| Court art of Sogdian Samarqand in the 7th century AD | |||||||||||||
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Western wall
What about figure 1 near the left end of the western wall? - Look below:
Al'baum's copy shows the outline of head and shoulder (above, left). Today these details can hardly be verified. But at the tail of this figure 1 clearly a sword hangs down, a detail Al'baum did not recognize. Look below:
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The arrows point to the straight long sword of figure 1. At the right the lower part of figure 2 can be seen. |
Now we try to put our observations into Al'baum's drawing:
Close to figure 1 there are traces of a figure 1A (no Al'baum-number). Like figure 1 the person moves to the left. In our opinion they belong together with figures 26 and 27 to one and the same group. This group moves first from right to left, up to the next register where the direction changes. Note that figure 26 has a red-coloured caftan. That of figure 27 (inscription-bearer) is white. Its seems not impossible that both figures (Turks!) belong to a set of group captains. Their position is extraordinary - indicated by the movement and by the inscription. The formal position of this group corresponds with the great gear of "banners and drums" at the opposite end of the wall, as we have tried to demonstrate with our proposed modular scheme. Consequently, the context of the great inscription (on figure 27) must have been restricted to a very limited area of the western wall paintings, i.e., the left half with the supposed image of Samarqand's ruler Varxuman.
Compare discussion of the great inscription
Compare the erroneous reconstruction of B. Maršak
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