The Bronze Age in Kazakhstan 1 Chronology 2

The Bronze Age in Kazakhstan 1. Chronology 2. Andronovo culture 3. Ancient tribes on territory of Kazakhstan

Literature • Chernikov, S. S. Vostochnyi Kazakhstan ν epokhu bronzy. Moscow, 1960. • Sal’nikov, K. V. Ocherki drevnei istorii Iuzhnogo Urala. Moscow, 1967. • A. Margulan Begazy — dandybayevskaya kulʹtura Tsentralʹnogo Kazakhstana. Alma-Ata, 1979 • K. A. Akishev, G. A. Kushayev Drevnyaya kulʹtura sakov i usuney doliny reki Ili. Alma-Ata: 1963

Vocabulary • • • Alloy- сплавить tin - олово Crouched – согнутое Engraving -гравирование rectangular fencing – прямоугольное ограждение

What means the term Bronze Age • The Bronze Age is a period characterized by the use of copper and its alloy of bronze as the materials of some implements and weapons • The Bronze Age is a period extended between the Stone Age and Iron Age. • Tin bronze technology requires set of production techniques. Tin must be mined and smelted separately.

Chronology • The Bronze Age primarily took place between 3500 BC and 1200 BC, and is traditionally divided into the Early Bronze Age (c. 35002000 BC), Middle Bronze Age (c. 2000 -1600 BC), and Late Bronze Age (c. 1600 -1200 BC), with progressively more used metallurgy which culminates in the discovery of ironworking.

Andronovo culture • In the 1914 year near the village Andronovo in the Enisei river valley, southern Siberia, several burial grounds containing skeletons in crouched position and pottery with very rich decoration were discovered. Archaeologists gave the name Andronovo to the distinctive Bronze Age culture dated mostly to the 2 nd millennium BC. The Andronovo Culture covers a vast portion of western Asia.

• The Andronovo Culture is represented by a great variety of settlements and burial ground sites. In 1948 year K. Salnikov, after analysis of ceramic products and burial rituals in the area east of Urals classified monuments of the Bronze Age. In his monograph Konstantin Salnikov (1967) divided the Andronov Culture into three stages: Fedorovo (18 - 16 centuries BC), Alakul (15 - 12 centuries BC) and Zamaraev (12 - 8 centuries BC). • Аlkey Margulan and Kimal’ Akishev suggested different periodization of the Bronze Age in Central Kazakhstan. In that territory they isolated two Bronze Epoch independent archeological cultures, Andronov and Begazy-Dandybai. In turn, they divided Andronov into two stages: Early Andronov, called Nurin, and Late Andronov called Atasu. In the opinion of the authors, Nurin and Atasu stages are synchronous, and in culture are generally close to Fedorov and Alakul stages in the area east of Urals, and the Begazy. Dandybai Culture is close to Karasuk to culture of the Minusinsk depression

Signs of Andronovo culture • Entombments of that time are represented by cemeteries consisting of one or several tens of the tombs surrounded with round or rectangular fencing of stone. • Buried were laid on the left side in fetal position, head to the west or southwest and quite often nearby were found copper beads or a bronze knife • The Andronovans pottery is covered with complex ornament of triangles, rhombuses, meanders and other geometrical shapes. The whole material of complex testifies about a high economical and cultural level of the Bronze Age

• In 1963 year Kimal Akishev formulated a new theory on the origin of the Andronov Culture. By the degree of concentration of monuments, and the developmental level of the Bronze Epoch material culture of the steppe type, he located three centers of the Andronov Culture emergence. The first center covers Siberia, Altai and East Kazakhstan, the second center covers Central Kazakhstan, and the third center covers Southern Urals, Tobol, and Western Kazakhstan. To confirm such polycentric origin of the Andronov Culture, it seems, is necessary more extensive archeological material.

Begazy-Dandybay culture • Unique of the Begazy-Dandybay culture are represented by monumental burial structures scientifically labelled as "rock mausoleums" and brilliantly finished vessels with rich ornament and red-coloured glossing. • The very first findings of the tableware in Begazy. Dandybay graves struck the archeologists not only with thin-walled ceramics and gloss surface there but also with the fact that some of them were tamga-like signs on their surface.

Rock art • Rock art performances are extensively applied on rocky elements of the landscape and consist of petroglyphs, cup-marks, proto-sculptures, and geoglyphs. • Simple petroglyph engravings are distributed everywhere, but the most significant of them are concentrated in 3 main sites: Bayanzhurek in the west, Tasbas in the center and Tasty-Bien gorge in the east of Kazakhstan. The sites are respectively characterized by three different rock materials (sandstone, granite, schist) and by three totally different styles.

• Cup-marks are executed on imposing isolated granite boulders: they are mainly concentrated in proximity of metallurgic workshops. • Proto-sculptures are applied on some granite stones, emphasizing the natural sheep-head shape of the rocky blocks. They are mainly found in the area of Tasbas (meaning ‘headstone’), as interventions (eyes, mouth, hornrings, reinforced lines) on granite boulders that by their natural shape are geologically and popularly called koitas (sheep-head).

Petroglyph on sandstone / Middle Bronze period /

Proto-sculpture on granite

The ancient tribes on territory of Kazakhstan (III B. C. – V A. C. ) • Sources and literature on the history of the The ancient tribes • Etymology of the term Scythian, Saka • The role of the Scythians in the development of world civilization • The Social Organization of the Scythians

Literature • Masson V. History of civilizations of Central Asia: the development of sedentary and nomadic civilization. S-Pb. 2006 • Alekseev, A. Chronology of Eurasian Scythian Antiquities Born by New Archaeological and Data". 2001. • Rolle, Renate, The world of the Scythians, London and New York. 1989. • Yatsenko, S. A. , Tamgas of Iranolingual antique and Early Middle Ages people. M. , 2001

Vocabulary • • Prowess – доблесть, отвага Archer – лучники Armor – броня Arrowheads – наконечники стрел Sword- меч dagger – кинжал Strap - ремень Helmet –шлем

• On the II-I and the beginning of the II millennium BC on the Eurasian steppe zone marked by an important event — the formation of nomadic cattle-breeding forms and distribution of iron metallurgy. The wide spread of new forms of cattlebreeding farming was due to the interaction of several factors: • the change of climatic conditions, • improvement of methods of cattle-breeding farming, • processing the species composition of herds that are optimally adapted to the conditions of the arid zone. • This new level of social relations associated with the increased property and social differentiation, where livestock is a form of wealth that creates stimulus to increase of herd and expansion of exchange.

• The transition of the part of population to nomadic cattle-breeding in the first centuries of the millennium B. C. characterized by the formation of new archaeological cultures that are associated with the tribes of the Saki, Massagets, Issedonians, and Dais.

Scythians. • According to information of ancient Greek historians all nomadic and settled tribes were called the Scythians. It was a general collective name of those tribes lived in the European part of Russia, in Kazakhstan, in Central Asia to the bound with Altai. Different Greek authors told that the Scythians (named sakies in Persian sources), living on the different parts of territory named variously and spoke different languages. • Massageties settled all Transcaspian plain. Sakies settled to the east of massageties. Settled- agricultural population usually named according to the territory where they settled: Horezm, Sogdiana, inhabitants of Baktra, and so on. • The Scythians (Sakies) and the other population spoke the languages of the Iranian group.

• Ahemidian incriptions named three tribe group of saki: 1)"Saka-haumavarka" were identified with "scythians-amyuriya" by Herodot, • 2)"Saka-tigrahauda". This name was usually translated "Saki are in sharp hats”, who lived in Zhetysu-Seven Rivers. 3)"Sara-tiai-tara-daraya"- "over sea" or "on the other side of a river saks”

“Saki” • Tribes carrying a collective name “Saki”, inhabited the territory of Kazakhstan in the first millennium B. C. Saki tribes were contemporaries of the Scythians, who lived in the northern Black Sea coast, and Savromat — in the lower Volga and the south of Ural regions. They were contemporaries of the Persian of Cyrus era, the Greek of Alexander of Macedon era. • It is known about the attempts of Achaemenian kings to subdue the Saki, who were not successful. It is well-known names of Saki Queen Tamaris, herdsman Chirac, who led the Persian army in the desert.

Saki and Greek-Persian wars • They were great riders who learned how to use a bow while galloping at full speed. These were Scythian riders who became the prototype for fearless half-man and half horse centaurs. • At the end of the VI — the beginning of V century B. C. in the ancient East there are major political events associated with the Greek-Persian wars. Individual Saki tribes participated in these wars on the side of the Persians as allies and mercenaries. Easy Saki cavalry participated, for example, at the Battle of Gaugamela.

Alexander the Great and saki • In the 30’s. of IV century B. C. Greek. Macedonians led by Alexander of Macedon defeated the army of Darius III , the last Achaemenid, and invaded Central Asia. • The invasion of the Greeks met with stubborn resistance of the peoples of Central Asia. Tribes that inhabited Kazakhstan at that time actively participated in the struggle against the Alexander of Macedon army. Trying of Alexander of Macedon with troops to cross the Syr Darya ended in failure. He was wounded by Saki boom.

Saki mounds • These are huge constructions that compare with the Egyptian pyramids, reaching a height of 20 m and a diameter of 120 -150 m. • There are mass of mounds of various sizes in the range of these parameters. Large mounds called “royal. ” This is true because under them are buried members of the ruling dynasties and military elite of ancient tribes. • Mounds and burial mounds are found everywhere in Kazakhstan — in the steppes and semi-deserts, valleys between mountains, the mountains and foothills, river valleys. Especially numerous of them in Zhetysu, the foothills of the Junggar and Zailiysky Alatau

• The famous Issyk burial ground is located among them, which was excavated by archaeologists Issyk burial mound and found buried there “Golden Man”. It is also the burial ground Besshatyr on the right bank of Ili River.

The role of the Scythians in the development of world civilization • Styles of decorative art (Geometric, Animal, Anthropomorphic) • Created their own weaponry (arms and armor, arrowheads, Swords and daggers, the so called acinacs, scabbard ) • Protective equipment (shoulder straps, helmet, shield) • Amazons were skilled horsewomen.

Religious of saki • Saki for centuries came to worship, brought large numbers of victims, made funeral feast and various religious ceremonies, and organized a wake on the area, where there are vast royal burial Besshatyr mounds. Places of religious celebrations and ceremonies were marked by grandiose construction of fences from menhirs and boulders. • mound construction the entrance to the cave was open for memorial services, worship and sacrifice, and then closed by the collapse of the embankment of the mound, located at the entrance.

Scythian Art • Scythian Art is also called STEPPES ART, decorative objects, mainly jewelry and trappings for horse, tent, and wagon, produced by nomadic tribes that roamed Central Asia from slightly east of the Altai Mountains in Inner Mongolia to European Russia. • The art of this period is essentially an animal art. Combat scenes between two or more animals are numerous, as are single animal figures. Many real or mythical beasts are represented, the majority of the types having roots in deep antiquity, but the Scythians fashioned them in a manner that was new and characteristically their own. As is to be expected with nomads who were constantly on the move, the decorative objects produced are generally small in size, but many are made of precious materials and practically all are of superb workmanship.