Ust-Taseevsky cult complex
According to official information, the development of Siberia began in the 16-17 century. It is believed that the Cossacks first came to the empty endless lands of this wild land in order to reclaim this territory from scattered Turkic-speaking tribes with rifle fire and sabers. Christian monks followed them to throw seeds that were supposed to nurture a new generation of church adepts and turn wild nations away from worship, as one of the proponents of the faith wrote, "idols of the filthy, on the Angara River in abundance."
From individual ritual "specimens" that survived the war for the faith and remained virtually untouched in the deep forests of the Siberian taiga, one could get a general idea of the religious beliefs of people who lived in this territory in the distant past.
And now our conversation will focus on the most prominent representative, located in the lower Angara region, at the mouth of the Tasei River, as the locals call it here.
All known materials on this cult complex are limited to the results of several archaeological expeditions at the end of the last century.
Since 1975, the North Yenisei archaeological expedition of the Krasnoyarsk Pedagogical Institute under the leadership of N. I. Drozdov has been conducting large-scale work in the basin of the lower reaches of the Angara. During this period, dozens of monuments were identified and examined in Kezhemsky, Boguchansky and Motyginsky regions. In 1976, a joint team of KSPI and ISU examined a stone statue and a petroglyph on the Taseeva River. In subsequent years, the Taseevsky stone idol was repeatedly examined by the detachments of the KSPI. Archaeologists found this ritual complex on a tip from local residents. There were many different rumors about him in these parts. The hill on which the Taseevsky idol is located is considered a cursed place. It is noticed that during a thunderstorm it is this mountain that surprisingly often attracts lightning to itself, as evidenced by tall trees,the tops of which are split by electric discharges. It is this feature of the place that led to the emergence of a stone statue of the owner of the Angara taiga - the Taseevsky idol.
The stories of local residents interested archaeologists and prompted them to explore in detail a strange place, which, according to the results of several expeditions, was named “Ust-Taseevsky cult complex”. Its study lasted for almost a decade. The stone idol has been measured and studied up and down.
Promotional video:
Common data:
The stone complex is located at the top (300 m) of a wooded mountain, on the left bank of the Taseeva River. In the center of the rock massif, in the depths of a natural corridor, from a block of sandstone, an image of a human head with pronounced Mongoloid features is carved. Closed eyes and a third eye on the forehead indicate a special psychic vision of the Master of the place. Near the statue is a rock with a petroglyph carved on it.
The height of the statue is 152 cm, the greatest width in the region of the eyes is 35 cm, at the base - 45 cm. The statue is oriented to the southeast.
According to the available information, the Taseevsky idol is, today, the northernmost known stone sculpture of the early Iron Age in Asia.
The rocks that form the ridge have more than 20 natural niches in which fragments of sacrifices were once discovered.
On the territory of the complex, archaeologists have found more than a thousand items (weapons, arrowheads, spears, bronze jewelry of the Siberian shaman), found objects of Scythian culture - artistic casting, bronze. This testifies to the fact that in the past the place was cult and very visited.
Regarding the age of the monument, archaeologists, judging by the found objects of the Scythian period, date it 6 - 2 centuries BC. This assumption was supported by the results of a survey of the very face of the Taseev idol.
Judging by the technique of execution and design details, the idol was originally a Caucasian. The idol was made using the technique of embossing and grinding, presumably in the Scythian time.
- The stone idol inherited a thick, almost Russian beard, mustache, a high wide forehead with eyebrows shifted to the bridge of the nose, and a massive nose with clearly cut nostrils from its original appearance. These details are executed very technically, almost in a portrait manner and, obviously, by the hand of one master. They have something elusive from the images of the mighty, formidable Scythians on European antique items. M. Zakhartsov, history teacher
But the time of the Scythians has passed, the territory was inhabited by Mongoloid tribes who came to the Angara from the south. Their shamans found a stone idol lost in the Siberian taiga. It was at that time, already at the beginning of our era, that the idol changed its appearance. Traces of refinement appeared on the face.
- First of all, the eyes suffered, which acquired a narrowed Asian cut with uncomplicated deep pupils. The nose also got it. Presumably, at first the bridge of the nose was roughly chipped, from which the nose became more flattened, and then with two concentric lines it was narrowly reduced to the slanting eyes. Obviously, there was an attempt to "shave" the beard of the Taseevsky idol, but this idea was not crowned with success, since in this place the stele is the most massive and solid. This "part-time job" was associated with the replacement of the anthropological appearance that prevailed here. So the Idol became Mongoloid. M. Zakhartsov
The last restoration was already quite minor. A hole was cut in the idol's mouth for attaching a smoking pipe, and the pupils were tinted with reddish ocher. Siberian shamans used pipes in their rituals, since tobacco, like other smoking herbs, is considered an excellent means of offering smoke to spirits, especially in sacred places like this.
The petroglyph in the form of roughly scratched karakul on a nearby rock appeared apparently at the same time and is a kind of shamanic ritual.
Abnormal place
The mountain, where the stone idol stands, has long been notorious among the locals. The reason is that magnetic anomalies are still observed in this place. Perhaps the reason is that under the mountain there are deposits of metals or the similar ability of the place to serve as a lightning rod is connected with some other reasons. In any case, this is a very unusual place.
Some have strange, colorful and surprisingly realistic dreams here. Others claim that they saw unidentified flying objects over this hill. Like any other place of the Force, it does not like strangers and idle curious, with whom come dark and related problems: hastily scrawled obscene words and traces of shot from shots.
Most of all the coordinates that mark this place on the Internet are not correct. I myself had an unsuccessful trip to the idol, when the RGS group and I unsuccessfully tried to find the cult complex and, having bypassed all the points clogged in the GPS, returned with nothing.
One of the psychics once described to me three visions that were related to the Turkic history of the cult complex. One vision showed a shaman rushing around an idol. Then several warriors, probably from the Yenisei Kyrgyz in their clothes, brought weapons to their deity, as if charging him with energy. The third episode was about a ritual sacrifice, in which, taken in battle, a prisoner, the same soldiers killed in front of the stone idol.
The history of such places is not very diverse. After a relatively long period of proto-rus rule in this territory, the cult was demonized and completely forgotten.
Author's opinion:
Judging by what I learned, the cult complex of the mouth of the Taseeva River consisted of three stone statues, located in a triangle and turned with faces towards their center. One of the idols was taken out and sold during the time of Perestroika, while the second was hidden by the Guardians in order to change the direction of energy flows. The third idol, which is there to this day, is only a shell of the energy-information complex of our ancestors that once operated there. Once upon a time, the capabilities of the magnetic mountain were used to recharge the complex with celestial electricity. Honestly, I have never seen such an interesting installation!