The ancient book of mountains and seas on the mainland records many unheard of rare birds and beasts, or monsters.
For these strange beasts beyond the cognition of modern people, some people think that they are fictional, and some people think that they have indeed existed, and each expresses his own opinions, and there is no consensus, and the debate has never stopped.
Carving.
The carving is recorded in the Classic of Mountains and Seas and the Classic of Nanshan, and the original text is:
"Five hundred miles to the east, the mountain of Deer Wu, there is no grass and trees on it, and there are many golden stones." The water of Zegen is out of the water, and the south stream is poured into the water. The water has a beast, known as the eagle, its shape is like a carving and has horns, and its sound is like the sound of a baby, which is a man-eater. ”
According to the records of the Classic of Mountains and Seas, later generations also described the image of the carving, and there are roughly two kinds.
"Xiao Ya": "The carving is like a carving and wears a horn." ”
"The Pearl of Things": "The carving is like a leopard, the beak of the bird is a corner, and the sound is like a baby." ”
One is to say that the eagle looks like a carving and has horns on its head; the other is that it is a beast, in the shape of a leopard, with a bird's beak and a horn on its head.
The ornament unearthed in the tomb of Narin Gaotu is a monster figure, which is 11 cm long, 11.5 cm high and weighs 160 grams. The monster consists of an eagle's beak, deformed antlers, a horse's head, and a sheep's body, and its tail is also the shape of an eagle's beak-shaped beast's head.
The artifact, the first excavation in history and the only one in existence, has not been found in other tombs, and in appearance it bears many similarities to the legendary carving: the body of the beast, the beak of the bird, and the horns on the head. Several features of the carving can be matched on this monster gold ornament.
Naturally, many people believe that this is evidence that the eagle once survived, and people may have seen it thousands of years ago, and its image has survived.
Whether the beasts in the Classic of Mountains and Seas have ever existed in reality is unknown, but it is an exaggeration to think that the monster image of this mysterious gold ornament is a carving.
The Nalingaotu Warring States Tomb, where this artifact was unearthed, is located on the Ordos Plateau, which was historically an active area of various Xiongnu tribes, and many Warring States Xiongnu tombs have also been found here.
Although the same gold ornaments as the tomb of Narin Gaotu have not been excavated, there are many similarities.
For example, in the M2 tomb on the bank of the West Ditch, an upright monster pattern gold ornament was excavated. The figure is also an eagle's beak, antlers, tiger body, horse's hooves, and horns on the head up to the tail.
There are also 12 gold medallions with tiger bird patterns unearthed from the tombs of the Xiongnu in the Warring States of Aruchadon, which combine the characteristics of tigers and birds and are also the image of combined monsters.
Combined with the history and cultural relics of the development of the Xiongnu, it can be inferred that the gold jewelry of these monster images is the product of the totem worship of the Xiongnu tribe.
Ancient tribes all had their own totems of worship, even the Central Plains Dynasty was no exception, and it was common for the image of totems to appear on ornaments.
In the case of these combined monsters that appear in the tombs of several Warring States Xiongnu, they are likely to represent the meaning of the unity of tribes, because the Huns themselves have gradually developed from loose tribal alliances to powerful kingdoms.
Each monster image is a consortium of several animal features, meaning "alliance", reflecting that tribes with a single animal as a totem eventually form a tribal alliance group.
Therefore, although the image of the gold ornament of the Narin Gaotu Tomb Monster is quite similar to the legendary carving, it should be just a coincidence, and the tribal totem is its true meaning.