The Byzantine Element in the Turkic Gold Cupwith the Tiger Handle Excavated at Boma,XinjiangLin YingZhongshan University,Guangzhou, China

In 1997, a hoard with assortedexquisite gold and silver vesselswas found by the local farmers inBoma, Yili (Ili) county, Xinjiang[Fig. 1]. The new finds were soonsent to the Yili County Museum.An Yingxin, the director of the

museum, first reported thetreasure and published apreliminary study in Wenwu (An1999). After comparing the newfinds with other artifactsunearthed in its vicinity, he datedthese precious metal works to thesixth or seventh century CE, thatis, the late Northern Dynasty toearly Tang period. Concerning theowner of the treasure he wrote:

“During the sixthcentury, the TekesiRiver basin was thepolitical center ofthe Western Turks.The court of theqaghan was situatedthere. The discoveryof these high-qualitygold and silver ob-jects will no doubtbe helpful for lo-cating the court ofthe qaghan andanswering otherrelated questions.”

A gold cup with a tiger handleis especially eye-catching amongthese treasures that most likelybelonged to a Turkic chieftain oreven the qaghan himself. It is 16cm high, 10.5 cm in body diameterand weighs 725 g. The rhombus(lozenge) pattern is mold-pressedon the whole body of the cup, andoval red agate is inlaid in eachrhombus. A tiger sculpture isriveted to the upper body of thework as a handle. The tiger has awide, round head, two erect ears,and a long and narrow body. Thestripes that identify the tiger areetched over the whole body of theanimal [Figs. 2, 3].

The Turks were fond of drinkingwine. Two of the ten titles of theirleading officials were derived fromthe words for wine and a drinkingvessel (Cai 1998, pp. 190–91).The gold cup from Bomaresembles the drinking vesselscarved on certain of the Turkicperiod stone images (balbals)found Tuva, southern Siberia (Sun1996, p. 262, Fig. 31). It is verylikely that such cups were used forwine.

The combination of drinking cupand tiger handle reminds us of theclose relationship between thetiger (also the leopard) and

Fig. 1. The location of Boma.

Fig. 2 (left). The BomaCup.

Fig. 3 (below). Thehandle of the Bomacup. All drawings copy-right © 2008 Lin Ying.

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Dionysus. In Greek myth,Dionysus, the son of Zeus andSemele, once wandered aroundEgypt and India, accompanied byhis teacher Silenus and a groupof satyrs and maenads (Cary etal. 1979, pp. 478–82). After that,he was worshipped by Greeks asthe god of wine. The personalmount of Dionysus was a tiger orleopard. Therefore, the twoanimals constituted a key elementin Greek and Roman depictions ofDionysus. Frequently, they wereportrayed as lying prone on thewine vessel and drinking the wineeagerly. Sculptures of the animalsare usually similar in body shape,but they can be distinguished bythe pattern on the bodies. Thetiger is striped, while the leopardis identified by roundels.

The theme of Dionysus and histiger was also adopted bycraftsman in the Parthian Empire(247 BCE – 226 CE). For example,there is a Parthian drinking vesselwith a tiger handle [Fig. 4].Gradually the tiger image came tobe employed for a specific type ofhandle not even connected withwine or Dionysus, as can be seenin Sasanian and then Islamic

tableware [Figs. 5, 6] (Etting-hausen 1972, pp. 2–8, Fig. 5).

There are some similaritiesbetween the tiger sculpture on theBoma cup and the tiger handle of

the Sasanian vessel:for instance, the thinbody, the pattern ofstripe, and therough treatment ofthe tiger’s feet. Was

the Boma gold cup an import fromSasanian Iran? This seemsunlikely. First, the rhomboidpattern is rare in Sasanian goldand silver works. On the otherhand, it is closer that found onByzantine silverware unearthedfrom an Avar tomb in Albania [Fig.7, next page] (Daim et al. 1996,p. 435, no. 5.502). In addition, thered stone inlay is typicaldecoration for the jewelry andmetal work in the steppe in pre–Islamic times. Most gold objectsin the Boma hoard are inset withred stones. Therefore we believethat the Boma gold cup wasproduced by a local Turkiccraftsman. The tiger handlesimilarly is not likely to be animitation of Sasanian silver work.The tiger was riveted to the upperbody of the vessel where it seemsto be out of proportion with thesize of the cup. In contrast, theSasanian tiger handle is propor-tionate in size to the body of thevessel, and the head and frontclaws of the tiger are located onthe rim of the vessel, as if theanimal is eager to drink the wine.Thus we may conclude that the

Fig. 4. Bronze jug with feline handle, Parthian, 2nd

century BCE, Cincinnati Art Museum. AfterEttinghausen 1972, Fig. 27.

Fig. 5. Sasanian silver jug, partially gilt,with a tiger handle, Iran, 5th centuryCE. The Cleveland Museum of Art. Af-ter Ettinghausen 1972, Fig. 28.

Fig. 6. (left) Bronze ewer with felinehandle, Iran, 8th century CE ; (right)Bronze juglike lamp inlaid with silverand copper, Seljuq period, late 12th

century CE. The Metropolitan Museumof Art. After Ettinghausen 1972, Figs.30, 31.

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tiger handle of the Boma cup mostlikely had been produced as asculpture before it was attachedto the cup rather than being madespecifically as a handle to matchthe vessel.

When we examinethe development ofsculptures depictingtigers or leopards inByzantium from thefourth century to thesixth century, we findthat the tiger handleof Boma has a closerrelationship to theByzantine works thanto the Sasanian ex-ample. Small sculp-tures of tigers orleopards appeared asearly as the era of theRoman Empire. ByLate Antiquity,Christianity hadreplaced traditionalworship and becomethe state religion. Aspagan customs, thefestival and cere-monies for Dionysuswere finally elimin-ated. It is possiblyagainst this back-ground that thesculptures of tigers

and leopards lost their connectionwith wine and Dionysus began toappear more widely on otherobjects [Figs. 8, 9].

In the meantime, gold andsilver drinking ves-sels with tiger orleopard handlescontinued to be madein the territory of theByzantine Empire.N e v e r t h e l e s s ,c o n t e m p o r a r i e sseemed to like tocollect the handles asprecious objects. Twosmall silver sculp-tures of a tiger and aleopard were dis-covered in theTraprain Hoard inScotland between1914 and 1919 [Fig.10, facing page](Curle 1923, pp. 1–5,79–80). They are ofthe same size, butdiffer in the pattern ofbody decoration.

Those who have studied this hoardbelieve that they were originally apair of handles for a ewer. In 1992,another small silver tiger wasfound in the Hoxne Hoard inEngland [Fig. 11, facing page](Bland and Johns 1993, p. 24).The Hoxne tiger sculpture wasmore exquisitely sculpted thanwere the feline handles found atTraprain. The body of the tiger wasengraved with stripes and inlaidwith niello. In this case, as atTraprain, the sculpture depicted afemale tiger; most likely, pairedwith a sculpture of a male tiger,the two would have been used ashandles for a large silver vessel.The Hoxne Hoard, which wasburied in the beginning of the fifthcentury, included over 200 goldand silver objects and 14,000 goldand silver Roman coins. The goodcondition of these treasuresindicates that they were wellpreserved in their day and laterplaced in the hoard after carefulplanning. This is further testimonythat people liked to collect thesesmall tiger or leopard handles as

Fig. 7. Byzantine silver vessel, Varp, Albania.After Daim et al. 1996, no. 5.502.

Fig. 8. Gold bracelet, Egypt (?), 7th centuryCE. After Ross 1962-1972, Vol. 2, Pl. XXXVIII.

Fig. 9. Silver lamp, Egypt, 7th centuryCE. After Ross 1962-1972, Vol. 2, Pl.XXIX.

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separate sculptures in daily life.

The sixth century saw the riseof the Western Turk Empire.Sizabul (Ishtemi – Shi–dian–mixxxx in Chinese sources), thefirst qaghan of the Western Turks,sent envoys to Constantinople andestablished diplomatic relationswith the Byzantine Empire. From568 to 576, at least five Byzantineenvoys visited his court. WhenValentinus, the last Byzantineenvoy, set out from Con-stantinople for the territory of theWestern Turks, he was ac-companied by 106 Turks who hadfollowed the previous Romanenvoys back to Constantinopleand now joined the delegation toreturn their homeland (Blockley1986, pp. 171–79). In the sameperiod, the Western Turksextended their military power tothe eastern frontier of theByzantine Empire, aiming topunish the Avars, their oldenemies. When Valentinus arrivedat the court of the qaghan, theWestern Turk soldiers wereundertaking an expedition westand invaded the Crimea (Ibid.). Inthis situation, the Byzantine silverobjects were mostly likely carriedinto the Western Turk Empire asdiplomatic gifts or spoils of war.

There is additional archae-ological evidence for the presentargument. The Seuso Treasure,which became known to the publicin 1990, consists of 14 pieces ofRoman silver tableware. Theinscription on a silver plateindicates that they were onceowned by Seuso, possibly aRoman general of Celtic origin wholived in Pannonia, the Romanprovince south of the frontier onthe Danube. The plate, togetherwith other vessels, was producedaround the early fifth century(Painter 1990; Mango 1990;Mango and Bennett 1994, pp. 195,205–6, 238–39; for the date, seealso Nagy and Tóth 1990). A bigsilver drinking vessel (TheHippolytus Jug) of the SeusoTreasure [Fig.12a, b] has twohandles in the shape of leopards,whose style and technique ofsculpting resemble those of the

Fig. 10. Silver handles of leopards, 5 th century CE,Traprain, Scotland. After Curle 1923, Pl. XXXI.

Fig. 11. (right) Silver sculpture of a tiger, 5th cen-tury CE, Hoxne Hoard, Britain. Ph

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Fig. 12a, b. Silver amphora and its leopard handles, 4th-5th centuries CE(?), Seuso Treasure. After Mango and Bennett 1994, Figs. 5-1, 5-50.

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feline handles in the Traprain andHoxne Hoards. Prior to their beingre-attached before the auction atSotheby’s, the handles of theSeuso vessel had been separatedfrom its body. According to thestudies by Marlia Mango andKenneth Painter, at least twoRoman silver vessels are similarto the Seuso amphora. One, fromConcesti, Romania, is in thecollection of the State HermitageMuseum in Russia (Matzulewitsch1929, pp. 131–32; Kent andPainter 1977, p. 297). The shapeof the Concesti amphora is thesame as that of the Seuso one.However, the two handles, whichhad already been separated fromthe body of the vessel, aresculptures of centaurs instead ofa tiger or leopard [Fig. 13]. The

other example is some fragmentsof a silver amphora unearthed atTauteni-Bihor, Romania [Dumi-trascu 1973, pp. 116–18]. Whatsurvives of the reliefs from the sideof the vessel suggests that it ismost likely of the same type. Thistype of amphora came from theeastern Mediterranean region,especially from the workshops inConstantinople.

We do not know theowner and source ofSeuso Treasure.Nevertheless, theinscription on thesilver plate illustratesthat Pannonia wasonce a station in thelong journey of thetreasure. Pannonia,the Roman provinceon the Danubefrontier, was firstconquered by Attila,the leader of Huns,and then became a part ofOstrogothic Kingdom. The ownersof the two amphorae found inRomania were most l ikelychieftains of the Huns or Alans,who played important roles in themiddle and lower reaches of theDanube in the fifth century.

Priscus of Panium, the Romanenvoy who went to the court ofAttila in 449 CE, mentioned thatthe Romans gave the Huns manygifts for both men and women,including silver amphorae.Possibly, Roman silver ewers withtiger or leopard handles were sentinto the steppe as diplomatic gifts.In this process, the Roman habitof collecting the tiger handle as anindependent sculpture might havebeen adopted by the nomads. Agold necklace unearthed fromSimleu Silvanici, Romania, pro-vides additional evidence aboutthe interest in objects embodyingthe tiger or leopard sculptures[Fig. 14a, b] (Florescu and Miclea1979, pp. 92-95). The centerpendant of the necklace is a largebead, enclosed by two crossedrings. Two gold leopards, theirfront paws on the knot connectingthe chain and the pendant, faceeach other. Although the leopardsare much smaller than the handlesof Roman silver vessels, in theirshape and creative concept theyare similar. The hoard at SimleuSilvanici dates from the fifthcentury. Its owner was somebarbarian chieftain connected withthe Huns who had probablyimmigrated to the Danube valley.These barbarian tribes ruled the

local Dacians as the militaryvassals of Byzantine Empire.

The Xiongnu xxx (the ancestorsof the Huns) had a tradition ofrespecting the tiger and leopardas symbols of the heroic spirit. Thegold and silver works excavatedfrom the Xiongnu tombs in northChina show that the image of thetiger was highly valued. Chinesesources assert that the Turks weredescended from the Xiongnu. For

Fig. 13. Late Roman silver ewer,Concesti, Romania. After Matzulewitsch1929, Tafel 30.

Fig. 14a, b. Gold necklace with leoparddecoration, Simleu Silvanici, Romania.After Florescu and Miclea 1979, Figs.80, 81.

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instance, the account of the Tujuexxx (Turks) in the Beishi xxx (thestandard history of the NorthernDynasty, composed by Li Yanshouxxxx in the seventh century)states: “The ancestor of the Turkslived in the west of Xihai (the WestSea) as an independent tribe.They were originally a minor tribeof Xiongnu.” The Kül Tegin stelefrom the Orkhon Valley which waserected in 732 CE mentions achieftain named Bars bäg, whomarried the sister of the qaghanand was granted the title Qaghan(Rui 2001, p. 251, n. 26). “Bars”was an old loan word from Iranian,referring to a leopard. In Turkic,its meaning also embraced thetiger and other large felines. Thata member of the Turkic elite wasnamed after a tiger or leopardindicates that the worship of thesefierce animals continued in Turkicsociety. Possibly it was this culturaltradition which explains why theqaghans accepted the tiger orleopard handles from the Romanmetal vessels and then had themattached to their own preciousobjects.

The Turks had developed thetechnique of producing highquality gold and silver work. ATurfan document from the Astanagraveyard recorded that Jinshixxx (master of gold) Mo-pan-tuoxxxxx was sent by the qaghan tothe Gaochang Kingdom. Accordingto the Turfan documents, the foodprovided for foreign guests inGaochang was classified into threecategories. The master of gold wassupplied with the first-class food,indicating his high status in Turkicsociety. Clearly the craft of goldand silver manufacture was highlyvalued by the Turks. In 678 CE(the first year of the Shengli periodin the reign of Wu Zetian xxxx ),Mo-ch’o xxx (Qapaghan), Qaghanof the Turks, complained that thegold and silver wares sent byEmpress Wu Zetian were “allcounterfeit instead of qualifiedproducts” (cf. Yu 1996, pp. 206-7). The high connoisseurship ofTurkic aristocrats for the gold andsilver objects further illustratesthat the Turkic craftsman were

able to imitate the tiger handlesof Roman tableware.

In conclusion, the tiger handleof the Boma gold cup was verypossibly made in imitation of thetiger sculptures of some Romansilverware. When the worship ofDionysus had gradually dis-appeared in Christian Byzantium,the tiger sculpture came to beconnected again with wine in anew cultural context. The TurkicEmpire connected the Byzantine,Iranian, Indian, and Chinesecivilizations. The Turks not onlytransmitted the material andcultural achievements betweenEast and West, but also combinedin their own distinct culture theelements of different civilizations.Even if the influence of this newcreation was not long-lived, it wasthrough the Turks that foreigncultures penetrated into Eurasiamore profoundly. The Boma goldcup reveals the unique achieve-ment of the early Turks in thecultural exchange between Eastand West.

Acknowledgements

I want to express my gratitude toQu Junxiong xxxx and JiangZehuan xxxx in Hope Workshop,School of Chemistry, ZhongshanUniversity, who kindly made thedrawings for my article. My specialthank goes to Professor DanielWaugh for all his help, patienceand painstaking work to preparethis publication.

About the Author

Lin Ying is Associate Professor inthe Department of History,Zhongshan (Sun Yat-sen)University, at Guangzhou, China.Her dissertation examines howByzantine culture flowed into theTang Empire through nomadicpeople and Central Asianmerchants along the Silk Road [LinYing, Tangdai Fulin congshuoxxxxxxxxxx (Fulin, the Ruler ofTreasure Country: Byzantium andChina in the Tang Period), Beijing,2006]. She is now working on theeconomic and cultural contacts

between the Roman Empire andChina. She may be contacted at<linying2288@ yahoo.com>.

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The gold mask found at Boma along with the gold cup.

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