Archaeological monuments have undeniable significance in the study of history, especially when it comes to scientifically substantiating certain facts. Thanks to the preserved and surviving burial mounds, balbals, and epigraphic inscriptions on tombs, we can confidently reproduce some historical events and compare them with official written sources. Burial sites deserve special attention from researchers, as they tell about the spiritual and cultural heritage of the people.
The head of the sector at the Institute of History of the Kyrgyz SSR, Vladimir Petrovich Mokrynin, Doctor of Historical Sciences V. Ploskih, and archaeologist Yu. D. Baruzdin, upon excavating their first burial mound, found an astonishingly well-preserved iron dagger-akinak (5th-4th centuries BC). Burial sites say a lot about the past, and burial methods can reveal the cultural heritage of our ancestors. Today's monuments and memorials may, in thousands of years, tell future generations about the everyday life and traditions of modern society. However, with the development of the economy and interethnic relations, it will be very difficult to trace the uniqueness of the people. Some local products are already hard to distinguish from foreign-made goods, only by some indirect signs. Even the methods of burial and the installation of monuments in different countries have become similar. Today, for example, one can order granite tombstones, monuments in Brest and Minsk from the manufacturer that are indistinguishable from those made in Kyrgyzstan. Therefore, ancient burial sites are so valuable for the history of any nation. Thanks to archaeological finds, the similarities between modern traditions and ancient rituals can be traced.
Under the leadership of I. A. Batmanov and with his assistance, comprehensive expeditions were organized in various regions of the republic (primarily in the Talas Valley) to identify new monuments of ancient Turkic writing and study other epigraphic monuments. As a result, previously unknown epitaph inscriptions in the ancient Turkic language were discovered, as well as a number of other inscriptions in ancient Uyghur, Syriac, Arabic, Tibetan, and Sanskrit.
Every year, as a rule, brings new finds. Valuable information about the monuments is provided by local residents. Often, the names of localities, mountains, and gorges serve as indicators of the presence of inscriptions or petroglyphs — Chiyim-Tash, Chiyimeli-Tash, Kat-Tash, Syuret-Tash, Saymaly-Tash, Nookat, Tamga-Tash, and several others. The Kyrgyz mountains and valleys still hold many unknown archaeological, historical, and cultural monuments.
In the dictionary of ancient Turkic dialects by Mahmud Kashgari (11th century), there is interesting information that in the mountains of Balasagun (Kyrgyz Ala-Too) lived a Turkic ascetic hermit named Külbak.
“When he wrote the words: ‘Külbak, servant of God,’ on a large black stone, the inscription became white, and when he wrote on a white stone (rock) — it became black. It is said that his traces have been preserved to this day.” The exact inscriptions referred to by Mahmud Kashgari are unknown to us, but large inscriptions on dark rocks have been found in the Talas Valley, in the gorges of Kulan Say and Terek Say. The Kulan Say eighteen-line Sogdian-Turkic inscription ends with the name of the scribe: “Blessed Kultak” (as told to me by V. A. Livshits). Perhaps these are the ones Mahmud Kashgari was referring to.