- Email: [email protected]
TWO BRONZE AGE STELES IN GORNY ALTAI
ARCHAEOLOGY, ETHNOLOGY & ANTHROPOLOGY OF EURASIA Archaeology Ethnology & Anthropology of Eurasia 37/1 (2009) 34–38 E-mail: [email protected]
34
THE METAL AGES AND MEDIEVAL PERIOD
V.D. Kubarev Institute of Archaeology and Ethnography, Siberian Branch, Russian Academy of Sciences, Akademika Lavrentieva 17, Novosibirsk, 630090, Russia E-mail: [email protected]
TWO BRONZE AGE STELES IN GORNY ALTAI
The paper focuses on two rare monuments of the Bronze Age discovered in the Altai Republic. A detailed description, photographs, and drawings of the steles are included. The style of the images on the sculptures is analyzed and some analogues from other sites in Central Asia are suggested. It appears promising to compare the Kyzyl-Dzhar and Nizhny Inegen steles with anthropomorphic ¿gurines of the Bronze Age, found by chance in the Altai and in Kazakhstan. The semantics, chronology, and cultural attribution of other Altai monuments are discussed. Key words: Steles, Bronze Age, anthropomorphic image, Altai, ¿gurines.
The Altai is a place that is astonishingly rich in archaeological sites. Archaeological discoveries are made every field season. One such discovery was made in the fall of 2005, when L.M. Chevalkov, an archaeologist from GornoAltaisk, conducted a survey in the valley of the Nizhny Inegen River (the left tributary of the Katun) and found a small stele of the “Okunev type” (Fig. 1) approx. 8 km from the river mouth. Chevalkov (2004: 175) tentatively attributed this stele to the Ancient Turkic period*. The site is located at 50°21ǯ28Ǝ N, 86°37ǯ05Ǝ E (990 m asl). The stele is situated on the left bank of the Nizhny Inegen close to the herding station of Kyzyk Telan. Judging by soded stone mounds (burial-memorial complex of the Bronze Age ?) located nearby, the stele was found in situ with its obverse oriented W–NW. It will be possible to make a ¿nal conclusion, however, only after excavations. The stele was made of a dark gray schist slab (72 × 49 × 10–12 cm). A stylized human face is pecked in the shallow relief technique on the narrow surface of the upper portion of the slab. One of the wide surfaces of the slab bears seven silhouette images of goats, a dog (?), and several cup-like hollows. The other wide surface
shows images of animals reminiscent of oxen (?) pecked in the contour technique (Fig. 2). The human face and the animal images were possibly made simultaneously, which is proved by the even and dark patina melting into the background of the untreated stone surfaces. Another stone stele was found at the junction of the Barburgazy and the Kuruuzek Rivers close to the border between the Altai and Tuva (Fig. 3). The stele with zooanthropomorphic (?) features rendered on a long black boulder (91 × 22 × 8–10 cm) was found lying eastward of a Pazyryk burial mound. The outlines of ox (?) horns represent the main and signi¿cant feature of this stele. One of the lateral surfaces of the stele shows three parallel lines – a symbol typical of Sayan-Altai deer-stones (Fig. 4). Another surface shows an image of an eye; below it there are outlines of an un¿nished face (?). The secondary usage of this stone as a balbal placed near burial mounds of ancient nomads cannot be excluded. In terms of imagery and the characteristically saber-like form, this peculiar monument, which may have had more than one meaning, resembles the numerous Okunev sculptured steles of the Minusinsk Basin*.
*The author thanks M.N. Kazatov, a specialist in regional studies, who showed the site to him.
*Leontiev, Kapelko, Esin, 2006; see stele 24, 111, 212 and others.
Copyright © 2009, Siberian Branch of Russian Academy of Sciences, Institute of Archaeology & Ethnography of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.aeae.2009.05.004
V.D. Kubarev / Archaeology Ethnology & Anthropology of Eurasia 37/1 (2009) 34–38 0
35
10 cm
Fig. 2. Traces of images on the Nizhny Inegen stele.
Fig. 1. “Okunev type” stele in the Nizhny Inegen River valley, Ongudai Region of the Altai Republic.
Fig. 3. “Okunev type” stele in Kuruuzek, Kosh-Agach Region of the Altai Republic.
0
10 cm
Fig. 4. Traces of images on the Kuruuzek stele.
The Bronze Age stele in the Nizhny Inegen valley is stylistically and technically similar to the human face rendered on the upper portion of the well-known Chuya deer-stone (Fig. 5) situated at the Adyr-Kan cliff (Kubarev, 1979: pl. I). The Nizhny Inegen stele can also be compared with a broken stele bearing a representation of a zoo-anthropomorphic face found in the vicinity of the village of Inya (Ibid.: ¿g. 2, 2) and currently housed in the Gorno-Altaisk Republic Museum. Probably, it was not accidental that two other big deer-stones were discovered in this area at the junction of the two major rivers of the Altai, the Biya and the Chuya (Kubarev, 1988: ¿g. 73; Kubarev, Kocheyev, 1989: pl. II, 9; III, p. 211). One of these stones is about 4 m high. These steles can be regarded as anthropomorphic, because they bear a
feature reminiscent of a human head pecked in the upper portion of a solid stone block. The Nizhny Inegen stele is comparatively small. It resembles a small deer-stone covering a cist at the Kyzyl-Dzhar burial ground near the village of Beltyr (Fig. 6) (Mogilnikov, Kuibyshev, Surazakov, 1978: 261; Mogilnikov, 1980). The narrow surface of this stone, as with the Nizhny Inegen stele, shows a stylized human face. This feature allowed V.A. Mogilnikov to attribute this stone to the category of Okunev steles (Mogilnikov, Kuibyshev, Surazakov, 1978: 261). More recently, Mogilnikov linked the stele to anthropomorphic deerstones from the neighboring region of Mongolia and to the Chuya deer-stone – the only specimen in the Altai that shows a human head (Mogilnikov, 1980: 70–71). As a
36
V.D. Kubarev / Archaeology Ethnology & Anthropology of Eurasia 37/1 (2009) 34–38
result, he arrived at the conclusion that the human face and other images (earrings, necklace, and belt) on the KyzylDzhar deer-stone were executed simultaneously. Based on the above-mentioned analogues, V.A. Mogilnikov dated the Kyzyl-Dzhar stone to the 8th–7th cent. BC (Ibid.: 71). At the present, the stone is displayed in the Biysk Museum of Regional Studies. Regrettably, in his description of the Kyzyl-Dzhar deer-stone, Mogilnikov omitted two small images on the lateral sides of the stone: a battle axe chekan attached to the belt on the right side and a composite bow in a case (Kubarev, 2004a: ¿g. 1). Transformation of the “Okunev stele” with images into a deer-stone is of particular interest. The present author examined this object in the Biysk Museum and noticed that the patina on the face was darker than that covering the earrings, necklace, and belt – images typical of Altain and Mongolian deer-stones. These drawings were made considerably later than the representation of the human face. Soon after these renovations, the stone was used in construction of a burial of the Scythian period. When the stele was discovered in the Nizhny Inrgen valley, it became clear that the older “Okunev type” stele from Kyzyl-Dzhar was used at least two times. First, it was transformed into a deer-stone, and then it was reused as a cover for the cist of the Scythian period. A similar utilization of deer-stones during the Scythian period was recorded on the middle Katun River, where such a stone covered a cist containing human burials (Kubarev, 1993). Images from the Nizhny Inegen stele provide additional support to the suggested relative chronology of this monument. Of course, goat images are present at any
petroglyph site in the Altai, and as such they cannot be used as chronological markers. However, goats in association with cup-like hollows, a stylized human face of the “Okunev type”, and representations of animals believed to be oxen, jointly suggest that the Nizhny Inegen stele dates within rather narrow limits. For instance, goat images in combination with cup-like hollows were recorded on stone slabs of burial chambers of the Karakol culture in the Altai (Kubarev, 1988: ¿g. 7). A unique broken slab-stele (?) found at Ozernoe close to the destroyed burials of the Early Bronze Age was also attributed by some researchers to the Karakol culture. The animal images, including realistically rendered oxen (Ibid.: ¿g. 69; Molodin, Pogozheva, 1989) depicted on that stele resemble ¿gures in Kalbak-Tash petroglyphs that have been dated to the Early Bronze Age by the present author (Kubarev, 2000b: ¿g. 2, ɝ, ɞ). No ox images have been recorded on slabs of Karakol burial chambers. However, many anthropomorphic ¿gures are shown with ox horns on their heads. The ox image is known to be popular among bearers of the Okunev culture in Khakassia. The Karakol people seemingly preferred the image of the elk (elk-cow ?). This image is present in the upper parts of all the Karakol steles that were later broken and reused in construction of burial chambers of the Karakol culture (Ibid.: 16). It appears promising to compare the Kyzyl-Dzhar and Nizhny Inegen steles to Bronze Age anthropomorphic ¿gurines found by chance in the Altai and in Kazakhstan. Such comparisons have already been made to assess the relative chronology of Bronze Age steles from Mongolia and Tuva (Klyashtorny, Savinov, 2004: 89–92).
Fig. 6. Deer-stone with a stylized human face of the “Okunev type” from the Kyzyl-Dzhar burial ground, Kosh-Agach Region of the Altai Republic.
Fig. 5. The Chuya deer-stone with a stylized human face of the “Okunev type,” Ongudai Region of the Altai Republic.
V.D. Kubarev / Archaeology Ethnology & Anthropology of Eurasia 37/1 (2009) 34–38
Fig. 7. Stone rod with an anthropomorphic image on the top from the village of Savvushki, the Altai Territory.
Fig. 8. Anthropomorphic deer-stones at the Tsagaan Gol River mouth, Tsengel somon, Mongolia.
According to archaeologists from Kazakhstan (Samashev, Zhumabekova, 1993: 31), some stone sculptures represent human heads, “exceptionally male.” This assumption may be correct, as the Nizhny Inegen stele also shows the image of a human face, likely that of a man of the Caucasoid type, as evidenced by features of the face rendered in the shallow relief. However, the proportions of the face are not observed: the narrow forehead does not correspond to the extremely long nose and a thick chin. These features are characteristic of a man’s face. Iconographically, the Nizhny Inegen image resembles the anthropomorphic top of a stone rod from the village of Savvushka in the Altai (Kiryushin, 1991: 67). This artifact is now displayed in the Zmeinogorsk Museum of Regional Studies (Fig. 7). Therefore, parallels to Kyzyl-Dzhar and Nizhny Inegen steles among the Bronze Age anthropomorphic ¿gurines from the Altai and from Kazakhstan call into question the age estimate of the Kyzyl-Dzhar stele proposed by V.A. Mogilnikov. Ancient “Okunev type”steles were used for various purposes in the Altai and Mongolia during subsequent periods. For instance, a stone stele with a primitively rendered human face of the “Okunev type” found on the bank of the Bashkaus River in the vicinity of the village of Ulagan (the Altai Republic) was modi¿ed into a sculpture of the Ancient Turkic type and used as an element of a
post-funeral ritual construction (Kubarev, 1984: stele 97). A small deer-stone from the Sogoo River valley in the Mongolian Altai bears images such as a dagger of the Karasuk period attached to the belt, a torque, one earring, and a stylized human face pecked in the deep relief technique (Kubarev, Tseveendorj, 1995: ¿g. 1, 4). It can be assumed that anthropomorphic images on two deerstones in Tsengel somon in the Tsagaan Gol mouth were executed on older steles dating from the Early Bronze Age (Fig. 8)*. I have already adduced strong arguments in favor of the hypothesis that the tradition of erecting stone steles *It is appropriate to mention here a peculiar case of an “astonishing discovery” of a stone stele in the vicinity of Kor Kechu. A.A. Tishkin provided a thorough description of this stele on two pages and a trace of the images from this stone ¿gurine. He suggested certain “analogues among deer-stones with distinct anthropomorphic features” (Tishkin, 2005: 176– 178, ¿g. 2, 2). However, this “stele” appeared at that place only a few years ago. I wrote an article in the newspaper Nauka v Sibiri in 2003, in which I called upon the people in the Altai Republic to ignore such “discoveries” (Kubarev, 2003). An article illustrated by photographs of this “sculpture” made on an ancient stone stele of the Early Scythian period was published in Archaeology, Ethnology and Anthropology of Eurasia (Kubarev, 2004b: 36, ¿g. 17).
37
38
V.D. Kubarev / Archaeology Ethnology & Anthropology of Eurasia 37/1 (2009) 34–38
and metal monuments existed in the Altai in the Early Bronze Age. The secondary use of some Copper Age steles and stones with cup-like hollows in manufacturing deer-stones and their utilization in burial and postfuneral ritual complexes of various time periods seems also to have been convincingly proved (Kubarev, 1988: 102–104, 110–112; 2000a; 2004b; and others). D.G. Savinov (1994: 40–44, 47–49) agrees with my conclusions and has broadened the range of parallels by including the anthropomorphic steles from Tuva and Kazakhstan. His analysis of the style of deer-stones and of their arrangement in ritual assemblages points to certain parallels in Okunev monumental art, in line with my idea that deer-stones can be linked to Okunev steles of Khakassia (Kubarev, 1979: 91–93). In sum, the cultural attribution of the unusual Bronze Age steles discovered in the Altai cannot be assessed before new archaeological evidence appears. Therefore, at the current time, “Okunev type stele” appears to be the only possible term for these new objects of monumental art in the Altai.
References Chevalkov L.M. 2004 Rezultaty nauchnykh issledovanii po proektam: “Pamyatniki istoriko-kulturnogo naslediya Altaya” i “Paleoekologiya i kultura drevnego cheloveka epokhi kamnya v Gornom Altae”. In Problemy arkheologii, etnografii, antropologii Sibiri i sopredelnykh territorii, vol. 10, pt. 1. Novosibirsk: Izd. IAE SO RAN, pp. 174–178. Kiryushin Y.F. 1991 Kamennaya skulptura epokhi bronzy s Altaya. Istoriya, ¿lologiya and ¿loso¿ya, iss. 2: 66–71. Klyashtorny S.G., Savinov D.G. 2004 The Nariyn Khurumta sanctuary: Prehistoric Caucasoids in Central Asia. Archaeology, Ethnology and Anthropology of Eurasia, No. 3: 88–97. Kubarev V.D. 1979 Drevnie izvayaniya Altaya (Olennye kamni). Novosibirsk: Nauka. Kubarev V.D. 1984 Drevnetyurkskie izvayaniya Altaiya. Novosibirsk: Nauka. Kubarev V.D. 1988 Drevnie rospisi Karakola. Novosibirsk: Nauka. Kubarev V.D. 1993 Olennyi kamen s r. Katuni. In Okhrana i izuchenie kulturnogo naslediya Altaya, pt. 1. Barnaul: Altai. Gos. Univ., pp. 146–149.
Kubarev V.D. 2000a “Mificheskie” chashechnye kamni Altaya i ikh analogii v drevnikh kulturakh Evrazii. In Sokhranenie i izuchenie kulturnogo naslediya Altaya. Barnaul: Altai. Gos. Univ., pp. 104–108. Kubarev V.D. 2000b Petroglify Kurman-Tau. Drevnosti Altaya (Gorno-Altaisk), No. 5: 15–21. Kubarev V.D. 2003 Kamennye izvaianiya: Vozrozhdenie drevnei traditsii ili falsi¿katsiya? Nauka v Sibiri, No. 30: 6. Kubarev V.D. 2004a Olennyi kamen iz urochischa Kyzyl-Dzhar (Altai). In Izobrazitelnye pamyatniki: Stil, epokha, kompozitsii. St. Petersburg: SPb. Gos. Univ., pp. 279–283. Kubarev V.D. 2004b Ancient steles and sculptures in the ceremonies and superstitions of Central Asian peoples. Archaeology, Ethnology and Anthropology of Eurasia, No. 1: 28–38. Kubarev V.D., Kocheyev V.A. 1989 Novaya seriya kamennykh izvayanii Altaya. In Arkheologiya Gornogo Altaya. Gorno-Altaisk: Gorno-Altaisk. nauch.-issled. inst. yazyka i literatury, pp. 202–222. Kubarev V.D., Tseveendorj D. 1995 Novye kamennye izvayaniya Altaya. In Izvestiya laboratorii arkheologii, vol. 1. Gorno-Altaisk: Gorno-Altaisk. Gos. Univ., pp. 149–163. Leontiev N.V., Kapelko V.F., Esin Y.N. 2006 Izvaianiya okunevskoi kultury. Abakan: Khakas. kn. izd. Mogilnikov V.A. 1980 Dva olennykh kamnya s Altaya. KSIA, vol. 162: 68–71. Mogilnikov V.A., Kuibyshev A.V., Surazakov A.S. 1978 Raskopki v Kyzyl-Dzhare. In Arkheologicheskoe Obozrenie 1977 goda. Moscow: Nauka, pp. 261–262. Molodin V.I., Pogozheva A.P. 1989 Plita iz Ozernogo (Gorny Altai). Sovetskaya arkheologiya, No. 1: 167–177. Samashev Z.S., Zhumabekova G. 1993 K voprosu o kulturnoi atributsii nekotorykh sluchainykh nakhodok iz Kazakhstana. Izvestiya Nats. AN Resp. Kazahstan. Ser. Obschestv. nauk, No. 5: 23–33. Savinov D.G. 1994 Mogilnik Bertek-33. In Drevnie kultury Bertekskoi doliny. Novosibirsk: Nauka, pp. 39–49. Tishkin A.A. 2005 Novye i izvestnye nakhodki kamennykh stel i izvayanii skifskogo vremeni na Altae. In Sokhranenie i izuchenie kulturnogo naslediya Altaya, iss. 14. Barnaul: Izd. Altai. Gos. Univ., pp. 171–179. Received April 16, 2007.
34
THE METAL AGES AND MEDIEVAL PERIOD
V.D. Kubarev Institute of Archaeology and Ethnography, Siberian Branch, Russian Academy of Sciences, Akademika Lavrentieva 17, Novosibirsk, 630090, Russia E-mail: [email protected]
TWO BRONZE AGE STELES IN GORNY ALTAI
The paper focuses on two rare monuments of the Bronze Age discovered in the Altai Republic. A detailed description, photographs, and drawings of the steles are included. The style of the images on the sculptures is analyzed and some analogues from other sites in Central Asia are suggested. It appears promising to compare the Kyzyl-Dzhar and Nizhny Inegen steles with anthropomorphic ¿gurines of the Bronze Age, found by chance in the Altai and in Kazakhstan. The semantics, chronology, and cultural attribution of other Altai monuments are discussed. Key words: Steles, Bronze Age, anthropomorphic image, Altai, ¿gurines.
The Altai is a place that is astonishingly rich in archaeological sites. Archaeological discoveries are made every field season. One such discovery was made in the fall of 2005, when L.M. Chevalkov, an archaeologist from GornoAltaisk, conducted a survey in the valley of the Nizhny Inegen River (the left tributary of the Katun) and found a small stele of the “Okunev type” (Fig. 1) approx. 8 km from the river mouth. Chevalkov (2004: 175) tentatively attributed this stele to the Ancient Turkic period*. The site is located at 50°21ǯ28Ǝ N, 86°37ǯ05Ǝ E (990 m asl). The stele is situated on the left bank of the Nizhny Inegen close to the herding station of Kyzyk Telan. Judging by soded stone mounds (burial-memorial complex of the Bronze Age ?) located nearby, the stele was found in situ with its obverse oriented W–NW. It will be possible to make a ¿nal conclusion, however, only after excavations. The stele was made of a dark gray schist slab (72 × 49 × 10–12 cm). A stylized human face is pecked in the shallow relief technique on the narrow surface of the upper portion of the slab. One of the wide surfaces of the slab bears seven silhouette images of goats, a dog (?), and several cup-like hollows. The other wide surface
shows images of animals reminiscent of oxen (?) pecked in the contour technique (Fig. 2). The human face and the animal images were possibly made simultaneously, which is proved by the even and dark patina melting into the background of the untreated stone surfaces. Another stone stele was found at the junction of the Barburgazy and the Kuruuzek Rivers close to the border between the Altai and Tuva (Fig. 3). The stele with zooanthropomorphic (?) features rendered on a long black boulder (91 × 22 × 8–10 cm) was found lying eastward of a Pazyryk burial mound. The outlines of ox (?) horns represent the main and signi¿cant feature of this stele. One of the lateral surfaces of the stele shows three parallel lines – a symbol typical of Sayan-Altai deer-stones (Fig. 4). Another surface shows an image of an eye; below it there are outlines of an un¿nished face (?). The secondary usage of this stone as a balbal placed near burial mounds of ancient nomads cannot be excluded. In terms of imagery and the characteristically saber-like form, this peculiar monument, which may have had more than one meaning, resembles the numerous Okunev sculptured steles of the Minusinsk Basin*.
*The author thanks M.N. Kazatov, a specialist in regional studies, who showed the site to him.
*Leontiev, Kapelko, Esin, 2006; see stele 24, 111, 212 and others.
Copyright © 2009, Siberian Branch of Russian Academy of Sciences, Institute of Archaeology & Ethnography of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.aeae.2009.05.004
V.D. Kubarev / Archaeology Ethnology & Anthropology of Eurasia 37/1 (2009) 34–38 0
35
10 cm
Fig. 2. Traces of images on the Nizhny Inegen stele.
Fig. 1. “Okunev type” stele in the Nizhny Inegen River valley, Ongudai Region of the Altai Republic.
Fig. 3. “Okunev type” stele in Kuruuzek, Kosh-Agach Region of the Altai Republic.
0
10 cm
Fig. 4. Traces of images on the Kuruuzek stele.
The Bronze Age stele in the Nizhny Inegen valley is stylistically and technically similar to the human face rendered on the upper portion of the well-known Chuya deer-stone (Fig. 5) situated at the Adyr-Kan cliff (Kubarev, 1979: pl. I). The Nizhny Inegen stele can also be compared with a broken stele bearing a representation of a zoo-anthropomorphic face found in the vicinity of the village of Inya (Ibid.: ¿g. 2, 2) and currently housed in the Gorno-Altaisk Republic Museum. Probably, it was not accidental that two other big deer-stones were discovered in this area at the junction of the two major rivers of the Altai, the Biya and the Chuya (Kubarev, 1988: ¿g. 73; Kubarev, Kocheyev, 1989: pl. II, 9; III, p. 211). One of these stones is about 4 m high. These steles can be regarded as anthropomorphic, because they bear a
feature reminiscent of a human head pecked in the upper portion of a solid stone block. The Nizhny Inegen stele is comparatively small. It resembles a small deer-stone covering a cist at the Kyzyl-Dzhar burial ground near the village of Beltyr (Fig. 6) (Mogilnikov, Kuibyshev, Surazakov, 1978: 261; Mogilnikov, 1980). The narrow surface of this stone, as with the Nizhny Inegen stele, shows a stylized human face. This feature allowed V.A. Mogilnikov to attribute this stone to the category of Okunev steles (Mogilnikov, Kuibyshev, Surazakov, 1978: 261). More recently, Mogilnikov linked the stele to anthropomorphic deerstones from the neighboring region of Mongolia and to the Chuya deer-stone – the only specimen in the Altai that shows a human head (Mogilnikov, 1980: 70–71). As a
36
V.D. Kubarev / Archaeology Ethnology & Anthropology of Eurasia 37/1 (2009) 34–38
result, he arrived at the conclusion that the human face and other images (earrings, necklace, and belt) on the KyzylDzhar deer-stone were executed simultaneously. Based on the above-mentioned analogues, V.A. Mogilnikov dated the Kyzyl-Dzhar stone to the 8th–7th cent. BC (Ibid.: 71). At the present, the stone is displayed in the Biysk Museum of Regional Studies. Regrettably, in his description of the Kyzyl-Dzhar deer-stone, Mogilnikov omitted two small images on the lateral sides of the stone: a battle axe chekan attached to the belt on the right side and a composite bow in a case (Kubarev, 2004a: ¿g. 1). Transformation of the “Okunev stele” with images into a deer-stone is of particular interest. The present author examined this object in the Biysk Museum and noticed that the patina on the face was darker than that covering the earrings, necklace, and belt – images typical of Altain and Mongolian deer-stones. These drawings were made considerably later than the representation of the human face. Soon after these renovations, the stone was used in construction of a burial of the Scythian period. When the stele was discovered in the Nizhny Inrgen valley, it became clear that the older “Okunev type” stele from Kyzyl-Dzhar was used at least two times. First, it was transformed into a deer-stone, and then it was reused as a cover for the cist of the Scythian period. A similar utilization of deer-stones during the Scythian period was recorded on the middle Katun River, where such a stone covered a cist containing human burials (Kubarev, 1993). Images from the Nizhny Inegen stele provide additional support to the suggested relative chronology of this monument. Of course, goat images are present at any
petroglyph site in the Altai, and as such they cannot be used as chronological markers. However, goats in association with cup-like hollows, a stylized human face of the “Okunev type”, and representations of animals believed to be oxen, jointly suggest that the Nizhny Inegen stele dates within rather narrow limits. For instance, goat images in combination with cup-like hollows were recorded on stone slabs of burial chambers of the Karakol culture in the Altai (Kubarev, 1988: ¿g. 7). A unique broken slab-stele (?) found at Ozernoe close to the destroyed burials of the Early Bronze Age was also attributed by some researchers to the Karakol culture. The animal images, including realistically rendered oxen (Ibid.: ¿g. 69; Molodin, Pogozheva, 1989) depicted on that stele resemble ¿gures in Kalbak-Tash petroglyphs that have been dated to the Early Bronze Age by the present author (Kubarev, 2000b: ¿g. 2, ɝ, ɞ). No ox images have been recorded on slabs of Karakol burial chambers. However, many anthropomorphic ¿gures are shown with ox horns on their heads. The ox image is known to be popular among bearers of the Okunev culture in Khakassia. The Karakol people seemingly preferred the image of the elk (elk-cow ?). This image is present in the upper parts of all the Karakol steles that were later broken and reused in construction of burial chambers of the Karakol culture (Ibid.: 16). It appears promising to compare the Kyzyl-Dzhar and Nizhny Inegen steles to Bronze Age anthropomorphic ¿gurines found by chance in the Altai and in Kazakhstan. Such comparisons have already been made to assess the relative chronology of Bronze Age steles from Mongolia and Tuva (Klyashtorny, Savinov, 2004: 89–92).
Fig. 6. Deer-stone with a stylized human face of the “Okunev type” from the Kyzyl-Dzhar burial ground, Kosh-Agach Region of the Altai Republic.
Fig. 5. The Chuya deer-stone with a stylized human face of the “Okunev type,” Ongudai Region of the Altai Republic.
V.D. Kubarev / Archaeology Ethnology & Anthropology of Eurasia 37/1 (2009) 34–38
Fig. 7. Stone rod with an anthropomorphic image on the top from the village of Savvushki, the Altai Territory.
Fig. 8. Anthropomorphic deer-stones at the Tsagaan Gol River mouth, Tsengel somon, Mongolia.
According to archaeologists from Kazakhstan (Samashev, Zhumabekova, 1993: 31), some stone sculptures represent human heads, “exceptionally male.” This assumption may be correct, as the Nizhny Inegen stele also shows the image of a human face, likely that of a man of the Caucasoid type, as evidenced by features of the face rendered in the shallow relief. However, the proportions of the face are not observed: the narrow forehead does not correspond to the extremely long nose and a thick chin. These features are characteristic of a man’s face. Iconographically, the Nizhny Inegen image resembles the anthropomorphic top of a stone rod from the village of Savvushka in the Altai (Kiryushin, 1991: 67). This artifact is now displayed in the Zmeinogorsk Museum of Regional Studies (Fig. 7). Therefore, parallels to Kyzyl-Dzhar and Nizhny Inegen steles among the Bronze Age anthropomorphic ¿gurines from the Altai and from Kazakhstan call into question the age estimate of the Kyzyl-Dzhar stele proposed by V.A. Mogilnikov. Ancient “Okunev type”steles were used for various purposes in the Altai and Mongolia during subsequent periods. For instance, a stone stele with a primitively rendered human face of the “Okunev type” found on the bank of the Bashkaus River in the vicinity of the village of Ulagan (the Altai Republic) was modi¿ed into a sculpture of the Ancient Turkic type and used as an element of a
post-funeral ritual construction (Kubarev, 1984: stele 97). A small deer-stone from the Sogoo River valley in the Mongolian Altai bears images such as a dagger of the Karasuk period attached to the belt, a torque, one earring, and a stylized human face pecked in the deep relief technique (Kubarev, Tseveendorj, 1995: ¿g. 1, 4). It can be assumed that anthropomorphic images on two deerstones in Tsengel somon in the Tsagaan Gol mouth were executed on older steles dating from the Early Bronze Age (Fig. 8)*. I have already adduced strong arguments in favor of the hypothesis that the tradition of erecting stone steles *It is appropriate to mention here a peculiar case of an “astonishing discovery” of a stone stele in the vicinity of Kor Kechu. A.A. Tishkin provided a thorough description of this stele on two pages and a trace of the images from this stone ¿gurine. He suggested certain “analogues among deer-stones with distinct anthropomorphic features” (Tishkin, 2005: 176– 178, ¿g. 2, 2). However, this “stele” appeared at that place only a few years ago. I wrote an article in the newspaper Nauka v Sibiri in 2003, in which I called upon the people in the Altai Republic to ignore such “discoveries” (Kubarev, 2003). An article illustrated by photographs of this “sculpture” made on an ancient stone stele of the Early Scythian period was published in Archaeology, Ethnology and Anthropology of Eurasia (Kubarev, 2004b: 36, ¿g. 17).
37
38
V.D. Kubarev / Archaeology Ethnology & Anthropology of Eurasia 37/1 (2009) 34–38
and metal monuments existed in the Altai in the Early Bronze Age. The secondary use of some Copper Age steles and stones with cup-like hollows in manufacturing deer-stones and their utilization in burial and postfuneral ritual complexes of various time periods seems also to have been convincingly proved (Kubarev, 1988: 102–104, 110–112; 2000a; 2004b; and others). D.G. Savinov (1994: 40–44, 47–49) agrees with my conclusions and has broadened the range of parallels by including the anthropomorphic steles from Tuva and Kazakhstan. His analysis of the style of deer-stones and of their arrangement in ritual assemblages points to certain parallels in Okunev monumental art, in line with my idea that deer-stones can be linked to Okunev steles of Khakassia (Kubarev, 1979: 91–93). In sum, the cultural attribution of the unusual Bronze Age steles discovered in the Altai cannot be assessed before new archaeological evidence appears. Therefore, at the current time, “Okunev type stele” appears to be the only possible term for these new objects of monumental art in the Altai.
References Chevalkov L.M. 2004 Rezultaty nauchnykh issledovanii po proektam: “Pamyatniki istoriko-kulturnogo naslediya Altaya” i “Paleoekologiya i kultura drevnego cheloveka epokhi kamnya v Gornom Altae”. In Problemy arkheologii, etnografii, antropologii Sibiri i sopredelnykh territorii, vol. 10, pt. 1. Novosibirsk: Izd. IAE SO RAN, pp. 174–178. Kiryushin Y.F. 1991 Kamennaya skulptura epokhi bronzy s Altaya. Istoriya, ¿lologiya and ¿loso¿ya, iss. 2: 66–71. Klyashtorny S.G., Savinov D.G. 2004 The Nariyn Khurumta sanctuary: Prehistoric Caucasoids in Central Asia. Archaeology, Ethnology and Anthropology of Eurasia, No. 3: 88–97. Kubarev V.D. 1979 Drevnie izvayaniya Altaya (Olennye kamni). Novosibirsk: Nauka. Kubarev V.D. 1984 Drevnetyurkskie izvayaniya Altaiya. Novosibirsk: Nauka. Kubarev V.D. 1988 Drevnie rospisi Karakola. Novosibirsk: Nauka. Kubarev V.D. 1993 Olennyi kamen s r. Katuni. In Okhrana i izuchenie kulturnogo naslediya Altaya, pt. 1. Barnaul: Altai. Gos. Univ., pp. 146–149.
Kubarev V.D. 2000a “Mificheskie” chashechnye kamni Altaya i ikh analogii v drevnikh kulturakh Evrazii. In Sokhranenie i izuchenie kulturnogo naslediya Altaya. Barnaul: Altai. Gos. Univ., pp. 104–108. Kubarev V.D. 2000b Petroglify Kurman-Tau. Drevnosti Altaya (Gorno-Altaisk), No. 5: 15–21. Kubarev V.D. 2003 Kamennye izvaianiya: Vozrozhdenie drevnei traditsii ili falsi¿katsiya? Nauka v Sibiri, No. 30: 6. Kubarev V.D. 2004a Olennyi kamen iz urochischa Kyzyl-Dzhar (Altai). In Izobrazitelnye pamyatniki: Stil, epokha, kompozitsii. St. Petersburg: SPb. Gos. Univ., pp. 279–283. Kubarev V.D. 2004b Ancient steles and sculptures in the ceremonies and superstitions of Central Asian peoples. Archaeology, Ethnology and Anthropology of Eurasia, No. 1: 28–38. Kubarev V.D., Kocheyev V.A. 1989 Novaya seriya kamennykh izvayanii Altaya. In Arkheologiya Gornogo Altaya. Gorno-Altaisk: Gorno-Altaisk. nauch.-issled. inst. yazyka i literatury, pp. 202–222. Kubarev V.D., Tseveendorj D. 1995 Novye kamennye izvayaniya Altaya. In Izvestiya laboratorii arkheologii, vol. 1. Gorno-Altaisk: Gorno-Altaisk. Gos. Univ., pp. 149–163. Leontiev N.V., Kapelko V.F., Esin Y.N. 2006 Izvaianiya okunevskoi kultury. Abakan: Khakas. kn. izd. Mogilnikov V.A. 1980 Dva olennykh kamnya s Altaya. KSIA, vol. 162: 68–71. Mogilnikov V.A., Kuibyshev A.V., Surazakov A.S. 1978 Raskopki v Kyzyl-Dzhare. In Arkheologicheskoe Obozrenie 1977 goda. Moscow: Nauka, pp. 261–262. Molodin V.I., Pogozheva A.P. 1989 Plita iz Ozernogo (Gorny Altai). Sovetskaya arkheologiya, No. 1: 167–177. Samashev Z.S., Zhumabekova G. 1993 K voprosu o kulturnoi atributsii nekotorykh sluchainykh nakhodok iz Kazakhstana. Izvestiya Nats. AN Resp. Kazahstan. Ser. Obschestv. nauk, No. 5: 23–33. Savinov D.G. 1994 Mogilnik Bertek-33. In Drevnie kultury Bertekskoi doliny. Novosibirsk: Nauka, pp. 39–49. Tishkin A.A. 2005 Novye i izvestnye nakhodki kamennykh stel i izvayanii skifskogo vremeni na Altae. In Sokhranenie i izuchenie kulturnogo naslediya Altaya, iss. 14. Barnaul: Izd. Altai. Gos. Univ., pp. 171–179. Received April 16, 2007.