MEDIEVAL STONE STATUES AT MODERN KYRGYZ CEMETERY (SECOND USE)

Abstract

Purpose. We considered a quite uncommon practice of medieval Turkic stone statues getting second use at a modern cemetery in terms of studying the anthropomorphous statuary tradition in Central Asia. The statues discovered were set up as at the cemetery of Tuura-Suu Village in the Issyk Kul Hollow in Kyrgyzstan. We aimed at promoting studies of ancient and medieval stone statues on the territory of Tian Shan and Jetysu within the borders of Central Asian historical and cultural region in the course of research of these statues. There are some well-known cases in the history of research of ancient and medieval Central Asian cultures when Turkic nomads used ancient stone steles and anthropomorphous statues related to the Bronze Age and initial stage of the Early Iron Age much later, in the Early Middle Ages. Now, the Middle Age statues were used in Modern Time. The statues themselves are quite rare and deserve additional studying. Conclusion. The special features of design on the stone statues from the cemetery of Tuura-Suu Village include traditional types of clothes and vessels in the hands of the figures depicted on these sculptures. The figures’ heads are missing, so we cannot conclude if they were two men or a man and a woman. As a result of conversation with locals, we determined that one of sculptures used to be located in the courtyard of a rural school in Village, and then it was transported to the present location at the cemetery and was used as a tombstone. The gender of the people on these statues cannot be identified because of the absence of their heads and no images of weapons. Despite both the statues were used as tombstones on modern graves, the inhabitants of the Tuura-Suu Village who gave the statues the second use saved the primary medieval images on the front side of the statues. Modern archaeologists were able to specify the chronology and cultural identity of the statues set up at the modern cemetery of Tuura-Suu Village because of remaining special features of outer clothing and the vessel form in the hands of both statues. Results. According to our analysis, both sculptures are likely to have been produced by the same master or a group of craftsmen who adhered to similar traditions of sculpting. Probably, they used to be set up initially at some Old Turkic memorial complexes, placed in honor of the immediate family. Utilization of medieval Turkic stone statues as tombstones at modern Kyrgyz cemeteries is quite a rare occasion in the modern funereal tradition of the Kyrgyz ethnos. The Old Turkic stone sculptures discovered at the cemetery of Tuura-Suu Village are the rare instance of second use of medieval stone statues.