vessel; 容器(Chinese) BM-MAS.52

Period:Unknown Production date:1stC-4thC (Whitfield 1985)
Materials:pottery, 陶器 (Chinese),
Technique:mould-made, incised, 雕刻 (Chinese), 模製 (Chinese),
Subjects:cattle 哺乳動物 (Chinese)
Dimensions:Height: 3.30 centimetres Width: 9.80 centimetres

Description:
Spout of a clay vessel. The spout was made of two halves which were joined together. The tip is shaped like the head of an ox.
IMG


Comments:EnglishFrom Whitfield 1985:The terracotta figurines are by far the most numerous and entertaining of the finds from Yotkan, with large numbers in the British Museum in addition to those acquired by Stein, while other collections are equally large, such as the collection in Leningrad which forms the basis of D’yakonova’s major monograph (N.V.D’yakonova and S.S.Sorokin, 1960).The three pieces shown here are among the larger examples, some of the others being minute, for example, the monkeys caricaturing human gestures and antics in Fig. 103. Despite their small size, they are endowed with liveliness and an attention to characteristic detail. The basic forms are kept simple, as seen here in the legs of the camel. Small stamped or incised strokes add all that is necessary to complete the depiction (see also the hedgehog figurine in Fig. 86). For these strokes the modelers evidently had a number of small wooden tools that could be used singly or in combination-note especially the effective use of a dot and a curved element for the crest and tail of the hoopoe, and their separate use for the different textures of the breast plumage and wing feathers. A ring punch was apparently used for the eye.All three figurines are probably simply models or toys. Figure 103 shows another hoopoe in miniature form, so it would seem that the Yotkan potters simply delighted in rendering all manner of creatures and objects (such as the miniature vases in the same figure) in clay. The piece in Pl. 76-1 is luted in two parts, with the upper part decorated in the form of an ox’s head and a small aperture through the mouth. It was thought by Stein to be a spout from a vessel, but its apparently intact state and strong upward curvature suggests that it was a piece on its own, perhaps a model of a rhyton. ChineseFrom Whitfield 1985:大英博物館收藏很多從約特幹出土的而且也饒有興趣的陶像，除斯坦因收集品外，其他的收集品的量也一樣多，如D’yakonova的專著提供了聖彼得堡收集品的情況(N.V.D’yakonova and S.S.Sorokin, 1960)。本圖展示的三件是其中屬較大的一類，其他的則較小。例如Fig. 103中所見的擬人化的猴，滑稽可愛。儘管它們的尺寸都很小，但卻抓住了細部特徵，表現的活靈活現。如駱駝的基本形狀是極爲素樸，從其腿部即可以看出來。細部是在用模子壓出來之後，再刻劃出來的（也可參照Fig. 86的《針鼠形容器》）。談起這些刻劃，顯然製作它們的工匠們是有很多小的木製工具，有單獨使用的，也有組合使用的。特別是戴勝，冠毛和尾巴部分是圓點和彎曲的工具加工的，胸部和翅膀部分的羽毛則使用的是另一種工具，其眼睛顯然是用指環狀物壓出來的。三個小像可能都是簡單的模型或玩具，此外Figure 103展示了另一戴勝小像。由此看，約特幹的工匠們可能是以塑出各種各樣的生物或物品（例如，小型瓶或壺等）來娛樂的。76－1圖的牡牛，是用粘土粘合了兩個部分，做成圓錐狀，一端作成牛頭。嘴上打了小孔。斯坦因認爲此件小作品是容器的注入口，但是從其完整的形態以及整體都強烈地向上翹著看，它應該獨立的作品，可能是角狀杯的一個模型。