Rock carvings are one of the stages in the development of world culture and are vividly represented in ancient petroglyphs. They are located in all corners of the world. The territory of modern-day Kyrgyzstan abounds in petroglyphs of diverse in style and subject matter. Based on estimates, petroglyphs of Kyrgyzstan date back to the Late Bronze Age with some portions of images belonging to the late Middle Ages and ethnographic modernity.
Shrouded in mystery, petroglyphs have attracted the attention of both scientists and spiritual practitioners for many years. Aigine CRC team, together with archaeologists and traditional practitioners, have also joined the ranks of those looking to uncover the hidden meanings of petroglyphs.
Our team visited three provinces and seven petroglyph sites of Kyrgyzstan – Ak-Bulun, Ala-Bash, Ornok and Sary-Djaz of the Yssyk-Kul province; Murdash-Bashy and Tergen-Tash of the Osh province; Saimaluu-Tash of Jalal-Abad province.
According to some practitioners, the rock art of the Kyrgyz began with Takiya-Ene (Mother Takiya) on Saimaluu-Tash in Jalal-Abad province. Legend has it that the first creators of petroglyphs followed the images left on the rocks by the heavenly powers.
The attempt to study and interpret petroglyphs with the help of spiritual practitioners is undertaken for the first time and opens up new facets of petroglyphs of Kyrgyzstan.
After visiting seven petroglyph sites, Aigine CRC team published a calendar for 2022 with the describtion some of the most striking rock carvings found, as well as video documentation where scientific and traditional approaches in understanding and studying rock carvings were combined.
The project was implemented with the financial support of the World Indigenous Science Network (WISN).
