Deer stones culture

) are generally located in the most productive, well-watered areas of the northern Mongolian steppe. Although Mongolia is globally quite arid, deer stones are generally located in the most productive, well-watered areas of the northern Mongolian steppe, particularly in the north and the west of the country, where most of Mongolia's cultural development has always taken place. In Mongolia, deer stones are generally associated with khirigsuur burial mounds, and seem to be part of an integrated Late Bronze Age mortuary ceremonial dating to ca. 1200-700 BCE. The amount of work necessary to build such numerous and massive stone structures suggests a complex hierarchical society, which appears for the first time in the steppes of Mongolia, but became the foundation for later nomadic states and empires. The graves are quite shallow, so that human remains are poorly preserved, and artifacts are few to inexistent. Deer stones are usually constructed from granite or greenstone, depending on which is the most abundant in the surrounding area. They have varying heights; most are over tall, but some reach a height of . The tops of the stones can be flat, round or smashed, suggesting that perhaps the original top had been deliberately destroyed. The stones usually have their "face" oriented towards the east. The carvings and designs were usually completed before the stone was erected, though some stones show signs of being carved in place. The designs were pecked or ground into the stone surface. Deep-grooved cuts and right-angle surfaces indicate the presence of metal tools. Stone tools were used to smooth the harsh cuts of some designs. Nearly all the stones were hand carved, but some unusual stones show signs that they could have been cut with a primitive type of mechanical drill. Distribution Archaeologists have found more than 1,500 deer stones in Eurasia. Over 1,300 of them were recorded in the territory of modern Mongolia. A few more scattered deer stones are found in a wider area, in Xinjiang, and as far west as Kuban, Russia; the Southern Bug in Ukraine; Dobruja, Bulgaria; and the Elbe, which flows through the Czech Republic and Germany. , northern Mongolia == Types of stones ==

Deer stones do not have any human remains attached to them, although Khirigsuur tombs are often found in somewhat close proximity in Mongolia. This suggests that the tombs functioned as cenotaph monuments for departed leaders, and that the bodies were buried elsewhere. There is no apparent evolutionary chronology for the design of the deer stones, which suggests an earlier and rather accomplished tradition already existed, probably on a perishable material such as wood. Stone probably started being used when metal tools became available. There is also no clear difference of chronology between the different types of deer stones (types I, II and III), which also often occur at the same places. Some of the simpler designs, such as the Saian-Altai stones (Type II) are actually dated among the oldest deer stones (1300 BCE), together with the Mongolian designs (Type I). Most deer stones originally had an anthropomorphic intent, suggested by the general "pillar" shape, and reliefs or drawings depicting a belt loaded with tools and weapons, a shield in the stone's back, jewelry such as a necklace, earrings, and a symbolic or, rarely, a realistic face, sometimes topped with a hat. The front, if undisturbed, is always oriented towards the east. The stylistic "flying deer" on the surface of many deer stones may not just be decorative designs, but may actually represent the body tattoos of the specific individuals being depicted. This hypotheses has been reinforced by the discovery of extensive body tattoos of "flying deer" on the skin of individuals from the Pazyryk culture. Deer stones may just be a schematical but complete representation of the tattooed body of the deceased, together with his tools and weapons. Looking at the various implement and tools depicted on the deer stones, such as the horse implements, the recurved bow and the gorytus, it appears that the people who raised the stone were fully dependent on the horse for their lifestyles and warfare. V. V. Volkov, in his thirty years of research, classified three distinct types of deer stones. Type I: Classic Mongolian These stones are fairly detailed and more elegant in their depiction methods. They usually feature a belted warrior with a stylized flying red deer on his torso. This type of stone is most prominent in southern Siberia and northern Mongolia. This concentration suggests that these stones were the origin of the deer stone tradition, and further types both simplified and elaborated on these. File:Deer stone, Khovosgol Province, Mongolia, circa 1000 BCE.jpg|Deer stone, Khövsgöl Province, Mongolia File:Deer stone weapons.jpg|Close-up of the weapons at the bottom of the Khövsgöl deer stone File:Deer stone in Mongolia.jpg|Deer stone with flying deer, a Type I characteristic. Ulaan Batur Type II: Sayan-Altai , Russia. The Sayan-Altai stones feature some of the West Asian-European markings, including free-floating, straight-legged animals, daggers and other tools. The appearance of deer motifs is markedly diminished, and those that do appear often do not emphasise the relationship between reindeer and flying. The Sayan-Altai stones can be sub-divided into two types: • The Gorno-Altai stones have simple warrior motifs, displaying tools in the belt region of the stone. Reindeer motifs appear but are few. The deer stones of the Altai are regularly associated with the early Scythian Pazyryk culture. • The Sayan-Tuva stones are similar to the Gorno-Altai but contain fewer images of animals. No deer motifs are present. The artistic style is much simpler, often consisting of only belts, necklaces, earrings and faces. In Tuva, deer stones are associated with the wealthy Saka burials of Arzhan 1 and Arzhan 2. File:Sayan-Altai.jpg|Type II: Sayan-Altai type File:Deer stone, Surtiin Denj, Burentogtokh, Khovsgol aimag. National Museum of Mongolia.jpg|Sayan-Altai Deer stone with its four sides, Surtiin Denj, Bürentogtokh, Khövsgöl. National Museum of Mongolia File:Dear stones in Uyuk-Tarlak, Tuva, Russia.png|A Sayan-Tuva deer stone in Uyuk-Tarlak, Tuva, Russia Type III: West Eurasian These stones feature a central region of the stone, sectioned off by two horizontal lines or "belts". There are also "earring hoops", large circles, diagonal slashes in groups of two and three known as "faces", and "necklaces", collection of stone pits resembling their namesake. A few monuments classified as "deer stones" have been found as far as the Ural, Crimea or even the Elbe river, in a Scythian context (600-300 BCE). ==Imagery==

There are many common images that appear in deer stones, as well as a multitude of ways they are presented. Reindeer Deer feature prominently in nearly all of the deer stones. They are likely the red deer or maral (Cervus elaphus sibericus). Early stones have very simple images of reindeer, and as time progresses, the designs increase in detail. A gap of 500 years results in the appearance of the complicated flying reindeer depiction. Reindeer are depicted as flying through the air, rather than merely running on land. The anthropologist Piers Vitebsky has written, "The reindeer is depicted with its neck outstretched and its legs flung out fore and aft, as if not merely galloping but leaping through the air." Other animals Particularly in the Sayan-Altai stones, a multitude of other animals are present in deer stone imagery. One can see depictions of tigers, pigs, cows, horse-like creatures, frogs and birds. Unlike the reindeer, however, these animals are depicted in a more natural style. This lack of ornate detailing indicates the lack of supernatural importance of such animals, taking an obvious backseat against the reindeer. Human faces on deer stones sometimes appear as belonging to a Europoid type, with long faces, long noses and deeply carved close-set eyes. Some figures appear hooded in Early Nomadic or Scytho-Siberian style. Horses and chariots s in deer stones petroglyphs. The earliest domesticated horses in Mongolia belong to the people of the Deer Stone culture. Although horses seem to have been central to the lifestyle of the deer stone builders, it is unclear if their horses were used for riding or for pulling carts. Actually, among all of the pictures available from the deer Stones, none represent a rider on a horse. So far, the first evidence of horse riding in eastern Eurasia dates to the early 1st millennium BCE in the Altai Mountains, and uncontrovertible evidence in the form of horse saddles dates to 400 BCE only, from the Saka sites of the Pazyryk culture. On the contrary, images of horse chariots appear on some of the deer Stone monuments from central Mongolia, including a two-horse and a four-horse vehicle. Various tools typical of chariot riding also appear in the drawing of the deer stones, such as rein holders. Rein holders were designed to hold the reins in place to free the rider's hands, and were probably hung to the rider's waist. They worked as rein hooks, attached at the belt, for "hands free" horse control while using weapons. ==Origin and purpose==

(c.2700-1800 BCE), about one thousand years before the Deer stones culture. The origins of the art of the deer stones remain uncertain. According to current data, the art of the deer stones could be indirectly derived from an un-preserved tradition of Karasuk-related cultures, with possible antecedents in the depiction of human figures in the Yamnaya culture of the Western Steppes in the 2nd-1st millennium BCE, such as the Kernosivsky idol. Cimmerian stone stelae-Kurgan stelae may be part of the answer. The Siberian Okunev culture (2700-1800 BCE) also has a long tradition of totemic standing stones from the 3rd millennium BCE. The original artistic impulse for the classical deer stones may have to be found in the animals of the northern Siberian ecosystem and their representations in petroglyphic art, as far as the Neolithic. As explained by Jacobson: Globally, the Classical Mongolian type does appear to have been the first generation of deer stones, suggesting a pre-deer stone tradition before 1500 BCE, originating in the Siberian northern taiga forest. Deer stones culture then may have spread westward under the pressure of the Slab-grave culture, to meet with an early Scythian Altai tradition, where the Sayan-Altai style of deer stones then developed. Genetic profile Genetic analyses of individuals buried in Late Bronze Age (LBA) burial mounds associated with the Deer Stone-Khirigsuur Complex (DSKC) in northern Mongolia, found that these individuals primarily derived from Khövsgöl LBA source (about 4-7% Sintashta and 93-96% Baikal EBA). The individuals were close to contemporary Neolithic and Bronze Age Baikal populations, and clustered "on top of modern Tuvinians or Altaians". The analysed individuals also included some outliers, with remains in westernmost Mongolia (also named Altai_MLBA) displaying a balanced West-East Eurasian ancestry, with about 45% Sintashta and 55% Baikal EBA, being virtually identical with that of the later Eastern Sakas, particularly from the Chandman culture (Chandman_IA), and remains with an increased Neolithic Amur genetic profile, displaying similarities with the Ulaanzuukh and Slab-grave culture to their East. D. G. Savinov (1994) and M. H. Mannai-Ool (1970) have also studied deer stone art and have reached other conclusions. The stones do not occur alone, usually with several other stone monuments, sometimes carved, sometimes not. The soil around these gatherings often contains traces of animal remains, for example, horses. Such remains were placed underneath these auxiliary stones. Human remains, on the other hand, were not found at any of the sites, which discredits the theory that the stones could function as gravestones. The markings on the stones and the presence of sacrificial remains could suggest a religious purpose, perhaps a prime location for the occurrence of shamanistic rituals. ==Legacy==

Animal style The artistic depictions of animals on deer Stones are the earliest recognized type of Animal style. This style would then spread across Central Asia during the 1st millennium BCE and become a characteristic feature of Scytho-Siberian art. The spread of animal style and Sayan-Altai deer stones was supported by the westward migration of Scythian groups, which came to be known as Saka or Sarmatians in Greek records. To the southeast, the Upper Xiajiadian culture is considered as the earliest "Scythian" (Saka) culture in North China, starting the 9th century BCE. Contemporary artifacts in western Mongolia File:Bronze Age Gold Earrings, Burgastain gol, Uvs Province, Mongolia.jpg|Bronze Age gold earrings, Burgastain gol, Uvs Province, Mongolia. National Museum of Mongolia File:Bronze Age Bronze Bridle Ornaments, 1200-800 BC (35545070232).jpg|Bronze Age bronze bridle ornaments, 1200-800 BCE, National Museum of Mongolia File:Bronze age knife, 1200-800 BCE, Mongolia.jpg|Bronze Age knife, 1200-800 BCE, Khovd aimag, Mongolia. National Museum of Mongolia. File:Bronze Age Stone Mould, 1500-400 BC (34872384024).jpg|Stone mold for the casting of bronze objects, 1500-400 BCE, National Museum of Mongolia Transmission of chariot warfare and weapon designs to China curved bronze knives with animal pommel. 12th-11th century BCE. Such knives were the result of contacts with the northern people of the Mongolian steppe. Chariots were used for a long time in Western Eurasia, and the development of the horse chariot in the deer Stone culture is an expansion of it, but it also probably impulsed the rise of the horse chariot in Shang dynasty China. The area of the Mongolian plateau corresponding to the Deerstone-Khirigsuurs culture has been identified as a "major region of origin for chariot and horse use in East Asia (and their associated weapons and tools), and also the likely source for the chariots and horses employed at Anyang" (the Chinese Shang capital), contributing weapon technology and designs, as well as the horse chariot itself. Rein holders first appear in China at Yinxu circa 1200 BCE, and were probably introduced in China from the Northern Zones. Major conflicts with chariot-riding northern enemies, called Guifang ("Devil people") or Xianyun by the Chinese, are also reported around that time in Chinese inscriptions. Various other people probably contributed to the transfer of these technologies from the Mongolian steppe to Shang dynasty China, such as the people of Tevsh-Ulaanzuukh culture of southern Mongolia, who also had hand weapons broadly similar to those of the Deer stones culture. Northern people were seemingly present in large number in the Chinese capital of Anyang, as suggested by the numerous burials in prone position together with charioting equipment. They were probably used by the Chinese for their specialist charioting skills and related warfare techniques. Numerous Chinese artifacts in Northern Steppes style have been identified. The art of the deer stones may also have influenced Chinese art, particularly the sudden apparition of naturalism and animal themes during the Western Zhou (1045–771 BCE). File:Shang Chariot Burial 04.jpg|Shang war charriots at Yinxu. Their technology was introduced from the Deer stone culture. File:Deer stone drawing of a rein holders, and Chinese Shang bronze rein holder, ca. 11th century BCE.jpg|Deer stone drawings of rein holders (left), and Chinese Shang dynasty bronze rein holder, ca. 11th century BCE (right). File:Deer stone dagger vs Shang knife.png|Deer stone drawing of a dagger and its scabbard (left), and Chinese Shang dynasty knife in Northern Steppe style (right). File:Standing deer (2), Western Zhou, 11-9th century BCE.jpg|Jade standing deer (西周玉鹿), Western Zhou, 11-9th century BCE. File:Pendant in the form of a stag.jpg|Pendant in the form of a stag. Western Zhou dynasty, ca. 1050-ca. 950 BCE. ==Demise and legacy==

() expanded into central Mongolia and took over Deer stones sites. In southern Siberia and western Mongolia, the Classical Saka culture () started to flourish. The "Deer stone culture" was replaced by the Slab-grave culture in central and eastern Mongolia around 700 BCE. To the west, the "Deer stone culture" was replaced by, or evolved into, the various Saka cultures, such as the Uyuk culture, the Chandman culture, and the Pazyryk culture. While the majority of Slab Grave remains were of primarily Neolithic Amur ancestry, some Slab Grave remains displayed admixed ancestry between Neolithic Amur and pre-existing Khövsgöl/Baikal hunter-gatherers, consistent with the proposed expansion of Ulaanzuukh/Slab Grave ancestry north and westwards and archaeological evidence. ==See also==