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Toreutics

Toreutics is the art of carving metal, hammering gold or silver (or other materials) achiving embossing and chasing to form minute detailed reliefs or small engraved patterns.

Archeological background
Toreutics claims great antiquity. It was practised in the 'Bronze Age' and was well established centuries before the shaft graves. Toreutics florished to an unusual degree among the peoples of Asia Minor, Assyria, Babilonia, and passed from thence to ancient Iran (Persia), where it had a great impact on Persian toreutics. One spectacular example of the direct influence of Persia in toreutics is believed to be the Treasure of Nagyszentmiklós found in Transylvania in 1799, and considered to be work of Old Bulgarian gold smiths. It consists of 23 vessels and has been attributed to Attila's Huns, the Avars and Pechenegs. The majority of scholars however, consider it Bulgarian (Proto-Bulgarians, Bulgars), because of its runic inscriptions.

Etymology
Toreutics comes from Greek - toreutikos: of metal work; from toreutos: worked in relief; from toreuein; to work in relief; from toreus: a boring tool; see terə- in Indo-European roots. The art of working metal or other materials by the use of embossing and chasing to form minute detailed reliefs. The origin of 'toreutics' goes back to 1830–40; < Gk toreutikós, equiv. to toreú(ein) to bore, chase, emboss (v. deriv. of toreús graving tool) -tikos.

Technique variations

 * Beaten copper (Tibet)

Patterns




Characteristic patterns of the Persian-Sassanide art exhibits similarity to the art of the Bulgars, Khazars, Sak-Scythian, and have recurred at different locations in Central Asia. Hundred and eight years after the excavation of the Treasure of Nagyszentmiklós' (1799) with a toreutics expo of 'griffin fighting an elk' (see figure on the left) - another griffin-&-elk motif has been discovered in the tombs of Hsiung-nu (early Huns) during Colonel Pyotr Kuzmich Kozlov, expedition (1907-09) near Urga (Outer Mongolia) , ,. A gold symbolization of 'animals-in-fight' has been also found in the vicinity of the city of Turpan - the principle crossroad of the northern Silk Road (see the Turpan gold on your right).

The Art of the Nomads


The early history of the Nomads is shrouded with enigma, which lifts somewhat only after their contact with cultures possessing written histories. All nomadic people of the vast steppes of Asia were a major force in history. Their power was not in the empires they built, but rather, it was the turmoil they have created on ancient civilizations such as China or Persia, affecting substantially their historical development. It is believed that the nomads ranged relentlessly and widely, forever moving on for sake of richer grazing for their horses and sheep. Migrations were often seasonal. In the course of such migrations nomads wove for them selves an imperishable and precious intimacy with their land and its natural resources. They could extract gold with unprecedented ease. In summer, during the tribe's seasonal migration, a fleece would be weighted on a riverbed to collect particles of alluvial gold. Upon the tribes' return, the fleece would be sheared, burned, and gold ingot the size of a horse's hoof would result. The 'tay tayak' (the horse's hoof) was a unit of gold for a long period: a measure of golden metal rather then money, since gold was not fabricated as currency. Usage of gold was essentially spiritual - as emblems of priestly office, of prizes for physical prowess in ritual sport, or as adornment of the sacral ceremony of marriage.

Art Recursion


Barthes had discussed the art patterns as narratives of cultural coexistence (for details see: Introduction to structural analysis of narratives ). However, Spivey summirizes that cultural coexistence is not the single reason to explain the phenomenon of art being recursive. Chomsky at al. argued that the core property of human communication (in a 'narrow' sense, including language) is recursion. Accoding to Chomsky at al. recursion is attributed to limited syntax in the conception - with a finite set of elements to yield a potentially infinite array of discrete expressions. Thomas explaines the art recursion (in a 'broad' sense) with imposion of archetypal structures existing beyond the faculty of human communication. Studying Persian-Sassanide art patterns and possibly their early Nomadic conceptions is uncovering their symbols (symbolism) and creative imagination.

Archaeological Background

 * The sack of Tiflis by the Khazars, presumably in the spring of AD 629, .... [During the period of occupation] the Kagan sent out inspectors to supervise the manufacture of gold, silver, iron and copper products. ... [Thus] in the course of their incessant Caucasian campaigns during the seventh century, the Khazars made contact with a culture which had grown out of the Persian Sassanide tradition. Accordingly, the products of this culture spread to the people of the steppes not only by trade, but by means of plunder and even by taxation.... All the tracks that we have assiduously followed in the hope of discovering the origins of Magyar art in the tenth century have led us back to Khazar territory



The above is a remark of the Hungarian scholar refering to the spectacular archaeological finds known as the "Treasure of Nagyszentmiklós". The treasure, consisting of twenty-three gold vessels, dating from the tenth century, was found in 1791 in the vicinity of the town of Nagyszentmiklós (now Sânnicolau Mare, Romania). Bartha points out that the figure of the "victorious Prince" dragging a prisoner along by his hair (see figure on your left), and the mythological scene at the back of the golden jar, as well as the design of other ornamental objects, show close affinities with the finds in Novi Pazar in Bulgaria and in Khazar Sarkel. As both Magyars and Bulgars were under Khazar suzerainty for protracted periods, and the warrior, together with the rest of the treasure, gives us at least some idea of the arts practised within the Khazar Empire (the Persian and Byzantine influence is predominant, as one would expect).



One school of Hungarian archaeologists maintains that the tenth century gold and silversmiths working in Hungary were actually Khazars. Magyars migrated to Hungary in 896, led by a dissident Khazar tribe, known as the Kabars, who settled with them in their new home. The Kabar-Khazars were known as skilled gold and silversmiths; the (originally more primitive) Magyars only acquired these skills in their new country. Thus the theory of the Khazar origin of at least some of the archaeological finds in Hungary is not implausible - as will become clearer in the light of the Magyar-Khazar nexus discussed elsewhere.

Khazar art, like that of the Bulgars and Magyars, is believed to modelled on Persian-Sassanide art patterns. The Soviet archaeologist Bader emphasized the role of the Khazars in the spreading of Persian-style silver-ware towards the north. Some of these finds may have been re-exported by the Khazars, true to their role as middlemen; others were imitations made in Khazar workshops - the ruins of which have been traced near the ancient Khazar fortress of Sarkel. The Swedish archaeologist T. J. Arne mentions ornamental plates, clasps and buckles found as far as Sweden, of Sassanide and Byzantine inspiration, manufactured in Khazaria or territories under their influence. Thus Khazars could have been intermediaries in the spreading of Persian-Sassanide art in Eastern Europe.