Settlement at the Bottom of the Bay
The well-known local historian and teacher at secondary school No. 31 in Bishkek, M.K. Sinusov, has repeatedly told Kyrgyz archaeologists, including us, that in the area of the Dry Ridge in the Tyup Bay of Lake Issyk-Kul, many shards of clay vessels and grain grinders are found on the shallows. According to his hypothesis, the advancing waves of the lake once destroyed a large burial ground, washed away ceramic vessels that were placed with the buried, broke them, and scattered the fragments over a vast area of the bay's bottom and the edge of the shore. He urged archaeologists to urgently organize an expedition to the area of the Dry Ridge.
In the autumn of 1982, M.K. Sinusov showed us his finds. In a pile of unremarkable broken pottery, several pieces of stone grain grinders, and two or three handles, the archaeologist's eye immediately caught a bronze dagger and the head of an artistic mace. There was no doubt — these items were made in ancient times and no later than the 6th century BC. Truly, it is better to see something once than to hear about it a hundred times. Doubts disappeared. There were quite real arguments in favor of the fact that the object discovered by M.K. Sinusov and his assistants — young local historians from school No. 31 — required serious attention from scholars.
In the 1985 season, one of the tasks of the Issyk-Kul archaeological team was to inspect the waters of the Tyup Bay.
Currently, the entire coastal zone of the lake is a protected area and is guarded by the state. However, the southern shore of the bay requires particularly careful protection. Nowhere along the coast have we seen such pristine beauty of the natural Issyk-Kul landscape. From the cliff near the village of Peschanoe, there was a view of the turquoise-blue expanse, which astonishingly combines with the soft pastel tones of the flat valley, covered with low brush of reddish and light green grass. The desert shore and the shallows, which were recently the bottom of the lake, attract a large number of birds. According to recent data, 98 species of waterfowl and near-water birds have been recorded at Issyk-Kul. We admired large flocks of swans, goldeneyes, mergansers, and black brent geese. Diving ducks allowed humans to approach them almost within arm's reach. Many birds from the family of sandpipers gathered in the shallow waters, while flocks of gray cranes were seen on the shore.
G.I. Zhuravlev even saw very rare southern guests here - a pelican and a flamingo. All this makes one think about a more serious approach to the protection of the unique nature of the eastern part of the Pre-Issyk-Kul region. Meanwhile, the chimneys of the Kurmentin Cement Plant are smoking, and a thick plume of smoke pollutes the air over many villages and the Tyup Bay. The birds are also restless. Frightened by explosions in the mountains, where limestone is mined for the plant, thousands of birds rise with a cry and cannot calm down for a long time. According to the letter of the protected regime, it is prohibited to graze livestock on the territory that has become land after the retreat of the lake, and even more so to store chemical fertilizers outdoors. Yet, to this day, livestock is grazed on the shore, and mountains of fertilizers are dumped.
Sheep trample all the vegetation, crush bird nests, and chemical fertilizers pollute the waters of the unique lake during the rainy season and snowmelt.
However, let us return to our work in 1985. 2.5—3 km north of the village of Peschanoe, on a wide strip of the coast and the adjacent muddy shallows (approximately 1500X500 m), many fragments of ceramics and grain grinders were found, as well as clusters and separately lying river-rounded boulders of various sizes. A quick inspection of the area indicated that these were not traces of an ancient burial ground. A whole series of signs indicated that there was a large settlement from the Saka-Usun period — the 1st millennium BC. This means that a settlement has been discovered in the Pre-Issyk-Kul region with a culture unknown to archaeologists.
Weak Technical Capabilities for Researching Issyk-Kul and Global Practice