Findings at the Bottom of the Tyup Bay

Searches at the bottom of the bay continue

The remote-controlled probe is a device that helped underwater archaeologists find more than a dozen metal artifacts in just one month of work. This has never happened before. Externally, the device is very simple: a small metal circle on a long handle. But its internal mechanism is complex, as it instantly emits a sound signal from one to one and a half meters away from any metal object—whether on the ground, underground, or underwater! With its help, most ancient bronze artifacts were found during the 1986 season. The device, which was initially met with skepticism, was immediately recognized by archaeologists as a "miracle of modern technology in the service of the humanities."

The first metal artifacts at the Sarybulun settlement were not found using our "wonder device" and not by archaeologists. A well-preserved bronze dagger-akinak and a hemispherical head of a mace of high-quality casting were accidentally discovered by young local historians from secondary school No. 31 in Bishkek, led by history teacher M.K. Sinusov.

In his capacity as a local game specialist, G.I. Zhuravlev had navigated the shallow waters where the settlement is located many times. He, a curious person with diverse interests, managed to collect a solid collection of bronze artifacts here. According to him, it included: a dagger, a complete spearhead and its socket, several arrowheads, a sickle-shaped object, and a cauldron. Unfortunately, the constantly changing staff of the Karakol Local History Museum refused to come to the village of Mayak and accept the collection, resulting in its loss. Most of the invaluable bronze artifacts of ancient masters were lost during G.I. Zhuravlev's move from one village to another. Upon meeting, he handed us only the cauldron and the socket from the spearhead, which we delivered to the institute's museum, where they are exhibited among other artifacts from the Saka period.

The bronze cauldron is hemispherical, with a turned edge, on a conical base. Two "horizontal looped handles" are attached to the body of the cauldron, and between them is a relief tamga (master's mark?) in the form of two closed concentric semi-ovals, resembling the image of the moon with its horns down.

Similar cauldrons were widely distributed in Semirechye and beyond in the second half of the 1st millennium BC. In the Pre-Issyk-Kul region, more than a dozen have been found, both on land and at the bottom of the lake. Of course, such cauldrons were hardly used to prepare food for a single family. These enormous vessels are mute witnesses to the grand noisy feasts of the clan collectives of ancient herders during celebrations in honor of their deities. One of the most popular festivities was Nowruz—the day of the spring equinox, when a sacrifice was made to the sun. In such cauldrons, the meat of the sacrificial horse was boiled, and gathered together, they consumed it.

The second artifact handed to us by G.I. Zhuravlev looks more modest: the socket of a spearhead—bronze, cast, truncated-conical in shape, with traces of two holes for attachment to the shaft. Bronze socketed spearheads are well known to archaeologists from finds in Semirechye, including in the Pre-Issyk-Kul region, where they date back to the 5th-3rd centuries BC.

Thus, local historians have discovered and preserved for science rare, and sometimes unique, artifacts of the ancient Sarybulun people at the bottom of the Tyup Bay.

In the 1985 season, underwater archaeologists did not manage to find a single metal artifact at the Sarybulun settlement. However, the 1986 season (thanks to the device) can conditionally be called the "bronze season." Nevertheless, the very first metal find was raised from the bottom of the lake near the island. It was a whole sickle-shaped knife in excellent condition, covered, however, with a thin layer of lime deposit. At the blunt end—there are holes for attachment to a handle, which was most likely wooden. Later, with the help of the device, three more similar sickle-shaped knives were discovered (one whole and two fragments), but none could compare to the long-awaited first one!

Single-edged sickle-shaped knives are well known in Fergana, Khorezm, and the Tashkent oasis, where they date back to the 11th-9th centuries BC. However, the established forms of sickle-shaped knives existed for almost a millennium.

They are also known from the early Saka period. A fragment of such a sickle-shaped knife was even found at the Usun settlement Ak-tas-2 in Kazakhstan (the turn of the era). Thus, the first bronze single-edged sickle-shaped knives found in the Pre-Issyk-Kul region cannot be dated within one or two centuries.

A weak consolation is the fact that all the sickle-shaped knives were found near an unremarkable, at first glance, bronze circle, which turned out to belong to a strictly defined era. The bronze circle was actually openwork. A diamond with slightly inward-curving sides and a hole in the center was inscribed within it. This symbol—the sun—was well known in the Eurasian steppes in the 8th-7th centuries BC and was depicted on artifacts from the initial stage of Saka culture in Tuva, Kazakhstan, and the Pamirs. The diamond with a dot in the center was often applied to horse harness details. It is possible that the bronze sickle-shaped knives found near the solar amulet also belonged to the early Scythian (8th-7th centuries BC) era. However, it is not possible to accept this dating with complete confidence, as the waves of Issyk-Kul over those nearly three thousand years, when sickles were no longer used for harvesting and the amulet was no longer worn, could have "arranged" any illusory joint deposition of any chronologically incompatible items.

This is what happened with the first and so far the only find of a battle mace (a weight on a strap) on the territory of Kyrgyzstan. It is a solid cast bronze sphere with a diameter of 6 cm and a trapezoidal ear, found near the island, close to the sickle-shaped knives and the amulet. The preservation is amazing. Young archaeologists immediately declared this mace the oldest in the world, and the Pre-Issyk-Kul region—the birthplace of this type of close combat weapon. If the amulet with the solar symbol and the bronze mace had been found in the same burial or in the same cultural layer during excavations of the settlement, this conclusion would have been reasonable. However, an experienced archaeologist would behave more cautiously here: is there a catch? The fact is that throughout the entire strip of mountains and steppes of Eurasia, where thousands of burial mounds of ancient herders have been excavated, a mace has never been found. Maces were also not part of the arsenal of the southern neighbors of the Scythian-Saka world—the Bactrians, Persians, Greeks, and Thracians. However, in the same strip of steppes, many similar battle weights made of both bronze and iron were found in the Middle Ages. Therefore, despite the fact that the solar amulet of the 7th century BC and the bronze sickle-shaped knives were located next to the mace at the bottom of the Tyup Bay, it is very risky to consider them synchronous. Most likely, the latter belonged to a completely different, much later chronological era.

Also noteworthy is the find at the Sarybulun settlement of a fragment of a bronze celt—chisel. Only its lower working part and a very small part of the socket have survived. A fully equipped celt—chisel closely resembles the modern Central Asian tesh, which is still used in the household of the Kyrgyz.

If it weren't for the search device, the divers would never have found the small bronze awls—puncturing tools. Even when seen, it is not immediately clear that these are tools to which a person has applied their hand. Externally, they are ordinary small river pebbles—rolled stones.

When the thick shell of the "rolled stone" was carefully broken, a movable sharp rod was seen inside. No one expected this. The riddle of the "mobility," "freedom" of the awls is possible if we assume (and this is most likely) that the small, easily lost, and dangerous sharp puncturing tools were placed by their owners in cases made of leather or wood.

Once in the lake water, the cases swelled, lost their original shape, and the bronze began to oxidize. Over time, the oxides penetrated the material of the cases, giving them the substance of metal. The bottom's limestone deposits completed the metamorphosis, camouflaging the deformed cases under gray river stones.

There is reason to believe that the Sarybulun people themselves smelted metal. This thought is prompted by the find near the island of a cluster of fragments of various large bronze vessels, which were of no use for anything other than remelting. A small metal ingot was also found here, and what is the main argument in favor of metal production at the settlement is a sprue, which is a small bronze cone. Thus, it is possible that some of the metal artifacts found at the settlement, even the unique head of a mace depicting an enraged tiger, could have been cast on site.

Horn artifacts

A horn of a gazelle has been found, drilled through at the base. Above it is a deep longitudinal cut. The functional purpose of such artifacts is unknown. Some researchers call them an awl-puncturing tool, although it is hard to imagine what could be pierced with such an awl, and moreover, it is unclear why such an extensive hole? Others believe that such a horn was used to untie tightly tied knots on packs, yurts, horse harnesses, and fetters. This, in our opinion, is closer to the truth, as nomadic herders constantly dealt with ropes and straps.

All the aforementioned sites where traces of ancient herders' settlements have been discovered cannot be compared in terms of the quantity of material culture remains or the area of their dispersion with the Sarybulun settlement, which stands out among them like a shining snow-capped peak of the Tien Shan among the rolling hills of the Dry Ridge.

Sarybulun Bead