Where Would I Go if I Were an Ancient Kazakh?

Spring time coincides with a new season for petroglyph hunters. They seek remains of the Silk Road as well as ancient stone carvings in Altyn-Emel National Park.

Осы мақаланың қазақша нұсқасын оқыңыз.

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We traveled to the banks of the Kapchagai reservoirs in the Jetysu region in Kazakhstan’s east, located between water and mountains.

Here, a group of 20 self-labeled “hunters” seek traces of their ancestors in rock carvings across Kazakhstan.

“Watch your step, the snakes might start waking up now, and the rocks might fall. Don’t approach the edge of the cliff. Don’t break off from the group, and keep an eye on each other. Break into groups of three or five. Do not walk alone,” Rafael Khismatullin instructed the group.

Rafael Khismatullin.

They call him the luckiest hunter; he recently discovered Ordakul: an entire gorge of petroglyphs in southeast Kazakhstan.

Around five years ago, Khismatullin sat down for tea with Zhanat Turalbai, a shepherd near the Daulibai mountains. He asked if Turalbai had ever seen any petroglyphs. “Drawings on stones,” he clarified. The shepherd told him that in the gorge held an “enormous amount of rock carvings” stretching to about five kilometers.

Khismatullin took photos and contacted historians and archaeologists via Facebook. Only Olga Gumirova, a veteran of the “Petroglyph Hunters” foundation, responded. She told him that these petroglyphs had yet to be mapped.

Olga Gumirova.

There are tens of thousands of petroglyphs in Ordakul dating back from the Early Bronze Age to more recent times.

Many petroglyphs remain hidden in the mountains, but today this rag-tag team of hunters will search for ancient drawings in Altyn-Emel National Park.

Goats and Tulips

Four cars head into the mountains accompanied by park rangers. We stumble upon a burial ground not far from the farm. Almost all of the graves have been looted. Gumirova guesses that the square stonework is leftover from Hun burial sites. 

“It’s possible that this used to be a sacred place. The burial sites can teach us about those who came on the Silk Road,” Gumirova tells the group.

We drive further and often encounter stonework on the mounds, some of which reach 25-30 meters in diameter. Gumirova says that these constructions are potentially paddocks for Silk Road caravans and that this is actually just an offshoot of the paddock. But experts still need to confirm this guess.

Gumirova is a journalist and children’s author. She has been searching for petroglyphs since the 1990s. Since childhood, she has had a passion for archaeology.

She first saw petroglyphs in 1994, when the archaeological complex Tamgaly was being prepared for inclusion in the UNESCO list.

A year later she was offered the opportunity to join a schoolchildren's expedition as a cook. “I can’t cook, I don’t really like it, but I went. All in all they survived,” she laughs. “I helped the kids sketch petroglyphs. I also got to meet archeologist and alpinist Aleksei Maryashev. He saw that I’m good at navigating and rock climbing and invited me on his expeditions.”

In order to successfully hunt petroglyphs, one must have mountain climbing and hiking skills. And resilience: in the summer the mountains become unbearably hot.

But now, in the final days of March, it is still cool. The sun is shining deceptively bright, and the voices of the team are lost in the wind.

While a part of the group is mapping and classifying the mounds and stonework, artist Elana Kudinova takes a photo of a mountain across from us. She zooms in on some drawings. The hunters climb up the loose rocks.

“Goats, goats!,” they shouted. “More goats. Look out — tulips! Tulips! Watch your feet.”

Here, directly on the cliffs, grow red, white, and even yellow tulips. We must be careful not to step on them.

“It’s possible that this used to be a sacred place. The burial sites can teach us about those who came on the Silk Road.”

Said Galimzhanov, professor at the Academy of Architecture and Civil Engineering, concludes that the goats date back to the Bronze Age: “It’s Bronze. The carvings have been drawn over, but you can bet your bottom dollar that it’s bronze. The lower tier is one hundred percent bronze.”

Galimzhanov has long been a hunter, but this is his first time here. He says that he came to scout out the area. He plans to bring his students there.

“Olga Nikolayevna, a wonderful goat hunting scene!” he shouts to Gumirova through the wind.

Above us buzzes the drone of amateur astrophysicist Denis Paryshev, who is helping to search for petroglyphs and the remains of old settlements. 

Said Galimzhanov.

On the next mountain we see the slim figure of Spiridon Starkov. “Camels, Camels!” he yells. Camel petroglyphs are rarer than those depicting goats.

Spiridon, originally from Russia’s Sakha Republic, moved to Kazakhstan three years ago. He has “the fastest legs and the sharpest eye.” He grew up in a place where, to reach the nearest mountains, one had to “ride the Kamaz [a four-wheel drive truck] for three days.”

During his studies in Tomsk, he met a person from Almaty who told him about the mountains near the city. When Spiridon relocated to Almaty, he was surprised to find that the city indeed resides at the foot of the mountains. “It was incredible that you could wake up and go up to the mountains just to have breakfast,” he says.

Spiridon Starkov.

Starkov went on an expedition to the Issyk Historical and Cultural Reserve-Museum, where he learned about petroglyph hunters and asked to join their expedition.

“The coat of arms of the Sakha Republic depicts a horseback rider from a cave painting. I was at Gumirova’s lecture when I saw almost the same stone drawing, and I thought: I want to see that with my own eyes. I was sucked in. I understand that these are our ancestors. They are not recent, but the Turks came from the Saka, and the Sakha people came from the Turks. To me, it's really interesting how they lived. Of course, I’d like to know why my ancestors moved [north] to such a cold place, when there was so much land here,” Spiridon laughs.

The Sakha Republic in the Far East of Russia is known for its record-breaking cold temperatures.

On the next mountain Starikov found more petroglyphs, one depicting a dead eagle with the name “Bolat” written beneath it.

Bolat is a legendary personality for rock carving seekers. The mysterious Bolat has enshrined his name all over the Sholak mountains, which is full of petroglyphs. His work dates back to the late 1980s, but he didn’t just leave his signature. He drew over petroglyphs of the Bronze and Iron Ages. Spiridon believes that Bolat was a shepherd. He now dreams of meeting the legend and shaking his hand.

Each drawing is mapped using GPS. Photos and data will be shared with the Margulan Institute of Archaeology.

These petroglyphs are lucky; since they are located within a national park, they are protected by the government. 

Never Move a Petroglyph

But other areas are not so lucky. In the Arkharly mountains near the Kazakhstan-China border, miners damaged a 4,000 year-old shrine. This happened because the land was leased to a private party without the necessary archaeological expertise.

Today petroglyph specialists are concerned about the construction of hydroelectric power stations on the Koksu River, two of which are already under construction. In March they should have started construction of yet another hydroelectric power station near the petroglyphs of Yeshkiolmes in central Kazakhstan. This could lead to lichen damaging to unstudied and unrecorded petroglyphs in these areas.

“Yeshkiolmes might be nominated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and this year Kazakhstan is presiding in this organization until June. [Because of our disregarding of our heritage] we could even be thrown out with a big international scandal,” Gumirova believes.

She says that there have been discussions of building these hydroelectric power stations for over 10 years, and it all started when Yeshkiolmes was removed from the Registry of Archaeological Monuments in the Almaty Region.

When included in this registry, petroglyphs cannot be moved to another location. This is for good reason.

“The patina that forms over the drawings is peculiar to a specific area and under different conditions it could be damaged, it could fade,” Gumirova says.

“Also, it’s not clear what the scene was devoted to. It could be commemorating someone’s death. It’s not like we take gravestones from the cemetery!”

Gumirova argues that there was a logic behind the design of these sacred spaces.

“Petroglyphs are a symbolic testimony to how people thought 4,000 years ago, we try to figure it out.”

The group of hunters often sets out for their expeditions on the weekend (they all work during the week). The active season lasts half a year, although they occasionally work in the winter as well. Research in Altyn-Emel under the support of the Kazakh National Parks is conducted in April, and then the enthusiasts will return in the fall. In May and June they work in Yeshkiolmes.

Not Random Drawings

Starikov treasures Gumirova’s words of wisdom: “One must think like an ancient person,” she says, in turn quoting her mentor, the late Alexei Maryashev.

“Olga Nikolaevna would say that the ancients didn’t draw just anywhere. The drawings are usually found along easy paths and in beautiful places. Therefore I look at these rocks and I think, would I draw something here? I remember how I found my first petroglyph. Gumirova said to walk along the ridge. I walked and walked and found nothing,” Starikov said. “And I started to think, where would I go if I were an ancient Kazakh? I guess there, where you can see the valley, the ravine, the old settlement. I walked and then — a goat, and further, another goat. I climbed up the mountain and there was a cluster of drawings! It was such an interesting feeling, joy, euphoria. I had never experienced that before.”

Starikov became addicted. He now wants to find more and more petroglyphs. 

“I climbed up the mountain and there was a cluster of drawings! It was such an interesting feeling, joy, euphoria.”

Ramis Atabayev shares this addiction. Hailing from Taldykorgan in the Jetisu region, he is a former soldier and the father of six children. He has been passionate about archaeology since reading a book about cave paintings in France in his childhood. He was surprised to learn that they also exist in Kazakhstan, and what’s more — in his hometown.

As journalist and petroglyph hunter Yuriy Dorokhov says, if Kazakhstan is the country of petroglyphs, then Taldykorgan is the capital. According to Atabayev, people there find stones with ancient carvings in their own orchards. Those who understand the value of these drawings will contact archaeologists. Those who don’t — destroy them.

Ramis Atabayev.

“Since I started cycling, I started going around the hills outside Taldykorgan and looking for new petroglyphs. Once I locate and tag the drawings, I send the information to Gumirova,” Atabayev says.

The subjects of the drawings vary from hunting scenes to goats or even human-sized figures.

“Personally for me this holds a sacred meaning, because I grew up in a Muslim family, but with time I started to have some questions. For example, why must I pray in Arabic? I don’t even understand this language. I have the spirit of a nomad; the great outdoors is important to me,” Atabayev says.

According to Atabayev, the ideal time for petroglyph hunting is morning and evening before twilight. Even better — in November, when the sun is dimmer. 

Khismatullin also mentions the excitement and curiosity that the hunt inspires: “It’s a feeling of revelation. It’s more than a hobby, it’s a lifestyle.”

When Khismatullin became interested in petroglyphs, he promised his wife that he would find a “sunhead” — a figure with a sun-shaped head — and dedicate it to her. He fulfilled this promise when he found a tiny one, only 3.5 by 1.5 centimeters in size. “It’s from me to her.”

It seems that each hunter dreams of finding a sunhead, hopefully in good condition, but as Dorokhov says, they will also be happy to find goats.

Unchartered Territory

A group of volunteer hunters started forming in the late 1990s with Maryashev. But when he invited young journalists from the newspaper “Druzhnye Rebyata,” where Gumirova worked for many years, the group started to set some goals for themselves.

“Many people don’t know about this, but the territory of Kazakhstan is essentially a massive unchartered territory from an archaeological standpoint. There are very few archaeologists yet so many places left to be researched. We pooled our money, traveled at our own expense, and helped Maryashev organize the expedition,” she says.

A lack of funding has become an obstacle for the few young archaeologists who are willing to hunt for petroglyphs. According to Gumirova, around 300 clusters of petroglyphs are officially recorded in the country, but in reality there are many more. 

Even famous objects are understudied. Until the “hunters” went there, no one knew that Besshatyr, a well-studied burial site, also hosted rock drawings.

The Petroglyph Hunters essentially go and scout where the government cannot reach. And all of these efforts are unpaid.

Research in Altyn-Emel is linked with a new tourist route that Qazaq National Parks wants to create. Because this place is a protected site, Gumirova believes that this route could be safe for petroglyphs and pleasant for people. 

New and Old Petroglyphs

Artist Sanzhar Zhubanov started Zher Art (“zher” means land in Kazakh), a unique open-air . Zhubanov added his own designs to a petroglyph site near the visitor’s center.

The artist worked for three months on this project. At the top of the mountains he left sunheads.

Sanzhar Zhubanov.

Zhubanov has studied petroglyphs for 15 years, but he first worked specifically with sunheads, realizing that he would not always have the physical capacity to reach them.

“My goal is to feel like the ancient artists, to step into their shoes. A certain state of mind is needed: love, willpower, and then you’ll get the drawing. It’s a powerful tradition, thousands of years old. From 10,000 years before the emergence of Saka art.”

Zhubanov shows his image of a deer with huge horns reminiscent of Kazakh national ornaments. 

Steps away, Galimzhanov and Khismatullin saw a rock painting and began arguing about its age. Galimzhanov insists that it is Neolithic.

Galimzhanov believes that Altyn-Emel is a promising monument which will be of interest not only to cultural scholars but also to archaeologists. The site hosts settlements, large burial grounds, and a cluster of petroglyphs, dating back from the Bronze Age to the Middle Ages. Galimzhanov always takes his students here.

The sun begins to set and, bathed in evening light, yet another ancient drawing appears.

The tired hunters make their way down to the cars. In the distance Gumirova, Galimzhanov, and Khismatullin are leaning against a rock. Their dispute continues: was that rock painting really from the Neolithic?

An edited version of this article was translated into English by Zeina Nassif.