Petroglyphs within the Archaeological Landscape of Kulzhabasy

Description

The archaeological landscape of Kulzhabasy is situated on the territory of the Korday Region of the Zhambyl Region. It is located 200 km west-north-west from the city of Almaty and 30 km north-west from the train station of Otar on the south-western part of Chu-Ili Mountains.

The site is known since the beginning of the 1960s. However, the main concentrations of the rock carvings occupying the narrow mountain line on the south of the range were discovered only in the beginning of the 2000s.

The cultural complex of Kulzhabasy includes several dozens of ancient settlement of different periods, galleries of rock carvings, burial grounds of “kurgan” type, and even the entire necropolises of the Bronze Age, Middle Ages, as well as the remains of Kazakh winter dwellings and tribal cemeteries and mausoleums. Starting from 1930s the traces of the nomadic culture become less and less numerous.

Justification of Outstanding Universal Value

The rock carvings are the most valuable and informative part of Kulzhabasy. During the entire history of the populations living in the local mountain valleys, they were surrounded by the rock surfaces of the good quality for the rock art. The earliest petroglyphs were probably made even before the Early Bronze Age, which makes Kulzhabasy the most ancient rock art site on the territory of modern Kazakhstan. Typological analysis of the property demonstrates numerous parallels with the Petroglyphs within the Archaeological Landscape of Tamgaly (World Heritage Site inscribed in the List in 2004). Kulzhabasy is not only situated nearby Tamgaly, but also considered by numerous researchers as the site that chronologically precedes Tamgaly. In this context it can provide the information on the so-called “Tamgaly petroglyph style” and on the evolution of the rock art of Central Asian during the Bronze Age.

Criterion (iii): Kulzhabasy is a unique manifestation of the cultural traditions of local communities of Central Asia during a long historical period. Scientific studies of the property identified six successive periods of the rock carving tradition in Kulzhabasy, which has an Outstanding Universal Value: archaic period (III – beginning of the II millennium BC) mainly represented by the figures of the huge bulls and aurochs; Middle Bronze Age period (XV-XIII centuries BC), which was the period of the most active petroglyph-making tradition and still dominated by the figures of the representatives of the local wildlife; Late Bronze Age period (XII-IX centuries BC), which added the figures of the domesticated animals, wheels and chariots; Early Iron Age or Saka period (VIII-III centuries BC), when the number of carved figures was reduced to several main types; Middle Iron Age or Wusun period (II century BC – V century AD), when the size and quality of petroglyphs considerably declined; and the Medieval or Turkic period (VI-XIV centuries), which demonstrate the end of the petroglyph-making tradition in Kulzhabasy (only 10% from the total number of rock carvings). Altogether the rock carvings dated by all the above-mentioned periods are the testimonies of numerous cultural, economic and religious traditions of disappeared civilizations.

Statements of authenticity and/or integrity

Authenticity

Kulzhabasy is a recently discovered site, which was well studied in recent years. As other major petroglyph sites on the territory of Central Asian countries, Kulzhabasy is located in the mountain area relatively far from big human populations and economic activities. Therefore the entire archaeological landscape and most of the rock carvings remained in their authentic state. However, several petroglyphs were damaged during XX-XXI centuries by modern signatures made with Cyrillic and Arab characters. At the same time, these contemporary damages haven’t harmed the general view of the cultural landscape and its rock art components. As for the other archaeological components of the property (burial grounds and ancient settlements), their scientific studies also haven’t left any significant damage on the whole authenticity of the site.

Integrity

The territory of Kulzhabasy is not limited by any major human activities that represent any danger to the integrity of the site. All the rock carving components of the local archaeological landscape are situated in the middle of the mountain range far away from the closest villages and train-stations.

Another factor that demonstrates the integrity of the property is its chronological identification. The rock carvings representing different periods from the pre-Bronze Age to the beginning of the XX century AD are situated on the same territory and reflect the integrity of the property.

Finally, the natural factors that could affect the integrity of the property are the erosion of the soil, high range of the temperature drops and layering of the ground. Here, particular importance should be given to the rail-road situated on the south on the property and following the line of the mountain range. Its vibration impact on the integrity of the site, especially on the rock panels with the petroglyphs, requires additional studies and monitoring in the future.

Comparison with other similar properties

On the national level Kulzhabasy is going to be compared with three other rock carving properties simultaneously proposed for the inclusion and remaining in the Tentative World Heritage List of the Republic of Kazakhstan (petroglyphs within the archaeological landscapes of Arpauzen, Eshkiolmes and Sauyskandyk), as well as with one national rock carving property already inscribed in the World Heritage List in 2004 (Petroglyphs within the Archaeological Landscape of Tamgaly). All of them are located on the territory of two geographic areas: Zhetysu (Eshkiolmes, Kulzhabasy and Tamgaly) and southern Kazakhstan (Arpauzen and Sauyskandyk).

All five previously-mentioned petroglyphs sites on the territory of the Republic of Kazakhstan (Arpauzen, Eshkiolmes, Kulzhabasy, Tamgaly and Sauyskandyk) demonstrate numerous similarities: the same vegetation, and wild and domesticated animals (apart from the Bactrian camels more characteristic to the southern Kazakhstan); belonging of the rock carvings to the same long period of time from the Early Iron Age to the beginning of the XX century; the same complex of various archaeological sites (burial grounds, ancient settlements and ancient traditional dwellings) on the same area as the petroglyphs; and the same interpretation of the properties as the sacral and cult areas by the local communities of the past. In this way, all of them are the exceptional testimonies of the disappeared civilizations and cultures that generally left very few written sources on them, which makes them conform to the criterion (iii).

In summary, all five reviewed petroglyph sites can be theoretically combined into one serial property of the rock art sites under the criterion (iii). As the Tentative World Heritage Lists of other Central Asian countries also includes several petroglyph sites (for example Saimaly-Tash on the territory of Kyrgyz Republic, and Sarmishsay on the territory of the Republic of Uzbekistan), the international decision-making and scientific community can eventually consider a serial transnational nomination of the Central Asian rock art for World Heritage List.

In this context, particular attention should be given to the connections between the archaeological landscapes of Kulzhabasy and Tamgaly, as both of these sites (especially their most ancient petroglyphs) manifest numerous arguments that they belong to the same cultural tradition appeared in the region in the very beginning of the Early Bronze Age.

On the international level, typologically the most resembling site to Kulzhabasy and other rock carving sites of Kazakhstan is the Petroglyphic Complexes of the Mongolian Altai inscribed in the World Heritage List in 2011 under the criterion (iii).

As Kulzhabasy, the Mongolian petroglyph complexes are also located in the isolated areas, represent the remains of cultural traditions of a long period of time and were used for the funerary and ritual purposes by the later communities. However, in the case of Mongolian property, the earliest rock carvings were dated by the period of Late Pleistocene. It means that it is much older than Kulzhabasy and other rock art sites of Kazakhstan. It explains the difference of the vegetation and the wildlife shown on the petroglyphs (for example the presence of the mammoths, rhinoceros, and ostriches on the Petroglyphic Complexes of the Mongolian Altai).

At the end of this short comparative analysis, it is worth to mention that all mentioned rock carving sites in Kazakhstan, Central Asian countries and Mongolia are potentially exposed to the same negative natural and anthropogenic impacts. As for the natural negative impacts, it is the soil erosion, water penetration and layering of the natural ground all coming from the fact that these properties are situated in the countries with the continental climate and serious daily and periodical changes of temperature. As for the anthropogenic negative impacts, the highest danger for the petroglyphs represents the uncontrolled tourists and site visitors that can seriously damage the historical rock carvings by leaving their signatures on top of them.