To make an interpretation of scenes of «torment of hoofed animals»

Semantics of images and the composite decision of scenes of «torment of hoofed animals» by predators find direct analogies in archaeological materials of Scythian time from the Russian Altai. Our researches allow to suggest that such a subject of Scythian animal style as «the head of a griffin with a head of a deer in a beak», being one of characteristic for Pazyryk art of ornamental motives, may be interpreted as having no single meaning. Unlike the standard interpretation of such subjects as scenes of «torment» or «all-absorbing», it is possible to consider the given compositions as scenes of «patronage and protection» of owners of these sacral subjects by the representatives of the upper world.