A group of three menhirs was knocked down next to the Kislovodsk-Dzhily-su road. Almost all menhirs in the Northern Elbrus region have been destroyed, said Viktor Kotlyarov, head of the Russian Geographical Society's branch in Kabardino-Balkaria.
The message about the destruction of menhirs in the Northern Elbrus region arrived at the sms-service of the "Caucasian Knot" tonight. “Almost all menhirs in the northern Elbrus region in the KBR have been destroyed, destroyed,” the author of the post wrote with a link to Facebook materials.
Information about the destruction of ancient menhirs was published on October 29 in his Facebook profile by regional historian Viktor Kotlyarov.
“They threw into the abyss the most famous menhir that stood in the clearing opposite the Tuzluk mountain. They destroyed, defiled - recaptured the upper part with the head of a warrior, painted with scabrous inscriptions - practically all menhirs in the region of the Northern Elbrus. They knocked down, shot, smashed a group of three menhirs, which are located next to the Kislovodsk - Dzhily-su road,”said the head of the Russian Geographical Society's branch in Kabardino-Balkaria in his post“Menhirs and barbarians”.
“My heart was bleeding when I saw this picture - tumbled, torn stones. They can no longer be saved,”wrote Viktor Kotlyarov and posted six photographs of the destroyed menhirs.
Menhir (from Breton men - stone and hir - long) - the simplest type of megalithic structures, consisting of a block of stone, dug vertically into the ground, with a height of 4-5 meters to 20 meters. Sometimes menhirs make up long alleys, and sometimes they are located in a ring. Most likely, menhirs were created for a cult purpose, according to the online version of the Dictionary of Fine Arts Terms. A group of menhirs in the Northern Elbrus region, according to archaeologists, was made by Scythians familiar with samples of both Cimmerian and Western Asian art, according to Viktor Kotlyarov's article "Menhirs - Landmarks of the Millenniums" published in his blog in Live Journal. According to Nikolai Subbotin, head of the Perm branch of RUFORS, menhirs are an ancient global navigation system. With their help, it was possible to travel around the world and pave new trade routes,explains the ufologist in a lecture, a video of which was posted on his blog at Blogger.com. Among the likely appointments of menhirs there is also a cult one - ritual fencing of other structures, symbolism of the center, determination of the boundaries of possessions, elements of rituals of transition or fertility, phallic symbolism. Often, subsequent peoples reused the menhirs for cult purposes, transforming them into idols, it is noted in the reference about menhirs on Wikipedia. (Added at 14:56 - Note of the "Caucasian Knot").converting them into idols, noted in the help about menhirs on Wikipedia. (Added at 14:56 - Note of the "Caucasian Knot").converting them into idols, noted in the help about menhirs on Wikipedia. (Added at 14:56 - Note of the "Caucasian Knot").
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Viktor Kotlyarov notes that the menhirs, according to his information, were destroyed by those who consider them idols.
“I am told that this is a manifestation of the struggle against idolatry. Which Menhir is an idol? This is one of the oldest man-made monuments. People dedicated it not to pagan gods,”writes the local historian, noting that“there are plenty of such fighters with stones in the KBR”.
Readers of Kotlyarov's post in the comments to it called the destruction of menhirs barbarism and "murder of memory", adding that if such objects are not urgently taken under state protection, then "it will be too late tomorrow."
“It is not clear why Viktor Kotlyarov is the only person in the republic who should root for monuments, for history, for nature, for people? What do high foreheads do in cozy offices, whose duties include all this? - Zhanna Afaunova wrote under Kotlyarov's message about the destruction of menhirs.
