The Issyk "Golden Man", or Altyn adam, found in 1970, has become one of the national symbols. The image of a warrior in a gold suit with a high headdress is captured in museum reconstructions and textbooks, on the Monument to Independence and Money, in souvenirs and on signs. It is all the more surprising how little is still known about the Kazakh Tutankhamun even to specialists, not to mention people far from science.
The sensational find, discovered not far from the pearl of the Zaili Alatau - Lake Issyk, was preceded by a terrible mudflow. A giant stream of stones and mud swept away everything in its path. Hundreds of people died, buildings disappeared, and the ancient lake itself was destroyed. Issyk village on July 7, 1963 was one of the largest and most destructive in the USSR. Several years later, the restoration of the reservoir and the damaged objects began. At the site of the construction of one of them, the famous discovery took place.
From order No. 54 of the Directorate of the Institute of History, Archeology, Ethnography of the Kazakh SSR, April 21, 1969: “Send an expedition to Issyk for a period of 10 days, consisting of: ml. researcher of the department of archeology B. Nurmukhanbetov, engineer-photographer O. Medvedev and artist P. Son. The front of the prescribed work is the demolition of two burial mounds of the Issyk burial ground."
On the left bank of the Issyk River there are about fifty Saka burial mounds. Under the leadership of the famous archaeologist Kemal Akishev, the specialists worked for two seasons on several tombs. The excavations did not please at all, the mounds were plundered. And now, when all the work was already curtailed, the archaeologist Beken Nurmukhanbetov asked the bulldozer driver to demolish a layer of earth a little to the side of the last mound. He began to clear the indicated place, suddenly a log jumped out, which turned out to be part of a wooden tomb, in which the remains of an ancient nomad would later be found.
From the memoirs of the archaeologist Beken Nurmukhanbetov: “1970, April 22. The "Golden Man" shone, lay. Why do you think I remember the date? One hundred years since the birth of Vladimir Ilyich Lenin. It was the All-Union Subbotnik. I ripped off this cleanup. All participants of the cleanup were around this grave."
Over four thousand gold plaques and plates were found in an intact grave. There was also a handbag with the remnants of ocher, a mirror, rings, an earring, a hryvnia, weapons, and various vessels. And also a silver bowl, on which signs were inscribed in some unknown language. It is important to note here that the Issyk kurgan was plundered twice in different centuries, but it did not even occur to the thieves that there is still a side burial.
The found animal-style jewelry and a pointed headdress gave a hint - two and a half thousand years ago, different Saka tribes lived on the territory of Semirechye, and the archaeologist Kemal Akishev suggested that the found nomad was a Tigrahauda Sakom. During the extraction of the remains, the skull was badly damaged, and, unfortunately, we now hardly know what the face of Altyn adam was like. His age is 18-25 years old, height is about 165 cm. He lived, probably, in the 4-5th century BC.
From an interview with anthropologist O. Ismugalov, May 2010: “The lower jaw was quite slender, thin and at the same time large. This is rare for a woman. The brow ridges and nasal bones made it possible to say that the remains found belonged to a man. But there is always an element of doubt."
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So is the Golden Man a boy or a girl? This is the most enduring question. All finds from the grave can be interpreted both in favor of the first version and the second. For example, nomads also wore trousers and weapons in ancient times. Burial vessels, similar to those found in the Issyk mound, were found in the graves of Sarmatian priestesses. And the famous headdress of the Issyk man resembles a headdress found recently in the Taksai complex (in the west of Kazakhstan). It belonged to the "Golden Woman", or, as she is called, "Altyn Khanshayim". Over the years, popular rumor went further - in the royal burial mound, no less than the legendary Tomiris, the queen of the Massagets, who killed the Persian king Cyrus, rested. Or another Saka ruler - Zarina, whom, according to legend, a pyramid was erected on the grave, and a gilded statue was installed on the top.
Soviet science did not know modern methods of DNA research. Perhaps a new examination of the remains of the "Golden Man" would shed light and put an end to the controversy over whether a woman or a man was buried in an ancient mound.
The finds in the side tomb are striking, but the main (twice plundered) burial still haunts scientists. The clothes and burial complex of the Issyk man indicate that he belonged to very noble nomads, the royal elite. But if such honors were awarded to the deceased in a side burial, then who could lie in the main grave? In the hand of the "Golden Man" is Kamcha. Then where is his horse? And here again the devastated main burial comes to mind. Of course, after the death of the owner, the animal was not always sacrificed. But in the east of Kazakhstan there is a burial of about the same period and status - the Saka elite rested in the Berel kurgans - there, along with human remains, lie the remains of horses, fully equipped, in special masks. After all, a horse is a faithful friend and eternal companion of a nomad.
An unusual detail - one of the golden rings of the Issyk man seems to depict … an Indian. As the restorer Crimea Altynbekov explained in the program "Secrets of the Great Steppe", this is an image of an ancient deity, the god Mithra. The examination showed that the jewelry was worn for a long time and even repaired several times.
Another mystery of the Issyk mound is the mysterious runes on a silver bowl. She was lying at the head of the Golden Man, and, apparently, 26 signs told about who found eternal peace here. Does this mean that the Saks had a written language two and a half thousand years ago? - then it puts the steppe civilization at a very high level of development. Scientists from different countries have already proposed 25 options for decoding ancient runes, but they have not come to a consensus.
Finally, something that the majority of Kazakhstanis do not suspect, who believe that the "Golden Man" was found in one of the mounds near the current Issyk Museum-Reserve. In fact, after the completion of the excavations, the famous Issyk mound was razed to the ground and a car company was built in its place.
