Dragon Images in the Iyus Buried Treasure Metal Workings (The Technological, Functional, Iconographic and Symbolic Contexts)

Among a vast collection of metal workings in the Iyus buried treasure there is a whole series of objects belonging to the art bronze of the Xiongnu period. These workings are a variegated social and cultural phenomenon. A special place among them belongs to the metal workings depicting a dragon coiled into a half-spiral. Comprehensive research (including technological, functional, iconographic one and spacial composition analysis) of the objects bearing this mythical creature’s image allowed to clarify a number of important aspects for its historical and cultural interpretation. First of all, using the obtained data we managed to establish that the image of a dragon in metal workings created between 1000 B.C. and 1000 A.D. does not only reflect foreign cultural influence and the image’s integration into the local Siberian environment, but also a definite independent historical period of the development of oriental dragonology in South Siberia. The results of the research reveal its evident connections with consecutive historical development dynamics of dragon image mythology in the early Iron Age, as well as the correlation of this image with the paleoastronomic concept.

Keywords: South Siberia, the Xiongnu period, the Iyus buried treasure, metal workings, dragon image.