Archaeologists in Kazakhstan have discovered two gold ornaments in a 1,500-year-old tomb that feature the earliest known depictions of the great khan, or “khagan,” of the Göktürks — a nomadic confederation of Turkic-speaking peoples who occupied the region for around three centuries, according to an archaeologist who excavated the site.
The lavish gold plaques portray “the crowned sovereign, majestically sitting on a throne in a saintly pose and surrounded by servants,” Zainolla Samashev, an archaeologist at Kazakhstan’s Institute of Archaeology who led the excavation, told Live Science in an email. “This clearly depicts the sacred nature of power in ancient Turkic society.”
The finds are from the Eleke Sazy site near Kazakhstan’s remote eastern borders with China, Mongolia and Russian Siberia, where Samashev and his colleagues have worked since 2016.
I dunno—seems to me like anyone in Central Asia seeing that image in that era would immediately associate it with Azhdahak, the mythical Zoroastrian demon-king with two snakes protruding from his shoulders: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/be/Bowl_Depicting_King_Zahhak_with_Snakes_Protruding_from_His_Shoulders_MET_sf64-274-3c.jpg
How else does one sit on a throne?
Timidly.
