摘要: Description　　Altai is the unique region on the planet. It guards huge layers of life - sustaining activities of human civilization. It's a place of formation and cultural evolution of ethnic groups th

Description

　　Altai is the unique region on the planet. It guards huge layers of life - sustaining activities of human civilization. It's a place of formation and cultural evolution of ethnic groups that are scattered through the Eurasia.

　　The Altai Republic, including the Altai mountain range is a part of the Russian Federation. It has external borders with Mongolia, China and Kazakhstan. The Altai Republic is one of the most original ones among the Russian regions due to the richest natural and cultural heritage. During the milleniums priceless monuments of human history and a huge cultural heritage of global civilization was formed here.

　　The "Treasures of the Pazyryk Culture" of the Early Scythian Epoch includes the unique and world famous burial mounds (kurgans) and petroglyphs of the Pazyryk Culture. The Pazyryk Culture is one the related Central Asian cultures of the Scythian time. On the large area of the Altai Mountains it existed from the 6thto the 2nd centuries BCE. This culture has left clear evidences which are presented by unique burial complexes. The archaeological sites presenting cultural heritage of Pazyryk time include burial mounds (the frozen tombs of tribal nobility) and petroglyphs made in an "animal style".

　　The objects included in "Treasures of the Pazyryk Culture" of the Early Scythian Epoch are:

　　- archaeological monuments (mounds and petroglyphs) of Pazyryk Culture:

　　Pazyryk is a group of archaeological mounds (N50°44'45.26" E88°4'16.69"). It is located at a distance of 80 km southeast of Lake Teletskoye and on the territory of buffer zone of the Altaisky Zapovednik, which is the World Heritage Property component.

　　Katanda is a group of archaeological mounds (N50°54 890' E085°34'623'') situated in the cooperation area of Biosphere Reserve "Katunsky" - another component of the World Heritage Property "Golden Mountains of Altai". It is at a distance of 5 km to the northwest of the Katanda Village;

　　A petroglyphic complex Elangash (N50°08.853' E088°18.280') is located in the Elangash River Valley in Kosh-Agach district, in the cooperation area of the natural park "The Ukok Quiet Zone". The task of the park is conservation of the natural objects of Ukok Plateau which is also a component part of "Golden Mountains of Altai".

　　- the similar archaeological monuments of Pazyryk Culture (mounds and petroglyphs):

　　Tuekta is a group of archaeological mounds (N50°50'726" E085°52'981") situated also in Ongudai region, on the left bank of Ursul River, in the north-eastern part of the village of Tuekta;

　　Kalbak Tash presents a petroglyphic complex (N50 40 272 E86 82 076) located on the right bank of the Chuia River, 18 km southeast from Inya village of Ongudai district on the pass named Kalbak Tash.

　　On September 8, 2008 UNESCO consultative sub-regional workshop on development of transboundary cooperation for conservation of the cultural heritage of the Altai Mountains was held in Ulan Bator, Mongolia. This conference was organized by the UNESCO World Heritage Center for discussing the issues of conservation of cultural and historical heritage of the Altai region, located in four countries — Russia, Kazakhstan, China and Mongolia.

　　During this meeting they emphasized outstanding universal value of the Altai as the cradle of nomadic civilizations of the Central Asia who possessed high abundance and variety of cultural and historical monuments of different epochs, among which of a special uniqueness are the monuments of the Pazyryk Culture.

　　The outstanding importance of the Pazyryk cultural values in Altai was stated in the album "Preservation of the frozen tombs of the Altai Mountains", published in 2008 by UNESCO. The archaeological sites of Pazyryk cultural heritage include burial mounds (kurgans) and petroglyphs. Multimillennial history of the Altai Mountains is closely linked with large-scale events that took place in the vast spaces of North and Central Asia and Eastern Europe. Due to the unique discoveries in the Pazyryk burial mounds (Ulaganskiy administrative district) scientists use terminological definition "Pazyryk Culture" for archaeological sites of Skythian times.

　　The most famous monuments of the Pazyryk Culture are: archaeological mounds in Pazyryk, Ukok, Bashadar, Tuekta, Katanda, and petroglyphic complexes - Elangash, Kalbak Tash.

　　The highly developed and unique Pazyryk Culture became a world heritage. Currently in the Altai Republic over six hundred burial mounds (kurgans) associated with the exponents of Pazyryk archeological culture have been investigated. Objects found in the frozen tombs are of high importance when investigating the social history and worldview ideas of the Pazyryk populations.

　　The phenomenon of permafrost ice lense formation under the stone mounds of the kurgans was registered nowhere so far outside the Altai Republic. The permafrost created a thermal insulating layer that prevents the soil from heating in summer and provides fast freezing of soil in winter due to free convection in the stone mound of the barrows. Thus, a special microclimate different from surrounding climate outside was created in the stone mound.

　　Objects found in archaeological barrows were superbly preserved. They are horse harness, carpets, clothing, shoes, hats and articles from wood, precious metals, leather, fur, felt, as well as all kinds of textiles and horse equipment.

　　Discovering the mummified bodies of people with tattoos on the skin in the burial mounds of Altai became a sensation, enriching the cultural heritage of all humanity.

　　All the burial monuments of the Pazyryk Culture have the same general structure: the diameter of stone mounds range from 25 to 50 meters, the height above the ground is measured from 2 to 4 meters, the depth of the grave pit is up to 7 meters, the total area of the grave pits is from 25 to 50 square meters.

　　Inside the burial pit there was placed a funerary chamber made of hewed logs with double walls and double ceiling, at the southern wall was placed a wooden sarcophagus up to 5 meters, carved from a thick larch and closed with a slotted lid.

　　Objects from the archaeological barrows such as tools, household items, clothing, jewelry, and items of weaponry make it possible to represent the material culture of the Altai Mountains populations that lived more than two thousand years ago.

　　Perfectly preserved funerary constructions, made from a log cabin testify ancient skills of home construction. The Pazyryk populations still remain the only ancient people in the world, whose tattoo we can see. Those tattoos can personally convince of the reality of this ancient information. Tattoo applied on the body of men and women, indicate a high level of its performance: the mummies found in the «royal» burial mounds were covered with drawings from head to toe.

　　Pazyryk tattoos, besides typical for this culture images of the mystical griffin-deer-ibex, feline predators with hook-like mouth, depict the real animals dwelled in Altai (tigers, mountain sheep, ibex) and koulans unknown here.

　　Among the tattoo images there is also a spotted predator, which can be as well as Altai snow leopard or the leopard which did not dwell here (the latter is quite possible, since articles from the fur of leopard were found in the first and second Pazyryk mounds). Thus, the tattoo shows that people buried in the "frozen" tombs of Altai were representatives of the highest cultural community.

　　Finds from Pazyryk barrows provide evidence that 2,500 years ago local nomadic peoples already had trade relations with distant countries.

　　Ancient burial mounds of the Russian Altai have preserved handicrafts from China, shells from the shores of the Indian Ocean, Anterior-Asian carpets and textiles of local production. Pazyryk people themselves rather exported fur and gold articles to China, India, Persia, Sogdiana, which caused myths about "the griffins guarding gold".

　　Pazyryk

　　The Pazyryk kurgans (Ulagansky district) are located inside the buffer zone around the component part of World Heritage Property «Golden Mountains of Altai». They are on the altitude of 1,600 meters above the sea level, where the comparatively limited area of the valley includes about 40 different archaeological structures: large and small stone mounds, oval and round flat stone platforms and fences, stone circles, rows of stones set vertically.

　　Archaeological mounds are considered to be the most important Scythian burial sites in the Altai Mountains, because they laid the foundation for studying the frozen tombs.

　　One of the richest is the fifth kurgan which is located in the centre of the complex. Its mound presented piled stones, not very high, with gentle slopes, its diameter was 47 meters, a height of 2,2 meters. About 1,800 cubic meters of stone was used to construct it. Here archaeologists have found the oldest preserved Persian carpet and another carpet, presumably of local production, depicting a man on horseback. Among the remains of four purebred horses, which, apparently were brought to Altai from the south, they found well preserved wooden jewelry of harness, felt saddles blankets, and other trappings braided in the tail of horses.

　　In this mound they also found a collapsible tent, fragments of wagons, the famous wooden chariot, and richly decorated saddles. Therefore, we should note that in this period of time the Assyrians, Persians, Greeks and other nations with developed culture did not use saddles. As for the Altai Mountains, it was the region of the Central Asia where the first felt yurt was invented and a horse was domesticated earlier than anywhere.

　　According to epic studies, it was horse domestication that served as the basis for the emergence of a new hero image in folk literature — an athlete in the heroic legends.

　　Some samples of ancient musical instruments such as harp, horn drum were found in Pazyryk kurgans. A small drum made of two halves of bull horn has an average height of 18 cm. Researchers suppose that the discovered drum was likely of sacral and ritual use.

　　The more complicated four-stringed musical instrument — a small harp (its Altaian name is «diadagan») has a length of 83 cm. It was hollowed out from a single piece of wood coloured in red outside and its open parts were covered by membranes from a skillfully made leather.

　　According to the Altaian mythological legends a folk hero Shunu liberated his people which were captured by enemy and kept for a long time in a dark cave. Shunu managed to withdraw his people from the cave due to playing the diadagan and due to throat singing.

　　Pazyryk Culture is characterized by the existence of a Scythian triad, which unites it with other cultures of the Eurasian steppes. These are identical weapon systems, the construction and objects of horse harness, and the Scythian animal style.

　　Found in the Pazyryk burials vivid examples of Scythian - Siberian animal style mainly portray excruciation of peaceful cloven-hoofed animals by predators which are mostly winged.

　　The important discovery were the mummified bodies of the leader and his wife (or concubine) in the Pazyryk mounds. Outside the grave chamber in the northern half of the burial pit there was a horse entombment with a full set of horse harness in accordance with the number of sacrificed horses. And the number of horses in the mounds varied from 7 to 14.

　　Tuekta

　　The burial complexes of Tuekta (in Ongudai district) include 197 mounds. Research data on these sites are kept in the museum collections of the Altai Republic and Russia. Burials of the elite of Pazyryk society were also found in the log sarcophagus inside a wooden cabin placed in grave pits under the piled stones. From inventory items there were found ceramics, saddles, jewelry, weaponry, and etc. Medieval burials were put in grave pits under these stone mounds. Such objects as a silver jar, jewelry and weapons were removed from them.

　　Katanda

　　The first mound with a height of 2 meters and a diameter of 40 meters containing the permafrost was discovered in Katanda. The ice lense has preserved a variety of unique articles from textile, leather and wood. Under the multiple layers of logs there was discovered a hewed log cabin with double walls and double ceiling. The logs were set almost according to the modern construction technologies. This kurgan contained unique items of clothing from sable and ermine fur preserved in a good condition. A fur coat, the sleeves of which were painted in different colors (green, yellow and brown) demonstrates a flaky design. Besides this original decor, the coat was decorated with a buckle carved from wood and covered with golden foil. Artistic design of this coat shows the high technology and art specific for its time.

　　There is also famous long-tailed coat from Katanda and felt carpet with colored appliques, and wooden carved decorations in golden foil, made in Scythian-Siberian animal style. All these findings demonstrate surprising for its time jewelry craftsmanship of Pazyryk society.

　　Petroglyphic complexes

　　Elangash

　　The petroglyphs in the Elangash valley (Kosh-Agach municipal district) make an indelible impression. In point of fact they present a huge source on the history of culture and fine art by the ancient populations of the Altai, including the Pazyryk Culture. Petroglyphs of the Altai Mountains make up part of the immense ancient rock art of Siberia, Central Asia in contrast with woodlands and taiga. These petroglyphs have own characters and stories related to the life of ancient hunters and herders in the steppes and deserts of Eurasia.

　　The main attraction of the valley is a giant rock art complex, stretched for 18 kilometers into the valley, it reaches a width of 1,5 km. Scientists have copied over 30,000 drawings from here. The most common themes of petroglyphs are deers, goats, bulls procession, anthropomorphic figures, camels, chariots, fighting beasts. Drawings were made by incusing and graffiti techniques.

　　According to scientists, the numerous ancient drawings on rocks illustrate not only the various scenes of everyday life such as migrations, hunting, war, but also scenes from myths and heroic legends.

　　Kalbak Tash

　　A petroglyphic complex "Kalbak Tash" (Ongudai district) is located at a distance of 7 km to west from the village Iodro. It is one of the largest archaeological sites in the Altai Republic where rock paintings of different periods from the Bronze Age to the ethnographic antiquity are accumulated. Petroglyphs present drawings made in Pazyryk and Hun-Sarmatian times, as well as in the early Middle Ages. They include scenes of hunting deers, wild bulls, bears. Images of the main characters of the Pazyryk animal style such as goats, wolf-dogs, feline predators, deers and horses also present in the scenes. The petroglyphs portray not only the various shapes of real animals, people, scenes of everyday life, hunting, war, but also stories and mystical animals which have arisen from religious beliefs, from ancient myths and heroic legends.

　　Researchers estimate that petroglyphic complex "Kalbak Tash" contains up to 8,000 drawings and inscriptions. Data research works on petroglyphs are being continued up today.

　　One of the most expressive monuments of ancient art is rock painting - petroglyphs. Petroglyphic sites of the Pazyryk Culture are distinguished by the technique of pecking or incised engraving and graffiti techniques. The central role in Pazyryk art plays fight of beasts - a plot line specific for Scythian art in general. The petroglyphs mainly portray images of wild animals and hunting scenes. Basically when making multiple rock images the ancient artists were motivated by the desire to ensure maximum success in hunting and convey a sense of afterlife as a whole.