Vera Island on Lake Turgoyak, near its western coast, is primarily notable for the megalithic structures located on it. Scientists still cannot explain exactly who built these mysterious structures and for what purpose. Information about the stay here of the participants of the Pugachev uprising led by Pinaev dates back to the 18th century. In the 19th century this place was called “Pinaev Island”. During the 19th century, there was an Old Believer skete here, the remains of which are well preserved. Legends associate its appearance with the hermit Vera, therefore, at the beginning of the 20th century, the name “Island of Vera” appeared.
Lake Turgoyak is one of the pearls of the lake necklace of the Chelyabinsk region. There are two versions about the origin of the name Turgoyak. First: it comes from the Bashkir words tur - "stop" and ayak - "leg", the second version says that the name Turgoyak is of Turkic origin, but it translates as "upper", that is, a mountain or main lake. Both names are very suitable for him, since for a long time the lake was considered sacred, forbidden among the Bashkir tribes. Turgoyak is called the younger brother of Lake Baikal for its amazingly clear water. Thanks to the special plankton, the water in the lake under the rays of the sun seems to shine, silvery from the inside. The lake is not very large - its length is no more than 8 km, width - 6 km. Literally 200 meters from Lake Turgoyak, Lake Inyshko hangs over it. It is believed that Inyshko has a double bottom. The lower one is ordinary, and the upper one is peaty. Therefore, perhapsThere is this legend: there was once a camp of Yemelyan Pugachev on the shore of Lake Inyshko. The local wealthy decided to pay off him and collected 2 barrels of gold. Pugachev did not accept the gift, but ordered to throw the barrels into the lake, they pushed through the upper bottom and, they say, are still lying somewhere in Inyshka. There are several archaeological sites on Lake Turogoyak. But the most famous of them, of course, widely known for its mysterious buildings - megaliths, the island of Vera.widely known for its mysterious buildings - megaliths, Vera Island.widely known for its mysterious buildings - megaliths, Vera Island.
Old Believer Skete and the Riddle of Nun Vera
Until now, the island is a place of pilgrimage for representatives of the Old Believer communities: Miass, Chelyabinsk and Yekaterinburg. According to the legend transmitted by local residents, the Old Believer Vera was engaged in the practice of healing, thanks to which she earned honor and respect among residents of the surrounding settlements. She did not take money, therefore, the whole world helped her with the housework. Only scraps of historical memory about the personality of the hermit have survived to this day, so in the book "Spiritual Literature of the Old Believers of the East of Russia of the 17-20th century" the following mention has been preserved: "Mother Vera is a nun of the famous Shartash skete near Yekaterinburg. After the ruin of the hermitage, she went to the village of Pogorelsky, Chelyabinsk district. The expelled from there settled in 1835 in a cave cell on the island of Lake Turgoyak, near the Miass plant. Her cell and grave were a place of mass pilgrimage. " The quote is also confirmed by the memories of the old-timers, recorded by our contemporaries, according to these data, it is confirmed that Vera died on the island, the deceased was buried at a rocky outlier, on the top of which a cross was erected. Since then, the cross has been updated several times, but the location of the relic remains unchanged.
After the death of the nun, a monastery arose in the place of her skete. A small church was built, a refectory and cells for the monks. Up to 20 monks lived in the skete on Pinaev Island (Vera Island - approx.). Local authorities several times carried out "distillations", but the skete was invariably revived. It finally ceased to function only at the end of the 19th century, when the stone church was not only burned down, but also partially destroyed, the cells of the elders were destroyed, etc. In the early 1900s. only one of the former novices lived on the island - Elder Panteleimonov.
No details in the description of the life of the Old Believers-herders have survived to this day. The first detailed description of the island and its buildings was made in 1909 by the architect N. Filyanskiy. He connects the construction of all stone structures of the island with the life on the island of the community of Old Believers in the second half of the 19th century. He managed to make a description of the stone church, at that time it was already in ruins. Also describes eight destroyed cells in different parts of the island. Of greatest interest is the description of the megalith, which Filyansky interprets as a refectory for hermits, and, according to the researcher, the megalith was of natural origin and was considered a “refined cave”. It is characteristic that the attitude to these complexes as to caves has been preserved among the local population to this day. However, excavations at the site of the find provided researchers with the opportunity to speculate that all objects belong to archaeological antiquities and date back to several thousand years. Old Believers came to the island and occupied the buildings once erected by someone …
At present, the history of the Old Believers in the Southern Trans-Urals has not been studied well enough, and there are still many blank spots. Apparently, therefore, there is no information at all about the life of the islanders. Thus, research at the site of the skete will allow scientists to collect more detailed information about the life of the hermitages, complementing the general mosaic of knowledge about the life of the Old Believer community. At present, 14 structures have been identified: the ruins of a chapel, a prayer house, ten semi-earthen structures of varying degrees of preservation and a cemetery.
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Megaliths of Vera Island
After a thorough survey of the island's territory, archaeologists made many discoveries, the main ones being the megaliths discovered on the island.
Megaliths are prehistoric structures composed of large stone blocks connected without the use of cement or mortar. The megaliths found on Vera Island are referred to as dolmens. Dolmens are those megaliths that in ancient times were burial and cult structures. The megaliths on the island, according to scientists, were supposedly built about 6,000 years ago, in the 4th millennium BC. It is assumed that approximately 5-8 millennia ago, an earthquake occurred on the island and the sharply rising water flooded part of the ancient sanctuary. Excavations that have taken place on Vera Island over the past ten years have yielded inventory from the Upper Paleolithic, Neolithic, Eneolithic and Bronze Age periods. Scientists have also established that most of the island's monuments, from ancient times to the beginning of the twentieth century,associated with cult human activities. To date, two megalith-dolmens have been investigated in detail; they were conventionally designated by numbers №1 and №2. It is not yet possible to thoroughly examine the destroyed underwater dolmen.
Megalith number 1
A megalith was built along the ridge of the hill and cut into the rocky ground. The floor slabs were covered with a layer of turf. Therefore, if the structure had not been reused by the Old Believers, who cut window openings in the structure and cleared the entrances, it would be very poorly read on the surface. In this topographic situation, the individual protruding stones give the impression of natural rock outcrops. The total length of the structure is 18 m, width is about 6 m. At present, the entrance to the dolmen is located in the South-East. However, apparently, this entrance was made by the Old Believers, since in the north of the object there is a long corridor-like passage, oriented along the West-East line, descending either by a ramp or by steps to the central part of the structure. In the inner part of the structure there are several chambers connected to each other by corridors. Chambers in different parts of the megalith differ in height, for example, in the corridors the height of the chamber does not even reach 1.5 m, when the height of the central chambers is about 2 m.
The entire structure is covered with massive stone slabs used as the roof of the megalith. Their length ranges from 1.5 to 3.5 m and depends on the width of the covered area. The width of the slab is 0.75 … 1.3 m, the largest slab covering the central chamber reaches a width of two meters, while its weight can reach … 17 tons !!! How it was installed is anyone's guess.
In the eastern part, south of the exit, the structure has not survived. The slabs fell down and gradually covered with sod. This annex was not connected with the main building by passages, it consisted of two chambers with a possible exit to the South-East.
Megalith number 2
The second megalithic structure is located 65 m west of the first. Its dimensions are much more modest: length - 8.5 m, width - 2.5 ~ 4 m. Currently, a path has passed through the middle part of the structure between the two chambers, which led to the destruction of this part. According to scientists, there was once a corridor between the cells with access to the northern cell, through which the entrance was carried out. The walls, made up of massive boulders, are perfectly preserved here. The structure is located on a slope descending to the West, so in the East its upper part is almost at the level of the slope in which the structure was cut down. The western wall was built of stones. Probably, after the completion of the functioning of the object, the entire western wall was partially filled up and then partially cleaned by the Old Believers.
The southern, larger chamber has a clear rectangular shape and dimensions of 3x4 m. In the west, there is a very clear entrance to it, 60-70 cm high, formed by two protruding portal walls made of flat stone blocks. A large stone lay in front of the portal, probably covering the entrance at one time. The portal is covered with a small slab. On it, apparently, originally lay stones that were later removed. Only one of them has survived. Floor slabs were laid on these stones. In total, this chamber is covered with four slabs, three of which were oriented along the North-South line. The widest slab is 110 cm wide. The northern chamber is small and has a regular rectangular shape. Its end wall is made of a vertically placed slab, which is not found anywhere else on these structures. Longitudinal walls are folded,as mentioned above, from large stone boulders, the size of which sometimes exceeds 1m. However, a vertical slab was placed in the northern corner of the western wall, and its upper part was supplemented with smaller chambers.
It should be said that Megalith No. 2 can be clearly interpreted to the typology of compound dolmens known in different countries of the world, incl. among the Caucasian megaliths. It is believed that this form of construction of these megalithic structures is the earliest and refers us to the origins of the dolmen culture as a whole. Also noteworthy is the fact that there are no analogues among the discovered and investigated dolmens, to date, there is nothing similar to Megalith No. 2. Before us is one of the unique buildings, possibly having a connection with dolmens scattered throughout the world.
Underwater city
Divers from the club "Argonaut" dived into the depths of Turogoyaka near the island and almost at the coastline discovered various forms of underwater megaliths: many menhirs, dolmens and even pyramids! In addition, with the help of ultrasound in the muddy bottom, they found something resembling boat frames, ancient amphorae, and man-made walls. And all this at a depth of 1.5 to 5 meters! They were also surprised by the so-called abnormal accumulations of stones, when stones suddenly appeared at the bottom between two natural ridges, which should not be there. Often, such anomalous clusters have the correct shape and require more careful study.
Archaeologists explained 85% of the divers' finds by natural formations, however, the remaining 15% really surprised scientists. It turned out that at the bottom of the lake there really are megaliths - structures made of huge granite boulders, processed by people. One of the dilapidated dolmens, found at a depth of 1.5–2 meters, gave a hint and a possible explanation for the finds. The fact is that the building was carved into the rocky ground. Of course, no one would have carved the megalith under water, and therefore the level of the lake in those ancient times was much lower and over time the lake absorbed part of the cultural heritage.
The same guess was confirmed by the granite ridges found at the bottom at a depth of three meters, clearly elongated along the east-west line. At first, the divers thought that they were also man-made, but scientists refuted this guess, but they noticed that these ridges were significantly broken by the surf. This means that the level of the lake was earlier at least three meters lower, if the surf could break these stones. Further more. At a depth of six meters, divers discovered walls that resemble hand-laid. It seemed to them that the boulders of which the walls were built were too regular in shape. Scientists have yet to confirm or deny this guess, but it is quite possible that the lake was once as much as five meters lower!
Construction techniques and stone sources
Work on the construction of each object began with the excavation of a pit in the rocky ground. How exactly this process was carried out, unfortunately, could not be determined. Most likely, stones obtained during these very works were used for the manufacture of facing stone blocks and for the construction of walls. It is possible that an insignificant amount of overlapping stones was also obtained from this pit, however, most of it was impossible to obtain in this way, due to the problematic splitting of stones. Fifty meters higher up the slope from the first object, there is a high rocky outlier, composed of slabs with horizontal stratification. Extraction of large stone slabs was most convenient here. Their transportation was carried out mainly down the slope, although in some places the slope acquires the opposite direction. Therefore, in such places it was necessary to build roads and log rollers. Probably, with the help of bulk and log structures, the slabs were placed in their places. At the same time, the efforts to transport multi-ton slabs were truly titanic, the process of installing a slab weighing 17 tons is still a mystery, even in our time it is hardly possible to install this slab, and what can we say about the ancient ancestors.
The problem of cultural identity and dating of megaliths
So, with a more accurate study of objects, we can safely say that it is impossible to consider the megaliths of the island as objects built by Old Believers. And scientists have found irrefutable confirmation of this. First of all, this is indicated by the fact that the design of the objects was modified from the original in order to adapt it to economic needs. In addition, in fact, in the tradition of the Old Believers there is no construction of such objects, for the architecture of that time, wooden architecture is still characteristic, especially since there is no shortage of timber in the place where the monastery was located.
The question remains how it is possible to live inside a dolmen in the harsh Ural climate, if in the warm season it is even more or less possible, then in winter at negative temperatures living is categorically unrealistic. Due to the fact that stone structures are actually not equipped with any thermal insulation. So it can be assumed that the objects could be used only in the warm season, which again indicates their ritual and cult purpose.
For these reasons, it can be argued that the buildings are of ancient origin and were reused by the Old Believers. However, accurate dating is difficult. Since similar historical and cultural sites in the Urals have not yet been discovered.
Conclusion
Summing up, we can talk about the discovery on the territory of the Urals of a new type of unique archaeological monuments, which are exclusively sacred in nature. Archaeologists believe that near the coastline of Turgoyak, research should be continued, and it is quite possible that about wasps. Vera, somewhere in the forest, still remain unexplored similar dolmen complexes, since cult objects have never been formed in absolute isolation.
It was as a collection of additional information about an unknown people who erected these mysterious objects - dolmens in the Urals in ancient times - that our group launched a special project "Ancient heritage of the Urals". We collect a general array of information about dolmens on the territory of the Urals, we try to systematize and study mysterious objects in every possible way, of course, consulting about the findings with active archaeologists, real experts in their field. So far, there is very little information about the now forgotten civilization, but I hope that someday we will be able to get to the bottom of the truth and unravel the "mystery of the dolmens".