{"id":55338,"date":"2022-07-19T00:25:42","date_gmt":"2022-07-19T05:25:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu\/nll\/?p=55338"},"modified":"2022-07-19T08:26:03","modified_gmt":"2022-07-19T13:26:03","slug":"archaic-greek-in-a-modern-world-part-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu\/nll\/?p=55338","title":{"rendered":"Archaic Greek in a modern world, part 3"},"content":{"rendered":"

As the art historians Richard Barnhart (Yale) and Lukas Nickel (Vienna) have shown, Greek elements, images, and techniques reached into the mausoleum of the\u00a0First Emperor of the Qin<\/a>\u00a0(259-210 BC) and the massive\u00a0terracotta army<\/a>\u00a0entombed there.\u00a0 See \"Of jackal and hide and Old Sinitic reconstructions<\/a>\" (12\/16\/18) and the many references thereto.\u00a0 The continuing research of Lucas Christopolous has cemented the presence of things Greek in East Asia even more securely.\u00a0 Here we present just one significant finding documented by Lucas' investigations, namely, the crouching position of warriors in the First Emperor's army and in my favorite artifact from Eastern Central Asia, a kneeling bronze statue from the south bank of the K\u00fcn\u00e4s River, Xinyuan (K\u00fcn\u00e4s) County, Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region Museum Collection, exhibited in the University of Pennsylvania Museum in 2011.\u00a0 See object 44 on p. 155 of Victor H. Mair, ed.,\u00a0Secrets of the Silk Road<\/i>\u00a0(Santa Ana, CA:\u00a0 Bowers Museum, 2010).\u00a0 See also p. 47\u00a0here<\/a>\u00a0and p. 163 of Mallory and Mair,\u00a0The Tarim Mummies\u00a0<\/i>(London:\u00a0 Thames and Hudson, 2000).<\/p>\n

Notice that the bronze warrior is bare-chested, has a long nose and round eyes, is wearing a pleated kilt and helmet in a Trojan or other Greek style, and has additional Greek attributes.\u00a0 Since another similar figure was found nearby, this is not a one-off fluke.\u00a0 He is often said to be from the 5th c. BC, but see below for Lucas' slightly later dating.<\/p>\n

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One of the terra cotta warriors:<\/p>\n

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The K\u00fcn\u00e4s River bronze warrior:<\/p>\n

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Lucas calls this the \"low war-stance\" and notes that the postures of the Qin and Greco-Bactrian (as he styles the K\u00fcn\u00e4s River figure) are similar.\u00a0 For infantry, this would make them a smaller target while facing projectilles such as arrows and spears.<\/p>\n

Lucas observes:<\/p>\n

For the Pontic Greeks from the Black Sea, they also seem to have kept the practice of that posture in their traditional Pyrrhic dance (Pyrrichion<\/i>, or\u00a0Serra<\/i>), a descendant of the one that I describe in the dance chapter of my forthcoming article in\u00a0Sino-Platonic Papers<\/i>\u00a0and similar to the ancient\u00a0Pochen wu\u00a0<\/i>of the Xianbei dancers.\u00a0\u00a0<\/i>[VHM:\u00a0 p\u00f2ch\u00e9nw\u01d4 \u7834\u9673\u821e (\"breaking through the battle array\"), though Lucas suggests that this is actually a transcription of the ultimately Greek word for the dance.]\u00a0 They lost the acrobatic moves, the weapons, and the shields, but some of the footsteps would have kept the ancient war-moves, positions, and footwork of the past. One main move is to get down in that \"one knee on the ground posture\" then to stand up\u00a0 again (video 5:04).<\/p>\n