Each time has its own unique signs, which are "left" for posterity, so that historical memory does not fade away, the connection between times and generations is not interrupted. Signs of the ancient Turkic era - stone enclosures overgrown with bushes and mysterious mounds, drawings and mysterious letters drawn on weathered rocks, stone statues … All this was left by nomads who once lived in the vast expanses of Siberia and Central Asia, who created powerful states that had their own written language and close contacts civilizations of the south - from China to Byzantium. They, or rather their images, seem to grow out of the ground as dark silhouettes of stone statues, scattered across the mountains and valleys.
Photo by Vladimir Lotov.
Leaving the memory of deceased relatives is one of the oldest human traditions. You can read about the memorial pillars at the burial structures of the Turkic-speaking tribes, for example, in the Chinese chronicles of the Middle Ages.
Author of the photo: Lyubov Ivashkina.
They are all different. From roughly hewn stone columns, in which anthropomorphic features are barely guessed, to real works of sculpture. The statue "Kezer-tash" from the Kurai steppe is noteworthy: Calm, serene face of a mature man, long mustache, wedge beard. On the crown of the head is a small headdress. In his right hand is a vessel resembling silver jugs, which are still found by archaeologists in the mounds. For whom is the drink in the symbolic vessel Kezer-tasha? To himself at his own commemoration organized by his relatives? Or is it a gift to the supreme solar deity? It is no coincidence that the statues "look" to the east - towards the rising sun? The left hand rests on the typesetting belt. Metal plaques from such belts, including silver and gilded ones, are also found in ancient burial mounds. In our ancestors, they denoted the social rank of a person. Judging by the rich belt, Kezer was a member of the elite circle of the ancient Turkic society. A bag for various small things is suspended from the belt (this was accepted until relatively recent ethnographic antiquity), as well as a saber in a scabbard - an indispensable attribute of both the ruler and warrior of deep antiquity - the distant Middle Ages.
Photo by Igor Kalmykov.
Most of the other statues are simpler. Where only the face is knocked out, where - in addition - there are also details of clothing, weapons. And where the stones were simply installed, only schematically resembling a person.
Author of the photo: Tatiana Akimova.
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There is such a statue of a "fossilized ancestor" on the territory of the Altai Natural Biosphere Reserve. On the Belinskaya terrace there is a unique monument "Kezer-tash" (Stone-warrior), which dates back to the era of the ancient Turks. Ancient Türkic statue near the village. Bele was recorded back in 1925. A. N. Glukhov during the work of the Altai expedition of the ethnographic department of the Russian Museum.
Author of the photo: Dmitry Zhitenev, 1966.
The statue depicted a deceased person, and in it, according to the ideas of those times, his soul was imprisoned until the end of the memorial cycle. The statue depicted the face of the deceased, trying to reflect the portrait likeness. The image of a young face is given a formidable look by large, rounded eyes, a slightly curved mouth. In his right hand, the stone warrior holds a chalice-goblet, thereby taking part in the memorial feast. The left hand, as a rule, rests on the belt or weapon. This "Kezer-tash" is not certified.
Author of the photo: Dmitry Zhitenev, 1966.
Stone sculptures (stele and ancient Türkic sculpture) are located next to the Bele cordon. In ancient times, they were part of a single burial and memorial complex. There is a burial mound not far from the stone statues.
Photo documentation of the sculpture from Bele. Photo by A. Gilbert.
Much can be learned by studying stone sculptures of the Altai mountains. About the appearance of people who have passed away long ago, about their complex worldview system, the characteristic techniques of masonry art.
Author of the photo: Valentin Selegey.
"Petrified" ancestors. For more than a thousand years, they stood in the secluded corners of the Altai high-altitude valleys in order to "look" - sometimes with irony, then with a slight sadness - with their eternal eyes at us and our life, in order to tacitly remind: there is no future without a past, you cannot break the thread of times.
Photo by Natalia Shichkova.