"Core" art of the animal style

The main objective of this paper is to provide additional justification of thetheory that identifies Central Asia as the region where animal style art originated. To thisend, the following «workflow» to study elements of images made in animal style art isproposed: object (natural environment) - subject (man) - species of the depicted animal -material - motif - image - style - semantics - composition. The paper places a specialfocus on carving (on leather, felt, bone, wood) as, presumably, a dominant artwork formused by creators of the animal style. Main components of its development in CentralAsia such as the Karasuk, Seima-Turbino, and «Chinese» components are singled out.Substantiation is provided to divide the Arzhan-Mayemir (early) stage of animal styledevelopment into two chronological and stylistic groups, i. e. the Arzhan group (8th-7th centuries BC) and the Mayemir group (7th-6th centuries BC) with the expansion ofthe latter to the West in subsequent periods. Examples of reminiscences of the early stageof animal style development in later works of Scythian art are given.