In: Problemy ekologicheskoi geomorfologii: Materialy mezhdunarodnoi nauchno-praticheskoi konferentsii IV Zhandaevskie chteniya, 17-19 aprelya 2007, Almaty-KazNu, p.15-20.

THE PETROGLYPH SITES OF KYZYLBULAK AND ASY

Jean-Marc Deom Laboratory of Geoarchaeology, Institute of Geology, Ministry of Education and Sciences, Kazakhstan; ispkz@nursat.kz www.lgakz.org

The petroglyph site and archaeological complex of Kyzylbulak and, 10 km eastwards, the ones of Asy are located 80-90 km east of Almaty, respectively on the upper valleys of the Turgen and Asy rivers, between the first (Karash) and second (Sarytau) northernmost ranges of the Zailiski Alatau. This region is well known as the largest summer pasture (jailau) of Semirechie, covering an area of 25x6 km that during the Soviet times was able to feed more than 50.000 sheep and to host around 200 yurts. 1. THE PETROGLYPH SITE OF KYZYLBULAK The site of Kyzylbulak is located between 2700 and 2900 m asl on the right flanks of the Oi-Jailau valley, a right tributary of the upper Turgen-Kyzylbulak river, on the upper tectonic terraces of a mesa culminating at 3008 m and facing the western borders of the Asy plateau (Fig.1-2). The upper part of the mesa is made of several terraces inclined to the east and bordered by rock outcrops on which the petroglyph complex has been engraved. The panoramic view seen from the site embraces all directions: in the east the wide Asy plateau, in the south the meadows of the Oi-Jailau valley and of the small parallel valley of Kyzylbulak, in the west the Turgen river and in the north the Kumbel mountain pass. Despite the poor quality of the lithic material, this panoramic position together with the rich prehistoric habitats of the bottom valley are the main factors that favored the establishment of the petroglyph site on this archaeological complex.

1
Fig.1- Archaeological map of the upper Turgen and Asy valleys (topo map 1:100.000 K-43-36)

1.1. The petroglyph site belongs to the archaeological complex of Kyzylbulak, located at the south of the petroglyphs site in the valleys of Oi-Jailau and Kyzylbulak. It has been archaeologically researched during the last 10 years, partly in the frame of the project INTAS 97-2220 The formation process of the nomadic societies in Semirechie during the Bronze and Early Iron ages. Ecological and archaeological investigations.

a) In the Oi-Jailau valley, on the southern bottom slopes of the mesa, are located 2 Bronze Age cemeteries and remains of Iron Age and edieval settlements. - The westernmost Bronze Age cemetery, Kyzylbulak-1, is situated at 2200 m asl 150 m above the confluence of the Oi-Jailau stream and the Turgen river (that exactly here changes its name from Kyzylbulak to Turgen). It covers an area of 80x40m included in a modern cattle corral and consists of around 25 Bronze Age cist-tombs (most of which included in stone enclosures) and 23 Iron Age kurgans. From 1997 to 2007, around 20 stone 1 enclosures with a total of 25 cist tombs have been excavated by the archaeologist A. Goryachev. The tombs have been dated to the late Bronze Age and are mostly hosting cremation burials. 2.5 km above the site of Kyzylbulak-1, at 2700 m asl on a narrow terrace of the upper southern slopes of the mesa, just 300 m west of petroglyph Group-5, has been discovered a settlement (called Kotlovandy in the archaeological report) with Early Iron and edieval material during archaeological surveys (Sala R, Deom JM 2000). The second cemetery, called Kyzylbulak-2, is located 1.5 km north-east of Kyzylbulak-1, at 2300 m asl on the gentle southern bottom slopes of the mesa. In an area covering around 30x40m, 4 stone enclosures and 8 cisttombs have been excavated from 1996 to 1999 (direction A.Goryachev). Here as well, the tombs have been dated to the late Bronze Age and mostly consist in cremations. 1.5 km east of Kyzylbulak-2, at the same foot of the mesa, on the eastern terraces of a stream depression, an ancient settlement made of stone structures and ceramic material dated to the Iron Age and to the edieval period have been found during archaeological surveys (Sala R, Deom JM 2000). b) In the lower Kyzylbulak valley, more precisely in the small valley of the next right tributary stream hosting the houses of the ex-Soviet tourist resort (today State Sport training center), are located 3 archaeological sites. On the right terrace of a small gully located 50 m north of the NE corner of the Soviet resort, have been found the ruins of 2 small dwellings, Oi-Jailau-1 and 2, studied and recognized as late Bronze Age settlements. On a larger terrace at the confluence of this gorge and the stream running along the resort has been studied the multilayer site of Turgen-2, including kurgans dated to the Wusun period, an Early Iron settlement and a late Bronze settlement. 300 m up the same valley, on a terrace of the left bank of the stream, is located the site of Oi-Jailau-3 consisting of several stone constructions interpreted as ruins of seasonal dwellings and dated to the Iron Age (SakaWusun period).

Fig.2- Archaeological map of the upper Turgen and Asy valleys (satellite map) 1-Goryachev A.A. 2008 'Arkheologicheskii kompleks uschelya Turgen'. In: Otchet ob arkheologicheskikh issledovaniyakh po gosudarstvennoi programme Kulturnoe nasledie v 2007 godu, Almaty, p.188-192.

1.2. The petroglyph site of Kyzylbulak consists of around 1500 drawings distributed in 5 groups between 2700 and 2900 m asl. They start 3 km east of the very top of the mountain (Group-1) and here bifurcate in 2 directions, in both cases for 1 km, along the eastern ridge (Group 2, the biggest concentration of drawings) and along the southern ridges (Group-3-4-5) (Fig 3). The center of the complex, by quality of the material and antiquity and number of engravings, consists of the upper groups, i.e. G1, G2.1-2-3 and G3. The panoramic view is gorgeous. The lithic material is made of surficial igneous rocks, varying from yellowgrey to yellow-reddish porphyry in the upper terraces (Group 1-2) to reddish and yellow-grayish porphyry in the lower terraces (Groups 3-4-5). As a whole the rock surfaces are of very low quality: uneven, full of cracks and covered by a poor patina varying from a shining dark blue to a non-shining blackish color.

Fig.3- The petroglyph site of Kyzylbulak, view to West

The petroglyphs are engraved by using 3 techniques: pecking, polishing and scratching, with the hammering technique almost absent. The pecking technique is often very rough and seems to have been made by stone tools. Polishing is mainly used on smoother surfaces with very shallow patina, and mostly during the Early Iron Saka period. The scratching technique is seldom used and only for small size images. The poverty of the material doesn't help a high stylistic development. The graphic style consists of a fully pecked silhouette (mainly during the Late Bronze and Early Iron Age) or of linear style (present in all periods), with few figures in simple contour quite rare but significant (see below). Subjects are caught in the two-dimensional plane (attempts of three-dimensional effects are meager and limited to the earliest phases), animals by side and humans by front, both with quite scanty iconographic elements. The subject repertory varies by period and decreases from the earliest to the latest times. The petroglyph performance in the site spans between the Bronze and the Ethnographic times, with the highest activity happening during the Bronze and Early Iron Wusun periods on the best rock groups. As a whole, 5 periods are clearly distinguished: 1. The earliest petroglyphs of the site can be dated to the Middle-Late Bronze period (1500-800 BC) (Fig.4-5). Executions are quite abundant and located on the relatively best or better exposed surfaces of G-1, G-2 and G3. The earliest drawings are generally of medium size (20x20 cm) but include also small size (10x10cm) and miniature (5x5 cm) representations. They are made by pecking technique, sometimes accentuated in the late Bronze by the scratching one. The repertory is made of arkhar, mountain goats, deer, wolfs and camels, Przhevalski horses, bulls with sun spot between the horns, males, archers, males joining hands, sexual scenes, one chariot, solar signs. The petrogyphs of this period represent 50 % of the total performances of the site, coherently with the highest number of dwellings and demography in the upper Turgen valley. They show some similarities with the site of Eshkiolmes but, as whole, their aesthetic features are quite peculiar, witnessing the conditioning of the bad material and possibly the presence in the valley of a quite specific culture.

Fig.4- Kyzylbulak, Middle-Late Bronze Age petroglyphs

2. The engravings of Early Iron Saka (800-200 BC) (Fig.6) periods are less represented (15 %), witnessing the effects on that altitude of a cold-wet climatic phase. They are generally engraved gently and precisely by polished and pecked technique. The drawings have elegant elongated profiles typical of the ScythianSiberian animal style. The repertory includes arkhar, mountain goats, roe-deer, males and geometric figures. As a whole they show features very similar to the drawings found on other rock art sites of Semirechie (Eshkiolmes, Kulzhabasy). 3. The drawings of the Iron Wusun and Hunnic periods (200 BC-500 AD) (Fig.7) are well represented on the site (30 % of the engravings). They are applied on almost all the available rocks, juxtaposed in the periphery of previous figures. The technique of engraving is mostly pecking, often very heavy. Polishing technique is also used on the smoothest surface. Styles are linear and very poor. The repertory is mostly made of mountain goats and archers. Remarkable is a surface of Group-1 where 4 running goats in typical Siberian Tashtyk contour style have been engraved. 4. The edieval Turkic period (500-1200 AD) (Fig.8) is the less present with just the 5 % of the drawings. The engravings are made by pecked technique and the repertory consists of mountain goats, camels, men holding knives. 5. The Ethnographic period (1600-1800) is rare and poorly significant. It is present in Group-2 at the bottom of the rock surface shadowed by juniper branches with some pecked figures of males holding weapons and in few other places by redoing of former drawings. a) Group 1 is located on the upper terraces of the mesa on a natural amphitheatre where around 10 rock groups are exposed facing south of which 6 have been engraved. At the south of the amphitheatre are located 2 kurgans of the Iron Age. It is the group endowed with the most impressive panoramic view. Group 1.1 is situated at the west and includes around 20 badly engraved drawings. Group 1.2 is located 20 m lower and includes 10 badly engraved drawings. Group 1.3 is situated 100 m further east and counts around 30 drawings of good quality. The rock surfaces perfectly oriented southward and, although poorly patinated, have beautiful drawings from the late Bronze to the Wusun periods. The late Bronze drawings show different features: pecked or polishes, fully engraved and contoured, in medium size or miniature. The Wusun drawings in contour style include large size representations of running goats (Siberian Tashtyk style) (Fig.6).

Groups 1.4 and 1.5 are located respectively 20 m and 100 m further east and are made of vertical surfaces covered by mountain goats in linear style of the Wusun period. Group 1.6 is covered by Late Bronze and Wusun drawings of mountain goats, wolves, bulls and horses, with the Wusun performances surrounding the Bronze ones. b) Group-2 is located 200 m east of group 1 on the rocky ridge developing eastward for 500 m. It is the largest group, consisting of 6 rock outcrops. Group 2.1 is made of several vertical surfaces covered by Bronze Age drawings, possibly the earliest petroglyphs of the site, with just one Saka image and few Wusun representations juxtaposed to earlier images. The westernmost stone is filled by bulls pecked very roughly, with the exception of a small bull well drawn in diagonal perspective and facing the spectator. The next surface is covered by horses engraved in a primitive style and by a man standing and wearing a strange (horned?) hat. The adjacent surface has 2 interesting representations: a small bull with a sun spot between the horns and a schematic chariot. The next stone has Bronze Age drawings juxtaposed by Wusun schematic goats and retouched during more recent times. The top of the stone is covered by the badly pecked representation of an archer holding a long bow and standing next to an arkhar. On a stone facing east there is the engraving of a small delicate male deer without horns in the Saka animal style, totally patinated against a reddish background. Another stone has the engraving of a schematic and deeply pecked bull with long horns (Late Bronze Age) mounted by a man wearing a hat (possibly drawn later).

Fig.5- Kyzylbulak, Middle-Late Bronze Age petroglyphs

Group 2.2 is located 20 m further east and includes figures of the Iron Saka and Wusun periods. The first surface is covered by some elegant Saka arkhar and a man, both engraved with polishing technique. The next stone is filled by Wusun schematic arkhars roughly pecked and by a dog or wolf. The easternmost vertical surface is covered by Wusun schematic goats polished on shallow patina. Group 2.3 is located 100 m further east and consists of 2 rocks counting around 30 pictures: few Late Bronze drawings surrounded by Wusun representations and concerned by some later redoing. Among the Bronze period drawings are counted some small horses, an archer, an intricate composition of a goat and an archer, a sun with 10 rays and a scene of 2 naked men holding the hands each other, the right man wearing a strange (horned?) Hat.

Group 2.4 is located 40 m eastward and consists of 2 rocks counting around 20 pictures partly shaded by junipers. Surface are facing SE and are covered by a black no-shiny patina. Most of the drawings belong to the Turkic period and include the representations of schematic arkhar, a linear contoured deer, a horse, a camel and some men in a hunting scene, all holding a hand-axe and one wearing a long hat. Group 2.5 is met 50 m east, made of 8 stone surfaces, each counting around 10 drawings. The stones are covered by Late Bronze Age and Wusun arkhar, horses and dogs (wolves?). The drawings are made by polishing-pecking technique and include miniatures of the Bronze Age retouched in later times. On 2 different stone surfaces are found 2 interesting geometric figures attributed to the Ethnographic period: the first one, gently pecked and later retouched, represents a composition of 2 horns; the second represents 2 circles, the biggest overlapping the second and crossed by a straight line (a drum?). Group 2.6 is located 150 m east, constitutes the eastern limit of Group-2 and consists of few vertical surfaces. The largest surface is filled by pecked and polished Wusun goats, horses and dogs. The next surface is covered by figures of standing men, some dogs and by a geometric figure consisting of a circle with a spot in its center and linked to a crack by a straight line. The other surfaces host just one drawing each: a gently pecked figure of a camel dated to the late Bronze Age; and a typical Saka representation of an arkhar beautifully polished on a rough surface with almost no patina.

Fig.6- Kyzylbulak, Iron Age petroglyphs

c) Group-3 is located 300 m south of Group-1, consisting of 3 boulders facing the southwestern cliff of the complex. The petroglyphs include drawings from the Late Bronze Age and Wusun periods. The southern side of the central boulder, rough and poorly patinated, is the most relevant, covered by pecked and polished images: a sun-head with eyes and encircled by rays and a small horse, both dated to the Bronze Age; and then several Wusun goats covering undecipherable earlier representations. d) Group-4 is located on a terrace 500 m under Group-2, consisting of few stones facing the southern cliff of the complex. The best drawings are found on 3 stone clusters. The rock group 4-a is situated is the upper one and consist of vertical reddish surfaces with many fissures and poorly patinated. Here are found beautiful Late Bronze images pecked and polished in medium and miniature sizes. The repertory includes deer, arkhars, dogs, wolves, horses and a naked man wearing a hat.

Lower on the talus, are found other vertical surfaces (4b-c) covered with drawings of the Wusun period. Despite the poor quality of the rock material, all the shiny patinated parts are filled with schematic mountain goats. E)

e) Group-5 is located 150 SW of Group-4, on the sloping ridge of the mountain. It consists of 3 sandstone blocks facing south, poorly patinated, each with an isolated drawing of arkhar of the Wusun period.

Fig.7- Kyzylbulak petroglyphs, Wusun period

Fig.8- Kyzylbulak petroglyphs, Medieval and Ethnographic periods

2. THE PETROGLYPH SITE OF ASY The site is located on the northern borders of the plateau of Asy, at an altitude of 2700 m, on two rocky mounds on the feet of the Karash range. These two mounds, 400 m far each other, have rock surfaces facing SSW not so smooth but relatively well patinated, which represents a rare case within the area and explains the rise of this small petroglyph site. 2.1. The petroglyph site belongs to the archaeological complex of Asy, constituted by Bronze and Iron Age villages and Bronze Age tombs, Iron Age Saka, Iron Age Wusun and Medieval Turkic kurgans. The plateau has been the object of several archaeological works implemented by A.Maryashev, A.Goryachev2 (Institute of Archaeology, RK), P.Tourtelotte and C.Chang (Sweet Briar College, USA) in the central part of the plateau. The excavated monuments up to now are the 2 following ones: During 3 seasons (1999-2001), a late Bronze Age settlement (Asy-1) with upper Iron Age layers has been excavated in the frame of the project INTAS by the archaeologist A.Maryashev. The site is located 10 km at the east of the astronomical observatory at an altitude of 2450 m, in a left second terrace of the river Asy, naturally sheltered by an upper third terrace. The Bronze age dwelling covers an area of 40x50m, with subterranean floor lying 80 cm under the earth surface, internal walls covered by stones and external ones by earth. The monument, by its construction features and by the ceramic assemblage similar to the ones of the site of Kyzylbulak (see 1.1. b) and of Talapty (along the river Koksu in NE Semirechie) is attributed to Late Bronze Semirechie culture (Kulsai type, 1200 BC). 1,5 km east of this site, on the same left terrace of the Asy river, another late Bronze Age-Iron Age settlement (Asy-2) has been partially excavated during the season 2002-3 under the direction of the archaeologist C.Chang. It has stone walls covering an area of 20x40m and is attributed to the same culture of Asy-1. Surveys implemented in 2000 by the participants of the project INTAS 97-2220 (R.Sala, J-M. Deom) have discovered traces of late Bronze and Iron Age settlements 5 km further east at the bottom of a large gorge merging with the left bank of Asy river. Here are exposed on surface several quadrangular and round stone structures and Bronze and Iron Age ceramics, suggesting the existence of a large prehistoric village. 2.2. The petroglyphs of Asy consists of around 500 drawings distributed mainly on the rock surfaces of 2 mounds located (400 m apart from each other) 2,5 km north of the Asy-1 Bronze Age settlement, at the east of the valley descending from the Kumbel (3050 m) pass across the Karash range. 3 The petroglyphs of Asy were first discovered in 1970'ies by P. Marikovskii and were object of a new survey and publication in 2003 by B.Zheleznyakov 4(archaeologist who worked in Asy 2). The lithic material is made of yellow-grayish and reddish porphyry with uneven and fissured surfaces with relative good patina. The drawings are engraved by pecking and partly polishing technique in medium and sometimes miniature size; the style and the repertory (arkhars, goats, horses, bulls, camels, men, 3 chariots) are similar to the ones of Kyzylbulak but scenes are much more significant, and so is the periodization. a) Group-1 is the western one, the nearer to the mouth of the Kumbel valley and exposed to the south. The periodization is almost restricted to just the Bronze Age and Iron Age Wusun periods.(Fig.9) Here are found some most interesting compositions dated to the Bronze Age: medium size and miniature arkhars, deer and an bulls; bulls and 2 archers in a hunting scene; a chariot pulled and surrounded by horses; a roughly pecked composition of a man feeding a horse mounted by a dog; a large composition showing camels held (or fed) by men and surrounded by arkhars and dogs, with a long legged bird badly drawn in the middle; a bull with a sun spot between the horns and an archer standing nearby; 2 men with joined hands and sexual organs, of which the right one wearing a skirt; another similar composition polished on a vertical surface showing 2 naked men holding each other by hand and surrounded by arkhars and by an isolated man with the arms opened. The drawings of the Wusun period consist almost exclusively of roughly pecked arkhars juxtaposed or superposed to Bronze Age drawings.

2-Maryashev A.N., Goryachev A.A. 2001. Poseleniya epokhi bronzy v verkhovyakh uschelya Turgen i na plato Asy. Istoriya I arkheologiya Semirechya, issue 2, Almaty, p. 112-122. 3-Marikovskii P.I. 2004. Risunki na skalakh youzhnikh I tsentralnykh rayonov Kazakhstana, Almaty (see table p.208) 4-Zheleznyakov B.A.2004. O kultakh svyatilisch Zhetysu I petrogliphy plato Asy. In: Izvetsiya ser. Obschestv.nauk, 1, 2004, p. 154-165.

b) Group-2 is located 400 m east of Group-1 at the foot of the next mountain outcrop and exposed to the south. Here the petroglyphs show styles very simple but elegant and a very poor repertory consisting almost exclusively of representations of arkhars, and their attribution spans on all the periods from Late Bronze to Medieval Turkic. (Fig.10) The Bronze Age images consist of gently pecked and polished small size drawings of mountain goats with square silhouette body, small head and long curved horns. It includes also drawings in linear style of goats and one chariot, retouched during later period. The Saka drawings consist of fully pecked drawings of arkhars with long curved horns reaching the tail. The Wusun engravings consist of several linear arkhar with spiral horns, repeated all similar each other in a way to cover the entire rock surface.

Fig.9 - Asy, group 1

Fig.10 - Asy, group 2

3. CONCLUSIONS The petroglyphs sites of Kyzylbulak and Asy culturally and aesthetically belong to the same complex with very simple artistic level when compared with some big sites of the Semirechie, they are anyhow significant from many points of view. 3.1. First of all, the petroglyph complex witnesses, by the different proportion of the repertory of the periods, phases of occupation of the Asy plateau quite analogous to the ones testified by the density of prehistoric dwellings and tombs of the region and coherent with the ecological changes pointed out by paleoclimatic reconstructions implemented by the project INTAS 97-2220. (Fig.11) The earliest drawings dated to the Bronze Age find their parallel in the inventories of the archaeological sites dated to the same period. The Late Bronze Age settlements of Turgen (1-2) and Asy (1-2) with double stone walls and the large cemetery of Kyzylbulak-1 seem to indicate an all year-round life at high altitude. The fact is confirmed by climatic reconstructions showing for the end of the II millennium BC a climate similar to nowadays; and also by ethnographic enquiries made among the shepherds living all the year-round in the hamlet of Asy (20 km east of the astronomical observatory) and reporting about mild winter conditions with the southern slopes free of snow and capable to feed more than 3000 sheep. Favorable natural and cultural conditions match with the fact that the majority of the drawings and the richest subject repertory (with fully pecked bulls and domesticated horses and camels) belong to the same late Bronze period.

Fig.11 - Paleoclimatic reconstructions of the plains and mountains of Semirechie (R.Sala)

Also the drastic diminution of petroglyphs dated to the early Iron Saka period finds correspondence with the archaeological materials and paleo-climatic data. The Iron Age layers found above the Bronze ones show closely repeated phases of occupation, evidence of a non-yearly but seasonal use of the territory. The climatic reconstruction points to the establishment in the mountain zone of a cold and wet phase during the all I millennium BC, making difficult to spend the winter season on the plateau. The Wusun and Hunnic periods, that in the petroglyph repertory show again a higher relative number of representations, might have seen the return of permanent settlements on the region. This corresponds to the finding of the Wusun settlement of Oijailau-3 and of the reestablishment of more profitable mountain climates. The low number of petroglyphs and dwellings of the Turkic period, in spite of the moderate climate at the turn of the I millennium AD, must be attributed to the demographic concentration on the urbanized piedmonts with the use of long summer transhumances as testified by monumental kurgans. The low number of petroglyph performances and dwellings during the Ethnographic period is clearly explained by on one side to the diminution of importance of the petroglyph performances and on the other by the establishment of a most striking cold wet phase, very similar to the Iron Age one 3.2. The 2 sites of Kyzylbulak and Asy display a relatively large repertory of Bronze Age images typical of the Semirechie region (sun heads, chariots, bulls with solar spots, naked men holding hands, sexual scenes, horse with a dog on the back, etc) but engraved in a style, if not deprived of some elegance, remaining very simple, a fact that is explained by three factors: the location of the sites very far from interregional roads; the bad quality of the rocky material, boycotted by the best artists; the compensatory importance of the insertion of the executions in a astonishing panoramic background.