of jade carving is represented in the

Islamic world only by a small number of objects attribut-able to the Timurid period (fifteenth century), perhaps afew from the Safavid period (sixteenth and seventeenthcenturies), a considerable number from the Ottomanperiod (sixteenth through nineteenth centuries), and


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a quite sizeable number from the Mughal period (sev-enteenth through nineteenth centuries).

The material presented in my 1998 lectures and eventhe abbreviated material seen and discussed here will,I hope, have succeeded in largely disposing of the erro-neous notions discussed above. To reiterate, the range

and large number of identified Islamic jade objectsthat predate the fifteenth century will only be properlysensed with publication of the jades in the al-SabahCollection; the present study can, however, hint at the

voluminous corpus embodied in this collection. Thematerial (especially when fully presented in the planned

volume) should make it clear that jade use has a history,sufficiently represented by objects from the Near Eastand Central Asia, stretching back for millennia andcontinuing through Sasanian and early and medievalIslamic times.27

SOME GENERAL COMMENTS

I am prone to certain hypotheses about the main cen-ters of jade working in the medieval Islamic world,fore most among which, I would suggest, was Balkh.There are abundant indications that the East Iranian

world was home in earlier medieval times to a proli-fic and sophisticated lapidary industry, a situationthat is very persuasively represented in the materialexcavated at Nishapur alone.28Additionally (and asidefrom other historical, geographical, and art-historicalconsiderations that will not be explored here), thereare strong indications of this in the art market (espe-cially in the consistent patterns in stories of putative

originsee Addendum: Archeology in the Marketand List of Objects Appearing in the Illustrations, withPutative Origins of Each, below).

A striking aspect of East Iranian medieval jades is thevariety of ways in which many of them parallel thoseof the Chinese world, and numerous problems remainin working out the various relationships, mechanisms,and directions of transmission involved.

As a better picture is developed of various art indus-tries in the East Iranian world, we shall surely see moreand more previously undreamed-of interchange betweenthe art traditions of the Chinese and the Iranian mega-cultures. Our view into the jade industry reveals that

these interchanges were quite strong during long spansstarting from before the time of Christ and continuingright through into the period in which they are con-

ventionally thought to have begun in earnest, namelythe later thirteenth and earlier fourteenth centuries, in

the bloom of the Mongol-Islamic school of art. Thereis no escaping the fact that a number of jade typesfound in the East Iranian region were inspired by Chi-nese models, but this should not cause us to fall intothe trap of thinking that the ancient Near Eastern andIslamic industries were essentially dependent upon suchinspiration. The facts are quite otherwise, and indeed

many developments, some of them of importance toworld art history, took place in our region. As indicatedabove, detailed presentation of the material and theissues will have to await the planned volume, in whichit may be seen that this rich, enormously productive,and highly creative area of the Islamic world had its ownindigenous traditions of jade working. And of course,as we know in the case of other media and traditions,not all the influence traveled in the Far East-to-West

Asia direction. A very great deal of work needs to bedone on the history of jades, including those of China,all of Central Asia, and the Islamic world.

PRESENTATION OF REPRESENTATIVEEXAMPLES: ANCIENT PERIOD

The attribution given the two pieces illustrated in figs.1 and 2 will, at least initially, be seen by some as espe-cially controversial, since it implies that these pieces notonly predate the accepted beginning of jade carving inthe region by approximately one and a half millenniabut also represent a previously unsuspected school of

jade carving that bridges two justly famous art-historicalperiodsthe Greco-Bactrian and the Kushanin theregion of what is now Afghanistan.

The jade objects from ancient Egypt29

seem to amountto a sporadic, opportunistic phenomenonthat is, theuse of whatever attractive hardstones became available.But it is clear, on the basis of the present pieces, the

very numerous examples of the types seen in figs. 35,and other indications, that the situation in ancient Bac-tria was one of a consistent taste for, and availability anduse of, jade. This is surely not simply due to the rela-tive proximity of the region to the source of the mate-rial in Khotan (and possibly nearer by). Fortunately,one is able to cite conclusive comparative material foreach of the pieces in figs. 1 and 2; in both cases, thecomparison pieces are from the Soviet excavations in

197879 of princely tombs at Tiliya Teppeh, near Shi-barghan in northern Afghanistan, as published by Vic-tor Sarianidi in 198530all dated to the first century BCto the first century AD. The material from these exca-

vations provides two instances of dragons so similar to


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the jade dragon head in fig. 1 as to leave no doubt thatthey all come from the same cultural milieu.31In Sari-anidis catalogue number 4.8 the analogy with LNS 380HS is most evident, the dragon being one of four fan-tastic beasts that slither up one side of a fabulous tur-quoise-set gold dagger and scabbard. The great similar-ity between the two cited dragons from Tiliya Teppeh

is sharpened by Sarianidis comments:In this tomb there was one more plaque, depicting a wingeddragon (ill. 98). Its jaws gape, its nose is turned up, andits eyes stare wide open beneath the bulging ridges ofeyebrows. Its horns are short, its ears long, and a beardcoils out from beneath its neck. Its writhing body restson bent paws, and its tail is coiled beneath the belly. Thisiconographic posture, as well as the very image of thedragon, bears an amazingly close similarity to the raisedrepresentation of the mauling episode on the scabbardfound in this same tomb. However, of undoubted interestis the representation of a dragon similar in iconographictype and style that is to be seen on the gold Karagalinka

diadem from Northern Kirghizia in the USSR. Apparently,Bactrian craftsmen had developed by that period canonicalrepresentations of fantastic creatures of the indicated typeof menacing winged, serpentine dragon that had a definitesemantic meaning in local legend and mythology; theyrepeated them time and again in their work, commandinga steady sale throughout neighboring regions.32

The fact that the jade piece is reported to have comefrom Afghanistan is a matter not to be disregarded

with respect to the relationship between it and thepieces from Tiliya Teppeh. And the fact that otherinstances of very similar monster heads have also been

unearthed in Afghanistan further cements the matter.For example, makaras on ivory panels from Begram(ca. first century AD)33 are distinctly of the same type,if not quite as strikingly similar to the jade as that citedfrom Tiliya Teppeh. A larger and older context for thedragon type, which seems to some extent to counterSarianidis suggestions about its nascence, is providedby material said to be of the fourth to second centuryBC from Inner Mongolia.34 It seems that this generaltype is in fact another of many elements of old steppeart tradition that impact the art of Bactria and north-ern India. It seems further that this dragon type bearssome relationship with the Greek ketos, a subject that

must remain beyond our present scope.The roundel with a relief-carved head of a mouflon,or wild mountain sheep (fig. 2), is remarkable for itsdepiction and for its reflection of jade-carving tradition,despite the fact that it is carved from a highly translu-

Fig. 1. Fragment in the form of a dragons head, off-white jade.Length 3.3 cm; height 2.7 cm; thickness 0.5 cm. East Iranian

world, ca. first century BCfirst century AD. Al-Sabah Collection(LNS 380 HS). (Photo: courtesy of al-Sabah Collection)

Fig. 2. Roundel featuring the frontal representation of a wildmountain sheep, highly translucent light yellowish green jadesimulant. Diameter 3.7 cm; thickness 1.0 cm. East Iranian world,ca. first century BCfirst century AD. Al-Sabah Collection (LNS

334 HS). (Photo: courtesy of al-Sabah Collection)


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cent yellowish green material.35The full frontal view isone that seems to have been favored over a consider-able span of time in Central Asia,36but one can matchthe jade-simulant roundel very closely indeed, again in amarvelous turquoise-set gold scabbard from the TiliyaTeppeh excavations, which features not only the samespecies and general sort of view, but also very similarstylistic elements and aspect.37 One remarks particu-larly the splaying-out of the sides of the head and thehorns, with the ears in front of the latter; the promi-nent ridge down the center of the face; and the diag-

onally set eyes in the shape of a lens cross section. Al-though the mountain sheep on the golden scabbard(two instances, flanking either side of the scabbard atthe lower end) do not sport beards, it is to be notedthat animals beards were an artistic preoccupation of

the style in question: witness the prominent ones fea-tured on the horned wolf-dragons and other mon-sters engaged in combat on the two scabbards fromthe same tomb referred to above.38The jade-simulantmountain sheep roundel, too, is putatively from Afghan-istan, specifically Ghazna.

The sword guard in fig. 3 belongs to a class of objectthat turns up in sizable numbers in the region that wasancient Bactria. It was in fact a widespread, althoughnot universal, element in a constellation of sword fur-nishings that accompanied the introduction of the long

iron sword and that prevailed practically throughoutEurasia in the last centuries BC and first centuries

AD. The system invariably involved the suspension of astraight sword (often but not always a meter or morein length) from a separate, dedicated sword belt by

Fig. 3. Sword quillon block, off-white jade (faint tinge of green). Length 6.1 cm; height 2.6 cm; thickness 1.6 cm. East Iranianworld, ca. first century BCthird century AD. Al-Sabah Collection (LNS 169 HS). Published in Keene, Pre-Tmrid IslamicJades, fig. 1, in color. (Photo: courtesy of al-Sabah Collection)

Fig. 4a. Sword pommel, mottled white jade (diameter 4.4 cm; thickness 0.6 cm). Fig. 4b. Sword pommel, pale green jade (diam-eter 5.0 cm; thickness 0.7 cm). Both East Iranian world, ca. first century BCthird century AD. (Arabic magic writing added toLNS 2710 J in medieval Islamic times.) Both al-Sabah Collection (LNS 1508 J a and LNS 2710 J, respectively). (Photo: courtesyof al-Sabah Collection)


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means of a slide in the form of a transversely slottedblock or, more simply, an elongated rigid loop, which

was mortised into or otherwise affixed to the upper partof the scabbard. This system probably originated withnortheast Asian nomads but is thought to have beenused in China from at least the fifth century BC. Theslides were made of a variety of materials, including

(apparently most often) wood, as well as bone, ivory,glass, and a range of stones. Due to their degree ofpermanence, the hardstone (especially jade) examples,

which of course represent the luxurious high end ofthe scale, have the best survival rates.39Trousdale char-acterizes the phenomenon of the scabbard slide (car-rying the obvious implications for the other elementsof the system to which it belonged) thus:

The significance of the scabbard slide lies in the impli-cations inherent in its extremely wide distribution andhistorical occurrence in one or another of its forms in

Asia and Europe...the major portion of known slides, over

eighty percent, may be ascribed a Chinese provenance.But in lesser numbers they have been found in Korea,Inner Mongolia, Viet-Nam, Pakistan, the Crimea, andthe lower Volga and Perm regions of European Russia,possibly in Turkey, and, in a related form, in Syria, south-ern Denmark, Germany, Switzerland, Bulgaria, Sweden,Norway, Finland, France, and England. This geographicalscope may be extended by the addition of regions whereno actual examples have been reported, but where theirpresence may be inferred from representations: northernIndia, Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan, Soviet Central Asia, southernSiberia, and Italy.40

As a minor modification to the above summary, Trous-

dales later work (Kushan Scabbard Slide) reportson a scabbard slide from Afghanistan; a representativesurvey of the numbers of such objects coming out of

Afghanistan and Northwest Pakistan in recent decadeswould decidedly alter the general picture of prevalenceof extant examples from the region, as well as the bal-ance of Chinese versus non-Chinese examples. The sameapplies to the other related sword-fitting types herepresented, namely pommels and quillon blocks.

Our jade quillon block LNS 169 HS (fig. 3), then,exemplifies the classic luxury type of one of a narrowrange of such fittings associated with the scabbard slides.The type is characteristically pierced by a central vertical

slot (through which the swords tang extends upwardas an extension of the blade) and has a central notchat the top, into which the lower end of the grip nests.The type seems to go back to the beginnings of thesword/belt/fittings nexus (see above) and generally to

have been associated with it in most regions. It proba-bly arrived in Bactria with the rest of this equipage con-

stellation in the second century BC and with it disap-peared by around the fourth century AD.41

Countering any inclination to see the types repre-sented in figs. 35 as imports are two major consid-erations. First, each type clearly exists in large num-bers, from the East Iranian region and across Eurasia.(All of our local types are represented in significantnumbers in the al-Sabah Collection.) Second, amonga wide variety of materials of which the sword fittings(slides, quillons, and pommels) in the al-Sabah Collec-tion are made, various types of local Afghanistan jade-simulant stones (as well as the local lapis lazuli) are

well represented. Additionally, two quite small quillon

blocks of the type of LNS 169 HS (fig. 3), of cast cop-per alloy, are in the collection.42Metal seems to havebeen the original material for such quillons, in associ-ation with long swords.43Indeed, one strongly suspectsthat the form in its most classic materializations, evenin jade,44 is (like another classic and widespread quil-lon type, which has long arms and long langets) thenatural result of forging metal around a bar insertedinto a centrally opened hole and hammering out theflanking material to form the protective wings or arms.In both types the central gable ridge is the point from

which the metal on each side of the guard is deformedoutward; and in the case of the shape of our quillon

(sometimes described as butterfly- or heart-shaped), eventhe upward projection of the extremities of the armscan be the result of the deformation caused by thin-ning out the billet. As a matter of fact, one notes cer-tain examples of early steppe-forged quillons of but-

Fig. 5. Sword pommel, pale green (fine off-white) jade. Height3.2 cm; width 5.6 cm; thickness 1.2 cm. East Iranian world, ca.first century BCthird century AD. Al-Sabah Collection (LNS531 HS). (Photo: courtesy of al-Sabah Collection)


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terfly form that are more basic in nature and mustbe regarded as formal ancestors of the canonized typehere under discussion).45

Like the scabbard slides, the quillons and pommelsof the types here representing the region of ancientBactria seem invariably to be plain, whereas in the FarEast (China) they classically are decorated, often with

elaborate and even high-relief motifs, from geometricdesigns to prowling chihdragons and the like.46Most ofthe properly excavated and accessibly published, well-placed material is from East Asia (China and Korea),and this naturally has received the greatest amount ofattention. But as we have seen above, the soil of vastareas has shown the enormous spread of the types,from northeast to southwest Asia and Europe. Thusthe masses of undocumented finds from Afghanistanand neighboring regions should now come as no sur-prise to us.47

Discs of the type seen in figs. 4a and 4b served as themain decorative element of the pommels of manyprobably mostswords of the types fitted with quillonslike that in fig. 3 (but again, as with slides and quil-lons, these were most commonly of less valuable mate-rials). Had it been the goal to attach hilt to sword mostsecurely, the disc would have been passed through bythe upper end of the tang, the tang then being plan-ished over or fixed by a pin above the disc; but surviv-ing archeological evidence seems to suggest that thedisc did not usually serve such a structural role, thegrip being affixed to the tang by other means. It seemsthat both in China (where in any case the disc seemsusually not to have had a central hole) and elsewhere,

it was most commonly inserted into a larger disc andthen topped by some other decorative element, typi-cally of metal and frequently set with stones or glass(which covered or otherwise disguised the hole in thering and held it down).48

The pommel seen in fig. 5 represents an alternativeto the disc type exemplified in figs. 4a and 4b. This as

well could accompany quillons of the type of LNS 169HS (fig. 3); like the latter, it has a central notch into

which the grip fit to secure its integration with thesword. A central hole running vertically through thepommel allowed the passage of the upper end of theswords tang, and one example in the al-Sabah Collec-

tion (LNS 231 HS, unpublished) has part of the tang,which broke off the sword and remained wedged inthe pommel, still in place.

MATERIAL BEARING UPON THEEXISTENCE OF AN ANCIENT

JADE-CARVING INDUSTRY INTHE BACTRIAN REGION

As shown above, the al-Sabah pieces in figs. 35 arefar from unique examples of types that originate

from the areas of ancient Bactria and its neighbors(chro nologically, and for the material in question,

Yeh-chih/Kuei-shang/Kushan territory). AlthoughTrousdale wrote in 1975 that from within the bor-ders of the Kushan empire only two scabbard slidesare known...[having been] recovered at Sirkap in theexcavations conducted by Sir John Marshall,49he coun-tered the impression this passage might create in thereaders mind by unequivocally stating (on the basisof both archeology and representations, especiallyin sculpture) that the scabbard slide (and attendantlong iron sword, with its characteristic type of quillonand disc pommel) arrived in Bactria precisely with the

Yeh-chih/Kushana.50Subsequent to this publication,Trousdale himself (in Kushan Scabbard Slide, seen. 18) published another (jade) scabbard slide from theregion, which had been purchased in the Kabul bazaarand was reported to have come (like so many of the

jades in the art market) from northern Afghanistan. Asalso indicated above, a quite sizable number of addi-tional ones are now known, and we intend to reporton these in the planned volume on jades of the West

Asian region.Even more intriguingly, other highly individualistic

and rare sorts of pieces from the period and region (in

addition to those in figs. 1 and 2) can be cited, whichgo further to clarify that as in medieval times this partof the world was home to a center of jade carving notonly previously unsuspected but sophisticated, signifi-cant, and prolific. Three examples will here suffice toindicate the breadth and variety of the story.

The first of these, published by E. V. Rtveladze inGopatshah of Bactria, (see n. 47), is an elongated flatplaque (6.6 x 2.2 x 0.4 cm) of uncertain function, pre-served in the Museum of the Peoples of Uzbekistan. Itis of rectilinear outline (with straight, parallel sidesand pointed, gable-outline ends), and has the imageof a couchant mythological bull-man or man-bull

(Gopatshah, or guardian of the waters) engraved in inta-glio into its surface on one side, and that of a Bactrian-style helmeted king on the other. The author placesthe origin of this object in North-Eastern Bactria atthe juncture of the Yueh-chi and Early Kushan periods,


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sometime between the first century BC (p. 294) and,possibly, the first century AD (p. 299), arguing the casein detail for the attribution, especially on the basis ofnumismatic evidence.51He also appends a brief excur-sus on the other finds of early nephrite pieces in Cen-tral Asia, citing the following: an example from Uzbeki-stan of the first millennium BC, probably the earliest

known article fashioned from nephrite to have beenfound in Central Asia (p. 304); a seal from Ferghanaattributed to the Achaemenian period (p. 305); a smallbowl from Kirghizia dating from between the 2nd cen-tury BC and the 1st century AD (p. 305); and the jadedagger quillon block (cited above, being of the typeof our fig. 3) as well as the jade scabbard slide exca-

vated together with it in the Samarkand region anddated by G. A. Pugachenkova to the 2nd1st centu-ries BC (p. 305).

The second object of the ancient Bactrian regionalschool of jade carving that I wish to discuss here(found in a temple deposit in the vicinity of the prob-able find spot of the famous Oxus Treasure in theBritish Museum) is very possibly slightly earlier thanthe Gopatshah plaque, being datable not later thanthe first century AD and possibly as early as the thirdto second century BC.52 It is thought to be a pom-mel, and takes the form of an abstract, angularly ren-dered head of a wolf-dragon. The piece is of addedinterest because it is inlaid with contrasting materials:the spaces between the large triangular teeth visiblealong the sides of the open lips and the outer circu-lar rings around the eyes are apparently in lapis lazuli,

while the eye centers (and perhaps the teeth) seem to

have been in glass, now decomposed or lost. Further,the rings intermediate between the outer lapis lazuli(lasurite) ones and the eye centers are of a whitematerial that may perhaps be shell, as may also havebeen the teeth.53

While the wolf-dragon pommel is in a style issuingfrom immemorial steppe traditions,54our next example(in the Sir Joseph Hotung Collection and published asChinese),55seems to vastly widen the range of ancientBactrian artistic blendings that impacted objects madeof jade. This jade is in the form of a miniature mask ofmythological character, which immediately recalls thelikes of Central Asian cave paintings and Tang-period

guardian figures. It must be admitted, however, thatmost of the stylistic elements of this remarkable piececan be traced back to classical art and to its variationsevolved in the Indian subcontinent and the region ofpresent-day Afghanistan; it is in the latter that the piece

seems particularly at home, probably having been carvedca. the first to second century AD. The difficulty ofits proper attribution stems especially from the much-cited but still insufficiently understood phenomenon ofthe blending of styles in the region and the extent to

which Greco-Bactrian style influenced the arts of Cen-tral and East Asia as well as the Indian subcontinent for

centuries after its florescence. This difficulty is aggra-vated by the prevailing assumptions about the placesin which jade, particularly jade as fine as this, was or

was not carved. Whether or not the proposed attribu-tion is accepted, the following should be considered:overall, the closest single parallel to the piece is a mar-ble mask found at Shahr-i Gulgula (Bamiyan, Afghan-istan); now in the Institute of Fine Arts, Tashkent, ithas been dated to the Roman period.56In both pieces,despite their anatomically informed character, there isa similar exaggerated treatment of the cranium, eyes,and nose; especially striking and similar is the wildlyenlarged, crescent-like mouth. These features, especiallythe treatment of the mouth, have antecedents in a mar-ble head excavated at the Greco-Bactrian city of AyKhanum in northern Afghanistan.57 In this case, thehead was a fountain spout, suggesting a possible func-tion of the jade and the just-discussed marble mask as

well. In a general way, these objects all reveal relation-ships with Greek and Roman theatrical masks and rep-resentations of satyrs and fauns on the one hand, andon the other with representations from India, Afghan-istan, and Central Asia (as well as China) ranging indate from the period of the above examples to the sev-enth to eighth century AD. One very individualistic fea-

ture of the jade mask is the exaggeratedly angular andlinear outlining of the upper lip; comparison with a ca.third-century AD stucco demon head from Hadda in

Afghanistan58makes it difficult to posit much distancein time or space between the two. Taking everythinginto account, I believe that the jade mask must belongroughly to the region of ancient Bactria and to a periodnot later than about the third century.

FURTHER IMPORTANT ANCIENTBACTRIAN JADES AND OTHER HARDSTONES

In addition to the ancient jades originating from or

attributable to Bactria and neighboring territories, thereare other unequivocal indications that this region washome to a very highly developed lapidary tradition oflong standing.

The manifestations of this tradition include the


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appearance of extremely sophisticated faceting of semi-precious stones over a timespan from as early as thefourth century BC59up into the Islamic middle ages.60

But for our present purposes, I should like to enumer-ate and briefly discuss, in roughly chronological order,some other notable objects that are probably productsof the Bactrian lapidary industry in ancient times.

The first of these is a marvelous Hellenistic gray chal-cedony rams head in the al-Sabah Collection. This hasnot yet appeared in a publication, but it is included61

in the traveling exhibition of the al-Sabah Collection,Treasury of the World: Jewelled Arts of India in the

Age of the Mughals (see n. 60), with the attribution,Probably northern Afghanistan (Hellenistic Bactrian),ca. 3rd century BC. It is introduced in the exhibitionby the following label text:

Strikingly reminiscent of the well-exampled jade rams head-terminated Mughal-period dagger hilts and handles...thischalcedony example nevertheless finds its close stylistic

parallels in Hellenistic Greek bracelet terminals. Whetherand to what degree pieces such as this unique Hellenistichardstone carving may have stimulated Mughal artistsefforts along the same line remains an open question.

Although the piece is not illustrated or discussed inthe exhibition catalogue, its inclusion (along with anextensive amount of other supplementary material)in the forthcoming large catalogue is planned. It mayhave formed the terminal of the handle of a flat dish(patera) of gold (or entirely of one piece of chalce-dony?). Such dishes from Roman times, in bronze and

with comparable rams head terminals, are numerous,

and a hololithic alabaster patera of roughly the samedate was excavated at Begram.62 But the chalcedonyrams head finds its closest stylistic parallels in Hel-lenistic jewelry,63 for which reason I have dated it tothe same period.

Next among the important and well-known ancienthardstones that I would attribute to the region of Bactriaand to the Hellenistic period (despite its having beenexcavated in Xian, apparently in a Tang context), is asublime banded brown-and-white agate rhyton termi-nating in the form of an antelopes head. The authorsof the recent Xian: Legacies of Ancient Chinese Civilizationcomment that the shape of the horn and the mate-

rial used to make it suggest that it was from CentralAsia,64without offering an opinion about the date. Rhy-tons terminating in antelope- or goat-heads do appearin drinking scenes depicted in early medieval Central

Asian paintings,65 but stylistically the Xian example

would not fit into this period. Although its date couldconceivably coincide with the period of manufacture(said to be the second century AD) of a silver drink-ing bowl from the Panjab on which an antelope-headrhyton is represented,66it seems much more at home

with earlier material, including the just discussed graychalcedony rams head in the al-Sabah Collection. Both

of the hardstone pieces exhibit a high level of anatom-ical awareness on the part of their artists, which maybe observed in comparing, for example, the handlingof the eyes and the horns of the two objects. And thebest of comparisons for the rhytons antelope head isagain in jewelry of the Hellenistic period, some carvedof hardstones.67

Also of brown-and-white banded agate, a power-ful and menacing panther head featuring brilliantfoil-backed eyes of rock crystal inlaid with green glassirises has been an ongoing source of puzzlement. Itcontinues to be exhibited in the British Museum withthe attribution Mughal India, 17th century, althoughRobert Skelton in his 1982 publication of it expressedmisgivings: ...the Indian origin of the object is...notbeyond doubt. He further suggested that its exhibi-tion with other Mughal hardstones may help to resolvethe uncertainty of its origin and date.68 I have forsome time felt that it must belong to roughly the con-text here suggested (probably late Hellenistic or earlyKushan), a conviction that has increased with time.69

Its handling simply is not consonant with Mughal-erahardstones; these have a remote elegance and a spiritof amusing abstractionpartly a heritage from Islamicartthat is absent from, or rather foreign to the spirit

of, this cat. He has a believable flesh-and-bone corpo-reality and glares balefully with glowing gemstone eyes,sending a shiver down the viewers spine. The practiceof setting eyes with gemstone is not otherwise unknownin sculpture from Afghanistan, as shown by a beauti-ful bodhisattva head with garnet eyes, which is thoughtto be from Hadda and to date to about the second orthird century AD. (The head is now in the Metropol-itan Museum of Art.)70Of course, the inlaying of theeyes of sculptures with gemstones (especially rock crys-tal) is a fairly widespread ancient practice, there being aparticularly sizable number of published examples fromEgypt,71but the incorporation of two contrasting gem-

stones to differentiate the iris from the white of the eye,a feature of the British Museum panther, seems to beespecially characteristic of the Bactrian region duringthe period in question.72

Aside from the positive reasons to believe that this


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piece is Bactrian, made between ca. the third cen-tury BC and the second century AD, there is a neg-ative argument: if it is not Mughal, what else can itbe? One may entertain the possibility that it is a workfrom Europe of, say, the sixteenth century, but a studyof such material seems to indicate that this piece, withits very real seriousness, is as out of place there as in

sixteenth- or seventeenth-century India. Finally, thereare other reasons relating to material and techniquethat also point to the context we have suggested here,the details of which will have to await the forthcoming

volume on jades.The last ancient object mentioned here as a candi-

date for Bactrian origin is the rock crystal two-handledbowl excavated at Begram, which has been asserted tobe of Alexandrian origin.73 For a variety of reasons,some of which cannot be discussed here, I am stronglyof the opinion that this piece was cut in the East Ira-nian or the northwestern subcontinent region (again,I anticipate presenting the argument more fully in theplanned volume on jades outside China). In the mean-time, it is interesting to note the following passage byTeng Shu-ping, which strongly suggests that Bactriaand/or neighboring regions were producing, in theperiod concerned, noteworthy hardstones, includingrock crystals:

The Han (or Six-dynasties) periodHsi-ching tsa-chi...recordsthat during the time of the Han emperor Wu-ti (r. 14087B.C.), the state of Shen-tu...(Sindhu) [i.e., northwest India,in the heartland of the later Kushan realm] sent tribute-gifts of a bridle made of interlocking rings of white jade,an agate bridle-bit and a lustrous white liu-li...saddle that

glowed in the dark....The San-fu huang-tu...another Hanwork, along with the Tsin-period (A.D. 265420) Shih-yichi...both record that Han Wu-ti also received a tribute-gift

from the state of Gandhara of a jade-crystal...bowl for holding

ice... [the last italics are mine].74

That the same region is recorded as the source in theTang period for other rock crystal vessels worthy to besent to the Chinese imperial court75seems, along withother indications of the area as a lapidary center (andquite aside from the testimony regarding Badakhshansrock crystal mines),76 to establish the likelihood ofa rock crystal industry in the area. If this is the case,the two-handled wine cup from Begram seems to meto be a very good candidate for what we might expectthis industry to have produced during the period inquestion.

IMMEDIATELY PRE-ISLAMIC JADESFROM AFGHANISTAN (FIGS. 68)

The pieces illustrated by figs. 68 are taken to repre-sent the phase between the ancient and Islamic eras,although there seems a good chance that the piece infig. 6 is much closer in date to the six objects already

discussed than to the medieval period. Its bilaterallysymmetrical configuration in the form of pairs ofsweep ing acanthus fronds has very close parallels inclassical art and can, once again, be closely compared

with the ornamentation of the gold dagger from TiliyaTeppeh77on which there are five lyre-shaped acanthus

volutes; three of these (the ones nearest the quillon,at mid-grip, and filling the spatulate pommel) eachfeature the paired acanthus growing out of a turquoise-set collar, with the rest of the encircling shank beingplain. The use of the paired acanthus fronds on thedagger is strikingly similar to that of the present jadepiece. But other material suggests that the jade couldinstead belong to the late antique to early medieval,pre-Islamic, period in the same region.78

That the identical type of buckle mechanism was onthe regional scene in early medieval Islamic times isshown by a number of copper-alloy examples, includ-ing those excavated at Nishapur and others in the al-Sabah Collection.79 The Nishapur buckle is, like thepresent piece, in the simple form of a button, whichis retained in a circular female half. Probably datingto the eleventh century, several unpublished copper-alloy buckles of the general type (in which the figureof a lion is formed when the buckle is closed) are in

the al-Sabah Collection, and a piece of the same typehas been published.80That the button-and-slotted-cir-cle belt type was in currency in the Mongol period isshown by two complete silver buckles with palmetteoutlines, which came from the Crimea and are now inthe Hermitage.81The system is further attested in thesame period in the form of two silver button or malehalves of buckles, each button being decorated in relief

with the motif of a sun face above a lions back.82Andof course, a number of examples of the general typeare known from later periods in China.83

We can state with certainty that our palmette-frondbuckle half was made in a major lapidary center in the

region, in a workshop with outstanding experience andspecial equipment. The high tradition embodied in thepiece cannot be doubted, given the very evident stan-dard of capability and control; this is especially clear

when we envisage the other half, with its void-centered


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circle of jade, which would have fitted over the buttonand into the groove of our preserved half. The circular-ity and straight vertical sides of this button and groovespeak almost as much about the necessarily sophisticatedcontext of the piece as does its artistic form.

Prior to the appearance of the fragmentary holo-lithic seal-ring in fig. 7, we had considered the formit embodies to be characteristic of the early medieval(tenth-to-twelfth-century) Islamic East Iranian world.84

The Brahmi inscription of the piece, however, has been

considered to date from as early as the fifth centuryAD,85which would indicate that the form had a con-siderably longer-than-suspected life and a broader cul-tural context. Its derivation from hollow gold modelsstretching back into the Sasanian period in the region

is, however, entirely consistent with such a finding. Inany case, the form type of this piece certainly does notseem to survive beyond the eleventh (or perhaps thetwelfth) century AD.

The jade (proper left) hand in fig. 8 surely belongsto a Buddhist milieu; indeed, one might naturally takeit to be a blessing hand from a small Buddha or bod-hisattva statuette.We know from literary accounts thatin the centuries prior to the advent of Islam, severalregions are recorded as sources of jade statuettes that

sound as if they might have been of the sort to whichthis hand belonged. Teng Shu-ping informs us thattheLiang-shu...(History of the Liang dynasty, A.D. 502557) records that...a jade statue had been sent to theChinese emperor from the country of Singhala (mod-

Fig. 6. Male half of an insertion-type belt buckle, green jade with a grayish undertone. Length 6.6 cm; height 6.8 cm; thickness1.1 cm. Probably territory of modern Afghanistan, ca. seventhtenth century AD or earlier. Al-Sabah Collection (LNS 2493 J).(Photo: courtesy of al-Sabah Collection)

Fig. 7. Fragmentary hololithic finger seal-ring with Brahmi inscription, off-white jade. Bezel top 2.3 x 1.3 cm; height 1.5 cm.Probably territory of modern Afghanistan, probably ca. seventhtenth century AD. Al-Sabah Collection (LNS 2828 J). (Photo:courtesy of al-Sabah Collection)

Fig. 8. Left hand, probably from a Buddha or bodhisattva statuette, translucent light green jade. Height 4.7 cm; width 2.3 cm;thickness 1.1 cm. Probably territory of modern Afghanistan, ca. seventhtenth century AD. Al-Sabah Collection (LNS 562 HS).

(Photo: courtesy of al-Sabah Collection)


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ern Sri Lanka) during the Yi-hsi reign-period (A.D. 405-418) of the Eastern Tsin dynasty, and further cites themention [in Chinese historical records] of tributarygifts of carved jade from the various peoples of these[western] regions, including an account of A.D. 541concerning a foreign carved jade Buddha sent fromKhotan.86 Schafer, writing of the Tang period, says

that images of divine beings were sometimes made ofjade: in the Buddhist temple named Exalting the Good[in Changan]...there was a jade statue of the Buddha,one foot seven inches tall, with bodhisattvas and flyingsylphs of the same material.87Surely some such con-text must be imagined for our isolated hand.

Despite comments of the prominent authority Wal-ter Spink that seem to indicate a problem with the lefthand being so used,88 some Buddha and bodhisattvastatues do offer blessings with the left hand. A quicksurvey of resources at hand has turned up at least threeinstances in Gansu, Chinas gateway for Buddhist tra-dition (and so much else) coming from the West;89

and furthermore, contexts for hands like the one weare discussing are seen repeatedly in twelfth- and thir-teenth-century Cambodian and Thai sculptures.90 Inconjunction, the practices in these two important and

widely separated regions suggest that it is hardly far-fetched to see our hand as having originated fromsuch a statuette.

EARLIER MEDIEVAL ISLAMIC EXAMPLES

Bringing us full circle, the four T-configuration belt fit-tings in figs. 9a9d are of the same general type as that

1982 milestone, the one from the Nishapur excavations(see the beginning of this article). The form of thesefittings is one that allows for an elegant suspension ofstraps from the belt; these pendant straps typically havefurther fittings attached to them and may also carry a

warriors necessariessmall pouches, etc.91

This and numerous other types of Islamic jade fit-tings of the period, as well as related examples fromChina, have pairs of small holes drilled diagonally intothe back (see, e.g., fig. 9b), which meet to give an inter-nal passage for wires or threads that secure the fittingto the belt or strap.

The progression seen in figs. 9a9d from most rec-

tilinear and sober to most elaborate, curvilinear, andovertly artistic in outline may perhaps represent achronological order of manufacture or may simplyreflect different locales of production or individual

workshop styles. In any case, it is unlikely that a great

span of time is represented by the progression, itbeing probable that the type did not last much morethan a couple of centuries.

Without drawing specific conclusions, it is worthremarking that these four fittings exhibit a remark-able consistency in length and height: lengths of 4.2,4.0, 4.0, and 4.0 cm; heights of 3.4, 3.5, 3.6, and 3.7

cm. This is particularly remarkable given the decidedvariation in their profiles as well as in their method ofattachment to the belt. For the record, the piece exca-

vated at Nishapur was generally smaller in all dimen-sions: 3.7 x 3.2 x 0.6 cm.

The al-Sabah Collection preserves an eleventh- ortwelfth-century East Iranian T-shaped copper-alloy pos-itive matrix for forming fittings of silver and/or gold,representing what must be the later end of the popu-larity of the general type and showing its currency inother media.

In fact, it is likely that the jade fittings of this formare modeled on metal prototypes in the first instance.

While we imagine sumptuous gold belts in which suchpieces would have been set with large central cabochon-cut stones (e.g., spinel, turquoise, or white jade), weknow relief-cast gilded silver and copper-alloy examples

with high hemispherical bosses, including one from atenth-century northern Chinese context; the al-SabahCollection preserves very similar pieces in a belt set thatmay be of Islamic Central Asian origin.92

ADDENDUM: ARCHEOLOGY IN THE MARKET

As long ago as 1978, during a study trip to Afghani-

stan, I found that the dealers in the Kabul bazaaroften seemed to have specific knowledge about thefind places of objects and no reluctance to share thisinformation. They also showed no tendency to fabricatesuch background nor to cite the names of famous placesin the trade, such as Ghazna or Nishapur. In the early1990s, as I realized that many archeological art objects

were coming from Afghanistan, it seemed to me thatthe correct course of action was to make the best ofa bad situation by trying to gain as much informationas possible about the place of origin of objects thatpassed our purview.

Pursuant to this goal, we have over the years col-

lected from a great many owners hundreds of putativeorigins for a wide variety of mostly Islamic objects, sys-tematically soliciting, recording, and following up suchreported origins. With this sizable body of documenta-tion, it becomes clear that there is a rather high degree


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of internal consistency and good reason to give weightto most of these assertions. It should go without sayingthat we have always tried, in collecting and assessingthis material, to intelligently and scientifically considerthe source, cross-checking what we learn with othercollected intelligence or any other knowledge we mayalready have, and so forth.

There has been a tendency in recent decades onthe part of the scholarly and museum worlds to over-

compensate by distrusting all assertions of origin butthose irrefutably documented. But to discount anythingsaid about origins or find spots by a vendor (or otherperson with reason to know) is to cut oneself off fromthis body of documentation that has, I believe, con-

siderable weight in a large number of cases, includingthose here reported.

Therefore, since to do otherwise would constitutethe withholding of potentially significant information

would be, in the end, unscientificI herein append alist of the objects appearing in my illustrations, withthe information that we have on the reported originsof each. Despite the severely reduced selection pre-sented, the list will surely still make a powerful circum-

stantial case for the general picture of the East Iranianworld as a major and prolific center of jade carving inthe period before the advent of the Timurids. Obvi-ously such a listing cannot be taken as fully represen-tative statistically, not only because of the small sam-

Figs. 9a9d. Four T-shaped belt fittings. a. (upper left): mottled gray jade, of low translucency (length 4.2 cm; height 3.6 cm;thickness 0.9 cm); b. (upper right): translucent mottled gray jade (length 4.0 cm; height 3.5 cm; thickness 1.2 cm); c. (lowerleft): translucent pale green jade simulant (length 4.0 cm; height 3.7 cm; thickness 0.8 cm); d. (lower right): translucent lightgreen jade with russet areas (length 4.0 cm; height 3.4 cm; thickness 1.1 cm). All East Iranian world, ca. nintheleventh century

AD (perhaps in the chronological order here listed). All al-Sabah Collection (LNS 379 HS, LNS 2680 J, LNS 1843 J, and LNS 609J, respectively). LNS 609 J published in Keene, Pre-Tmrid Islamic Jades, fig. 2. (Photo: courtesy of al-Sabah Collection)


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ple presented, but also because of a myriad of factorsthat might affect it, including patterns of availability,preferences of sources, etc. Perhaps the most indica-tive aspect is that, within a sampling that overwhelm-ingly has an Afghanistan connection, certain localitiesrecur with such regularity.

LIST OF OBJECTS APPEARING IN THEILLUSTRATIONS, WITH PUTATIVE

ORIGINS OF EACH

Fig. Inv. No. Origin Fig. Inv. No. Origin

1 LNS 380 HS Afghanistan 2 LNS 334 HS Ghazna3 LNS 169 HS maybe

Ghazna4a LNS 1508 J a Peshawar

market4b LNS 2710 J Herat 5 LNS 531 HS Mazar-

i Sharif(=Balkh)

6 LNS 2493 J Balkh 7 LNS 2828 J Herat8 LNS 562 HS Afghanistan 9a LNS 379 HS Peshawar

market9b LNS 2680 J Herat or

Balkh9c LNS 1843 J Mazar-

i Sharif(=Balkh)

9d LNS 609 J Peshawarmarket

Examination of our table shows that, of a total of thir-teen jades depicted in our nine figures (figs. 2 and 9care in fact jade simulants), ten have putative origins in

Afghanistan, with the remaining three reported to befrom the Peshawar market. This is a radically truncatedselection, but a generally similar pattern holds for the

widest possible representation of pre-Timurid Islamicjades in the al-Sabah Collection. This is likely consistent

with an overall picture of jade use in the pre-fifteenthcentury Islamic world, use that we see to be generallydecreasing as one moves westward.93

It should be noted here, in connection with the above,that pieces said to be from the Peshawar market areoverwhelmingly likely to be from Afghanistan. This allow-ance is applied on the basis of consistent reports fromdifferent sources, as well as the apparently low level ofclandestine excavations in Pakistan.

Of our jades (and the simulants) that are reported tobe from Afghanistan, three are said to be from Balkh,one from Herat or Balkh, two from Herat, and eithertwo or one from Ghazna. Of those with less precise ped-igrees, Afghanistan accounts for two, and (as indicatedabove) the Peshawar market for three. It should per-haps be stressed that no piece is left out of the puta-tive origins detailed above.

Given the severely restricted range of pre-Timuridjades presented here (especially of those representingthe Islamic epoch), it is desirable to suggest the cate-gories of jade objects that are not encountered here(but nevertheless planned for our volume on jades).

All the following are represented in the al-Sabah Col-lection, typically in multiples, belonging to different

periods and incorporating different styles, and present-ing a panoply of varieties, types, and subtypes. In addi-tion to belt fittings (one type of which is representedby those in figs. 9a9d), we may mention: strap-end fit-tings (numerous pieces in jade, as well as analogous sil-

ver and gold examples); hololithic buckles (in jade aswell as agate, carnelian, rock crystal, and lapis lazuli);scabbard slides; sword pommels and other weapon fit-tings; other types of strap and harness fittings; otherfittings of uncertain context (including larger piecesthat appear to belong to architectural and/or furni-ture settings); a variety of functional items of undeter-mined purpose; chess and other gaming pieces; vessels(bowls, cups, etc.); pendants of various sorts; beads ofdifferent types; hololithic finger rings; seal-stones (forsetting in finger rings, etc.); stamp seals; and small ani-mal figurines, including elephants (of which there isalso an example in white glass that imitates jade), twoprobable civets, pigs, rodents, and birds.

Al-Sabah CollectionKuwait

NOTES

Authors note of acknowledgment:As ever, I owe more gratitude than Ican express to Sheikh Nasser Sabah al-Ahmad al-Sabah, who for somany years has patiently patronized my efforts to develop appro-priate presentations for the often challenging objects that he con-tinues knowledgeably and excitedly to seek out.

Again as usual, my colleague at the al-Sabah Collection, SalamKaoukji, has been integral to the development of my manuscript,helping in ways too numerous and too multifarious even to sug-gest. Her judgment in matters aesthetic, editorial, and art-histor-ical have clarified issues and expression, tempered my excesses,and fed importantly into the accuracy, fullness, and soundness ofthis effort. Additionally, I would like to name without further comment anumber of individuals who have aided me in a variety of ways withmatters directly leading to the result I have submitted. Each of themknows how he or she has helped, and each has my sincere gratitude.

Begging forgiveness for any oversights, I list: Adel Adamova, KarlBaipakov, Anna Ballian, Manijeh Bayani, Sophie Budden, SheilaCanby, Stefano Carboni, Sara Clemence, Dominique Collon, AnnaContadini, Giovanni Curatola, Stanislaw J. Czuma, Massumeh Far-had, Christa Fischer, Kjeld von Folsach, Ian Freestone, V. D. Gory-acheva, Ernst Grube, Frances Halahan, Klaus-Peter Haase, Tohfa


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Handoussa, Anatoly Ivanov, Paul Jett, Mohammad-Reza Kargar, RogerKeverne, Liliane el-Kholi, Emine Kocak, Sara Kuehn, Haeedeh Laleh,Susan La Niece, Boris Litvinsky, William Luis, Louise Mackie, SophieMakariou, Mona El Mamoun, Katie Marsh, Boris Marshak, Vladi-mir Matveyev, Assadullah Souren Melikian-Chirvani, Mina Morai-tou, Michelle Morgan, Layla Musawi, Mikhail Piotrovsky, RalphPinder-Wilson, Venetia Porter, Jessica Rawson, Simon Ray, MariaQueiroz Ribeiro, Michel Richard, Michael Rogers, E. V. Rtveladze,

Mohammed Saleh, Robert Salomon, Robin Sanderson, Nerina deSilva, Robert Skelton, Michael Spink, Walter Spink, Susan Stronge,Lieve Vandenbulcke-Hibler, Nuno Vassallo e Silva, Daniel Walker,Rachel Ward, Elaine Wright, and Benjamin Zucker.

Bibliographical note:My article, Medieval Islamic Jades: Pre-TmridIslamic Jades, inHadeeth ad-Dar 12 (2001), published by the Daral-Athar al-Islamiyyah, Ministry of Information, State of Kuwait,unfortunately suffered critical errors in the matter of the illus-trations, including the association of captions with individual fig-ures. Therefore I refer herein to pieces illustrated in that articleby their figure numbers as designated in the text of the article,not in the captions.

1. Marilyn Jenkins and Manuel Keene,Islamic Jewelry in the Met-ropolitan Museum of Art(New York: Metropolitan Museum of

Art, 1982), cat. no. 12, p. 33.2. Robert Skelton, Islamic Art, VIII, 8: Jade, The Dictionary of

Art, vol. 16, 1996, p. 527).3. J. M. Rogers,Islamic Art and Design 15001700(London: The

British Museum, 1983), p. 149.4. Ibid.5. Ralph Pinder-Wilson, Rock Crystal and Jade, introductory

essay to the section of the same name, in The Arts of Islam,cat. of an exh. at the Hayward Gallery, London, April 8July4, 1976 (London: The Arts Council of Great Britain, 1976),p. 122. This was reiterated by him in 1992; see Ralph Pinder-

Wilson, Jades from the Islamic World,Marg44, 2 (Dec. 1992):36. This volume ofMarg,entitled The Art of Jade,was also pub-lished as an independent hardbound book: Stephen Markel,ed., The World of Jade(Bombay: Marg Publications, 1992).

Robert Skelton, Islamic and Mughal Jades, in Jade, ed. R.Keverne (London: Anness Publishing, 1991), p. 369, n. 15,credits Pinder-Wilson with drawing his and other scholarsattention to the passage in question from al-Birunis treatiseon gemstones (see n. 6, below). For the record, the passagesby Pinder-Wilson are as follows: ...it is al-Biruni who providesus with the most reliable information about jade. According tohim, the Turks of the steppes invested jade with magical pro-perties. It was an amulet which served as a powerful protectionagainst attack by robbers. It could ward off thunder and light-ning; and the tribal magicians used it to produce rain. He men-tions, too, that the Turks carved from it ornaments for beltsand saddles. (Rock Crystal and Jade, p. 122); and Al-Birunistates that jade is obtained from two riverbeds in the districtof Khotan. From one of these comes a pure white jade and,

from the other, jade of various colours ranging from grey toblack. Known as the victory stone, jade was used by the Turksto decorate their swords, saddles, and belts in the belief thatits presence would aid in achieving victory over their oppo-nents. Jade was also used for its curative properties in treatingstomach disorders and eye diseases. Finally, jade was thought

to ward off lightning, a claim which Al-Biruni was able to sup-port by his own experiment. In more recent times, travellers inIran reported that pieces of jade suspended on the outside ofcastle turrets caused thunderbolts to fall far distant. (Jadesfrom the Islamic World, p. 36).

6. Ab al-Rayn Muammad b. Amad al-Brn,Kitb al-jamhirf ma{rifat al-jawhir, ed. F. Krenkow (Hyderabad [Deccan],1936, repr. Beirut, 1404/1984).

7.

Translation by Salam Kaoukji, Layla Musawi, and Manuel Keene,from al-Brn,Kitb al-Jawhir(1984), p. 198. Note that onehere must stress the reading finger rings and knife handles,and not seals and medals, as Souren Melikian-Chirvani wouldhave it (A. S. Melikian-Chirvani, Precious and Semi-PreciousStones in Iranian Culture. 1: Early Iranian Jade, Bulletin ofthe Asia Institute, New Series, 11[1997, publ. year 2000]: 131).In actuality, al-Birunis phraseology, al-khawtmi wa nuubil-sakkni, can refer only to finger rings (including seal-rings,from which root meaning the term is derived) and knife han-dles; and we know in amplitude that these are two of the mosttypical uses of jade in the Islamic world, early and late. Finally,T. Lentz and G. Lowry, Timur and the Princely Vision: Persian Artand Culture in the Fifteenth Century (Los Angeles and Washing-ton, DC, 1989), p. 221 include without emphasis a translationof this particular passage that agrees with our translation in itsessentials, differing only slightly in choice of words.

8. Pre-Tmrid Islamic Jades, April 22, 1998. This lecture wassubsequently delivered in the Dar al-Athar al-Islamiyyah lec-ture series (in Kuwait, an outreach activity of the al-Sabah Col-lection) on November 30, 1998; and a summary version, withthirteen color illustrations, was published in the Dar al-Atharal-Islamiyyah newsletter for 2001: see Bibliographical note,above, with respect to this publication.

9. A. Lucas,Ancient Egyptian Materials and Industries, 3rd ed., rev.(London: Edward Arnold and Co., 1948), pp. 45253.

10. C. Andrews,Ancient Egyptian Jewellery (London: British MuseumPublications, 1990), p. 49; Tutankhamuns jade signet ring isillustrated in color in pl. 149[a], p. 166.

11. Jack Ogden, Jewel lery of the Ancient World (London: TrefoilBooks, 1982), p. 89.

12. Ibid., caption to fig. 5:7, p. 100. Incidentally, those susceptibleof being misled in the matter should ignore the comments ofboth Andrews and Ogden with respect to the otherwise well-established information on the sources of jade. Critical pas-sages of both (Andrews,Egyptian Jewellery, p. 49; Ogden,Jewel-lery of the Ancient World, p. 100) represent misunderstandingsof Lucass (Egyptian Materials, pp. 45253) careful treatmentof this matter.

13. Carol Andrews, in Peter Lacovara, Betsy Teasley Trope, andSue H. DAuria, eds., The Collectors Eye: Masterpieces of Egyptian

Art from the Thalassic Collection, Ltd., cat. of an exh. at MichaelC. Carlos Museum, Emory University, Atlanta, 2001 (Washing-ton: University of Washington Press, 2001), cat. 71.

14. Soudan: Royaumes sur le Nil, cat. of an exh. at the Kunsthalleder Hypo-Kulturstiftung, Munich, Oct. 1996Jan. 1997, and

the Institut du Monde Arabe, Paris, Feb.Aug. 1997, and othervenues (Paris: Flammarion, 1997), cat. no. 348.15. See, e.g., Ogden,Jewellery of the Ancient World, p. 100; and Robert

Frey, Jade in Europe (chapter co-written with Robert Skel-ton), in Keverne,Jade, pp. 26061.

16. According to Dominique Collon (whose kind efforts I wish to


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specially acknowledge here), the British Museum preserves asecond-millennium BC Mesopotamian jade seal (inv. no. ANE89175 [piece cited by Melikian-Chirvani, Early Iranian Jade,p. 125 and n. 12]), which she described in her letter to meas nephrite...First Kassite style...14th century BC. Dr. Collonhas further confirmed that the material of this seal was ana-lyzed in the Department of Scientific Research of the BritishMuseum. It was she as well who informed me that a drawing

and a photographic reproduction of the seals impression arepublished in D. M. Matthews, Principles of Composition in NearEastern Glyptics of the Later Second Millennium BC, Orbis Bibli-cus et Orientalis, Series Archaeologica (Freiburg: Schweitz undGoettingen, 1990), no. 118, but that the material of which thepiece is made is not mentioned there. Furthermore, Dr. Col-lon indicated no awareness of the pieces having otherwisebeen published.

17. Jim G. Shaffer in F. R. Allchin and Norman Hammond, eds.,The Archaeology of Afghanistan from Earliest Times to the Timurid

Period(London, New York, and San Francisco: Academic Press,1978), pp. 114 and 144.

18. Teng Shu-ping, Catalogue of a Special Exhibition of HindustanJade in the National Palace Museum (Taipei: National PalaceMuseum, 1983), pp. 7677.

19. William Trousdale, A Possible Roman Jade from China, Ori-ental Art, New Series 15, 1 (1969); idem, The Long Sword andScabbard Slide in Asia(Washington, DC: Smithsonian InstitutionPress, 1975); idem, A Kushan Scabbard Slide from Afghani-stan,Bulletin of the Asia Institute, New Series 2 (1988).

20. Trousdale, Roman Jade, passim; andLong Sword and Scab-bard Slide, pp. 1067 and pl. 11a.

21. Kamal Giri, Animal and Bird Beads, in Chhavi2: Rai Krish-nadasa Felicitation Volume(Banaras: Bharat Kala Bhavan, 1981),p. 322.

22. Christies London, Fine Antiquities, July 5, 1995, entry for lotno. 118.

23. Melikian-Chirvani, Early Iranian Jade, figs. 1 and 2, discussedon pp. 13536.

24. SeeMonuments of Culture and Art of Kirghizia: Antiquity and Mid-dle Ages (in Russian), exh. cat. (Leningrad, 1983), nos. 260

and 261a, respectively. The al-Sabah Collection includes sev-eral pieces of the earring-pendant type, to be represented inthe planned volume on jades.

25. Giovanni Curatola and Karl Baipakov, eds., Sciamani e Derviscidalle steppe del Prete Gianni: Religiosit del Kazakhstan e percezionedel fantastico a Venezia(Venice: Edizioni Multigraf, 2000), no.62.

26. Karl Baipakov, Les fouilles de la ville dOtrar, Archologieislamique3 (1992): 110.

27. That more parts of the corpus can turn up unexpectedly,previously unrecognized even in distinguished public collec-tions, is shown by my experience of seeing two medieval east-ern Islamic jades when, in November 2001, through the cour-tesy of the curators Anna Ballian and Mina Moraitou, I wastaken to the storerooms of the Benaki Collection in Athens.

The first (inv. 6128, no. 1) is of the Ilkhanid period and isclosely similar to two pieces in the al-Sabah Collection (LNS1966 J b and 2113 J, to be published in the upcoming jades

volume). The second (inv. 6128, no. 2) is particularly interest-ing: a medieval Islamic jade fitting in the form of a highly styl-ized elephant, it constitutes for me a thus-far unique example.

Incidentally, the piece, which probably dates to the thirteenthcentury, would be right-side-up for the wearer (but not oth-ers) if slid onto the belt with the suspension loop downward;alternatively, it may have been affixed to a sword scabbard

with its loop upward to receive the suspension strap comingfrom another fitting on the belt. It is decorated with an ara-besque design in deeply cut lines, which probably were inlaid

with gold, although none was visible to me when examining

the piece.28. See especially Manuel Keene, The Lapidary Arts in Islam: AnUnderappreciated Tradition, in Expedition24, 1 (Fall 1981),passim. On the status of the region as a lapidary center inancient times, see following sections of this paper, includingn. 59.

29. We have discussed above the signet ring of Tutankhamun(third quarter of the fourteenth century BC), as well as otherreports of Egyptian objects made of jade.

30. Victor Sarianidi, The Golden Hoard of Bactria: From the Tillya-tepe Excavations in Northern Afghanistan (New York: Harry N.

Abrams, Inc., and Leningrad: Aurora Art Publishers, 1985).31. Sarianidi, Tillya-tepe, cat. nos. 4.8 and 4.34, especially color

pls. 159, p. 215, and 161, pp. 21819 (for cat. 4.8); and pl. 98,p. 155 (for cat. 4.34). Note that the caption for pl. 98 is mis-leading, suggesting that the plaque of interest to us for thesake of the dragon is cat. no. 4.4 rather than 4.34.

32. Sarianidi, Tillya-tepe, p. 42. The reader should be aware that thepublication cited here and in nn. 3031 above is one of two1985 editions of this work, the other published solely in Lenin-grad. The wording varies between the two editions, such that,e.g., the quotation of the passage about the Bactrian dragontype may appear inaccurate to anyone consulting the Lenin-grad edition.

33. See Frances Mortimer Rice and Benjamin Rowland, Art inAfghanistan: Objects from the Kabul Museum (London: AllenLane, The Penguin Press, 1971), ills. 38, 39, 42, 50, 51, and54.

34. See Adam T. Kessler, Empires Beyond the Great Wall: The Heri-tage of Genghis Khan(Los Angeles: Natural History Museum ofLos Angeles County, 1993), fig. 35, p. 62, where the pierced-

work jade earring plaque on the right features a dragon closelyrelated to those of Tiliya Teppeh.

35. No properly scientific determination of the material of theroundel has been carried out, but both its appearance (espe-cially the high translucency) and its softness (well below thehardness of jade) mark it as a simulant. It is quite possibly thematerial, known locally as Shah Maqsud stone, that is exploitedin the vicinity of Qandahar for Muslim prayer beads.

36. One very early example is a turquoise-inlaid gold roundel witha frontal bearded bulls head. This is in the Shumei FamilyCollection; its cataloguers refer to it as a lid and attribute itto western Central Asia, late third or early second millenniumBC. (See Ancient Art from The Shumei Family Collection, cat. ofan exh. in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, JuneSept. 1996,and Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Nov. 1996Feb. 1997

[New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1996], cat. no. 8,with text by Kim Benzel; and Miho Museum: South Wing, exh.cat. [Shigaraki: Miho Museum, 1997], fig. 1, p. 325, with textby Martha L. Carter.) More similar to the depiction on the

jade-simulant roundel, and demonstrating the far-flung sta-tus of such images, is a silver roundel from Noin-Ula, north-


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manuel keene210

ern Mongolia, preserved in the State Hermitage Museum, St.Petersburg. In this Hunnic piece, dated to the first century AD(see Vladimir N. Basilov, ed.,Nomads of Eurasia[Los Angeles:Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County, 1989], illus-tration on p. 52), the treatment of the face and the horns isstrongly reminiscent of our roundel. Examples from Afghani-stan include two gold elephant-head spouts of a now lost glass

vessel from Begram of the same period to which we attribute

the jade simulant roundel (see Mortimer Rice and Rowland,Kabul Museum, ill. 79, and Rowlands comments in the notesregarding the probable non-Indian origin of the pieces).

37. See Sarianidi, Tillya-tepe, no. 4.9, and especially color pls. 16465 (pp. 22223) and text on pp. 3444. There is also in theal-Sabah Collection a heavy gold plaque depicting just such amouflon, set with turquoises; the face is treated in a way highlycomparable to that of the jade-simulant roundel. Technicallyand artistically it is very closely related to a sizable number ofthe pieces from Tiliya Teppeh and, especially in the handlingof the folded body, reveals its affinities with Eurasian steppeart.

38. Sarianidi, Tillya-tepe, cat. nos. 4.8 and 4.9see color pls. 15963, 166.

39. See Trousdale, Long Sword and Scabbard Slide, and KushanScabbard Slide, both passim. It should be noted here thatTrousdales monumental, densely laden, and enormously use-ful Long Sword and Scabbard Slide is essential for anyone who

would understand the movement of peoples and sword types,and the fittings and methods of suspension of the latter. Weshould mention here that several examples of sword slides in

jade, as well as others in Afghani lapis lazuli and local Afghan-istan jade-simulant stones, all with putative origins in Afghan-istan, are in the al-Sabah Collection, and their publication isplanned.

40. Trousdale,Long Sword and Scabbard Slide,p. 2.41. See Trousdale, especially Kushan Scabbard Slide, p. 28 (spe-

cifically about the scabbard slide).42. Two examples of copper-alloy quillons of the type of LNS 169

HS are also published by Trousdale (Long Sword and ScabbardSlide, fig. 37).

43. See Trousdale,Long Sword and Scabbard Slide, p. 114.44. See, e.g., S. Howard Hansford, Chinese Carved Jades(London:

Faber and Faber, 1968), pl. 53B; and Jessica Rawson, ChineseJade from the Neolithic to the Qing (London: British Museum,1995), no. 21:7.

45. See, in Grigore Arbore Popescu, Chiara Silvi Antonini, and KarlBaipakov, eds., Luomo doro: La cultura delle steppe del Kazakh-stan dallet del bronzo alle grandi migrazioni, exh. cat. (Milan:Electa, 1998), no. 387, p. 201, a dagger all of iron (includingthe downswept, butterfly-like forged guard), from PristanBaty, kurgan 6, dated to the fifth to fourth century BC; andibid., no. 331, p. 187, a dagger and scabbard ornamented withgold, with a forged iron quillon block of fat proportions,

which is simpler (but unmistakably of the generic type), fromKurgan Issyk, comprensorio del Semiree, of the same date.

The general approach is seen with special clarity in the case ofa long dagger from the Varna district in present-day Bulgaria(dated to the seventh century BC), the iron quillon block inquestion exhibiting pronounced forging marks and havinga profile roughly equivalent to the type represented by LNS169 HS, but vertically flipped (see Ivan Marazov, ed., Ancient

Gold: The Wealth of the Thracians, Treasures from the Republic ofBulgaria[New York: Harry N. Abrams, Inc., 1997], nos. 15455).

46. Indeed, according to Trousdale (Long Sword and ScabbardSlide), all known scabbard slides from central and western

Asia and Europeare unornamented (p. 109). The followingare representative examples of decorated Chinese quillons ofthe type, and may suffice to convey the situation (for brevity

I adopt Trousdales class designations of decoration): geo-metric class, represented in S. Howard Hansford,Jade, Essenceof Hills and Streams: The Von Oertzen Collection of Chinese and

Indian Jades(Cape Town, Johannesburg, and London: Purnelland Sons, 1969), cat. B51; in John Ayers and Jessica M. Raw-son, Chinese Jade throughout the Ages, exh. cat. (London: Orien-tal Ceramic Society, 1975), no. 159; and in Rawson,Neolithic toQing, no. 21:7; and hydra class, in Ayers and Rawson, Chinese

Jade, no. 158 (both sides illustrated, albeit in different placesin the volume).

47. From Uzbekistan (ancient Sogdia), for instance, comes therecently published example of a dagger with jade quillon blocklike LNS 169 HS rusted in place, excavated in a tomb that alsocontained a jade scabbard slide (see G. A. Pugachenkova, E. V.Rtveladze, and Kyuzo Kato, eds.,Antiquities of Southern Uzbeki-stan[Tashkent and Tokyo: The Ministry of Culture of UzbekSSR and Soka University Press, 1991], cat. nos. 251 and 253respectively, attributed to the 1st3rd centuries; this find iscited in E. V. Rtveladze, Gopatshah of Bactria [a Nephrite Plate

with Depictions of a Bactrian Ruler and a Bull-Man], AncientCivilizations from Scythia to Siberia 4, 4 [Dec. 1997]: 305).

48. In this connection, note Trousdale (Long Sword and ScabbardSlide, p. 111), writing about a sword and its fittings found andrecorded on the lower Volga in the nineteenth century: The

wooden grip into which the tang was inserted was ornamentedat its upper end with a chalcedony disk pommel secured tothe grip by a copper nail, the head of which was adorned

with a small piece of violet-colored glass paste.... The tombbelonged to the late Sarmatian period, that is, third to fourthcentury. There were as well (in China at least) iron swords

with long narrow tangs that could have served to peg or plan-

ish the pommel to the end of the tang (see Trousdale, LongSword and Scabbard Slide, p. 54, bottom, and fig. 36b). Chi-nese examples of decorated disc pommels, for comparison

with the non-Chinese plain ones, include the following: geo-metric class, represented in Hansford, The Von Oertzen Collec-tion, cat. B41; geometric class with a central openwork grif-fin, in Ayers and Rawson, Chinese Jade, no. 157; combinationgrain and geometric class, in Hansford, The Von Oertzen Col-lection, cat. B43 and C13; Ayers and Rawson, Chinese Jade, no.156; and Rawson, Neolithic to Qing, nos. 21:3 and 21:4; geo-metric class with central rosette, in Rawson,Neolithic to Qing,no. 21:5; hydra class, in Hansford, The Von Oertzen Collection,cat. B40; and Rawson,Neolithic to Qing, no. 21:6.

49. Trousdale,Long Sword and Scabbard Slide, p. 71.50. Ibid., especially pp. 6871.

51. For illustrations, see Rtveladze, Gopatshah of Bactria, figs.13.52. See B. A. Litvinskiy and I. R. Pichikiyan, The Temple of the

Oxus,Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society o f Great Britain and Ire-land(1981, no. 2): pl. 12 and pp. 13536 and 163. This wasamong votive deposits in a temple constructed in the third


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century BC, but that contained objects dating from the fifthcentury BC to the first century AD. The piece was again pub-lished, with better illustration, in Oxus: Tesori dellAsia Centrale,exh. cat. (Rome: Edizioni De Luca, 1993), where the dating isgiven as II secolo a.C.

53. Litvinskiy and Pichikiyan, Temple of the Oxus, p. 163, offeronly teeth inlaid in paste, and spectacle-eyes, whereas thecatalogue Oxus, pp. 3435, describes both the teeth and the

eyes as con incrostazioni di lasurite. One can see in the cat-alogue illustration that the centers of the eyes contain decom-posed material, and the spaces between the lapis lazuli teethseem extremely likely to have been filled with a contrastingmaterial

Documents

Old World Jades Outside China, From Ancient Times to the Fifteenth Century