Renewal of Research at Burana in the Post-War Period
The continuation of research at Burana falls into the post-war period in the history of the study and preservation of monuments in Kyrgyzstan, lasting until the 1960s. This stage is characterized by a rise in Central Asian archaeology as a whole, the expansion of archaeological work by the Kyrgyz Comprehensive Archaeological and Ethnographic Expedition, as well as systematic study of architectural monuments and preparation for their restoration, reflection and accumulation of scientific data on the history and theory of architecture throughout Central Asia.
In October 1948, a special resolution of the Council of Ministers of the USSR was adopted "On Measures to Improve the Protection of Historical and Cultural Monuments of the USSR" (No. 3898), which elevated the matter of protection, study, and restoration of monuments to a higher level across all republics of the Soviet Union. A corresponding government resolution was adopted in Kyrgyzstan in 1951.
In the first post-war decade, under an agreement between the Departments of Architecture of the Kyrgyz and Uzbek SSRs, detailed project and estimate documentation for the restoration and partial conservation of architectural monuments in Kyrgyzstan was prepared by employees of the Uzbek Special Scientific Restoration Production Workshops. The work was led by B. N. Zasypkin; the group of architects included S. B. Neyumivakin, K. S. Kryukov, V. E. Nusov, and photographer E. N. Yuditsky. The materials from the working group of architects were partially used in subsequent publications by B. N. Zasypkin and V. E. Nusov, but mostly remained archived.
This period saw the release of summarizing works on architecture and monumental art in Central Asia and Kazakhstan. They illuminate the constructive and artistic features of medieval Kyrgyzstan's buildings, including the Burana minaret, in connection with general issues regarding the history of art in Central Asia. Architectural monuments of Northern Kyrgyzstan are attributed by G. A. Pugachekov to the Northern Turkestan architectural school of medieval architecture. The nature of the building materials of some ancient structures in Kyrgyzstan, including Burana, is studied by N. S. Grazhdankina. In a collective work involving her participation, information is provided about the discovery at the Burana settlement ("in the ruins of buildings near the village of Don-Aryk in the Chuy region") of ceramic tiles from the 11th-12th centuries, covered with blue glaze and geometric patterns in white and cherry glaze, with color separation by cutting. According to the authors, they were used for flooring or panel cladding in a grandly decorated building.
The Burana Minaret in the Works of B. N. Zasypkin
B. N. Zasypkin made a significant contribution to the study of medieval architecture in the Tian Shan and Semirechye regions, just as he did in the early years of Soviet power. Actively engaged in the study of architectural monuments in Central Asia and laying the foundations of the history of Central Asian architecture, B. N. Zasypkin wrote a book commissioned by the Department of Architecture of the Council of Ministers of the Kyrgyz SSR. According to the author himself, he attempted to reflect the scientific achievements in the study of the architectural heritage of the peoples of Kyrgyzstan for further use in creating "new highly artistic works of socialist architecture endowed with national traits and characteristics." B. N. Zasypkin's work remained unpublished.
His field materials, sketches for restoration projects of medieval monuments of the republic, diaries, and drafts are kept in the Central State Archive of the Uzbek SSR, including the manuscript "Outstanding Architectural Monuments of Kyrgyzstan (Historical and Architectural Essay. Frunze, 1954)" edited by candidate of architecture Sh. E. Ratiya. The first chapter of the manuscript is dedicated to the Burana tower, providing a deep analysis of the construction, structural, and architectural-artistic features of the above-ground part of the minaret. In his historical excursions, B. N. Zasypkin refers to the publications of A. N. Bernshtein, while adding to the history of the city of Balasagun (the Ak-Beshim settlement) and its suburb (Burana) the fact of its destruction by a strong earthquake, which, in the author's opinion, is evidenced by the characteristic destruction of the minaret: the lost upper part of the tower, the destruction of the surface layer of the base, which usually occurs during seismic vibrations.
B. N. Zasypkin notes some "archaic" constructive and decorative techniques for Burana, which allowed the author to date the structure to the early 11th century. These include: laying bricks without grinding, sawing, or hewing, placing logs in the base of the minaret to improve the bonding of the masonry in a radial direction; rather uniform motifs and compositions of ornamentation in the design of the octagonal base and the shaft of the minaret. Based on a comparative analysis of all surviving minarets in Central Asia, the author traces the gradual evolution of form, proportions, artistic-decorative techniques and attributes Burana to monuments that opened "a new page in the history of minaret construction" in Central Asia. As the oldest of the tower structures from the Muslim period, it introduces new elements into the architecture of Central Asia — monumentality and height, especially in an area of active seismicity. This, B. N. Zasypkin explains, accounts for the powerful foundation of the monument and its conical profile.
In its composition, B. N. Zasypkin believes that the Burana minaret is close to the Termez minaret, but unlike the latter, it had a different development: an octagonal base equipped with rectangular niches with pointed arches, a conical body divided into ornamental belts; the lost inscription, in the author's opinion, must have transitioned to the upper part (with the date of construction and the name of the master); new in the minaret was also the development of geometric ornamentation based on the motif of the "whirligig" — a precursor to girihs, which later became widely used in the architecture of Central Asia. Burana is also distinguished by the "lattice" decorative masonry, where up to 70% consists of a recessed background, absent in other minarets of the 11th-12th centuries. The original height of the minaret, according to B. N. Zasypkin, was no less than 40 m.
Researchers' Opinions on the Origin of the Settlement
Local architects also participated in the works on surveying the monuments of Kyrgyzstan alongside Uzbek scholars. Thus, in 1951, V. E. Nusov investigated the foundation of Burana by laying test pits on the eastern and western sides of the base. These works were subsequently continued by him, and the results summarized in a number of articles and publications that appeared in 1961-1963, which we will discuss below.
The post-war period saw a comprehensive study of the ancient history and ethnogenesis of the Kyrgyz by the Kyrgyz Archaeological and Ethnographic Expedition (KAEE) of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR and the Academy of Sciences of the Kyrgyz SSR. Following the archaeological work of the Chuy detachment of KAEE (1953-1955) at the Ak-Beshim settlement, a number of articles and reports were published, which also briefly mention Burana. Initially, L. R. Kyzlasov, relying on the opinion of A. N. Bernshtein, considered Ak-Beshim to be the ruins of the city of Balasagun, but after excavations at the settlement, he revised this viewpoint.
Regarding Burana, he writes that "the founders of this small town and its architectural structures were the Karakhanid Turks, who arrived here in the 10th century." The author, following A. N. Bernshtein, accepted only its central ruins as the remnants of the ancient city.
Significant excavation work was carried out at the Ak-Beshim settlement during those years, with instrumental surveys of the central ruins and visual surveys of all other ruins, and materials obtained in 1938-1940 were reviewed. A stratigraphic test pit in the main part of the monument — the citadel — revealed cultural layers to a depth of 8.5 m, the lower of which are dated to ceramics and Sogdian coins of the 5th-6th centuries, while the upper layers date to the 9th-10th centuries. In the eastern part of the shahristan, the remains of a Christian (Nestorian) church with a cemetery, dated to the 8th century, were uncovered. Beyond the central ruins, several other objects were excavated, which turned out to be the remains of Buddhist temples from the 6th-8th centuries, an early medieval necropolis with ossuary and hum burial in nauses and crypts, and a fortress from the 6th-7th centuries.
Ultimately, L. R. Kyzlasov proposed different chronological frameworks for life at the settlement, narrowing them from the 5th to the 10th centuries; by the Karakhanid period, the city was already in ruins. He considers the eastern part of the central fortifications to be a sparsely built rabat adjacent to the shahristan, while the large surrounding area with traces of construction and limited on three sides by a long wall is the "okrug." L. R. Kyzlasov denies the possibility of the migration of the old city located at the site of Ak-Beshim to the new one — Burana — due to the small territory of the latter and the absence of ceramics from the 13th-14th centuries. Therefore, the author believes that neither settlement can be compared with the historical Balasagun.
Study of the Burana Settlement by P. N. Kozhemyako
P. N. Kozhemyako, who worked as part of the Chuy detachment of the Kyrgyz Archaeological and Ethnographic Expedition, continued archaeological-topographical studies of the settlements in the Chuy Valley in subsequent years. His scientific conclusions regarding the topography of the Burana and Ak-Beshim settlements differ from those of L. R. Kyzlasov, which is reflected in P. N. Kozhemyako's publications.
Stratigraphic sections and test pits at a large series of settlements, along with the collected material, allowed him to form a general understanding of the genesis of sedentary agricultural culture in the Chuy Valley, as well as to trace the formation of structural parts of most of these settlements. P. N. Kozhemyako confirmed the presence of external walls for the Burana settlement, some sections of which were noted in 1924-1925 by V. D. Gorodetsky and in 1927 by M. E. Masson. The researcher recorded the presence around the central ruins of almost all Chuy settlements of one or several rings of "long walls," as well as a fairly dense construction within the first ramparts.
The Burana settlement was studied by P. N. Kozhemyako in 1954. He clarified the structure of the settlement, created a schematic plan of the monument marking the preserved sections of long walls along the eastern and partially northwestern borders of the ancient city; he laid five stratigraphic test pits, four within the central ruins and one within the urban construction limited by the first ring of walls. Two cuts were made on the sections of these ramparts. Both rings run almost parallel to each other at a distance of 350-400 m in the northern and southern parts and 850 m in the eastern sector. The outer rampart was traced by P. N. Kozhemyako for 15 km. The height of the remaining masonry is 1.7 m, and the width is 3 m. The cross-section of the wall of the central fortification showed that it was built of broken clay (layer thickness 10-20 cm) and had a width of up to 7 m.
M. E. Masson noted a sufficiently dense population of the shahristan at that time. However, according to the data from the stratigraphic test pits laid by P. N. Kozhemyako, the construction of the central quadrangle was not continuous. The maximum layers were recorded in the southwestern corner (up to 2.5 m) and north of the minaret (2.2 m); the central part of the inner space, intersected by a main canal, was free of buildings.
The numerous ceramic materials show a clear predominance of high-quality wheel-made pottery dating from the 10th to the 13th centuries.
P. N. Kozhemyako particularly highlights the Burana settlement among the settlements of the Chuy Valley. It is distinguished by its unique plan, the absence of a citadel, weak cultural layers within the central fortification, and an abundance of glazed pottery. The emergence and development of the settlement occurred on free land and not earlier than the 9th century. From the 10th century, in the author's opinion, alongside such settlements in the Chuy Valley as Shish-Tyube, Stepninskoe, Krasnorechenskoe, Ak-Beshim, Burana played the role of a major trade and craft center. The settlement existed after the destruction of many cities as a result of the Mongol invasion and belongs to the very last period of the existence of sedentary settlements in the valley. "The perfection of the pottery, the presence of a magnificent architectural monument, and the rare case of the settlement being surrounded by two rows of long walls indicate that it was not an ordinary settlement. It has all the signs of a significant political center." However, the author refrains from historical localization of the monument, believing that this question at the current stage of study of the settlements in the Chuy Valley should remain open.
Interesting information is also contained in his works about the Ak-Beshim settlement. P. N. Kozhemyako revises previously made conclusions and proposals by archaeologists regarding the topographical structure of the settlement, its stratigraphy, and the time of its functioning. He includes individual hills surrounded by a long wall in the complex of the settlement, considering them urban constructions. The author denies the existence of a rabat at Ak-Beshim, and in both parts of the central ruins sees the shahristan of the city with powerful fortifications and cultural layers. Its eastern part (shahridaron according to M. E. Masson, rabat according to L. R. Kyzlasov, and the Khitan quarter according to A. N. Bernshtein) appeared in the 7th-8th centuries. Since the uplift material contains Karakhanid ceramics, which P. N. Kozhemyako recorded in all excavation sites along with Karakhanid coins, life at the settlement did not cease in the 10th century, as L. R. Kyzlasov stated, but continued until the 12th century.
Numismatic Finds
As a result of the work of the Kyrgyz Archaeological and Ethnographic Expedition at the Ak-Beshim and Burana settlements, a vast and diverse material was introduced into scientific circulation, attracting interest from both Soviet and foreign researchers of the history and culture of Central Asia.
The consideration of these issues is not within the scope of our review of the history of the study of monuments; we will only note that no serious research in the field of Central Asian Buddhism, Christianity (Nestorianism), Islam, art history, and architecture is complete without mentioning these monuments, without considering them in the general context of summarizing works. It can be stated without exaggeration that Ak-Beshim and Burana have become world-renowned.
A magnificent collection of ceramics has been gathered at the settlements, which is the subject of a special work by V. I. Raspoeva in the works of the Kyrgyz Archaeological and Ethnographic Expedition (Vol. IV). Among the products of medieval potters, samples of pottery from Sogdian craftsmen, who migrated to Semirechye and preserved the traditions of the metropolis until the 8th-9th centuries, are particularly highlighted. The examination of the mass ceramic material allowed her to refine the date of the beginning of "significant Sogdian colonization" of Semirechye to no earlier than the 5th-6th centuries; the main influx of Sogdians into the Chuy Valley occurred in the 7th and especially in the 8th centuries, which largely confirms the conclusions of V. V. Bartold and A. N. Bernshtein about the migration of Sogdians to Semirechye.
Numismatic finds have generated particularly great scientific interest. In addition to a hoard of Karakhanid coins (from 76 coins of the second quarter of the 11th century), identified by E. A. Davidovich, a collection of Turgish coins was gathered at the Ak-Beshim settlement. Although such coins were known long ago and the inscriptions on them were first read by F. V. K. Müller as Turkic, A. N. Bernshtein introduced them into circulation under the general name of Turgish. New readings and interpretations of the Ak-Beshim finds are provided by O. I. Smirnova and A. M. Shcherbak, who distinguish among them three types of coins issued in the first half of the 8th century on behalf of Turgish kagans and local rulers. Typologically, they differ in size, images, and inscriptions-legends on them. The most common legend, written in Sogdian cursive script in the Sogdian language, is "Divine Turgish khakan daynga." On coins of the second type, a second legend was placed, which V. A. Livshits reads as "Tukhskyi tegin" (from the name of one of the most significant tribes in the Turgish confederation). This type of coin particularly interested the English Turkologist J. Clason, who reads this legend as "Lord of Tokmak" and dates them to the 8th-9th centuries. J. Clason identifies the settlement itself with Suwab from written sources, which he reported at the XXV International Congress of Orientalists held in Moscow (1960).
Coins of the third type of Turgish coins from Ak-Beshim have a legend only on the obverse. Subsequently, O. I. Smirnova identified a fourth type of Turgish coins and several variant readings of the legends on them.
In connection with the study of the ethnogenesis of the Kyrgyz people, cranial materials from the Ak-Beshim, Krasnorechenskoe settlements, from Nestorian necropolises near Pishpek, and apparently from Burana are being meticulously studied, as the materials from the latter were stored together, "regardless of which cemetery a particular grave was located in." A series of skulls from the early medieval necropolis of Ak-Beshim was studied by N. N. Miklashevskaya, and part of the osteological material from the Nestorian cemeteries of the 13th-14th centuries was researched by G. F. Debets. According to paleoanthropological data, it has been concluded that the cities of the valley in the early Middle Ages were inhabited by representatives of the Europoid race of the Central Asian interfluve up until the 10th-13th centuries.
No clear Mongoloid admixture is noted in the series of skulls from the Nestorian necropolis. Researchers see in them the direct descendants of the older local population, tracing back to the Usuns, and newcomers from the western regions of Central Asia.
Renewal of Excavations at Burana
Archaeological work at the Ak-Beshim settlement was no longer conducted, but the Burana ruins, especially the minaret, underwent more detailed study. Thus, in 1956, A. M. Pribytkova, an employee of the Moscow Scientific Research Institute of Theory, History, and Prospective Problems of Soviet Architecture, visited the settlement. She also studied other monuments of Kyrgyzstan. In particular, her article on the constructive features of Central Asian minarets is a sort of continuation of the study of this category of monuments, begun by M. E. Masson and other architectural historians. Comparing the available metric data on minarets, she concludes that Burana was close in height to Kalon (the Bukhara minaret of 1127-1129), i.e., about 50 m. The author supports B. N. Zasypkin's conclusion about the destruction of the tower due to an earthquake, although its lower parts were damaged by the infiltration of groundwater and surface water. The principle of ornamentation of the minaret (alternating decorative bands with ordinary masonry without dividing sections) indicates an early date for the construction of the minaret — at the end of the 10th century or the beginning of the 11th century.
In early 1960, work by the State Construction Committee of the Kyrgyz SSR resumed at Burana in connection with the preparation of the monument for restoration, planned back in the 1950s. V. E. Nusov returned to the minaret and continued studying the foundation. No report on his unfinished work followed. The total depth of the test pits reached 5 m, but the depth of the foundation was never determined. He noted, in particular, the burial of a person near the foundation at a depth of 1.6-1.8 m, but other data from archaeological observations were omitted.
As a result of excavations, V. E. Nusov established that the foundation at the Burana tower is of solid cross-section. The base of the minaret is laid in steps, with sizes ranging from 21 to 80 and 95 cm. The uncovered lower part of the foundation is made of cobblestones with layers of brick on loess mortar. Above the cobblestone masonry, there are seven rows of hewn stone on clay mortar, and then a row of bricks with a side length of 32 cm and a thickness of 6 cm, laid on edge.
V. E. Nusov indicates another size of building brick with sides of 27.5 cm and a thickness of 5 cm for the base masonry; the height of the latter is 3.85 m, although it was previously more than 4 m.
After clearing the cultural layer, the stairway opening was found at a height of 5.3 m from the ancient surface. The spiral staircase was destroyed by three-quarters. During the measurements in 1938, there were about 40 steps, each measuring 28-30 cm in height. The passage above the staircase is covered with bricks in a staggered manner and at an angle. The author notes that after the Great Patriotic War, openings were made during repair masonry by Sredazkomstaryis. The architectural-artistic description of the minaret is provided based on the works of B. N. Zasypkin, while historical and archaeological information is drawn from the publications of A. N. Bernshtein and P. N. Kozhemyako.
In those years, V. E. Nusov also prepared a restoration project for the Burana minaret, but practical restoration work was not carried out, firstly due to insufficient factual material, the acquisition of which is only possible through extensive archaeological-architectural research around the minaret, and secondly, due to the lack of a local restoration base.
Inclusion of the Burana Minaret in the State Register of Monuments of Union-Republican Significance
The 1960s were marked by a series of government resolutions on improving the protection of monuments, creating republican voluntary societies for the protection of historical and cultural monuments in the country, the work of local museums, and the registration of monuments located outside state repositories, as well as the establishment of a nationwide register of monuments of history and culture of the peoples of the USSR, and the restoration of the most outstanding architectural monuments.
In 1966, the Republican Voluntary Society for the Protection of Historical and Cultural Monuments was established in Kyrgyzstan, with city, regional, and district administrations headed by the Central Council of the Society. In 1968, Special Scientific Restoration Production Workshops began operating under the Ministry of Culture of the Kyrgyz SSR. In the same year, the republic's government adopted a resolution "On Measures to Ensure the Preservation of Monuments Located on the Territory of Kyrgyzstan." The Burana minaret was included in the state lists of monuments of union-republican significance.
Thus, the new stage in the history of the study of Burana coincided with a broad movement in the country for the preservation of cultural heritage. The minaret, as an outstanding monument of medieval architecture, continues to attract the attention of art historians, archaeologists, and local historians. It invariably figures in the summarizing works of Kyrgyz historians, particularly in the "History of the Kyrgyz SSR" (Vol. 1, Frunze, 1963 and 1968), scientific-popular publications of the Kyrgyz Republican Society for the Protection of Monuments, and albums on the architecture and urban planning of Soviet Kyrgyzstan.