The Archetype of the Dragon Image as a Talisman

The first culture in which we find a lot of archeological remains of adornments bearing the dragon image in its original and most spiritually expressive shape is the Hongshan culture in what is now called Inner Mongolia encircled in the arms of the Yellow River.  I will not go back into the background of all the people who came down into this region, but will deal just now with the Hongshan New Stone Age agricultural society.  They enjoyed rich grasslands, and they raised domestic animals for food production.

Bones of animals such as cows, sheep, goats and pigs are found in the archeological sites.  The jade images from the Hongshan culture show that the animal need not have been domesticated in order to be important.  Images of eagles, lions, tigers, rabbits, gazelles and insects such as the cicada (locust) are prominent in the carved jade amulets in this society.  In later blogs we will be discussing the meanings that historians and archeologists have learned from the amulets buried with the owners.

While the Hongshan culture was developing along the lower reaches of the Yellow River, farther west along the same river and in the same time span of ca. 5,000 B.C. to 3,000 B.C., the Yangshao culture was developing its own treatment of the many of the same jade images.  If we moderns can discern the most important ancient sacred symbol by counting the replications of a certain image over the area from Syria eastward to the China Sea, we have to say that the dragon is by far the most important.  There is a work that discusses this phenomenon and relates this to a natural phenomenon observed by the people in that part of the earth in the Early Neolithic Age.

First, let me simply and rather superficially note how the writers explain the origin of this important manifestation of the image of a dragon eating its tail, or the ouroboros.  Let's look at a photo in order to have a point of reference.

This particular dragon symbol is antique, but not ancient.  It is given a more detailed treatment than the Hongshan or Mijiayao, and also shows the influence of later cultures within that same geographical area over the millennia.  A fuller description of this piece is HERE.

The archetype or original image of the dragon eating its tail was that, according to Marinus Anthony van der Sluijs and Anthony L. Peratt in The Ouroboros as an Auroral Phenomenon, the people of the time between about 10,000 B.C. and 6,000 B.C. observed an aurora or a flaming circle around the sun.  Because the sun flare, or simply a brilliant circle of light, suggested it to the human imagination, there arose an 'incipient dragon motif, lacking its hind feet' and having its tail in its mouth.  

For the people along the Yellow River, who definitely associated the dragon with sky and water (which falls from the sky), there could be a simpler explanation.  I thought perhaps the sinuous shape of the river itself might suggest such an image.  I hypothesized that if one stood on a high spot in the mountains, one might see what resembled just such an image by looking down at a river circling back upon itself at certain points.  I searched for and found a photograph of just exactly that.  It is a photo of the Yellow River taken from a low-flying plane:

After DisturbedShadow

The Yangshao or Mijiayao culture in what is now Gansu and Qinghai Provinces in China, jutting up against Mongolia, and in the shadow of the Kunlun Shan Mountains from which the Yellow River flows, embraced the tradition of the Hongshan dragon motif and much of the same cosmic iconography as the Hongshan culture.  So the dragon motif extended a great distance, even considering only the area of the earth East of the Himalayas. 

My own imagination that relates the dragon motif to the river rather than to a possible sun flare or atmospheric aurora does not explain the fact that at about the same time, a similar image of the ouroboros had developed in Northern Mesopotamia, a great geographical distance from the China Sea.  

But then no physicist has proven the event of an aurora around the sun that could be seen by all humanity in that region.  Neither has there been proof offered that such a sun flare happened within the time frame in which the ouroboros was born.  

This blog is simply to give us a point of reference in discussing the cosmic iconography that later became the mythical symbols and popular onamentation of so much of humanity.

Bronze Dragons West and Jade Dragons East

The very earliest finds of the dragon images in the shape resembling the ouroboros, the dragon or serpent who swallows his tail, are found in the steppes of Asia and along the Yellow River that spans China and borders on Mongolia. The finds were dated scientifically to around 4000 B.C.  This image came from or was spread across a great distance to the area along the border of Eastern Anatolia, Northern Mesopotamia and ancient Persia.   As the symbol went from West to East or vice versa, the symbol took on new meanings and new shapes.  

The images shown on the plate below are images on bronze seals in ancient Northeastern Persia, on carved stone ritual objects or on royal possessions in Western Persia and finally at the bottom of this blog entry I show a modern reproduction of the Eastern version of the ouroborus ritual symbol.  Even though the dates of the earliest findings of the archeological artifacts are in the Far East, there are scholars who insist that the dragon image entered into human history and spread from the West.  So I will begin this blog by showing the various versions of the serpent with a face and ears that have been found in the regions of Mesopotamia, Anatolia and Persia.  

after Sarianidi, 1998

The drawings in the plate above are the third millennium B.C. renditions in bronze of the serpent dragon, in which he is not swallowing his tail.  In the Bactrian or ancient Persian culture, the dragon had already changed his shape and how he fit into the rituals of the ancient culture of Persia.  In the West, the dragon was often shown as being a crawly, creepy thing, as in the photo above. The dragon was also shown being vanquished by sky creatures such as the eagle shown in the photo below, while in the East, the dragon was often portrayed in jade as a sky creature himself, a flying dragon.  There may have been a fascinating pre-historical event that explains the dragon ornament, as we shall see in later blogs.  Since blogs cannot be books, I have to limit each blog to a small part of the dragon story. 

Below, the cast bronze seal from Bactria shows dragons being seized and held by the great eagle that was such a powerful iconic figure in Bactria.  

after Sarianidi, 1998

The photo below is one of the small ritual columns carved in the soft chlorite stone that was the favored stone in the West, where soft stones were engraved with bone or sharpened stone points.   In the East, they used agates and jade which are very hard stones that had to be shaped by grinding them.  After metal saws, chisels and knives came into use, the jade and agate could be cut much easier and quicker.  

The Persian chlorite stone cult object below shows a lion hero fighting against two dragons, again showing a difference in the dragon's position in the Western pantheon.  On looking again at the image below, it is possible that the dragon in back of the lion is actually attaching the other dragon?  In the East, the dragon is always shown as a provider and protector and is still popular as a lucky amulet.  

after article in Teheran Times, shown online by Iran Chamber Society, 2011

Below is an antique but not ancient image of the Eastern dragon that does show a less creepy, crawly image, but retaining an allusion to the swallowing of the tail myth, the one that produced the ouroboros.   This image is in my collection as a piece of jewelry.  There are other cultural accretions in this particular dragon image, which may be discussed in later blogs.  It is a complicated story of how this Eastern dragon took on a mammal's face and head, but the story will be told at which time I will have the complete piece of jewelry showing on my web site. 

Read a fuller story on this particular piece HERE. 

Some features that this dragon image shown above shares with some of the images in the first plate above are the mammal-like head with bulging eyes and a forked tail.  

In later blogs, we will trace the development of the ouroboros as a human expression of an aurora appearing in the sky in the geologic era of the New Stone Age and therefore seen by all humanity.  From there we will trace the development first to being the totem or protector and the devolution of the dragon's status  from protective sky creature to terrestrial or subterranean creature that heroes must struggle against.  

The Dragon Will Lead You to Water

From the modern legend of the Loch Ness monster in Celtic Scotland to the Biblical Leviathan that plays in the water of the Mediterranean in David's Psalms, to the equally ancient Chinese water dragon that does not actually live in the water but needs a daily soak in order to stay healthy.

What I am going to write in this blog entry is pure speculation on my part.  But I will tell my own legend of how the dragon attained the place of honor that he enjoys on our calendars, our protective amulets, our household decorations and even in the tattoos worn by so many.  The legends that elevated the dragon to a heroic or maybe even deified level in the ancient world may be related to the fact that dragons -- serpent like reptiles that have legs and a more expressive face -- are land creatures but must have a nearby body of water for survival.

A large lizard occupies the area of Gonur Depe, the site of the excavation of one of the sites of the Bronze Age Bactria-Margiana Complex.  His ancestor may well have pointed our ancestors to the Murghab River, where Gonur was founded some four thousand years ago.  When my husband was visiting the site, the workers always warned him that the 'dragon' might crawl into his tent; the warning was not that the dragon was dangerous, but that the dragon brought a bad odor into the tent.  You see, the dragon soaked for a while each day in the murky waters where no doubt a lot of waste had been dumped.
Given the needs of the dragons or large lizards that crawl through the deserts of Central Asia, migrants might have found the dragon a valuable guide to water.  Especially in the era of 4000 to 3000 B.C. there were great migrations from the Asian steppes toward settled regions or to still Neolithic nomadic herders.  By the end of that era, the herders, too were moving into contact with the more sedentary cultures that were farming and raising domestic animals such as pigs, cows, sheep and goats and even horses and donkeys.  The dog had domesticated himself long before this age.  The domestic canine was following the camps of Ice Age Hunters, helping in the hunt.
Noting the fascination held by birds, the fourth millennium cultures of Central Asia may have kept even large birds when they could be caught.  The eagle and the phoenix -- a really fancy chicken -- are displayed on a huge percentage of their amulets.
A note here on the migrants.  They were not nomads who had adopted the life style of constantly moving.  They were usually people who simply had to move from their home land to a more comfortable climate or culture.  Therefore, along with the pigs, the rams' heads and the magnificent horses that the people already honored by being buried with them, sometimes worshipping their statues, the ancients added the dragon symbol.

Another blog will be on the jade dragon and the bronze dragon.   Such as this jade one:

Old Hongshan Style Hetian Jade Necklace Hand Carved Amulet and Beads

The photo above shows the pig-drgaon amulet that might have developed from the veneration of the ancient settled farming community for its pig and the migrants' respect for the dragon.  In the late Neolithic and Bronze Age culture named Hongshan with archeological traces across much of the Northern part of what is now China, the pig dragon held sway as the most powerful spiritual symbol.  

Meanwhile on the other side of the Himalayas in what is now Afghanistan, migrants were moving into the high desert oasis called Bactria.  In Bronze Age Bactria they immortalized the dragon in small stone seals and cast bronze amulets.  Here is another image of a dragon amulet with the eagle image on the opposite side of the carved steatite seal from Bactria:

The Champion Wears the Bazuband

In Mongolia, the nation's hundredth anniversary was celebrated on horseback.  The buzkashi games were played in many venues.  Buzkashi is still a popular sport in many parts of Greater Turkmenia, that is in all the places where the Turkic peoples influence the culture.  Northern Afghanistan is such a place.  

Buzkashi is the oldest sport played on horseback.  It is the national sport of Afghanistan.  The horses are highly prized and are well-trained and well cared for. The champion, or Chapandaz, earns his award, the bazuband, to wear laced on his arm.  His chapan is also part of his award.  He wears the chapan, a handwoven silk robe, draped on his shoulders as you see in the photo below of President Hamid Karzai. 

   

And on his arm the champion laces his beautifully worked silver bracelet that looks like the photo to the right of Karzai's photo:  the bazuband, the champion's bracelet for                                               

the Afghan buzkashi winner, just as it was for the ancient Persian archer champion, from which the tradition is carried on.  

The bazuband was a carryover from the ancient Iranians, or Persians, who fought their wars on horseback.  Often the battles would end with many horseless riders fighting hand-to-hand combat, a kind of no holds barred wrestling.  The heroes from the winning side of the battle were awarded the prize of a bazuband not only for their skill in archery but for their skill in wrestling.  

A buzkashi field is laid out with a tall post at one end and a circle painted onto the ground at the other.  Inside the circle, the administrator of justice, the referee, has placed the carcass of a headless goat, gutted, but now filled with sand.  The members of each team parade onto the field in tribal regalia, wearing their padded chapans and beautifully embroidered padded helmets.  When I saw the game in Kabul in 1974, many of the team members wore their hair in the traditional Mongolian queue.  

                                                             This is a game in action

The game begins with a judge deciding which team will pick up the goat carcass, the equivalent of our pigskin football, but larger and heavier, but easier to grasp than a wet football.  The team has already chosen their man who will pick up the goat.  Now the rest of the team must fend off the opposing team members while the man holding the goat carries it round the post at the far end of the field from where he picked up the headless carcass that you see the man in the white horse carrying in the photo above.  

After he passes round that post, he heads pell mell down the field to the circle of justice, into which he hopes to toss the goat.  His journey is not easy, neither going up the field to go round the post, nor when it grows much more difficult as he starts back toward the circle of justice.  The opposing riders will use their horses and their whips against the team that is guarding their goat carrier.  The horses know the game very well.  They force their bodies against the horses of the opposite team so that the rider can reach and grab the goat carcass away from the man who is carrying it.  In this game, the goat may change hands many times, back and forth from one team to another, until the the goat is tossed into the circle, and then the struggle begins again.  

Finally, when all the tournaments have been played for that particular season, a champion emerges to received accolades and awards.  He is named chapandaz, a wearer of the chapan.  What is more, he is awarded the prize of the bazuband, worn since ancient times by heroes of the people in both war and sport.  

See this bazuband and more of the history here.

Happy Birthday Mongolia, 100 Years Old Today

The Khans from Mongolia ruled a great part of the earth from the thirteenth to the fifteenth century.  But the same peoples had come out of the mountain home at least 400 years before the Empire was established in its farthest boundaries.  They settled much of the area where their rule became law in the fourteenth century.  Mongolia then had its turn as the ruled rather than the ruler until a hundred years ago when it gained its independence from China on December 29, 1911.

The Mongol tribes came out of the Altai mountains, which form a partition for China, Russia and Kazakhstan.  The descendants of these horseback riders from the mountains   are still spread far and wide throughout the Middle East and Central and South Asia.  From Central Europe and Turkey in the West to China in the East, from Russia and Kazakhstan in the North to the Northern part of India in the South.  The descendants of these people are still the major population in many of these countries.  They still add to the artisanal output of those nations from wonderful foods such as lamb and healthy dairy products to highly prized collectible carpets and jewelry.  Here is a photograph showing just one example

  The textile is home spun, hand dyed and hand loomed silk.  Then it is laboriously decorated almost over its complete surface with colorful silk threads in the old tribal patterns.  The asyk pendant is the symbol of the family, the two large heart shapes representing the father and mother and the small shape between them represent the child.  It is essentially a life symbol.  The ram's horn shapes on top of the asyk represent the tribal ancestors.  

The Turkic language separates into many different dialects; and they are written in different alphabets, in Chinese characters, in the Russian Cyrillic letters. It was at one time written in the Sanskrit-derived alphabet in India, which included parts of Pakistan and most of Afghanistan. By this time in Iran, they were writing Persian in the Arabic script;  in fact, in many parts of the Empire, the languages were written in Arabic script.  Finally the Turks of Turkey adopted the Latin alphabet in the 1920s, and Turkish became the first Ural-Altaic language to be written in the Latin letters that I am using to type this blog.  

Again I say Happy Birthday, Mongolia!  

You can see more Turkoman antique silver jewelry at http://craftsofthepast.artfire.com