Kairagach Complex - the First Monument in Fergana
Kayragach Complex
The cult of ancestors was widespread in Central Asia. It is known that there were temples dedicated to the ancestor cult. Such temples are known in the Kan region (Samarkand area) and in the Shi region (Tashkent area). Additionally, every home had an ancestor altar or a special room where ceremonial worship of family ancestors was performed on certain days (Bichurin, 1950; Belenitsky, 1959; Filanovich, 1973).
The Kayragach complex is currently the first monument of its kind in Fergana. It features 12 sculptures that represent waist-high images of people. All figures have disproportionately large heads compared to their torsos, with sloping foreheads, elongated almond-shaped eyes, and long, hooked noses. The Kayragach sculptures are portrait-like; they depict specific individuals and thus serve as attributes of the local cult, most likely the ancestor cult. It can be assumed that they represent images of revered deceased ancestors. Two large sculptures were permanently located in the sanctuary, where they stood on pedestals. They were objects of veneration for the entire family or community. Ritual ceremonies were performed in front of them, apparently accompanied by the lighting of a sacred fire in the hearth and incense burners. The smaller figures belonged to individual members of the community and served as their personal amulets (Brykina, 1973 – 1981).
Anthropomorphic images of local narrow-local gods have been found over a vast territory from Eastern Turkestan in the east to the Caspian Sea in the west, and from the Aral Sea in the north to Afghanistan in the south (Kruglova, 1977). However, the sculptures from Fergana, particularly from Kayragach, are stylistically similar only to one group of finds from the monuments of the middle Syr Darya (Levina, 1958; 1971). Like the Kayragach sculptures, they have strongly elongated heads with sloping foreheads, almond-shaped eyes, and long, hooked noses, creating the impression that these sculptures convey the appearance of people from a single ethnic group that practiced head deformation.
On the upper platform of the estate, two spacious rooms with high platforms suitable for sitting and floor hearths in the center of the rooms stand out. These rooms clearly had a communal character and may have been associated with some cult, the ritual of which involved fire worship.
The estate had a well-organized water supply system. As noted above, there was a large water reservoir on the lower platform of the monument. In one of the rooms, there was a deep well with complex water-lifting devices. In one of the initial periods, an underground passage was constructed in the building. It was accessed through a deep entrance well. Near the southeast wall, there was a staircase. The entrance was cut into the continental layers and ran in a south-north direction. The floor sharply descends to the north, with a slope angle of 45°. Judging by the direction of the underground corridor, it led to the river.
A vast number of household items, especially ceramic vessels, have been discovered in the estate. The collection includes jugs of various sizes and shapes, pots, cauldrons, bowls, flasks, decorated with incised patterns and images of walking birds. Among the ceremonial vessels are rhytons, which are not common finds.
They are usually found in ceremonial halls of cult buildings. Five rhytons have been discovered from Kayragach. Four rhytons were found in the estate, and one near the naus. Two rhytons have a wide neck and a spherical-conical body, one is ring-shaped, made from a hollow round-section tube, and one is spherical. A cylindrical rhyton with a wide neck was found in the naus. Above the spouts of all the rhytons are applied images of animals with long horns (Brykina, 1982).
Among the ceramic finds, a significant place is occupied by kumas, large vessels used for storing food supplies. Many kumas have various signs incised into the raw clay. They generally do not repeat. An exception is the diamond shape with protrusions – whiskers. Some signs resemble monetary tamgas. These include signs in the shape of an oval with protrusions – whiskers, and signs in the shape of an inverted letter "u". Such signs are known from the coins of Ustrushana, Chacha, and early medieval Sogdiana.
Excavations at Kayragach
