Far from the capital cities, on the edge of our country, is Chukotka, which has long been inhabited by the indigenous inhabitants of the Far North - the Chukchi and Eskimos. The huge peninsula remains a little-known land for most of the inhabitants of Russia. But Chukotka has long been chosen by archaeologists, and they know better than others what historical events this land is rich in.
The archaeological study of the ancient cultures of the sea hunters of Chukotka (we are talking about the Eskimos, because the Chukchi only in the 17th-18th centuries left the tundra to the coast) brought many amazing discoveries. It turned out, for example, that from the 8th to the 14th century the climate on the peninsula was much warmer, therefore at that time the Eskimo villages remained very vast and populous, and the key to their development was a successful whaling.
Unknown legacy
The archaeologists were particularly struck by the picture they discovered in the Silyuk Bay of the now deserted Chukchi island of Yttygran (Itygran). As if road milestones appeared before them pillars of whale jaw bones, standing along the coast, dozens of giant bowhead whale bones, in strict order, dug into the coastal pebbles! They stood for almost half a kilometer along the coast, singly, in groups of two, in whole clusters - several dozen huge, more than five meters high, jaw bones. On their tops, notches and holes have been preserved - obviously, for tying various objects.
Yttygran and the larger Arakamchechen island lying to the north are separated from the mainland by the narrow Senyavin Strait. During the period when it is possible to cross the strait on the ice, the Chukchi reindeer herds graze on them. Even at the beginning of the 20th century, there were several very small Eskimo villages, 4-5 families each, on the islands, but today both islands are uninhabited. The village of Sikmok existed on these islands longer than others (there were no more than 50 people in it, and all of them moved to the mainland in 1950).
Sikmok was located directly next to the Whale Alley, some 200 meters from it, but neither the locals nor the crews of boats that came here paid attention to the monument. There were no legends and traditions associated with him. The Eskimos, who are generally very careful and respectful of the graves and the remains of the homes of their ancestors, shot rifles at the posts of this monument, and the sailors of the boats pulled ropes on them, which caused several posts to be knocked down.
In the Whale Alley, researchers have counted more than 50 whale skulls. Of course, where there are jaws, there should be skulls, especially since they have also always been used in construction. But the skulls are located in a completely unusual way: in neat, pairwise aligned groups of four and two. Moreover, they are dug into the pebble soil with their narrow, nose parts, and the wide and massive occipital parts rise high above the ground. It is also noteworthy that the jaws and skulls were brought from somewhere far away. The whales were clearly not beaten and butchered in the bay, since otherwise the entire coast would have been clogged with ribs and vertebrae, as happens everywhere where whales are butchered. And yet they are practically not here. In addition, holes were also drilled in the turtles, obviously for transportation: it means that they were brought here already cleaned of meat, most likelytowing behind a canoe on floats.
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The rear pillars of the Whale Alley, which are the most numerous, as if closely crowded, are located at the foot of a rocky hill. On its slope, structures were found that are not so striking, but no less curious. First of all, it turned out that the entire slope, in essence, is one huge pantry of meat. Meat pits for storing food supplies for people and food for dogs are an indispensable feature of any Eskimo village. Usually there were about as many pits in the old days as there were dwellings. That is, as a rule, no more than 10-15. Here, closely pressed against one another, there were about one and a half hundred meat pits!
Archaeologists have come to the conclusion that the Whale Alley is a phenomenon hitherto unknown in Eskimo culture, which was built for cult purposes as an intertribal sanctuary.
Belts were tied into the holes of the pillars, on which were hung richly decorated images of cult birds and animals, the pillar itself was considered a container of the spirit, and sacrifices were made to it - pieces of meat on wooden saucers. More than half a thousand years have passed since then, but the landmark pillars showing the way to the Whale Alley still rise on the capes of the Chukchi Islands.
Booty sailors
With the goal of finding traces of those who built the ancient temple, the researchers went in search along the coast of the Bering Sea. In the summer of 1981, the members of the expedition of the Institute of Ethnography of the Academy of Sciences had an amazing sight. Above the flat surface of the low-lying spit, an 11-meter-high hill towered. All the space around it was littered with intricately curved debris of whale jaws dug vertically into the ground, heaps of scattered skulls, the remains of semi-underground dwellings. The archaeologists realized that they had found what they were looking for. It was here, in the ancient settlement of Masik, that people lived who gave birth to a cult tradition, the result of which was the Whale Alley.
Masik is grandiose on the scale of Chukotka. More than 100 different objects stretch along the line of the spit for 1 kilometer. Groups of large pillars of bowhead whale jaws stood all over the hill. The center was located on a hill, where 7 semi-dugouts were found with an average diameter of about 7 meters. One of them is an almost untouched semi-underground dwelling with a preserved vault of whale jaws. It was covered with a sod layer with a small inlet.
Another amazing whaling village discovered by scientists is Nunak. At its foot, there is no coastal strip where boats could be pulled out. Ancient dwellings are located at an altitude of 10-20 meters above sea level, and you need to get to them along steep paths. The dwellings in Nunak are different from the usual Chukchi and Eskimo yarangas. They rather resemble small stone bastions with walls about 1 meter thick made of boulders and three-meter long corridors made of stones. The attraction of Nunak is a vast stone "pool" on a steep slope above the village. It was probably an artificial reservoir for collecting snow and flood waters.
Cape Big dugout
And one more outstanding discovery was made recently by Russian archaeologists on a deserted area of the Bering Strait coast, 25 kilometers from the Chukotka village of Uelen. This is Equen. Translated into Russian - "Cape Big dugout". At least 30 semi-underground dwellings have survived in Ekven. Left by people hundreds of years ago, they look like mounds. The sea, the level of which is constantly rising here, ruthlessly destroys the ancient settlement, and large slate slabs (floor of Equen dwellings, giant skulls and jaw bones of bowhead whales) protrude from the coastal slopes - the supports of the former roof.
The Equan burial ground is located 300 meters from the shore. Nobody knows how many burials there are. We can only confidently say that the burials in Ekven date back to the 1st millennium BC - the 1st millennium AD. “Among the finds in Ekven,” says a member of the expedition, archaeologist Mikhail Bronstein, “there are many different tools made of wood and stone, vessels made of whalebone, harpoon and arrowheads, jewelry, amulets, amulets made of walrus tusk and antler. But quite often we found things, the purpose of which remained a secret to us. As they accumulated, more and more often the thought arose that we have contact with an ancient civilization unknown hitherto."
Local legends speak of underground passages that used to connect the yarangas of sea hunters. Perhaps they will still be found in Ekven, but what archaeologists have already managed to find significantly changes the accepted in science ideas about the construction technologies of Arctic pioneers and the scale of their settlements.
Irina STREKALOVA