29 - Сeramics_eng_art

Kazakhstan and fingerprints. The elements of ornament are also diverse: concentric and zigzag lines, botanical stylised motifs, and geometrical figures. A fragment of a cover of the rounded form with a relief ornament is particularly interesting. The central figure of the composition is a person leading a goat. The whole image is framed by a grapevine with clusters of grapes. Also richly ornamented are dastarkhans, flat table-tops with conic circular supports in the centre of the table. The ornament was scratched with lines forming curls and semi- spirals, botanical bines with three- and four-petal flowers, buds and narrow long leaves. The pattern is made in the form of an incised snake, wavy lines, slanting notches and fur- trees. The wide lines are made by a craftsman’s hand, forming a fur-tree ornament and con- centric lines, dents, decorated the edges of little tables and the internal surface of bases. Mortar-like vessels were also very popular at the time. Their body looked like an overturned stocky cone on a massive, narrowing base sometimes with one or two fillets on the neck. The new type of vessels, butter churns, looked like jugs with two or one handle in the mid- dle of the body, which had the form of a pear with the narrow end at the bottom or round- ed body with the cylindrical mouth with a relief rim at the edge. In the middle of the body there is an aperture with the relief fillet, sometimes covered with notches and one loop- like horizontal handle. Its body was decorated with a palmetto or so called ‘mutton horns’. Tableware was usually made on potter’s wheel: jugs, mugs, pots and bowls. Table jugs had a narrow long neck with a spout of Enochoeia-like forms and a rounded body. Jugs are covered with red slip and burnishing, decorated by prints of stamps known as ‘wheels with spokes’, circles, or wedges. The manufacturing of red wax jugs decorated with an or- nament that copied the stamping on leather continued at the time. Mugs with the rounded body and loop-like handle are numerous; pot-like vessels had two small loop-like vertical handles. The separate group is represented by architectural ceramics. Artistic carvings on a thick layer of crude plaster—carved stucco—decorated cult monuments of the 9th–10th centuries of the city of Dzhamukat in the Talas valley and the palace of Kulan. Ambries and wall panels were also decorated. Geometrical motifs (meanders, strips, circles, ovals), botanical (grapes rods, bunches of flowers, tulips), epigraphic (the stylised images of letters) were particularly typical. The images of animals and people are used less frequently. Carving on clay was of- ten painted by red, dark blue, green and white paints. Such use of the techniques of wall ornamentation was borrowed by the cities of modern Kazakhstan on the Great Silk Road from the large centres of the East—Fustata, Samarrah, Afrasiab. Glazed ceramics. Probably, at this time glazed ceramics appear in Southwest Semirechye. It is usually represented by fragments of bowls on disc-like base. The glaze is transparent on the white slip background. The drawings were made by brown, green and red paints. The ceramics of local manufacture differs from the imported, particularly from the bowls and dishes with epigraphic ornaments, by the reddish colour and muddy tones of drawings. Ceramics of the 11th – early 13th century. Unglazed ceramics of this time is almost com- pletely made on a potter’s wheel. It includes cauldrons, jugs, bowls, dishes, bowls and mugs. Cauldrons had a spherical stocky body and a rounded bottom. Handles are stuck on, loop- like or in the form of ledges. There are the cauldrons decorated with sprigs in a kind of arch- es with a loop with a ledge located at their junction. 49

The Artistic Culture of Central Asia and Azerbaijan in the 9th–15th centuries • Ceramics Kitchen pots in most cases continue to be hand-made and have a rounded stocky body with a short cylindrical mouth. Table jugs have a narrow high neck and blown-out body, the cranked handle connects the neck and shoulders with a ledge. Water jugs also had a vertical handle, oval in cross- section with the cranked turn, connecting the mouth and the blown-out body. Jugs (kum- gans) have a spherical body, a cylindrical spout rounded at the end and either with a fun- neled neck or without a neck altogether and the looplike handle. They begin to be widely spread across the territory at the time. Most jugs are decorated in an extremely simple fash- ion, with several incised concentric lines or a smooth wavy line. The jugs that have a stamped relief ornament are particularly interesting, like a fragment of the top part of the jug found in Taraz. The central composition is made of four medallions and five petals inside. The space between the basic drawings is occupied with a small circular ornament. In the centre of one medallion the name ‘Fazal’ was stamped (Senigova, 1972, p. 149). Between medallions there is a vertical row of small fish made in the shape of a high relief. The standard forms of mugs are vessels with high walls and a wide steady bottom, with small loop-like flat handles. Another kind of mugs is represented by vessels with a cylindrical body with a slight narrowing in the centre; its body widened towards the rim, and the han- dle attached to the bottom part of the case and a rim, had a U-shaped ornament. Bowls and dishes had a disc-like base and were covered outside and inside with light brown slip. Appreciable changes occur in ornamentation. Drawing becomes more laconic and mo- notonous, stamping is widely used. The decor of surfaces of close-type vessels often con- tains splashes of paint and drawings of various figures. Glazed ceramics. Taraz. 11-12 century. 50

Kazakhstan Whirl-like rosette on ceramic item. Taraz. 11-12 century. 51

The Artistic Culture of Central Asia and Azerbaijan in the 9th–15th centuries • Ceramics The lids are made in three kinds of form: flat, spherical and curved. The latter ones were not ornamented. During this period spherical cones become widely spread: small thick-walled vessels with a narrow aperture in a low neck. The bottom is shaped in the form of a cone. Many vessels are richly ornamented. The pattern consists of concentric circles, vertical and hori- zontal stripes, and also of drawings of botanical character. Some vessels used sprigs in re- lief as an ornament. Glazed ceramics. The development of ceramic manufacture in Southwest Semirechye can be traced on the base of the glazed ceramics of Taraz. It is made on a potter’s wheel from well mixed and levigated clay. The crocks of vessels have a reddish-brown colour. The main kinds of glazed items at this time include bowls, pialas, dishes, plates, jugs, pots, vases, tuvaks and chirags. Bowls are represented by the two following forms: conic and with gracefully bent walls. Some rare bowls have the walls bent inside; small low cups with gracefully bent walls and rounded rim and small low cups on a disc-like base. In terms of shape pialas are close to cone-like cups. They are only smaller in size and are usu- ally covered with monochrome glaze: white or greenish. Dishes have flat forms, with the direct or slightly unbent sides on the circular base. Plates with inflected walls on the circular foot. Jugs of tiny forms on disc-like base with the cylindrical body. Pots with a stocky body, low neck and wide edge bent outwards. Jugs and pots are deco- rated by stylised Kufi inscriptions. Vases-albarello with the cylindrical body or the body narrowed to the bottom. Tuvaks of the cylindrical form, with the edge bent outwards and disc-like base or with- out it. These subjects are decorated with brown, reddish-brown and green paints on a white background. Some tuvaks are covered with glaze tinted with green. Chirags are represented by two basic types. The first has a spherical body, loop- like the handle, covered with colourless glaze with a dark drawing, decorated by dots and stylised inscriptions on white slip. The second type of chirags also has a round form, but their body is divided by vertical cannelures. The spout has accurately cut forms making an impression of a metal vessel. The handle has a heel in the centre of the or- namental composition of the lamp. The pattern is made in relief, its motifs are of- ten of botanical character, vignettes, or palmettos. There are also sections, herring- bone ornaments, and concentric circles. Scenes of fighting animals or flocks of birds are also represented. Chirags, as a rule, are covered with monochromic glaze: green, yellow, or brown. Among rare forms of figured lamps are closed four-spout lanterns, covered with mustard-coloured glaze, with the spherical body with a cylindrical tubule at the top used for oil injection. They have two symmetrically located small horns on each side, and also closed boat-like black glaze lamps with a massive wide spout. The body of chirags in the top part has in- cised square apertures, and a rounded head probably replicating a bird’s head above them. The head and the case are ornamented by under-triangle dents. Bowls, dishes and plates are covered with colourless or tinted in golden-yellow or green- ish glaze and decorated by multi-colour drawings: in brown, reddish, greenish, or, less fre- 52

Kazakhstan Lanterns. Taraz. 11-12 century. 53

The Artistic Culture of Central Asia and Azerbaijan in the 9th–15th centuries • Ceramics Lanterns. Taraz. 12-13 century. 54

Kazakhstan quently, in mustard grey and black colours. In some cases painting is reinforced by draw- ing and engraving. The patterns on the glazed vessels from Taraz can be divided into four groups in terms of their ornamental motifs: linear geometrical, botanical, epigraphic and zoomorphic. The patterns are used in various combinations. The linear geometrical ornament is the most widespread in Taraz. There are over 20 ver- sions of the motif of the whirl rosette on a white background which can be found on glazed ware. Usually a bottom part of bowls, dishes and plates is decorated with this pattern. Not only is the bottom of a vessel but also its walls are ornamented. The pattern, how- ever, is less complex. Usually it contains dots or scallops, sometimes supplemented with a benevolent inscription (Bolshakov, 1963, p. 82). The pattern of a ‘falling wave’, the sym- bol of water, is placed in two concentric circles on a side of a bowl, and there are curls be- tween the waves. In one case the white background of a dish is decorated with a complex weaving of the type of gerich, hexagonal stars with multipetal rosettes inside. There was a stylised inscription on the sides of the dish. Similarly unique are such patterns as the ‘knot of happiness’, a pat- tern in the form of branches and ornaments based on of rhombuses, cages, asterisks, fur- trees, circles, or ovals, and also dented ornament on chirags (Senigova, 1972, p. 157–158). The above forms of vessels and patterns have some analogies in the Samarkand ceramics of the 10th – early 11th century (Tashhodzhaev, 1967, p. 99). Pomegranate drawing is a kind of botanical ornament—the fertility symbol, made in a very realistic manner. The fruit is represented in cross-section, sometimes grains are replaced with a benevolent inscription. As a rule, such patterns decorated only the walls of conic bowls with a golden-yellow background (Senigova, 1972, p. 157). In the Taraz ceramics of this period, as well as in Central Asian pottery, particularly wide- ly spread was the image of bouquets of large almond-shaped buds, made in a combination of red, green, grey and brown colours with various curls scratched on slip. The bouquets decorated bowls and dishes and were often used in a combination with epigraphic orna- ment in the form of the stylised inscription located between bouquets on the edge of bowls. Bouquets of buds were a popular element of a decor of glazed ceramics of the 11th century in Chach, Ilak, Semirechye, Southern Kazakhstan and the Talas valley (Brusenko, 1986, p. 59; Works of the Semirechye expedition 1950. Tab. 85, 3; Kuznetsova, 2007, p. 102–106; Bay- pakov, Erzakovich, 1991, p. 118–119; Baypakov, 2005, p. 181; Senigova, 1972, p. 153, Tab. 11, 30; Kozhemyako, 1959. Tab. 17). The epigraphic ornament is represented by inscriptions ranging from simple Kufi to styl- ised arabesques. As a rule, it decorated the walls of open vessels, pots, small jugs, chirags with a white background without a heel. The stylised Arabic inscriptions were placed either in the form of a continuous ornamental strip, or in rectangular pieces of strongly stretched letters. The pattern was carried out in black, brown, sometimes red paints with a palmette. The ceramic items with epigraphic patterns were in wide circulation in Central Asian cities in 10th–12th centuries (Tashkhodjaev, 1967, p. 62). Vessels with zoomorphic ornament are rare. The image of a lion is placed in the centre of one bowl. The lion stands with the open mouth and the tucked tail; the figure is included in a medallion made from inscriptions. 55

The Artistic Culture of Central Asia and Azerbaijan in the 9th–15th centuries • Ceramics A fox standing on the hinder legs as though reaching for grapevine branches is pictured on a fragment of a vessel. The ornament is in relief and covered with dark brown glaze to- gether with the whole vessel. On a handle ledge of a chirag there is an image of a snow leopard attacking a deer. The scene of the fight between the leopard and the deer is rather realistically pictured, and the ener- gy is felt in the poses and movements of animals. There are images of birds placed against each other on the top of handles of chirags with the faceted body. The variety of forms and the potters’ artistic skills are most evidently expressed in stand- ardisation and diverse ornamentation of glazed items, which contributed not only to their wide demand in the market and to more intense cash flow, but also to the exchange be- tween the ceramic traditions of Taraz and other cities of Semirechye and Central Asia. The development of ceramic art in Taraz and its neighbouring towns, as well as in all Sem- irechye, was not an isolated phenomenon. It was the result of a general economic develop- ment of the urban culture in cities of Central Asia and Kazakhstan united under the power of the Karakhanids (Senigova, 1972, p. 147–153). Ceramics of the 13th – early 15th century has been studied on the base of the materials from the excavation of such ancient sites as Taraz Aspara and the Sadyr-Kurgan and con- tinues the traditions of the prior period. Unglazed ceramics is represented by cauldrons with bow-shaped handles, pot-like ves- sels with two small vertical handles, tagoras with conic or straight walls and a wide top plat- form, disc-like lids or lids with inflexed edges, hums and humchas. There is the group of ceramic items similar to the ones from Otrar with coloured coat- ing. The internal and external parts of bowls are covered by glaze. Some changes occurred in forms and in ornament of glazed ware. Bowls with conic shape and massive dishes become most widely spread. The ornament becomes slightly more formal, and glaze now has lighter tones, mainly yellow and green. The most widespread ornaments are those located under the glaze, stylised botanical, or, more rarely, epigraphic. They are usually located on edge of a bowl in the form of a tier or a bent band with open ends. Another popular element was a whirl rosette drawn on the bottom of a bowl. There appeared new forms of massive lamps on the saucer-shaped base, with one or sev- eral spouts and a handle which sometimes ends with a steeply tilted heel. The lamp body is attached to a saucer with a high cylindrical rod or a rod went from a handle down and con- nected the body of the lamp with a saucer-like base. Also interesting are pendant lamps with several torches (chandeliers) with a large egg- shaped body which had a rod with a through aperture, round at the bottom and flat at the top. The chandeliers were covered with transparent or turquoise glaze on white slip coating. . There are items from kashin, covered with turquoise glaze: jugs with the pear-shaped body and handles in the form of twin fillets, decorated with a relief inscription on the case, pot- like vessels, bowls, plates with under glaze ornament, albarello, and also tiny jugs for spic- es. One of the most interesting finds is a ‘trunk’ made of kashin, standing on four legs with high sides and a demountable cover. Items from kashin are pale grey in colour and are cov- ered from both sides with potassium or tin glaze which produces a thick glass layer giving the vessels some extra protection. 56

Kazakhstan Ceramics of Northeast Semirechye in the 9th–10th centuries. The complex of un- glazed ceramics was discovered during the excavation of sites of ancient settlements at Sumbe, Antonovsky, Talgar and Zhaksylyk. Most of ceramic products of this period are hand-made. Most widely spread forms were cauldrons and jugs. Water jugs with a spout usually covered with red slip. Carving on clay and stamps were used as parts of ornament. Water jugs had a rounded body, a low neck with or without a spout. An oval in cross-sec- tion handle connected shoulders, rim and body. Quite interesting are jugs with zoo- and an- thropomorphic decoration of the neck and rim. One of the most interesting examples of an- thropomorphic water jugs is the one found in Talgar: the jug made in parts on potter’s wheel from the clay added of river sand, and covered with pink slip. The item is 65 cm high, with a pear-shaped body and long neck in the form of a head of a man: he has a straight nose, in the nostrils there was a clay ring which has not remained, a drawn line marks the eye- brows and the mouth is marked by pieces of grey glass-like slag. The rim with spout sym- bolises a trident headdress or a crown inlaid with pieces of grey glass-like slag, probably imitating jewels. The cranked handle looks like two braided plaits. There are three sym- metrically placed knobs with relief images of the crossed coniferous branches on the body of the vessel. They represent an ornament on the chest, and two dented strips imitate an or- nament on clothes (Baypakov, 1968, p. 76–81). Table jugs had a spherical body and a narrow long neck. The external surface was cov- ered with red slip and was decorated by prints of stamps, sprigs on handles. Mugs with pear-shaped body and applied loop-like handles. Lamps with the body in the form of low cups and an accentuated spout. Another interesting group of items included cauldrons and jugs with a sprig in the form of a snake, pot-like vessels decorated with an indented stamp in the form of strips. The body of some pots was decorated by rows of circles made by a thin tubular bone, and ornaments of bow-shaped lines. Hums had an oval body and a neatly profiled rim, rectangular in cross-section, oval loop- like or comma-shaped. Cauldrons had spherical body flattened at the top and a round bottom. Ceramics of the 11th–13th centuries. The complex of ceramic items of this time was dis- covered during the excavation of sites of ancient settlements at Talgar, Almaty, Chilik, Lavar, and Kajalyk (Antonovsky). Unglazed ceramics was usually made on potter’s wheel, and only a part of kitchen pots and hums was made by hand. Cauldrons are characterised by the standard form of the body. Most of them had two hor- izontal loop-like handles, rounded in cross-section and braided in the form of a plait. Man- ual dents and notches can be seen on some handles in the places where they are attached to the body. There are cauldrons with horizontal bow-shaped handles with a smooth or wavy edge. Apart from these, there are horizontal shelf-like handles with manual dents. There are also horizontally placed handles in the form of ‘trident’ with three ledges. Also there is a considerable number of handles in the form of the ‘ear’. Cauldrons with spouts which have different diameters and forms comprise a separate group. Usually such spouts are small and have a conic form. They are located at the top part of the body on the shoulders of vessels. 57

The Artistic Culture of Central Asia and Azerbaijan in the 9th–15th centuries • Ceramics Pot-like vessels have a straight mouth, an L-shaped rim with external thickening; the mouth is connected to a blown-out, almost spherical body, which narrows down from top to bot- tom. One more kind of pot-like vessels has a straight mouth linked with a blown-out spheri- cal body with a flat bottom. The body of such pots was decorated with scratched concentric and wavy lines. Two (sometimes four) small loop-like flat handles are fastened to the mouth. Some handles are decorated with manual dents. Water jugs had a low mouth sometimes with a spout, a blown-out body, decorated with scratched concentric or wavy lines or prints of stamps, sometimes an incised ornament. Some of the jugs have two handles with a large egg-shaped body. After cauldrons the second numerous group of vessels is table jugs. Both middle-size and small jugs are represented by vessels with a narrow low neck connected to a blown- out body. The mouth and the body are linked by a cranked circular or oval handle with one or two stretched ledges. The mouths of some jugs have a small bell; sometimes the edge of the mouth has a small accentuated spout. However, only some jugs have mouths with an applied spout with slightly bent edges. The jugs-kumgans are of middle size and have small spouts stuck at the top part of the body opposite the handle. There is one more type of jugs with an aperture spout which passes through the handle. The upper parts of handles were either attached to the upper edge of the rim or the middle part of the neck. One more type of jugs is the aquaemanale jug, with a spout stuck to the wall of a vessel and a loop-like handle. The body of the jugs is spherical at the top and conic at the bottom. Jugs were decorated either with one or several concentric or wavy lines with a various height and frequency of the crest. Jugs of small size are represented by tiny vessels which had a low mouth slightly extend- ing at the top and a spherical, sometimes flat body, a small vertical, flat or rounded in cross- section handle connecting the mouth and the body of a jug. Bowls can be divided into two types: the conic and hemispherical ones. Usually they had either a disc-shaped base or simply a flat bottom. Mugs with the pear-shaped body and a small stuck on loop-like handle, oval in cross- section. Mortar-like vessels on a massive disc-shaped base sometimes decorated with the sprigным wavy roller or just manual pinches. A tagora with vertical walls; the rim is made in the form of an L-shaped shelf with an out- side platform. The rim is decorated with a wavy scratched ornament. Outside the tagora is covered with light brown slip. Chirags had a rounded body with a flat bottom with a strongly stretched stuck on spout. Other kinds of a lamp included boat-shaped lampions which had accentuated channeled spouts plums where the wick was located. On the opposite side there was a loop-like han- dle joining the rim to the bottom and attached to the body. Lamps with several torches with blown-out spherical slightly flat body. Some chirags are decorated with a stamped ornament. Covers are flat and have various diameters and thickness. Sometimes the outside surface of a cover was decorated by a woven or stamped ornament of S-shaped dents, prints and eight- petal rosettes in a circle. The collection includes mushroom-shaped knobs on top of cov- ers. The edges of some covers are decorated with manual dents or slanting notches. There is a richly ornamented cover with a carved pattern in the form of the intertwining botani- 58

Kazakhstan cal tillers that form heart-shaped medallions (Baypakov, Savelyeva, Chang, 2005, p. 73– 83; Savelyeva, Kuznetsova, 2007, p. 293–299; Makhanbaeva, Voyakina, 2007, p. 107–125). The glazed ceramics is represented by such types of ware as bowls, dishes, pialas, plates, jugs, pot-like vessels and chirags. A large part of glazed ware is represented by bowls that have a hemispherical or conic form on low disc-shaped or the ring conic base. The bowls are covered with transparent colourless, yellow or green glaze. Vessels with a white slipped background under transparent lead glaze were the most widespread. The basic ornamental motif was a whirl rosette made in by dark brown, light brown, red and green paints. The rosette occupied the centre of the bottom of a bowl or nearly all its internal surface. The ornament in the form of the stylised Arabic inscriptions was lo- cated in the top part of a bowl or a dish, drawn in light brown colour and circled by thin- ner dark brown lines. There is also an ornament in the form of so-called bouquets of large almond-shaped buds decorated with holly leaves scratched in thin lines. Among interest- ing pieces of glazed one of the most remarkable is a fragment of a large dish, the bottom of which is decorated with the profile image of two birds, with folded wings, standing op- posite each other. This fragment was found at a site of ancient settlement of Talgar. There are ceramic items with transparent colourless glaze and drawings in brown and olive paint on white slip; sometimes with thin engraving, and also ceramics with transparent yellow glaze, often painted with olive paint. Ceramic items with green and brown glaze have also been identified. There are few vessels with turquoise glaze (Baypakov, Savelyeva, Chang, 2005, p. 82–83; Savelyeva, 1994, p. 94–112; Kuznetsova, 2007, p. 102–106). Among glazed ceramics from Talgar it is possible to identify a separate group of items which can be referred to as ‘Byzantine’ or imitation of the glazed ceramics from Byzantium (Morgan, 1942). The internal surface of vessels is decorated with geometrical and botanical ornament engraved on white slip. A conic dish with an inflected wall which forms a shoulder on the outer side. The edge is bent inward and is decorated with crosshatch under the glaze limited from above and from below by two parallel fillets. A schematic image of the trunk and crone of a tree is placed below. In the centre of the lower part there is a circle with a styl- ised botanical ornament drawn beyond the line. The internal surface of another dish is di- vided across by a pair of circular lines into three parts. The rim is partially painted green. The part of a tier (the second from above) is decorated by the incised ornament imitating a twisted vine. In the third section we can see four triangles located crosswise. In the lower part there are two concentric circles. The glazed red clay ceramics from the site of ancient settlement of Kajalyk is rep- resented mostly by fragments of bowls of the hemispherical form on the circular foot. The rim of the bowls is either slightly bent inwards, or bent outwards. The internal sur- face of the bowls is covered with transparent colourless glaze on white slip. The ornament is stylised botanical, drawn in thin brown and green lines in wide tiers. The internal surface of other bowls is covered with green glaze on the slip surface. There are also the bowls with their internal surface covered in green glaze, and the external surface with yellow. Another type of bowls is the bowls with vertical walls and a sharp bend on the circular conic base. The bowls are covered with green glaze on the slip background. Plates have an almost horizontal rim and smoothly bent walls, the circular base and are decorated by the stylised botanical ornament in green and brown paint on the white 59

The Artistic Culture of Central Asia and Azerbaijan in the 9th–15th centuries • Ceramics slip background under the transparent colourless glaze. There are also the plates covered with green glaze. The range of glazed ceramic items includes a considerable number of vessels, such as bowls and large bottles made of dense grey clay and covered with matte glaze in dark green, marsh colours. Some bowls have an engraved ornament on the internal surface. All these vessels are of the Chinese origin (Cox, 1946. Vol. 1. p. 172–180). The imported Chinese items also include rare bowls made of dense grey clay, covered with blue opaque glaze, decorated with blurred purple stains (Cox, 1946. Vol. 1. p. 164–165. Pl. 48). The fragments of kashin vessels covered with luster and enamel drawings over the glaze (dark blue, turquoise and black) are thought to have been imported from the Near East. The ceramics of the Western Kazakhstan of the late 13th–14th century contains items from the sites of ancient settlement of Saraichik and Zhajik. Unglazed ceramics is represented by standard forms of vessels. Cauldrons have a vertical, wide neck slightly extending from top to bottom with a rectangular or rounded rim in cross- section, a low straight neck with horizontal corrugation. Horizontally placed handles were located at the top part of cauldrons. The pot-like vessels can be subdivided into several groups—pots without handles, with the cylindrical neck decorated with two or three corrugated lines, and with a straight thick rim. The body is inflated, almost spherical at the top and cone-shaped at the bottom. An ornament included concentric scratched lines on the middle of the body. One more type of pots includes vessels with one handle and a smoothly bent rim, triangular in cross-sec- tion. There are also pots with two handles and a cylindrical neck. The small handles are at- tached to a rim at the top and to the shoulders at the bottom. Jugs are the most widespread group of vessels. Among large jugs the most frequent are ves- sels with a tall straight neck, wide rounded shoulders, with widened or, on the contrary, stretched case. The bottom is flat. The handle, oval in cross-section, connected the mouth and the body. The majority of vessels is decorated in the top part of the body by horizontal concentric and wavy lines. Jugs of  the  middle size have a  low  wide neck and  a  rim  slightly bent out- wards, rounded in cross-section. The handle, oval in cross-section, is attached at one end to the rim or to the middle part of the neck, the other end to the widest part of the body. Vessels of this category are practically never ornamented, although occa- sionally there are concentric horizontal lines in the middle part of the body. Some jugs had a small spout. There are jugs with a spherical stocky body, decorated with a scratched and drawn ornament in the form of horizontal concentric and wavy lines, and also with bands of slanting lines made with the comb-like stamp. Some jugs are covered with burnish- ing and decorated with concentric and wavy scratched and drawn lines. The shoulders also have bands of radially scratched lines. Also noteworthy are the jugs with a stretched body on a disc-like base, with a tall neck and the handle attached at its upper edge to the mid- dle of the neck, and at the bottom to the middle of the body. Such jugs are decorated with drawn concentric and wavy lines. Jugs of a smaller size usually have a spherical body, relatively low neck and the loop-like vertical handle connecting the rim with the body. 60

Kazakhstan The jugs-kumgans are characterised by a high neck with a well articulated bell. The han- dle was attached to the widened middle part of the neck. A conical spout was attached to the shoulder of the vessel. Basins have a rounded body at the top and conical at the bottom, which was flat. The body in the top part it is often decorated with drawn concentric lines. Bowls on the conic or ring base have a hemispherical body and high walls. From the outer side right under the rim they were decorated with one or several scratched concentric lines. ‘Saltcellars’ are very close to bowls in the form of their body, but have a tiny size. There are plates with a segment-like body and a thick slated rim or the ones with the small body and the edge strongly bent outwards with a rim round in cross-section. The items ei- ther have a flat bottom, or a low disc-shaped base. Tagoras are flat-bottomed vessels of the conic form, with the edge of a board forming a shelf-like rim bent outwards. Some of these had horizontal rectangular handles attached to the top part of a side under the rim. Amphora-like vessels are represented by several types. One of these is characterised by an egg-shaped body, a low, quite narrow neck, and a simple, slightly widened rim with two handles. Other type of amphorae is represented by vessels with spherical, inflated body, covered with corrugated ornament, with a wide flat bottom, a short narrow mouth and han- dles lifted above the rim. Hums have massive rims of various forms. Necks are almost unarticulated. Often ves- sels are ornamented: their shoulders and the rim are decorated by drawn wavy or concen- tric lines, crosshatch, sometimes with stamps and inscriptions. Humchas, the vessels smaller than hums in size, have an egg-shaped stretched body, and a flat, rather narrow bottom. Rimes are flattened, slightly bent outwards. Many hum- chas have two loop-like vertically located handles in the top part of the body, oval or rectan- gular in cross-section. The body is rounded at the top and has a conical truncated bottom. Moneyboxes are small vessels with a body which has a spherical shape at the top and stretched at the bottom, without a neck, with a cut in the side in the top part of the body. Lids. The items look like a hollow spherical segment with a wide ledge on the edge, a short cylindrical flange, and a vertical knob handle. This type of covers is the most frequent one among the ceramic items of the Volga region of the time of the Golden Horde. Lanterns can be divided into several types. The most widespread are low cups with a flat bottom. One edge of some has a spout-like nose to keep a wick. From the opposite side there is a small handle, sharpened on four sides or pointed, slightly towering over the body. Some lamps have a support in the form of a candleholder in the centre of the cup. Some of the lamps have three burners. The candleholders have a conic form and have a cup for a can- dle at the top. In the top part of the candleholders there is a special fillet, but more often in the form of a ‘saucer’ which could be used to collect the melted wax. Children’s toys are presented by rare bird-shaped penny whistles which have a body with a through aperture. The external surface of some penny whistles is covered with red- brown slip. Spherical cones are made of strong fireproof clay. The finds from Saraichik can be divided into two basic groups—red clay spherical cones and the ones made of clay which has a grey- green colour. The red clay spherical cones of ‘the classical’ form have a short head turning 61

The Artistic Culture of Central Asia and Azerbaijan in the 9th–15th centuries • Ceramics into the body which, in turn, smoothly turns to a conic bottom. Vessels are scantily orna- mented, often only with regular concentric incised lines. The spherical cones with a crock of grey-green colour usually have a spherical top and conic bottom parts. The middle part is usually inflated with small deviations. A head has a narrow round aperture. The external surface of vessels was decorated with embossed stamp or the ornament scratched on crude clay. The stamp is used to shape various figures in the form of circles, asterisks, palmettos, rhombuses, squares, six-petal rosettes and grids. The ornament covers either all the sur- face, from the head to the bottom, or only the top part of a vessel. There is so-called black wax ceramics with a crock of grey colour and black burnishing. The ceramics with a stamped ornament makes up a special group. The upper part of the body of vessels was shaped in a ceramic mould—kalyb. After the upper part was cast, the external surface was ‘finished’: the ornament was cleaned, corrected; sometimes it was supplement- ed with a decor—drawn or carved, sometimes with a small stamp. Often a sprig was made on a surface of grenware, on which an ornament was stamped. The stamped ceramics of Saraichik is represented by jugs on the circular foot with a spherical body and a high neck and biconvex flasks with a disc-like body, a wide tall neck with a thickening or a fillet in the middle part, two loop-like handles attached to the neck under the fillet. The external surface of vessels is decorated by unusual and various ornament with geometrical, botani- cal, epigraphic and zoomorphic plots. Often some elements of an ornament on stamped ce- ramics were covered with turquoise and ultramarine opaque glaze. Owing to the technical reasons, the middle part of jugs remained without a stamped ornament. Another interesting item is an almost completely undamaged jug on a cone-shaped base with a stamped ornament. It has a narrow conic neck with a bell, a spherical body and the vertical handle with a cranked knee, oval in cross-section with a longitudinal fillet. The pattern in relief at the top part of the body is decorated with turquoise and ultramarine glaze. The ornament was made in tiers. The top tier of the top part was filled with geometrical figures and the glaze of the turquoise and ultramarine colours. The following circle has been made from a chain of linked medallions of the rounded form, shaped by stylised bines. In the centre of the me- dallions there is a flower with three petals painted with ultramarine glaze. The bines are cov- ered with turquoise glaze. The jug handle is also decorated along the fillet with turquoise glaze. The bottom part of the jug is not covered with glaze over a stamped ornament (Kuznetsova, 2002, p. 219–226; Samashev, Kuznetsova, Plahov, 2008, p. 33–53). Glazed ceramics. The complex contains ware of various forms such as basins, bowls, dishes, jugs, vases, and albarellos. Among the ware covered with green, yellow, brown and colourless glaze, there are items with an ornament applied by engraving, reserve, drawing or a combination of different tech- niques. Most frequent patterns are so-called ‘gears’ and four, five, six-petal rosettes, concen- tric lines which were used to decorate the bottom of a bowl or a plate. The internal surface of vessels was decorated with leaves in the form of bulbs, spirals and semi-spirals, ‘herring- bone’ drawn in a wavy line, and stylised images of trees with stretched tops. The space be- tween patterns was often covered by crosshatch or so-called ‘checkered pattern’. Apart from botanical and geometrical ornamental motifs, the red clay ware was decorated with the images of birds and fish. Birds are drawn in profile. On one of bowls with a brown and green drawing on the internal surface covered with white slip, has an engraved image 62

Kazakhstan of a standing bird. The contours of the drawing are marked with a thin line and outlined in brown. The body of the bird is painted in yellow and brown. The wing, pressed against the bird’s body, is outlined with a wide green strip; its internal surface is shaded by slant- ing lines imitating feathers. On the neck of the bird there is also a wide green strip. The free space was probably decorated with botanical ornament. Another group of artistic ceramic items contains kashin pottery. Made of porous white, grey, yellow or pink kashin, the vessels of this group looked well with colourless, turquoise and ultramarine glaze. The ceramics stands out thanks to the bright paints and rich orna- ment that gives kashin ware a smart appearance. There were the following forms of vessels: bowls with the rims slightly bent inwards or outwards, slender tall albarello dishes (or plates) with wide horizontal boards, tiny on- ion-shaped vessels (inkwells), jugs and pot-like vessels with straight low necks. The kashin ceramics with transparent colourless glaze can be subdivided in several groups according to the way and character of its ornamentation. Polychromatic kashin ceramics with a relief under the glaze, as a rule, was painted in three colours: green or grey-green, dark blue and white, being a background for two oth- ers and formed by kashinом under transparent glaze. The surface of vessels has a relief against which the most important details of the ornament stand out. On an external surface of piala-like vessels an arched ornament, outlined with grey-green lines and decked by dark blue points can almost always be seen. The drawings on the internal surface of vessels are extremely diverse, especially their bottoms. The main principle of ornamentation is the division of an internal surface into several tiers, each of which has its own drawing (flowers, bines, stalks, medallions with en- closed bines and trefoil flowers). Such ornaments usually end with an original decoration on the bottom of a vessel. The diversity of images and the character of drawing are particu- larly noteworthy. Often the botanical ornament is enclosed, either in the form of a rosette, or a circle. Quite interesting are the images of birds, ducks and geese on the bottoms of such vessels. Often we can see an ornament in the form of a large Kufi inscription accentuated by a relief. The free space of internal surfaces of bowls and plates was often filled with grey- green points and diagonal dark blue grids. The ceramics with the under glaze drawings differs from the above by the absence of a relief in the ornamentation of vessels. Dark blue cobalt paint was also used in drawings in a large quantity. Such ornamental motifs as slanted grids, circles, horizontal and vertical lines, the figures reminding a feather in the tail of a peacock are most frequent. Apart from botanical motifs, the images of birds were used for the decoration of cobalt ce- ramics. The ornament of a bowl of the hemispherical form on the circular foot is particularly interesting. The external and internal surfaces of the bowl are covered by a layer of white slip on which the drawing of dark blue colour was applied and then the bowl was covered with transparent glaze. A strip of dark blue colour outlines the rim. The top tier of the internal surface is ornamented by the stylised ‘Chinese clouds’. The following tier is not ornament- ed. The bottom part of the bowl is decorated with a rosette containing an image of a bird, probably pheasant, with the spread tail. Surrounding the bird there is a botanical ornament based on flowers with four petals in the shape of a heart, on long thin stalks with narrow long leaves and trefoil buds. The flowers form a chain, placed one after another, in a circle. 63

The Artistic Culture of Central Asia and Azerbaijan in the 9th–15th centuries • Ceramics Along with polychromatic ceramics we also know kashin items with transparent tur- quoise glaze and black drawings under the glaze. The images of black crosses (ticks), bo- tanical (bushes with branches and trefoils), and geometrical (rhombuses, triangles, circles, zigzag lines) ornaments are often seen on these vessels under the turquoise glaze. The ves- sels have a relief on the external surface and the gaps are darker in colour. On the bulging areas we see white kashin through the transparent glaze. The ornament is often epigraphic or in the form of dots, forming five-or four-petal flowers. Sometimes when there was no draw- ing, the turquoise glaze was used in combination with ultramarine. Particularly often such principle of ornamentation was used for the decoration of vases. A separate group of glazed ceramics includes items with opaque glaze. The basic differ- ence of ceramics with opaque glaze from ceramic items with transparent glazeой is that drawings were made on the glazed surface and not under the glaze. A collection of glazed kashin ceramics contains a small number of fragments of the bowls covered with white, turquoise and ultramarine glaze on both sides. Among the ceramic items with white glaze there are items with as well as without any drawing. The ceramics with polychromatic drawing, with gilding on white glaze and an ornament depicting vines, an im- age of a bird with the long tail sitting on a branch, stylised Arabic inscriptions, the ‘Chinese clouds’ can be either examples of the Iranian ceramics known as minai or which is more likely, the result of its influence on the local pottery. There are ceramic items with polychromatic over-the-glaze drawing on the ultramarine glaze. The ornament usually has botanical motifs, and the drawing is made in golden, white and red paints. The glazed ceramics of Saraichik and Zhaika have the closest analogies in the glazed items from the Golden Horde’s cities of Khoresm, Southern Kazakhstan, the Volga region and the Crimea (Vaktursky, 1959, p. 318; Bulatov, 1968, p. 100–102; Yakubovsky, 1931, p. 28p, fig. 1; Shlyakhova, 1980, p. 76–86; Yerzakovich, 1979, p. 60–68; Samashev, Kuznetsova, 2000, p. 84–100; Samashev, Kuznetsova, Plahov, 2008, p. 54–69). The world of artistic ceramics knows no boundaries; and in its forms, patterns and draw- ings, in the colours of slips and glazes one can trace the development of artistic tastes and the reflection of religious views, both local and borrowed, as well as the links between cultures and different peoples in various periods of history. 64

Kazakhstan I. Mug. 9th–10th century. Otrar oasis. II. Vessel. 9th–10th century. Otrar oasis. III. Rattle. 9th –10th century. Otrar oasis. IV. Jar. 10th –11th  century. Otrar oasis. 65

The Artistic Culture of Central Asia and Azerbaijan in the 9th–15th centuries • Ceramics V. Lid. 9th –10th  century. Otrar oasis. VI. Fragment of a lid. 10th –11th century Otrar oasis. VII. Top of a lid. 11th –12th century. Otrar oasis. VIII. Top of a lid. 11th –12th century. Otrar oasis. 66

Kazakhstan IX. Altar. 12th –13th  century. Otrar oasis. X. Jar with printed ornament. 13th –early 14th century. XI. Ceramic flask. 13th –early 14th century. Otrar oasis. Otrar oasis. 67

The Artistic Culture of Central Asia and Azerbaijan in the 9th–15th centuries • Ceramics XII. Khumcha. 16th century. XIII. Water jar. 10th –11th century. Otrar oasis. XIV. Lid. 10th –11th century. Otrar oasis. XV. Fragment of a dastarkhan. 11–12 century. Otrar 68 oasis.

Kazakhstan XVI. Fragment of a dastarkhan. 11th –12th  century. XVII. Altar. Middle Ages. 12th –early 13th century. Otrar oasis. Otrar oasis. XVIII. Glazed bowl. 10th –11th century. Otrar oasis. XIX. Glazed bowl. 11th –12th  century. Otrar oasis. 69

The Artistic Culture of Central Asia and Azerbaijan in the 9th–15th centuries • Ceramics XX. Glazed bowl. 11th –12th  century. Otrar oasis. XXI. Fragment of a glazed lantern. 11th –12th  century. Otrar oasis. XXII. Fragment of a glazed lantern. 11th –12th  century. XXIII. Glazed dish. Early 13th century. Otrar oasis. Otrar oasis. 70

Kazakhstan XXIV. Glazed bowl. 13th –early 14th  century. Otrar XXV. Glazed bowl. 13th –early 14th century. Otrar oasis. oasis. XXVI. Glazed bowl. 13th –early 14th century. Otrar XXVII. Glazed bowl. 13th –early 14th century. Otrar oasis. oasis. 71

The Artistic Culture of Central Asia and Azerbaijan in the 9th–15th centuries • Ceramics XXVIII. Glazed bowl. 13th –early 14th  century. Otrar XXIX. Glazed jar. 14th century. Otrar oasis. oasis. XXX. Glazed jar. 14th–early 15th century. Otrar oasis. XXXI. Glazed vessel. 14th century. Otrar oasis. 72

Kazakhstan XXXII. Glazed lid. 15th century. Otrar oasis. XXXIII. Small glazed vessel. 15th century. Otrar oasis. XXXIV. Water jar. 9th–10th century. South-western XXXV. Vessel. 9th–10th century. South-western Semirechye. Semirechye. 73

The Artistic Culture of Central Asia and Azerbaijan in the 9th–15th centuries • Ceramics XXXVI. Fireplace stand. 9th–10th century. South- XXXVII. Jar. 9th–10th century. South-western western Semirechye. Semirechye. XXXVIII. Jar. 11th–12th century. South-western XXXIX. Jar. 11th–12th century. South-western Semirechye. Semirechye. 74

Kazakhstan XL. Fragment of a lid with printed ornament. 11th– XLI. Glazed bowl. 11th–12th century. South-western 12th century. South-western Semirechye. Semirechye. XLII. Glazed dish. 11th–12th century. South-western XLIII. Glazed lantern. 11th–12th century. South- Semirechye. western Semirechye. 75

The Artistic Culture of Central Asia and Azerbaijan in the 9th–15th centuries • Ceramics XLIV. Glazed tuvak. 11th–12th century. South-western XLV. Glazed tuvak. 11th–12th century. South-western Semirechye. Semirechye. XLVI. Glazed jar. 11th–12th century. South-western XLVII. Jar. 9th–10th century. North-eastern Semirechye. Semirechye. 76

Kazakhstan XLVIII. Pot. 10th–11th century. North-eastern XLIX. Jar. 11th–12th century. North-eastern Semirechye. Semirechye. L. Mortar-like vessel. 11th–12th century. North-eastern LI. Lantern. 11th–12th century. North-eastern Semirechye. Semirechye. 77

The Artistic Culture of Central Asia and Azerbaijan in the 9th–15th centuries • Ceramics LII. Figurines. 11th–12th century. North-eastern LIII. Water jar. Fragment. 12th–13th century. North- Semirechye. eastern Semirechye. LIV. Pot. 12th–13th century. North-eastern Semirechye. LV. Lantern. 12th–13th century. North-eastern Semirechye. 78

Kazakhstan LVI. Pot-like vessels. 11th–12th century. North-eastern LVII. Glazed dish. 11th–12th century. North-eastern Semirechye. Semirechye. LVIII. Glazed bowl. 11th–12th century. North-eastern LIX. Glazed bowl. 11th–12th century. North-eastern Semirechye. Semirechye. 79

The Artistic Culture of Central Asia and Azerbaijan in the 9th–15th centuries • Ceramics LX. Glazed bowl. 11th–12th century. North-eastern LXI. Glazed bowl. 11th–12th century. North-eastern Semirechye. Semirechye. LXII. Glazed bowl. 11th–12th century. North-eastern LXIII. Glazed bowl. 11th–12th century. North-eastern Semirechye. Semirechye. 80

Kazakhstan LXIV. Glazed kashin jar. 12th–13th century. North- LXV. Glazed lantern. 12th century. North-eastern eastern Semirechye. Semirechye. LXVI. Glazed bowl. 12th–13th century. North-eastern LXVII. Glazed bowl. 12th–13th century. North-eastern Semirechye. Semirechye. 81

The Artistic Culture of Central Asia and Azerbaijan in the 9th–15th centuries • Ceramics LXVIII. China plate. 12th–13th century. North-eastern LXIX. Amphora. Western Kazakhstan. Semirechye. LXX. Figurine. 14th century. Western Kazakhstan. LXXI. Glazed vessel. 14th century. Western Kazakhstan. 82

Kazakhstan LXXII. Kashin glazed dish. 14th century. Fragment. LXXIII. Kashin glazed bowl. 14th century. Western Western Kazakhstan. Kazakhstan. LXXIV. Kashin glazed bowl. 14th century. Western LXXV. Small kashin vessel—inkpot. 14th century. Kazakhstan. Western Kazakhstan. 83

The Artistic Culture of Central Asia and Azerbaijan in the 9th–15th centuries • Ceramics LXXVI. Kashin glazed bowl. 14th century. Western LXXVII. Kashin glazed bowl. 14 century. Western Kazakhstan. Kazakhstan. LXXVIII. Glazed tile. 14th century. Western LXXIX. Glazed tile. 14th century. Western Kazakhstan. Kazakhstan. 84

KYRGYZSTAN The medieval artistic ceramics can be looked at from several viewpoints. First, as an object of the study of arts; in this case it is necessary to speak of how ceram- ics influences individual perception and through which elements its aesthetic in- fluence is achieved. Second, from the standpoint of the study of culture, and here it is necessary to speak about the place it occupies in culture, about the evolutions and change of cultures and how these complex processes are reflected in ceramic production, as well as about the semantics of ceramic ornamentation. It is possi- ble to regard it from the standpoint of pure archeology, when ceramics is studied in a unity of three aspects, namely: shape, methods of production and treatment of surface, including ornamentation (Gening, 1974). In our publication we will dis- cuss ceramics from the view point of archeology. The first steps in the study of the artistic ceramics of the 9th–15th centuries in the ter- ritory of Kyrgyzstan, as well as in many other regions of archeological heritage, are con- nected to the name of A. N. Bernshtam. In the 40s-early 50s of the 20th century, in a series of works he offered his vision of the general development of culture. Probably, he outlined his concept most explicitly in a monograph in the special chapter Art and culture of Tien Shan and Semirechye in the ancient and medieval periods (Bernshtam, 1952). The peri- od between the 8th and the 10th centuries that is called the Karluk period is characterised by the victory of ornamentalism. Bernshtam characterises the following period, Karakhanid (the 11th–12th centuries), as a period of development of the ceramic handicraft accompanied by the replacement of an individual approach to ornamentation of an item by the applica- tion of technical facilities, namely, stamps of two types. At the same time he emphasises that glazed ceramics with bright polychromatic painting becomes widely spread in this very period. And, finally, the ‘Mongol-Temurid’ stage (the late 12th – the 15th centuries) is charac- terised in his monograph as an period of eclectics, when highly artistic things went along with rough and imperfect products, both in the technical and artistic aspects, (Bernshtam, 1952). Here it would be appropriate to add that Bernshatam’s definition of the borders be- tween the periods was based on the on the historical landmarks rather than archeological dating (Kolchenko, 2007, p. 47–48). There was practically no special research of the art- istry of medieval ceramics in the following years. At the same time some remarks were made. For instance, P. N. Kozhemyako, characterising the ceramics of the 8th–10th centuries from the Chuy valley writes about the development of the carved ornament used in some types of items (Kozhemyako, 1959). However, the field studies continued and the material accumulated. So, the 1960 studies in Talas, particularly on the sites Sadyr-Kurgan (Shelji) and Ak-Tobe (Orlovskoye), yielded a wide, well stratified ceramic complex containing items of high aesthetic value. Unfortunately, P. N. Kozhemyako, the manager of the excavations, did not publish it, but this collection now forms the base of the collection of the State Mu- seum of History of Kyrgyzstan. 85

The Artistic Culture of Central Asia and Azerbaijan in the 9th–15th centuries • Ceramics A series of publications was very important for analysing the artistic ceramics of south Kyrgyzstan, which occupies the foothills of the eastern, south-eastern, north-eastern and south-western parts of the Fergana valley. First of all, this is the results of the stud- ies carried out by A. N. Bernshtam in Uzgen in 1941 and 1944–45, which helped to define the role and place of this town in the history of Fergana, its historic significance, as well as to reveal the general and characteristic features of its material culture in the Middle Age, including artistic ceramics. He wrote that the local Uzgen ceramics was provincial in re- lation to the ceramics of Maverannahr. He also noticed a high percentage of imported ce- ramics, among which there were fragments of the ceramics of the Samanids’ time brought from Samarkand and of kitchenware from Rey (Bernshtam, 1996, p. 149). At the same time he believed that the Uzgen ceramics reached high quality only in the Karakhanid period and partly later, in the post-Mongolian time. The researcher classified painted vessels spe- cific to this part of Fergana, which he compared with the similar and synchronous kitchen- ware from Afrasiab, into a separate group. A further study of the ceramics from Uzgen owes much to Yu. A. Zadneprovsky, who con- tinued the excavations at shakhristans in 1954 which N. N. Zabelina had begun in 1953. As a result he offered a different scheme of classification and typology (Zadneprovskiy, 1960, p. 214–240). Unlike Bernshtam, he believed that the ceramics of Uzgen was ‘extremely di- verse in types as well as in forms and also richly ornamented’ (Zadneprovsky, 1960, p. 225). The scientist considers original painted kitchenware, found in the 11th–13th layers and dif- fering from vessels of the Bronze and early Iron Age that are decorated by the same method, the most typical feature of the early medieval ceramic complex from Uzgen. He put a par- ticular stress on the glazed crockery of the Karakhanid period as having a special artistic value (Zadneprovskiy, 1960, p. 233–234, ill. 55). The works of the second half of the 20th cen- tury, carried out within the framework of the preparation of the Uzgen architectural com- plex for restoration and the works related to the protection of the zone, in general confirmed the conclusions of these researchers. As for Osh, the most significant town of the Kyrgyz part of Fergana, the medieval ceram- ic collection gathered during special studies and in the course of the archeological control, as well as through casual findings, is dated from the time of the Samanids and Karakha- nids to the late Middle Age and the new time, including collections of the Mongolian pe- riod and the time of Temur and the Temurids. The most part of the material anyway per- tains to the periods of the Karakhanid and Temurid dynasties. In general, the conclusions reached by the earlier researchers in relation to the analysis of the collection gathered at Uz- gen, are also applicable to the Osh ceramics. The explorations by G. A. Brykina who had been studying the settlements of Batkensky and Lyaylyaksky regions for three decades are particularly important for the south-western part of the Fergana valley. The significant ceramic collection containing items of obvious artistic value, demonstrates, on the one hand, some general trends typical for the region and the period, and on the other, reflects the local originality (Baruzdin, Brykina, 1962; Brykina, 1974). In  the  recent years the  excavation of  the  sites Ak-Beshim (by  G. L.  Semyonov and L. M. Vedutova in 1996–1998, continued in 2000–2001 and 2006–2008. L. M. Vedu- tovoy), Novopokrovskoye-2 (V. A. Kolchenko and F. G. Rott, 2004–2009) and Krasnorechen- 86

Kyrgyzstan skoye (V. D. Goryacheva and A. I. Torgoev, 2007–2009) yielded a number of new exam- ples of artistic ceramics and important stratigraphic observations. These studies continue and the discovered materials are only gradually being published. This article is one of pub- lications which discuss the recent findings. Ritual and cult ceramics: Zoroasrianism, Buddhism, Christianity. In the Mid- dle Age baked clay was one of the most widely spread kinds of material, used both in eve- ryday life and for the production of things for the ritual and religious purposes. A group of items dated with various degree of confidence to the 9th–10th centuries and belonging to Zoroastrism, Buddhism and Christianity originates in the territory of north Kyrgyzstan. In these items the aesthetic standards and creative approach of the master conform to the canon and certain traditions. However, these ritual items are not devoid of origi- nality and aesthetic value. In the 9th–10th centuries Zoroastrianism continued to be practised in the Chuy valley, at the north of modern Kyrgyzstan. At this time the décor of ossuaries, one of the main ma- terial attributes of this religion, becomes simpler. Laconism and simplicity of décor replaces figurative images and the composition on the front side of an ossuary in the form of crossed lines and ‘arbours’ made of ‘twigs’ which is axially symmetric, the one with the scratched or drilled mushroom-like apertures and arrows. The variant in which the walls of the casket remain unornamented except for a twisted and dented strip applied along the edges of the os- suary can be regarded as one of the cases of such simplification. But the lid is ornamented: in this case seven (?) herringbones diverge radially from the mushroom-like handle (ill. I). Another ossuary kept in the Tokmak Local History Museum and published for the first time in this article is traditional for our territory in terms of the form and the location of décor, but this kind of drawing has never been seen before (ill. II). The ossuary is oval with a sphe- ro-conical lid that had been cut off before firing. The front side of the ossuary has a cross- hatch under the applied dented strip; the centres of its rhomboid cells are marked with large rough apertures. This ‘originality’ of drawing allows us to date the ossuary to the 9th– 10th centuries with much certainty. The Buddhist artifacts include two groups of small ceramic items that are kept in dif- ferent museum collections of the country. The first one comes from Issyk-Kul, from the Kyrchin valley and is exhibited in the Chol- pon-Ata Local History Museum (ill. III). These are three small sculptured images of Buddha up to 4–5 cm in height. The second group also containing three images, but of a round form (3–4 cm across), is kept in the Kyrgyz State History Museum (KSHM) (ill. IV). All the arti- facts depict Buddha sitting frontally in a lotus position on a throne in the form of a lotus, with a double halo on the background. The ushnisha is seen on his head. The hands are shown in different classical positions. The items of both groups were moulded, which implies their mass production. Their clothing, the degree of detail in the halo and background and the manner in which the throne is made are indicative of the different origin of the groups from different workshops. At the same time, at least five torsos are done in one style; the thrones are also typologically close. All this shows us that the items were close in terms of the time and the place of their pro- duction. As these items have no archeological context and analogies in the Central Asian 87

The Artistic Culture of Central Asia and Azerbaijan in the 9th–15th centuries • Ceramics region, the stylistic particularities and the historical context can serve as the only argu- ment for our dating. On this ground we date these Buddhist artifacts to the period between the late 1st and early 2nd millenniums. 1 Christianity is connected with a series of plaques and moulds (kalybs) for their pro- duction. In 1998 and 2000–2001, during the excavation of a complex of Christian church- es at Ak-Beshim where one of the authors also took part, four undamaged and fragmented plaques were found, as well as two kalybs (one intact and one damaged) (ill. V). They were quite definitely dated to the early second millennium through coins that looked as they be- longed to the Karakhanid period, and enamelled ceramics found in the layer. The plaques, as well as the kalybs used for their production are flat rectangular bars up to 15–20 cm long, 6–8 cm wide with a thickness of 1–1.5 cm and with a relief image up to 0.3–0.4 cm in height. A cross with an elongated lower part occupies most of the space. Widening towards the edges from the crossing point, marked by a round medallion with an image of a direct cross with equal ends, its blades end in a concave curve with two pearls on the corners. The cross is placed under the archivolt of an arch decorated with a row of pearls, and ornamented with flying ribbons, one in each of the four sectors. In five cases there are round elements under the horizontal blades of the cross symbolising, as far as we can guess the canonical Moon and the Sun as symbols of eternity. In the same five cases on its bottom and sides the cross borders upon the edge of a painted field, while at its upper part it is ‘fixed’ with a ‘fastening appendage’ going from the centre of the curve of the upper blade to the arch. The border in some cases is smooth, in others decorated with pearls, some of them have a convex shape, provided for in the kalyb, and others, made after stamping with the help of a special circular puncheon; in a number of cases there is an angled frieze applied above and below the border. One plaque has certain originality. The composition generally conforms to the usual scheme, but is more complex. The cross is placed on a vertical ‘fastening’ going from a three step pedestal, symbolising, we believe, the Golgotha (The Mountain of the World). The cross itself is additionally ‘fixed’ at its sides, and not at the upper part, and is enclosed in a fes- tooned framing crowned by a tiara (?). The tympana of the arch are filled with amorphous figures. Three stepped merlons (a fortified wall, a castle, or may be a heavenly kingdom—?) are depicted above the archivolt, crowning the plaque. In general, this variant of the compo- sition looks more complete, and at the same time, more archaic. We guess that this плакетка served as a prototype for the rest. Domestic everyday ceramics. Glossy burnished jugs are one of the most visually at- tractive groups of ceramic items. The method of the processing of the surface, which is bur- nishing on dark red, or more seldom, yellow, orange or brown slip gives the vessels certain festiveness. But such vessels always have additional décor. As a rule, these are applied el- ements, very often moulded initially in a special form, and friezes of separate similar ele- ments, stamped, cut or drawn before firing. Such vessels are hand-built or thrown on a pot- ter's wheel. 1 However, they might have been produced much later, e.g. at the time of the Jungar (Kalmyk) expansion in the Semirechye in the 18th century. 88

Kyrgyzstan As an example we can point at a vessel found in a residential area of the Ak-Beshim Christian complex (ill. VI). This is a large modelled jug with a spout projecting forward and upwards. Three vertical rolls with slanted carving are applied to the body at an equal distance from each other. In the middle of the neck there is a relief rib with a crosshatch. An S-shaped detail is applied horizontally to the place under the spout. A W-shaped roll with notches (a snake?) is applied to the sides under the edge. And one more element of décor in the form of a spiral is applied to the handle made of two round twisted strips. The giv- en vessel can be referred to the group of so called anthropomorphous vessels, well known from Semirechye of this period (Baypakov, 1986, p. 120, ill. 44). Here it should be noted that the group of anthropomorphous vessels is not homogeneous and has its own local particu- larities in the Chuy, Talas and Ili valleys. Another red burnished vessel, a bit smaller in size, is from the site Aleksandrovsky, the Chuy valley (diameter of the body is 26 cm), which has been preserved but partly (Chuyskaya dolina, 1950, p. 98, table 60; Staviskiy, 1998. p. 147–148). An ornamental frieze consisting of a border and a field is placed on its shoulders. Three relief figures, according to Bernsh- tam belonging to the Buddhist iconography, are evenly applied to the field (Chuyskaya doli- na, 1950, p. 133, 147). Trefoil rosettes with a knob applied to its centre were drawn between these figures before firing. The borders are also triple: the edges are 0.5 cm wide rollers with notches in the form of slanted crosses; the middle ones are small angles drawn with a broad stick, with their sharp edges pointing upwards and with pinched points in the tri- angles; the bases of the angles nearly touch one another. Bernshtam considered this item to be a part of ‘the early monuments of the Buddhist culture that penetrated into Semirechye through Kushan (Chuyskaya dolina, 1950, p. 133). However the data gathered during a pe- riod of half a century allow us to date it back to the 10th–11th centuries. As one of the argu- ments, let us refer to the image of a rosette on the fragment of a red burnished vessel from the site of the Kuznetskaya fortress in Bishkek, dated back to the 11th century according to the items discovered at the complex. (Kolchenko, 2005, p. 24, ill. 2, 1). There is another interesting specimen from the group of the red burnished vessels: it is a small vessel on a tray discovered by Bernshtam at the Krasnorechenskoye site (ill. VII). The vessel is found ‘in the fourth layer’ at a depth of 2.2 m; that is why it was dated back to the ‘Sogdian’ time, i.e. to the 7th century. However the enameled ceramics with white background found in the ‘third layer’ 0.5 m above (Chuyskaya dolina, 1950, p. 38, table 16, 6) allows us to date it at least to the time just before the Karakhanid period, i.e. to the 9th– 10th centuries. The jug, which is 16.5 cm high was made on a potter's wheel. Three verti- cal figurative details with stamped round rosettes are equally applied to the central part of the body. Ornamental friezes are located on the shoulders and the upper part of the neck. In the first case they consist of stamped S-shaped signs located between two lines, in the sec- ond—of stamped circles framed in lines. A small ‘button’ is applied to the top of the handle. And finally, we have to mention such rarely used method of the decoration of ceram- ics as insertion of foreign elements. In our case on the red burnished vessel from the site Novopokrovskoye-2 these are insertions of blue vitriform paste (?), imitating lazurite (ill. VIII). We should note that the form of the vessel is atypical for our region, but we could not find anal- ogies in its form in the adjacent territories. This vessel was found together with an enamelled bowl with white background, and that allows us to confidently date it back to the 11th century. 89

The Artistic Culture of Central Asia and Azerbaijan in the 9th–15th centuries • Ceramics We have already mentioned the way of decorating vessels with high relief anthropomorphous applied elements, so typical of the Chuy valley. A special mould for producing such elements was found at one of the medieval sites, Sukulukskoye. Neither S. S. Sorokin who had directly managed the supervisory archeological works on the site, nor Bernshtam, the head of the ex- pedition, gave any concrete data about the context of its finding, even in Bernshtam’s work (Bernshtam, 1948). On the grounds of stylistic features and the worked-out scheme for cul- tural evolution the artifact was dated back to the 7th–8th centuries at the time of publication. In our opinion, considering the time when the tradition of producing such things was partic- ularly common, the form can be dated to a later period. The mould from Sukulukskoye site is quite large: 8 cm by 5.5 cm with relief 1.5 cm deep; so the functional purpose of its stamps remains a little unclear. Bernshtam put forward some ideas: it could be used to make an ap- plied ornament for large vessels, wall decoration (however, was deemed too shallow for it), or applied elements for an ossuary. In the last case the main counter-argument was the ab- sence of applied head ornaments on ossuaries at that time. However, the existence of the os- suary with applied fravashi from the site refutes this argument. Similarities to such a relief, aside from the ones already mentioned above, can be found at that very site—an applied element under the handle of a vessel (Chuyskaya dolina, 1950, table L, 4), and at Ak-Beshim—an applied element on the handle of a mug (coated with red slip—?) from a Christian church in Shahristan-2 (Kyzlasov, 2006, p. 209, ill. 40.1–2). A sherd of another mould for stamping facial images was found at Ak-Beshim during the ex- cavation of the First Buddhist temple (Kyzlasov, 1959. 329p, ill. 113). A large vessel kept in the KSHM (ill. IX) also had applied medallions on its two handles. However, although without applied elements, the vessel is aesthetically impressive with its har- monious form and proportions, its two modest rollers accentuated at the neck and the X- shaped frieze on the shoulders traditional for the Central Asian region. A fragment of a vessel similar to it in size, construction and the surface was found at the site Novopokrovskoye-2, but in the latter case the neck is decorated with two stamped concentric circles. In the course of the excavations at the same Novopokrovskoye-2 site we have recently found an interesting sherd of a jug with an applied medallion (ill. X). A musician playing a string instrument is depicted on the medallion. His round, calm face with an open fore- head, his tunic-shaped clothing with flying ribbons, his very pose full of expression evoke associations with the Ayirtam stone frieze. But the images are separated by a period of five hundred years! Our vessel was made and used in the Islamic period of the history of Kyr- gyzstan, in the 11th century. At this time, in the 10th–11th centuries and even up to the 13th century, in the south of Kyr- gyzstan the former tradition of burnishing the surfaces of vessels still remains and the dec- oration of crockery by painting with mineral pigments is beginning to spread. Moreover, the forms of the vessels are different: jugs, pots, mugs, vases and sometimes khums of small size. Ornament covers only the external surface occupying nearly the whole of its area. In most cases the surface is burnished, but sometimes such type of processing is not used. The vessels are hand-built as a rule. The colour of the slip is light yellow, the paint red-brown or dark brown. The manner of painting is free, without a stencil. The most popular elements of the ornament are two crossing lines, strips of S-shaped curls, zigzag lines, botanical bines and curls, meander pattern and others. The artistic effect was based on the contrast be- 90

Kyrgyzstan tween the light background and the reddish-brown painting. The apparent excess of the di- versity of colors does not prevent us from perceiving the festivity of these vessels. The jugs from the KSHM collection gathered at the site of Uzgen and from the funds of the Sulay- man-Too museum complex (ill. XI, XII) are classical samples of crockery of this type. Bi- chromatic painting is found sometimes, however, it is connected basically with another type of painted medieval crockery—washing jars. A group of grey clay ceramic items, which is not manifold but is regularly found at the ex- cavation of 10th – early 12th centuries layers at medieval sites on the territory of Kyrgyzstan, is not less interesting, particularly in its system of décor. We can give as examples two ves- sels from Osh and the Chuy valley kept in the collections of the Sulayman-Too museum com- plex and the KSHM. The first of them is a stocky vessel on three cone-shaped feet from Osh. Possibly, this is a ceramic replica of the corresponding Chinese bronze vessels. The other item from Osh is a vessel on a flattened cone-shaped base decorated with numerous small stamped rosettes (ill. XIII). The first of the vessels from the Chuy valley has a spherical body, high and broad cylindri- cal neck, nearly as wide as the body itself and a low foot (ill. XIV). Practically the whole ves- sel is decorated with a group of dimples, excluding the foot. The upper part is decorated with horizontal ornamental bands visually broadening the vessel, while the lower part with verti- cal ones, which stretches the vessel visually; such a location of décor makes a certain visual effect: the light bottom streaming upwards and the heavy top; a kind of blossoming flower. The second grey clay vessel from the Chuy valley (ill. XV) is more traditional in form: a flat bottom, cone-shaped body, rather sloping shoulders and a spout, round in cross- section and going upwards from the shoulders; the neck, unfortunately, has not survived. It is decorated with two ornamental concentric bands on the shoulders, practically similar in width; a row of horizontal S-shaped signs goes along the upper one that is closer to the neck, and a row of groups of concentric circles touching one another runs in the lower, the out- er band. A double line separates these two friezes. The body, as in the first case, is deco- rated all over: it is divided by triple lines of holes made by fingernails into triangles, filled with horizontal rows of the same ‘fingernail’ marks. The dividing lines, both on the body and on the shoulders, have additional decoration in the form of applied small concentric circumferences. In general, the ornamentation of the vessel creates the impression of re- dundancy. Even such specific group of ceramic items as the sphero-cones is not devoid of certain artistic value. There are no principal stylistic differences in the decoration of these items in the north and south of Kyrgyzstan, or in Central Asian region as a whole. The items were decorated with pinches and stamps as well as by cutting the facets with a knife; in a number of cases their lower part is flattened, probably, imitating the tail of a fish. The composition of décor is often spread radially over the whole surface, but sometimes only the ‘facial’ side can be accentuated (ill. XVI). In the 11th–12th centuries, ceramic items composed of separate details made with a kalyb become widely spread. It also continues to exist in the following century. Let us illustrate it by the finds from Osh, Uzgen and the site Kara-Dzhigach in the Chuy valley. The first fragment is a detail of kalyb from Uzgen with the rose clay and slip. The di- ameter is 18 cm, the thickness of the walls in the upper part is 0.6 cm; the walls gradually 91

The Artistic Culture of Central Asia and Azerbaijan in the 9th–15th centuries • Ceramics thicken towards the bottom, which is not marked in any way on the outside, while on the in- side, in the centre it has a drawing in the form of a circumference. The ornament includes a combination of projecting belts at the top and a genre scene with inclusion of zoomorphic images in the main field (ill. XVII.1). The fragment from Osh is a sherd of a tiny vessel made in a kalyb and covered with light slip, with the walls 0.5–0.6 cm thick, and up to 1 cm at the top, where there is a round hole. The exterior surface is covered with multi-petal rosettes (ill. XVII.2). Quite interesting is a sherd of a bowl from the south of Kyrgyzstan, of a light orange col- our with a circular handle, a leaf-shaped heel and a board slanted inwards, marked with bands on the outside. The outer surface was moulded in a kalyb and is covered all over by a botanical pattern of leaves in relief pointing downwards. The pattern becomes smaller towards the bottom (ill. XVII.3). A collection of ceramic items from Kara-Jigach cast in a kalyb is the most impressive of all the materials from the northern Kyrgyzstan. It includes mostly fragments of middle- and large-size vessels, so called ‘water-vessels’. They have an ornamental frieze on their shoul- ders, which is framed with bands of the so called ‘Sasanid pearls’ (ill. XVIII; 4.6). The orna- ment is mainly of a botanical nature (ill. XVIII.3–4), but in a number of cases it has some geometric lines (ill. XVIII.2). There are also other types of vessels in the collections; for instance, flat flasks. Their or- nament is not made in friezes, but is concentrically constructed on each facet (ill. XVIII.5), either preserving at the same time some botanical character or becoming abstract and geo- metric, but symmetrical. Such vessels were produced locally. The found fragments of kalybs provide a clear evi- dence of this, apart from other arguments (ill. XVIII.8–9). At the time of the Samanid rule, in the southern part of the country near Fergana, appear imported glazed ceramic items. It is evident from the material from Uzgen and Osh (Bernsh- tam, 1952). In the late 10th – early 11th centuries, in the period of the Karakhanid rule, enam- Fig. 1. 92

Kyrgyzstan elled ceramics mainly of local produce spreads over the whole territory of Kyrgyzstan. In gen- eral, as far as we can judge, it follows the general Central Asian standards, both in terms of the technological aspect of its production (using leaden glazes), and in terms of its style (the color range, ornamentation and the construction of the compositions). It is common- ly divided into vessels of the closed (jugs, pots and tuvaks) and open types (bowls—kese, plates, dishes—lyagans). The most widespread type of closed vessels is pots—small vessels covered by glaze on the in- side and outside. Nearly always they are mounted on a more or less simple disc-shaped base. In most cases such vessels are white inside and monochromic outside: green, lettuce green or light yellow (fig. 1.1). In a number of cases the broadest part of the body can be faceted with a knife, which produces a certain play of light and shade. Vessels with underglaze drawing are not that frequent. One of these was found during the excavation of a complex of Christian churches at Ak-Beshim (fig. 1, 2). On its neck there is a comparatively broad monochromic band made in brown on a light yellow background. A geometric ornamental frieze is on the shoulders of the vessel: vertical and diagonal strips go between two horizontal lines, and the places where they join and cross are marked with darker dots. The third of the closed enamelled vessels shown in the figures also originates from the Ak- Beshim Christian complex (fig. 1.3). On the inside it is white, on the outside has a saturated green colour. It is decorated with diagonal cannelures short on the broad part of the body and long on the lower one near the bottom. The quality and the method of decoration, the profiling of the base are indicative of the fact that it was imported, probably from be- yond the borders of the region. We do not know of many enamelled jugs from the territory of Kyrgyzstan. They were partly described in Bernshtam’s publications at that time (Chuyskaya dolina, 1950, table 86, 2–5). The latest one, coated with monochromic green glaze and decorated with a wavy line around the neck originates from the Ak-Beshim Christian complex (Semyonov, 2002: figs. 68,21). But the jug from the Chuy valley is the brightest and visually the most interest- ing (ill. XIX). It consists of two cylindrical parts—the body and the neck, united with nearly horizontal shoulders, and a handle round in cross-section. Its surface is painted with white slip and almost completely covered by ornament. Cylindrical surfaces are covered with elongated friezes, concluded in a brown frame with S-shaped signs. Five almond-shaped cartouches, formed by the images of bines with a stylised flower in the upper part, are lo- cated in the field near each other. The drawing was made with a thin, contoured brown line, and then it was painted over in reddish, green, brown or light rose colour. There is a brown coloured pseudo-epigraphic frieze on the shoulders. Tuvaks (ill. XX) are another original group of enamelled (and unglazed) vessels. They can be monochromic, but there are also decorated items. In the latter case the décor is made of vertical strips as if flowing down from top to bottom. These strips are either of pseudo- epigraphic nature, or consist of rows of separate or double specks. When we speak about enamelled ceramics, first of all we imagine bowls—kese. Enam- elled bowls of the 11th century as a rule have a white background and are completely cov- ered with glaze on the inside, while on the outside there is only a strip of glaze going along the edge (ill. XXI). 93

The Artistic Culture of Central Asia and Azerbaijan in the 9th–15th centuries • Ceramics Ornamental compositions are made in two ways, depending on the areas of decoration. The central part is filled with a symmetrical ornament with a fixed centre. In most cases it is a whirl rosette of different shapes or two- or four-bud flowers of a pomegranate tree. The peripheral part along the edge is most often filled with a frieze with epigraphic (more exactly pseudo-epigraphic) ornament, sometimes separated by a flower-rosette (ill. XXII). The external side remains mainly unornamented or is decorated with a number of slant- ed lines. The drawing is made in clearly defined colours without any preliminary contour drawing. In a number of cases such ornament is complemented with underglaze engraving of separate details. In the second half of the 11th century appears ceramics with painting in brown colour with a shade of khaki against yellowish background. The ornament in this case covers almost all the surface of a vessel, a good example of which is a plate from Sadyr-Kurgan (ill. XXIII). Nearly the whole external surface is also covered with glaze. A number of changes occur in the décor of ceramic items in the 12th century. Retaining in general the former range of colour, the drawing often becomes more abstract: one of the most widely spread is a type of ornamentation which is known in archeological circles as ‘fried eggs with onion’—formless spots of yellow, green or light-brown colour filling the whole sur- face. But on some items the décor still retains a certain sense. For example, a dish—lyagan from Sadyr-Kurgan has a drawing made in a linear technique using a light green pigment: a big circumference in the centre is filled with rows of yellow and green speckles, and six lan- cet-like leaves-beams alternating with yellow lines bifurcating at the edge, diverge from it. The remaining free space is symmetrically filled with green and yellow points (ill. XXIV). At the time of the Karakhanids the smaller vessels are also covered with glaze: pialas, which also appear in our area at the time, and dishes, which function is not always clear (ill. XXV). The décor of such items is a little bit simplified; in a number of cases it is covered with monochromic white, green or lettuce green underglaze slip. In a number of cases, instead of abstract geometric, botanical or epigraphic motif, the pot- ter drew animate creatures: a frog, a bear (?), a man (?) (Chuyskaya dolina, 1950, table 83). Of all zoomorphic and anthropomorphous creatures the images of birds were most popular. Two such images come from the territory of the northern Kyrgyzstan: from Burana and from Sukuluk. In the first case a bird (a cock—?) is depicted on the white background in the cen- tre of a bowl together with an Arabic inscription. But the bowl from Sukuluk (ill. XXVI) is more famous, and has become already a classic item: a running pheasant is painted in the centre of the bottom on a light yellow background with the use of the contour tech- nique and brown, reddish and green colours; a frieze of three Arabic letters repeated several times adorns the edge. We can see the same plot on a glazed dish from Karabulak. A pheas- ant with a long tail is depicted on the bottom and body of the vessel. The board is decorated with alternating triangles and semiovals, the contour of which is engraved and the inter- nal space is filled with spotted drawing. The colour range consists of red-brown and green shades (Brykina, 1974, p. 74). We must say a few words about another large group of enamelled ceramic items, name- ly lamps—chirags. It should be mentioned that most of them took an active part in every- day life in the past and, besides, had a regular contact with fire, which did not pass without a trace: very often they are found in a fragmented condition, and sometimes with a burnt 94

Kyrgyzstan Fig. 2. 95

The Artistic Culture of Central Asia and Azerbaijan in the 9th–15th centuries • Ceramics spout. Perhaps, that is why in their descriptions the main accent is put on an artistic element that appeared relatively late, in the second half of the 11th century: the heel on the handle with a relief ornament of a stylised botanical character and rarely of a zoomorphic nature (fig. 2). There is no principal difference between specimens from the northern (ill. XXVII) and the southern Kyrgyzstan, but there is a certain change of form and colour of the coating, which was chronologically conditioned: from the light glaze over a round body to the brown and green with a faceted body. In the 13th–15th centuries, after profound political perturbations and the reconstruction of the whole life support system, connected with the Mongol invasion, cardinal changes also occur in the colour palette used by potters: warm and sometimes pastel tones are replaced by cooler colours—blue, dark blue, azure, grey-brown and, in fewer cases, red-brown (ill. XXX- II–XXXV). Zoomorphic and epigraphic themes gradually disappear from the décor. Orna- mentation, on the one hand, becomes dryer, more laconic and geometric (ill. XXIX–XXXI), on the other, in connection with botanical motifs it becomes more realistic (ill. XXXII); this is well illustrated by the bowls from the site of Sadyr-Kurgan which yielded the richest ma- terial of the 13th–15th centuries of all the sites of the northern Kyrgyzstan. However, the lat- est example is a bright, but a short-lived phenomenon probably influenced by the imitation of the Chinese porcelain. This period is also marked by transformation in the construction of ornamental com- positions. Apart from the traditional compositions with the emphasised centre and the or- namental frieze along the edge with the empty middle space in between (ill. XXIX–XXX), three-part compositions with a stressed centre appear, occupying the entire painted field and leaving no space for the board elements (ill. XXXII–XXXIII). Although the motif of the open pomegranate flower is still present in them, the manner of its execution cardi- nally differs from the ornaments of the Karakhanids’ time (ill. XXXIV). There is also a certain shift of accent taking place—from the decoration of solely inter- nal surfaces of open vessels to the development of a design of outer surface (ill. XXXIII). The ornamental friezes from the outer surface along the edge become fully fledged, equal in complexity and saturation to the friezes in the internal space. Moreover, on a number of items, such as a cup from Sadyr-Kurgan, external friezes are placed on two levels: the up- per is a twining bine, the lower is a pseudo-epigraphic one (ill. XXXI). Ceramics of the south of modern Kyrgyzstan develops, in general, in the same direction, but there is certain originality, what is well seen from the bowls and vessels from the col- lection of the research centre Sulayman-Too. So, one of the tuvaks from Osh (ill. XXXVI) clearly demonstrates one more direction in the development of the artistic particularities of décor—the glazing of relief surfaces. In this case the lower part of a vessel, which is chan- nelled, is a relief. The upper ornamental belt is made in the standard technique of the un- derglaze painting: a simple wavy band with sharp upper edges. However, the décor of this tuvak cardinally differs in composition from the previous ones. A bowl-kese on a round base from Osh (d=18 cm at the mouth, 9 cm at the bottom) has an absolutely typical décor for its time. A rosette is depicted on the bottom of the inner part, covered with white slip; however this time it does not a whirl-like shape as was common in the Karakhanids’ time, but with straight rays. The décor along the edge contains not only speckles as it was common in the earlier time, but also a double straight line. On the outside 96

Glazed ceramics (9th–early 13th century) Glazed bowl. Talas valley. Sadyr-Korgon site. Kyrgyzstan. 97

The Artistic Culture of Central Asia and Azerbaijan in the 9th–15th centuries • Ceramics Glazed bowl. Talas valley. Sadyr-Korgon site. 11th century. Kyrgyzstan. 98