The Procession Scene

In 2005 we discovered an in situ section of painting in the southern half of the western corridor of the monumental building complex. The in field tracings and their subsequent digitisation revealed a unique scene in Chorasmia: a procession of animals and humans moving in a northerly direction towards the 'portrait' gallery. The procession revealed to date shows the remains of probably five quadrupeds with raised front legs. A black animal, probably a horse, leads the procession. It is followed by what is probably a very poorly preserved red animal, a blue grey animal, a pink/red animals and finally, another black horse. The human legs, visible in front of the blue/grey, the pink/red, and the extreme right black animal, wear either red or black trousers, possibly tucked into low boots. Procession scenes are well known in the broader Iranian world with which Chorasmia interacted. In 2008 we will continue to clear the southern section of the corridor, hopefully yielding more fragments to help us complete the procession scene. Click here read more about the documentation of in situ paintings.

Preliminary plan of the monumental building complex at Kazakl'i-yatkan. Click here to see a larger view of the plan.

Preliminary reconstruction of the procession scene with the outlines of the legs of the animals and humans highlighted.