Early 20th Century Postcards as a Source for Studying the Buryats’ Archery Complex

Abstract

Purpose. The article analyzes items of the Buryats’ archery complex depicted on the postcards of the early 20th century. These are bows and arrows, quivers, bow cases, belts and one arrow storage. Also in the article, the history of photographs are examined, the authorship and dating of the photographs are found. Results. In total, four postcards with east Buryats and three postcards with west Buryats were found. The analysis showed that all the images have bows with similar geometrical features that tells us about the proximity of structures. Items similar in geometry are now kept in museums and private collections and belong to the Buryat traditional culture and differ from the Manchu tradition bows, popular among the peoples of South Siberia and Central Asia. All the Buryat quivers have a special shape and are called “humpbacked” in publications. The bow cases are shaped like half a bow. Quivers and bow cases are represented in two decorative traditions: western and eastern. In western tradition, usually the entire front surface of quivers and bow cases is covered with metal plates of various shapes. The edges were decorated with sub-rectangular plates using vajra and “ram’s horn symbols”. The central part of the bow cases was filled with discs, the same part of the quivers contains a disk and a ‘comet’. Eastern tradition shows the use of metal plates much less frequently. One image shows a quiver similar in design to Mongolian items, however, in shape resembling Buryat “humpbacked” quivers. One image shows an arrow storage – a case for storing arrows. The images also show the features of wearing and using items of the archery complex. Conclusion. The postcard images confirm previous conclusions about the uniqueness of the Buryat archery complex and make it possible to highlight new typical features. All of this tells us about the importance of referring to visual sources including postcards when studying weapons.