Ancient Kyrgyz in the 1st-2nd Centuries AD
Gyan-gun and Dinlins
In the sources of the 1st-2nd centuries AD, the gyan-gun are not mentioned, but there is information about their northern neighbors, the dinlins, who were among the tribes that attacked the northern Huns at the end of the 1st century AD (Bichurin, 1998, p. 129). As a result, in 91 AD, the shanyu of the northern Hun horde "fled, unknown where," and the steppes of Central Asia were occupied by the Xianbei (Bichurin, 1998, pp. 131, 153, 154, 157). The ancient Kyrgyz-gyaungun are mentioned again in Chinese sources of the 3rd century AD: "The territory of the Gyan-gun is located northwest of Kanzui. A select army of 30,000 people follows the livestock. (There - Y.H.) there are many sable, and there are good horses." During this period, the dinlins were the eastern neighbors of the gyan-gun. This source distinguishes two groups of dinlins for the first time: northern and eastern (Suprunenko, 1974, pp. 237, 238). From the first half of the 1st millennium AD, Chinese sources distinguish the western "Gao-guy dinlins" or the tribal alliance "Gao-guy" (high carts), which in the early Middle Ages would be known as the confederation of tribes "tele" led by the Uyghur tribe. In contrast to the Gao-guy, the eastern dinlins, who lived in the eastern regions of Central Asia, south of Baikal, became part of the Mongolic-speaking tribes of the Shiwei (Taskin, 1984, p. 139).
In the second quarter of the 1st millennium AD, the "Gao-guy dinlins" inhabiting the western regions of Central Asia included the "Hewei" tribe - the Uyghurs. By the middle of the 1st millennium AD, this group of tribes included the "Hegu" tribe, also known as "Cigu," "Yegu," "Guiyu," "Gyeigu" - the ancient Kyrgyz (Suprunenko, 1974, p. 239). It is likely that the information about the gyan-gun "inhabitants mixing with the dinlins" (Bichurin, 1998, p. 358) refers to this period.
During this time, the tribes of the Gao-guy dinlins often fought with the Juzhans for dominance over Central Asia (Taskin, 1984, p. 269). In 411 AD, the Juzhan khagan Huluy "conquered the lands of Hewei and Yegu in the north," i.e., the Uyghurs and Kyrgyz (Bichurin, 1998, p. 191). During this period, the "ancient state of Gyan-gun" was located on lands "from Hami to the west, from Kharashar to the north, near the White Mountains," which most likely belonged to the system of the Eastern Tian Shan (Bichurin, 1998, p. 358). Judging by this information, until the middle of the 1st millennium AD, the ancient Kyrgyz continued to live in the territory of Eastern Turkestan.
Some features of the culture of the Kyrgyz - gyan-gun can be retrospectively assessed based on data from medieval historical and archaeological sources. Chinese sources emphasize the similarity of the language and culture of the Kyrgyz and Uyghurs (Bichurin, 1998, p. 358). It is likely that by this period, the ancient Kyrgyz spoke one of the Turkic dialects. When describing the appearance of the Yenisei Kyrgyz, medieval authors noted their Europoid appearance (Bichurin, 1998, p. 359; Kyuner, 1961, p. 55). They probably did not differ significantly from the ancient Europoid population of Eastern Turkestan, for example, from the Tocharians, Sakas, or Usuns.
It is likely that since ancient times, the Yenisei Kyrgyz retained the custom of tattooing or painting their faces and bodies, which was widespread among some nomads of the Sayan-Altai during the Scythian period (Polosmak, 2001, pp. 233-235).
According to Chinese sources, Kyrgyz men "brave among them tattoo their arms," while women after marriage "tattoo their necks" (Bichurin, 1998, p. 359). The gyan-gun were characterized by the same set of items as other nomadic cultures of the Hun-Xianbei period in Eastern Turkestan (Khudyakov, 1999, pp. 152-159).
Yenisei Kyrgyz in Antiquity
