Dolmens are buildings built from large stone blocks, presumably of a cult nature. Today, about 3000 of them have survived in the Caucasus. They appeared at the end of the 3rd-2nd millennium BC.
Riddles of dolmens
If you ask local residents about dolmens, they will certainly tell the legend about the dwarfs who once settled in these places. The people were so tiny that they used hares for riding. Next to them, as usual in fairy tales, lived giants. It was they who built stone dwellings for their weak neighbors so that they could take refuge during bad weather.
People who are prone to an esoteric explanation of the unknown believe that dolmens were installed by residents of extraterrestrial civilizations and endowed them with magical powers that can awaken unusual abilities in a person, give him love or restore health.
Scientists put forward only hypotheses. To date, there are two versions about the purpose of dolmens. They could be both religious buildings of a tribe or a separated family, and funerary ones. During excavations, many of them found burials of people who lived in different historical eras, and next to them are various items that could be useful to the deceased in another world: from stone scrapers and shards of gray clay dishes to medieval weapons. Although later burials, of course, were secondary.
In the Western Caucasus, 2300 dolmens have been discovered and described, most of them are located in the region of Gelendzhik, Novorossiysk and Shapsugskaya. There are about 150 completely intact and not very destroyed among them. But even such a number of artifacts does not shed light on the history of their creation. Only the time of their construction is precisely known, which was determined on the basis of radiocarbon analysis of organic remains extracted from the chambers of dolmens. It was found that the West Caucasian dolmens were built from 3500 to 1400 BC. e.
Ancient builders built dolmens from blocks of quartz sandstone. On average, the weight of the structure is from 15 to 30 tons. This means that there should have been quarries on the territory of the Western Caucasus, but even the slightest traces of their existence have not been found to this day. If they were not nearby, then how were the huge blocks of stone delivered to the construction site in the absence of roads suitable for transporting heavy loads? And the main question: how did the ancient architects calculate the parameters of the plates, the junctions of which do not have a straight surface, and all the plates clearly adjoin each other due to specially arranged grooves? The joints are so dense that it is impossible to insert a knife blade between the plates. It also seems surprising that even the earliest buildings are not primitive, but complex structures. The dolmens on Mount Neksis and on the Zhane River near Gelendzhik can serve as an example of the ideal work of engineering thought.
Photo: Trough-shaped dolmen
Such a precise adjustment of structural details was beyond the power of a modern person. During the reconstruction of dolmens, it has not yet been possible to compile multi-ton slabs without errors. And in 2007, in the Safari Park of Gelendzhik, they decided to assemble a dolmen from slabs of destroyed buildings, the processing and fitting of which was decided to be carried out using ultra-precise power tools. However, this time the builders of the Bronze Age turned out to be head and shoulders above - there were gaps of several centimeters between the plates of the newly assembled dolmen.
So who were these people who owned such a perfect technology of the construction business? According to the assumption of the archaeologist Vladimir Markovin, who devoted most of his life to the study of the Caucasian dolmens, they lived in adobe shacks, did not know iron, the potter's wheel, and worked the earth with hoes. And yet, it was they who created the structures that still amaze the imagination with the perfection of designs.
What are dolmens
Tiled dolmens usually include four walls, a roof and a floor consisting of one large or several smaller (heel) slabs. The chamber is rectangular or trapezoidal. There are grooves in the plates, due to which all the plates are tightly connected. The front plate, framed by side protrusions and an overhanging visor, forms a portal.
Composite dolmens partially or completely assembled from separate small blocks. They have a complex geometric connection. The shape of the chamber is diverse: rectangular, trapezoidal, horseshoe-shaped, round and multifaceted.
Trough-shaped dolmens were carved in the thickness of the stone, and then covered with a slab from above.
Dolmens-monoliths entirely carved from a single block of stone or rock. They are very rare.
Photo: Composite dolmen
Dolmen group Ust-Sakhray
Before the foundation in 1862 of the village of Ust-Sakhrai, a dolmen field was located on its territory. At present, the construction of houses has destroyed its main central part. The first mention of the Ust-Sakhray dolmens was left by Yevgeny Felitsyn. Vladimir Markovin, relying on Felitsyn's notes, also mentions Ust-Sakhrai, but he did not have to explore the local megaliths.
The study of the Ust-Sakhrai dolmen group was carried out by the joint archaeological expedition of ARIGI and ASPI (DGU) in 1991-1994 under the leadership of Nurbiy Gazizovich Lovpache.
Two groups of the western and eastern edges of the village remained from a large dolmen field of a kilometer length between the Dakh and Sakhrai rivers. On Bukreeva Polyana, in front of the western outskirts of Ust-Sakhray, there are about fifty mounds. Under ten of them, portal and non-portal dolmens, two-chamber tombs, a stone box, burial grounds with a cromlech and a menhir were examined and investigated. Beyond the eastern edge of the village, between the outskirts and the modern cemetery, there are 5 visible megalithic structures, three of which have been partially explored.
A characteristic feature of the Ust-Sakhray dolmens is their chronological multi-layeredness and constructive-typological diversity. The megaliths of Ust-Sakhray date back to the second half of the 4th millennium BC. - the first half of the III millennium BC. e.
Deguak glade is located in the Belaya (Shkhaguashche) river basin. It got its name from the Deguak stream, which flows in the northern part of the meadow. It is a vast basin bounded on the north and east by the riverbed, the distant ridge and the forested slopes of Mount Gut. From the south, the glade wedges into the gorge of Pisana Mountain, and from the west it gradually merges with the slopes of the Sibir and Skala mountains. Deguak glade is known for a rather large group of dolmens. There are more than 200 of them here. They occupy ridge-like and kurgan uplifts made of gravel and river pebbles. The megaliths of the Deguaksko-Dakhovskaya glade date back to IV-II millennia BC. Local dolmens are carved from sandstone slabs and sandy limestones and shell rocks.
During the study by Markovin of a group of dolmens in the Deguaksko-Dakhovskaya glade, fragments of black-clay and gray-clay vessels with ornaments, bone products, carnelian beads, and bronze objects were found.
The menhirs of the Deguaksko-Dakhovsky dolmen necropolis are simple and squat. The largest menhir, 2.5 m high, ends with an anthropomorphic mask.
Kozhzhokh dolmen group
The Kozhzhokh dolmen group was discovered by Felitsyn and described in 1904. It is located on the right terrace of the right bank of the Belaya (Shkhaguashche) River, between the tributaries of the Maly and Sredny Khadzhokh, on the northern outskirts of the village of Kamennomostsky.
There are 27 mounds in the Kozhzhokh dolmen group, 16 of them with the ruins of dolmens. The megaliths of this group date back to the 4th-3rd millennium BC. During the study, gray-clay and black-clay vessels, fragments of molded pots and flat-bottomed bowls, bronze arrowheads, a bronze pin, flint flakes, and animal bones were found.
In the journal of excavations of the dolmens of the Kozhzhok group, Felitsyn described dolmen No. 20, located on a high mound. Dolmens of this type are rare in the Western Caucasus and have not been preserved in Adygea at present.
materials
On the Black Sea coast, evidence was found of the presence of a previously unknown culture of ancient megaliths, which, obviously, preceded the culture of building dolmens. And all these finds are extremely similar to the types of Gobekle-tepe:
Andrey Kizilov, an employee of the Department of Archeology of the Adyghe Republican Institute for Humanitarian Research (ARIGI), shared the findings of the Sochi region:
We were afraid of accidents, but when we managed to find reports on unknown structures in the archives of Kuban archeology, which were found synchronously with structures above the village of Tatyanovka, Lazarevsky district, it became clear that this ancient culture. Archaeologists who studied it refer this culture to the Eneolithic - the era of the pre-dolmen period. I am enclosing photographs from the archives that have not previously been published in public messages.
These finds were made by the expedition of the famous archaeologist A.V. Dmitriev, but due to the lack of analogues, the reports were archived and were not published at scientific conferences. 
You can see a complete resemblance to the Sochi finds:
From materials for scientific conference"Anfimov Readings":
In 2009, from local residents, we received information that in the area of the village. Tatyanovka, Lazarevsky district of Sochi, there is a megalithic structure unusual for the Western Caucasus - a cromlech made of free-standing stone pillars-menhirs.
Thanks to the help of the forester Ivan Vasilyevich Shevtsov (for which we are very grateful to him), we managed to examine this monument. True, its design is very different from the descriptions of local residents and is not a cromlech, but a chamber megalithic structure immersed in a stone core. According to residents of Tatyanovka village, the monument was excavated and plundered by unknown persons in 2002, when the unusual structure of the inner chamber of the structure was exposed. Previously, megalithic structures of this design have not been found in the Western Caucasus.
The monument is located near the village of Tatyanovka, on the right side of the river. Psezuapse at an altitude of about 299m above sea level, on a small, relatively flat area, above a high steep slope descending to the river. The dromos of the structure is oriented to the NNE (azimuth 300), towards the stream - the right tributary of the river.
In its most general form, the monument is a megalithic chamber immersed in a stone core with a dromos corridor leading outside. The chamber has an ellipsoidal shape measuring 2.4 m by 3.1 m, built of 19 sandstone stone pillars installed along the perimeter - orthostats, of rectangular section, with a width of 0.09 m to 0.35 m and an apparent height above the floor of the chamber of about 1, 44m. Width and length of orthostats clockwise from dromos: 0.24m by 0.53m; 0.07m by 0.21m; 0.19m by 0.2m; 0.24m by 0.2m; 0.17m by 0.32m; 0.13m by 0.3m; 0.17m by 0.21m; 0.11m by 0.4m; 0.04m by 0.31m; 0.14m by 0.22m; 0.14m by 0.22m; 0.14m by 0.2m; the twelfth orthostat is missing; 0.2m by 0.26m; 0.2m by 0.32m; 0.35m by 0.24m; 0.2m by 0.2m; 0.23m by 0.21m; 0.09m by 0.21m; 0.32m by 0.3m. There are no traces of any processing on the orthostats. At 100m up the slope there are layered outcrops of sandstone, a characteristic section, where orthostats were apparently mined. The distance between the posts ranges from 0.17m to 0.5m. These gaps are laid by thin sandstone slabs with a thickness of 0.02 m to 0.04 m, carefully fitted to each other, forming the walls of the dry masonry chamber. The height of the walls reaches 1.44 m, they are slightly inclined inwards. The cover is destroyed. Two of his plates irregular shape measuring 1.62m by 0.88m, 0.12m thick and 1.42m and 1.28m by 0.67m, 0.07m thick lie at the bottom of the chamber. Considering the size of the slabs and the chamber, it can be assumed that the floor slabs were laid according to the false vault principle.
From above, the false vault and dromos were covered with a stone mound of core from sandstone fragments, the average size of which is 0.3 m-0.5 m. The diameter of the embankment reaches 11m. Its height down the slope is about 2 m, in the upper, northwestern part, the height is not more than 0.6 m. In the northeastern part, from the floor of the core mound, a dromos about 3.8 m long, 0.9 m wide and about 0.45 m high, lined with flat sandstone slabs, leads to the chamber (Fig. 1.2). The camera, like the orthostats, is partially dug into the soil.
When examining the monument in the dump of the predatory excavation, small unornamented fragments of hand-made ceramics were found. The dough is brittle, porous, black and brown). Grass was used as a leaner. According to AD Rezepkin, ceramics belongs to the Bronze Age. N.G. Lovpache considered it more archaic, possibly dating back to the Eneolithic. In addition, river pebbles were found in the dump, which obviously served to fill the bottom of the chamber.
As is known, the use of pebbles for filling the floor of burial chambers is typical of the late stage of the Maikop-Novosvobodnenskaya community and the Novosvobodnenskaya (according to A.D. Rezepkin) culture [Korenevsky, 2004. p.18; Rezepkin, 2012. P.56], including for the Psybe tomb on the Black Sea coast [Teshev, 1986. P.56]. Thus, these meager finds suggest that the discovered monument belongs to the Early Bronze Age, the time of the formation of the traditions of megalithic construction in the region of the Western Caucasus.
The original construction of the walls of the monument is similar to the constructions of structures standing at the origins of megalithic architecture - Gobekli-Tepe, Nevali Chori and others [Kornienko, 2002. P.211-216]. Of course, they are too far apart in time. Analogues closer in time are available in another region. The technique of filling the space between the orthostats with carefully fitted tiles is typical for many megalithic chamber tombs of Western Europe of the 4th-3rd millennium BC, both rounded and rectangular in terms of construction.
It can be assumed that in the Western Caucasus this form arose independently in imitation of household buildings made of wood and turluk. Subsquare-oval and rounded dwellings of the Maikop culture have been well studied at Galyugaevsky 1 and Sereginsky settlements. The floors of such buildings are sometimes strewn with small pebbles [Korenevsky, 2004. p.13]. By its design, the Maikop dwelling resembles the traditional buildings of the mountaineers of the Western Caucasus, which survived until the beginning of the 20th century. Along the perimeter of such a dwelling, wooden poles were stuck into the ground. The space between them was braided with branches and twigs and filled and smeared with clay [Lavrov, 2009, p.74].
Despite the exceptional originality of the megalithic structure near the village. Tatyanovka, individual architectural and structural elements of this style are also found in other megalithic structures of the Western Caucasus. For example, the walls of some of the well-shaped tombs in the area of the village. Krasnaya Polyana is made of thin, unworked limestone, has a rounded layout and elements of a false vault. Pebble powder was also noted on the floor of these structures [Voronov, 1979. p.48]. The false-dome tomb discovered by us in the “52km” group in the upper reaches of the river. Psezuapse, in its design, is already closer to dolmens. The walls of its rounded chamber are lined with practically untreated limestone, and the entrance is designed in the form of a facade dolmen slab. The tomb itself is immersed in a stone core with a diameter of 11m with a narrow passage to the facade 3.5m long. A common feature in the construction technique of these structures is the use of regular dry masonry techniques from small slabs, a rounded shape, pseudo-dome, and the use of additional structures: courtyards, dromos. As noted by V.A. Trifonov, pseudo-dome or elements of a false vault "... are the fundamental characteristics of the dolmen architectural style" [Trifonov, 2014. P. 120].
According to the forester I.V. Shevtsov, in the area of the village. Tatyanovka, not far from the discovered megalith, on a neighboring mountain, there is another, the same structure, though almost completely destroyed. The mountainous part of the city of Sochi is still very poorly studied archaeologically, it is possible that more similar megaliths will be found under numerous mounds in the future.
Tomb at the village Tatyanovka is part of a single line of development of monumental religious stone construction in the Western Caucasus in the Bronze Age. Apparently, there originally existed several types of megalithic structures with rectangular, trapezoidal and round burial chambers and various ceilings, the shape and size of which suggest that they were borrowed from utilitarian, household architecture, where the main building material was wood and clay. . The combination of various construction methods and materials (orthostat pillars and thin sandstone tiles) made it possible to carry out this rather complicated architectural project for that time. This monument will help reveal aspects of the regional cultural development of megalithic architecture in the 3rd millennium BC.
Literature
Voronov Yu.N. Antiquities of Sochi and its environs. Krasnodar, 1979.
Korenevsky S.N. The most ancient farmers and pastoralists of Ciscaucasia. M., 2004.
Kornienko T.V. At the origins of religious construction in Ancient Mesopotamia \\ Archaeological sites of Eastern Europe. Voronezh, 2002.
Lavrov L.I. Forms of housing among the peoples of the North-Western Caucasus.\\ Selected works on the culture of the Abazins, Adygs, Karachays, Balkars. Nalchik, 2009.
Rezepkin A.D. Novosvobodnenskaya culture. SPb., 2012.
Teshev M.K. The Psybe tomb is a monument of late Maikop culture on the Black Sea coast.\\ New in the archeology of the North Caucasus. M., 1986.
Trifonov V.A. Dolmen Dzhubga on the Black Sea coast of the Caucasus. \\ Proceedings of IIMK RAS No. 10. St. Petersburg, 2014
Midgley M. The Megaliths of Northern Europe. London and New York, 2008
There are about 9,000 dolmens in the world. These unique ancient structures are scattered all over the world: Spain, France, England, they are in Portugal, India, Malta, Corsica, Sicily, Sardinia, North Korea, Bulgaria and other places. It is believed that the famous Stonehenge also belongs to the dolmens. Magical power is attributed to these stone structures - it is believed that when communicating with them, a person receives sacred knowledge and discovers unusual abilities in himself.
Dolmens are stone structures, megaliths. The name "dolmen" comes from the combination of two Breton words, "toal" - "table" and "men" - "stone", which literally translates as "stone table". There is also another interpretation of the word "dolmen", - "changing share". The age of the Caucasian dolmens is approximately 4-6 millennia. Presumably in 4-2 millennia BC. there was an unknown civilization from which these megalithic structures have come down to us.
Dolmens of the Caucasus are located on the coastal strip, which stretches from Novorossiysk to Abkhazia for 400 km. In width, this strip goes into the mountains for 75 km, almost to Maikop. Dolmens usually stand in groups and occupy comfortable and fairly flat areas along the watershed elevations, on the flat tops of the spurs of the mountains. They stand along the river basins, turned by a portal into open space - mainly to the south, east, or in an intermediate direction - between south and east.
In the middle of the twentieth century, a special group of archaeologists was created to study dolmens under the leadership of L.I. Lavrov (under the auspices of the Institute of Anthropology and Ethnography of the Russian Academy of Sciences). By 1960 he had compiled a catalog of 1139 dolmens in the North Caucasus. In the second half of the 20th century, a group of scientists led by V.I. Morkovin, student and follower of L.I. Lavrov. In his monograph "Dolmens of the Western Caucasus", V.I. Markovin determined the distribution of dolmens in the Caucasus region, studied them in detail and described them based on the study of archival materials and the results of expeditions of 2308 dolmens.
Sochi scientist V.M. Kondryakov devoted many years to the study and systematization of dolmens. He superimposed the layout of the dolmens on the geological map of the area, and it turned out that all the dolmens are located above the fault line of the earth's crust. It is on these lines that a colossal force of tension arises and accumulates. These are, in fact, anomalous zones with different flows of energy emissions.
L.I. Lavrov proposed a classification of dolmens, which is still used today.
- Tiled - was built from 6 multi-ton slabs - one foundation or heel stone, two side slabs, a portal slab, a rear slab and a floor slab (according to V.I. Markovin, 92% of all dolmens are tiled.).
- Composite - made up of several large blocks.
- A semi-monolithic or trough-shaped dolmen - hollowed out entirely in a rock block and covered with a slab on top.
- Monolithic - completely carved into the rock through a hole.
The holes of the dolmens were closed with stone plugs - phallic-shaped bushings weighing up to 150 kg. Now such plugs are stored in the museums of the Krasnodar Territory.
Regarding dolmens, there are many theories, both scientific and alternative. Often they contradict each other and do not reveal the mysterious origin of these ancient structures. There are opinions that dolmens are space portals, burial places of ancient nobility, weather stations, ancient observatories, teleportation points and even weapons.
The hypothesis put forward by archaeologists that the stone structures are the burial places of the local nobility was refuted by the archaeologists themselves. Burials were indeed found in some of them, but it turned out that they are all much older than the dolmens themselves.
Numerous studies have shown that the Dolmens, as well as the pyramids of Egypt and Stonehenge and other megaliths of England, generate high-frequency vibrations and electromagnetic waves. Their activity increases at sunrise and sunset, and also intensifies on the turning points of the year - the spring and autumn equinoxes. What is the reason for these phenomena in megaliths? The fact is that dolmens were built from quartz sandstone. Quartz crystals have the property of direct and inverse piezoelectric effect. Quartz works in a huge range of frequencies, creating acoustic and electrical waves.
Self-excitation of quartz crystals in megaliths occurs due to the constant propagation of acoustic waves and electrical discharges on the Earth. They are formed from the deformation of the earth's crust caused by tectonic activity, earthquakes, volcanic eruptions and tidal influences from the Sun, Moon and other planets. It should be borne in mind that dolmens were built on faults in the earth's crust, and strong energy flows are observed in these places. Quartz crystals are excited throughout the volume of the massive dolmen slab, generating very high frequencies.
The dolmen chamber itself is a resonator. Thanks to the parallel plates in the dolmen, standing wave, as in a tuning fork. If a tuning fork is brought near a source of chaotic noise, it begins to sound, generating a certain frequency. So the dolmen chamber amplifies underground vibrations. Inside such a chamber, oscillations are created that are emitted through the hole, or a plasmoid body is formed.
It is quite possible that dolmens, connected by vibrations, form a single system and affect nature, weather and vital biological processes.
A very interesting and one-of-a-kind dolmen was found in a mound on the banks of the Psynako River in the Tuapse region, near the village of Anastasievka. The place where he stands was used for ritual actions as early as the third millennium BC and was a sanctuary. A stone corridor approaches the dolmen, blocked in several places by large slabs. Scientists suggest that it contains an imitation vault of heaven. Here the regularities of the solstice were studied and observations of the moon were made. This is a kind of ancient observatory. There are four other similar megalithic structures in the world. One in Ireland, another in Denmark, a third in Portugal and a fourth in Spain. All dolmen buildings have one thing in common: they face the sunny or bright side. This indicates that the dolmen builders worshiped the Sun.
Often megalithic structures are located in the center of circles and spirals, made, as a rule, from menhirs or laid out stones correctly spaced around the circumference. There are complexes with both one and several rings around the megalith. Some experts see in this annular environment some landmarks located along the circumference, with the help of which it is convenient to engage in astronomical observations, being in the center of the megalith. Some researchers see in the circles some kind of wave generators that amplify and transmit energy from the megalith. Some researchers give this fact a certain mystical and ritual coloring.
On Mount Neksis near Gelendzhik, there are two dolmens, famous for their unique designs and well accessible to tourists. The open surface of the mountain slope with rare low trees and alpine-looking meadows gives a special flavor. Thanks to this, not only the dolmens themselves look picturesque, not obscured by thickets of trees, but also excellent conditions are created for observing unforgettable views of the surrounding area. One of the dolmens has a slab construction with a unique joining of massive slabs and unusual, complex and rarely seen structures of the slab joining zones. The people called this dolmen "Sunny". Indeed, the surface of the front plate is covered with a yellowish coating of some kind of microvegetation. Therefore, under the rays of the sun, especially in summer, the photographs of the dolmen turn yellowish. There is a belief that this dolmen is a carrier of solar energy and is able to restore a person's vitality. The power of the Solnechny dolmen activates spiritual energy and releases creative inner potential, promotes rejuvenation of the body, slows down the aging process, fills the human soul with youthful energy.
No matter how many conflicting legends go around dolmens, the fact that they have great energy is noted by many who have been near them. They say that many who were close to them experienced dizziness, weakness, or, conversely, energy and lightness suddenly appeared. Now many seminars and excursions to the Dolmens of the Caucasus are being organized. People are promised an extraordinary mystical experience and the fulfillment of their most secret desires. Many tourists go to the Dolmens on their own, they set up tents in the mountains, some of them even sleep inside the stone giants.
It is important to remember that it is not worth invading dolmens without permission, climbing inside, and even more so, living in them is not worth it. Places of power must be treated with respect.
5 016
The cycle of tales about the people who once lived in the North and Northwest Caucasus constitutes the epic about the Narts. The plot lines of individual legends are often intertwined with each other, and sometimes break off. The Narts believed that all sorts of fabulous creatures lived around them: giants, gnomes, inhabitants of the underwater kingdom and dragons.
The main acting characters of all legends are heroic and brave people, Narts. The Nart epic can also be viewed from the point of view of understanding the culture of megaliths, as well as their estimated time of occurrence. Undoubtedly, once there was a people who developed a wonderful stone processing technology. And of course, he could not disappear without a trace, something must have remained in the memory of his descendants in the form of myths, fairy tales or just references.
It is impossible to answer with complete certainty the question of who the Narts were. In the storylines of legends, it is easy to draw parallels with both Russian and Georgian fairy tales, and with Greek mythology.
There are whole scientific works on the analysis of deities and celestials proving some connection of the Nart epic with the Scythians, as well as with Indo-Aryan and ancient Iranian mythology.
What is the reason for these differences of opinion? Probably, the whole point is that the population living in the North and Northwest Caucasus has different origin. For example, the Abkhazian and Adyghe languages are related to the ancient Hattian language, and the Ossetians trace their origins from the Alans. This means that the fact is confirmed that the carriers and keepers of the Nart epic were peoples different both in terms of historical and geographical path and in linguistic development.
It is also proved by the fact that the legends, covering a wide range of human life and having many intersecting and completely separate plots, have common features, for example, the word “nart” (nyart) appears everywhere, as well as the name of one of the main or even the central female figure Satanai (Satan, Sataney, Shatana) and others. This suggests that most of the plots are of North Caucasian origin.
Of course, it could not have done without borrowing, copying plots and plot reflections. But no epic source can exist without it. It reflects the change of religions, which naturally bring their stories and characters.
How are megaliths connected with the Nart Epos? Everything is very simple: the Adyghe peoples believed that the construction of dolmens was the merit of some dwarfs - Spanish (spu).
The legend says that the Caucasus was once inhabited by a tribe of small men - dwarfs. They lived on impregnable peaks of mountains and ridges and were engaged in cattle breeding. Their favorite means of transportation were hares, on which the isps rode. Since then, there has been a belief that the legs of these long-eared animals are still entangled with little men, so they cannot run like other animals.
Isps were distinguished by their sharp mind and incredible strength, they developed crafts and skillfully worked with metals. The main qualities of the representatives of this people were their independence and love of freedom.
Next to them, but in the valleys and gorges, lived evil giants - inyzhi, who did not differ in special intelligence and occupied a lower stage of development. Their body was covered with long and thick hair. Giants lived in caves.
These evil monsters were enslaved by the brave and strong isps and forced to work for themselves. Inyzhi were engaged in the construction of houses in which dwarfs lived and which we now call dolmens.
Perhaps the isps would have existed to this day, but some kind of catastrophe of universal significance occurred, and both peoples disappeared from the face of the earth. The few surviving little men moved deep underground and rarely went to its surface. Only sometimes the sleds at night could meet their leader - a little old man with a long gray beard, proudly riding a rooster over the ridges.
If in Adygea, according to the local population, the Isps were engaged in the construction of exclusively dolmens, then in Abkhazia they believe that small houses, however long disappeared, and atsanguars are also the work of their hands.
Atsanguars are hedges of stones that have survived to this day on the tops of the ridges. Enclosures were built in the most varied forms and were sometimes subdivided into several parts adjacent to each other.
Atsanguars are most often found on the territory from the level of Tuapse to Abkhazia.
Of course, there is also a legend that tells about the joys and sorrows of the atsans, or tsanys, the same dwarfs, but mentioned in the Abkhazian Nart epic. According to it, the Atsanguars are not only the remaining sections of the fences behind which the Atsan kept their cattle, but also the remains of their dwellings and fortresses. The researchers claim that their construction was completed approximately one and a half thousand years BC, however, there are some disagreements regarding the exact dating, since the remains of ancient hedges, as a rule, were constantly joined by new and new ones, and it is also difficult to separate the ruins of old koshes and modern ones. extensions to them, which were repeatedly used and reconstructed for many centuries.
The Abkhazian researcher and local historian Sh.D.
Once upon a time, there was a dwarf people. It was either at the same time as the Narts, or a little earlier. The Atsans lived in houses and fenced their territories with stone walls. They were distinguished by their freedom-loving character and strength and did not recognize anyone above them, including God. The Atsans stood at a fairly high level of development - they learned everything themselves and helped the Narts in some ways. Then the little men became proud and they began to scold and tease God in every possible way. And he didn't know what to do with them. And so God sent his son (nephew) to the Atsan, so that he would find out the weak points of the rebellious people. The dwarfs raised and raised the boy, and God learned the secret of their invulnerability.
As a result, a universal catastrophe occurred and all the Atsan died either from a great fire, or from a flood, or from a sharp cold snap. Few people escaped and settled somewhere underground. They still strive to get out, but all their attempts end in failure.
Even as a result of research, it turned out that the Narts had their own folk hero, whose mother belonged to the people of the Atsans.
It should also be noted that there is a legend in the Nart epic that strongly resembles the Greek myth about the titan Prometheus and Hercules, his liberator. However, this is not surprising, since all possible variants of this legend are present in almost all Caucasian peoples.
In the Nart epic, instead of Prometheus, the elder of the Narts Nasren-Zhache (among the Abkhazians - Abrskil) appears, who enters into a struggle with the celestials. For impudence, God chained him to the mountain with chains. And another hero, Peterez (Batraz), saved him and brought fire to the Narts. According to some versions of this legend, the liberator is the son of dwarfs and Narts.
The Georgian folk hero Amirani successfully plays the role of Prometheus, chained to a rock, in the Georgian epic. And this is a great hint for determining the exact dating, since traces of the image of the hero can be seen in archaeological finds (the Trialeti goblet, the Kazbek treasure, the belt from Mtskheta) dating back to the 3rd millennium BC. This means that the Caucasian megaliths were created no earlier than this millennium, since, according to legends, a small people lived before and, in part, simultaneously with the Narts.
Where did the sledges disappear and how did it happen? There are two opinions on this. Some believe that the Narts left voluntarily, others that their disappearance occurred as a result of a grandiose catastrophe and is nothing more than God's punishment.
In one of the Adyghe legends, the reason for the disappearance of the Narts is a small, inconspicuous little man (Petsy). Because of him, the Narts decided to leave their land, and the land went to the Circassians. But before leaving, the Narts asked the god Tha to do something that would remind people of them. God fulfilled their request by creating a crop like corn.
Who was this inconspicuous little man? In his role was modern man. He was very different from the Narts and was not a superhero. This indicates that if the Ispans existed, then they practically did not differ from modern people.
It becomes clear that epic works that mention dwarfs (the creators of megaliths) are common in areas where megaliths are located - in Adygea (Circassia) and Abkhazia. Another fact is interesting, namely, that in the Nart epic there is no mention of dolmens at all, with the exception of the Adyghe legend about the isps, which, by the way, is slightly distinguished by some points.
The construction of dolmens is in no way connected with the burial methods mentioned in the epic. In the literature that has come down to our days, nothing is said about the fact that the art of stone processing and the choice of rock were used for some specific needs. It cannot be said that such a structure as Psynako-1 is intended for cult rituals and places for games.
However, the study showed that at one time the dolmens were quite visited. This is proved by the fact that their stone plugs, lapped very closely to the hole, were badly worn, as if they were often used. The cork of the dolmen under the mound with a gallery (Psynako-1) was supported by a stone; without it, it would simply fall out of the hole. The underground passage to the dolmen has a constant cross section, which is approximately 0.5 m in diameter. In order to penetrate the underground dolmen, it was necessary to crawl about 10 m along the gallery (dromos). The latter fact suggests that dolmens were used as structures for various rituals.
One thing is for sure: ancient civilization, which served as the basis for the beginning of the accumulation of a series of legends about Narts, is in no way connected with dolmens. The study of individual events and famous names proves that Caucasian culture played an important role in the formation of the epic. It existed until the final delimitation of languages and had a considerable influence on the development of the Caucasian peoples. Archaeological finds related to the plot of Amirani (Georgia), Abrskhil (Abkhazia), Amir (Dagestan) or Nasren (Adygea) indicate that the dolmens were built already in the 3rd millennium BC. Later dates of their construction do not have sufficient justification and can be refuted.
We invite you to indulge a little. If you look closely, with the exception of information from the Abkhazian legend about the origin of Tsvitsva, the Narts have nothing to do with dwarfs throughout their many adventures. Some individual tales of encounters with underground gnomes somehow do not fit in with dwarfs - inhabitants of peaks and ridges. Even in the legend of Tsvitsva, the atsan are not characterized in any way: they are neither bad nor good, neither helpers, nor enemies, nor rulers, nor subordinates. That is, they do not carry a cosmic-natural load like fairy-tale creatures, which necessarily contain a certain moral idea. It is clear that this moment greatly distinguishes the characters of the legend both from other creatures of the Caucasian epic - inyzhs (aynyzhs), devas, underwater donbettyrs, celestials and dragons, and from the dwarf gnomes of the northern epic that exist underground.
This legend could not come from the peoples of another locality, since it tells about a specific type of buildings - dolmens and atsanguars. It turns out that here we can say about the elements of information about the people of megalith builders who once really existed.
It would be useful to once again recall the main points of the myth, while somewhat digressing from the details.
Once lived undersized people, including on the tops of the ridges. They had more opportunities or managed to develop new technology, which was not available to Nart storytellers. These people did not wage wars with anyone, they created megalithic structures. A sharp change in climate has led to their extinction. The legend also contains the motif of independence from God, which is generally inherent in the Abkhazian-Adyghe-Abaza version of the Nart epic. In many episodes, there is practically no mention of God.
Independence from God is especially characteristic of versions of the Nart epic in the areas where dolmens are located. In order to make it more clear, we can recall that, unlike, for example, Greek mythology, the heroes of the Narts of the megalithic region do not expect help and support from the gods. They treat them as equals. This suggests that either this option was quite ancient, or it was influenced by another nation, a culture that has a slightly different way of seeing and thinking.
At one time, there were enough colonies on the Black Sea coast for the epic to fall under the influence of the Hellenes, and Christianity and Islam also took place. Undoubtedly, this is reflected in the epic, but to a lesser extent than in other places.
We can also recall that there is some feature in the construction technique of some dolmens, which allows us to talk about a different logic of megalith builders in general.
How would a modular house be built now, for example, from stone bricks, blocks? It must have been that at first they tried to level all the surfaces of the module-blocks, and only then they began to assemble the structure.
But among the dolmens there are such stone blocks that are ground on a curved surface along several faces at once. That is, the blocks were adjusted already during assembly and in several places at once. And the objections that it is inconvenient to do the work in this way will be unconvincing. Megalith builders thought differently, despite the fact that the level of technology allowed them to make straight surfaces.
It is worth saying that the fitting of huge boulders along a curved surface in several planes at once is found in all megalithic regions of the world, including Mexico and South America.
Echoes of another culture with different thinking, which, most likely, affected not only the construction technique, naturally caused some contradictions in the attitude towards the gods among the Narts or those who retold these stories. Over time, some details were erased, the events were forgotten, and only the logic of actions remained. That is why the narrator ranked such a people among the theomachists. However, no one can vouch for the reliability of this, since it is possible that all these are echoes of distant and formidable events.
So, what is this nation of megalith builders? The dimensions of the dolmens are very small, then for what purposes were they built? It remains a mystery. Most likely, this is how stories about little unprepossessing men appeared.
There was one more unclear point, namely the disappearance of megalith builders. At that time, several natural disasters occurred.
The first of these disasters is the eruption of the Santorini volcano in Crete. As a result, the highly developed culture of the island was wiped off the face of the earth in the middle of the 2nd millennium BC. Then it can be assumed that the main role was played by secondary effects, for example, a strong haze of the atmosphere, which could cause a temporary cooling, and in almost all corners of the globe.
The second catastrophe is the breakthrough of the Sea of Marmara. A long time ago, the Black Sea was a freshwater lake, the level of which was 150-200 meters lower than now. The Sea of Azov did not exist, and the Kuban and the Don flowed into the lake, apparently, as one river. Various studies conducted by scientists have shown the date of the time when the disaster occurred. This is 5600 BC.
Most likely, the current bottom of the Black Sea was once the cradle of modern civilization. This is also confirmed by the fact that there are no whole dolmens near the seashore, and if there are any, they are usually either very large (Dzhugba, Volkonka), or buried or enclosed in a tholos (Arkhipo-Osipovka, Novorossiysk).
It is quite possible that the destructive effect of water, as well as weather disasters caused by relatively rapid increase area of the sea (lake) surface. The Dardanelles could not collapse on their own, most likely there was something else, probably an earthquake.
It is impossible to say with complete certainty which particular catastrophe - the first or the second - influenced the course of events. In any case, you can be sure that the catastrophe was and was reflected in the epic. For centuries, some details could be forgotten, but the human imagination helpfully drew new ones. Thus, for a rather long time of the existence of the myth, the information most likely underwent some changes.
According to the Abkhazian legend, the sea level was higher than it is now. Then, if we take the myth literally, the lifetime of the megalith builders must be pushed back even further, to the ice age - the 7th millennium BC. Then the effect of natural disasters is also understandable: new rivers, lakes were formed, the deflection of the earth's crust changed. Some doubts may arise, because almost no myth existed for several millennia. The longest existence of oral history does not exceed 2000 years.
Why do stories exist so little? There are several factors at play here, namely:
- the movement of people to other territories;
- getting the people into dependence on a stronger culture and, as a result, assimilation;
- complete annihilation of the nation.
As the centuries passed, it became clear that it is impossible to completely oust, let alone subdue, any Caucasian people is simply impossible. Each valley is a natural fortress, and the Caucasian peoples are born warriors.
And since the entire Caucasian coast (from Gelendzhik to Abkhazia) consists of deep valleys, the ridges of which go into the sea, we can say that there are all the prerequisites for the epic to last a very long time and reflect all the information about the events taking place for many centuries.
|
|||||||||||||||||||||
|
ELBRUS - THE SHELTER OF THE PEOPLES
Expedition report
ELBRUS -5.5 THOUSAND YEARS BACK IN TIME
Based on the materials of the expeditions of 2006 - 2007
In July - August 2006, two full members of the Russian Geographical Society (RGS) Stasenko Vladimir Dmitrievich and Tokarev Vyacheslav Viktorovich, with the sponsorship of the director of the Pyatigorsky electrical networks Khnychev Valery Albertovich organized and conducted an expedition along the northern slopes of Elbrus and the adjacent gorges.
The organizers and participants of the expedition thank the director of the National Park "Prielbrusye" Dalkhat M. Baidaev and the director of the sports and recreation enterprise "Jelysu" Mutalif Tumenov for the serious help.
The expedition was of a scientific and reconnaissance nature and was carried out as a continuation of the 2005 expedition.
The members of the expedition arrived from different cities of Russia and represented different specialties: astrophysicist, graduate student of SSU Otkidychev Pavel Anatolyevich - Stavropol; doctor of historical sciences, professor Linets Sergey Ivanovich - Pyatigorsk; candidate of technical sciences Anatoly Viktorovich Makhov - Moscow; Candidate of Technical Sciences Kravchenko Igor Dmitrievich - Barnaul; cameraman Vorobyov Yury Yuryevich - St. Petersburg; director-operator Yury Nikolayevich Toloshny - Zheleznovodsk; communication engineer of the teletransmitting center Sysoev Konstantin Yakovlevich - Pyatigorsk; pharmacist, candidate of pharmaceutical sciences Botizat Yuriy Konstantinovich - Pyatigorsk; geologist Solodovnik Sergey Nikolaevich - Essentuki; geologist Belokurov Ivan Lazarevich - Pyatigorsk; historian, rector of the Academy of Variology Sergeev Yuri Vasilievich - Nalchik.
The expedition also included regular participants in mountain hikes of the mountain tourism section of the Pyatigorsk Electric Networks Kharybin Alexander Mikhailovich, Kharybin Roman Aleksandrovich and Podkorytova Elena Nikolaevna, expedition doctor Natalia Sizyumova, as well as newcomers from St. Petersburg, Nalchik and Moscow.
In total, in 2006, the composition of the expeditionary detachments was 43 participants.
Most of the time of the expedition took place in difficult meteorological conditions. A heavy wind with rain and hail fell upon us, an impenetrable fog hid the complex mountainous terrain. We often had to go only on a whim, and cold nights and icy tents made those who had not deigned to purchase decent mountain equipment seriously think about it.
Four expedition days out of 12 took the approach through the passes to the place of the base camp and the departure from it to the place where the bus arrived for us
The route started from the village of Upper Baksan along the gorge of the river Kyrtyk to the pass Kyrtykaush. Having overcome the pass, we camped for the night in the valley of the Islamchat River under the Severokarakaysky pass. The next day, descending from the pass, we ended up in the Dzhilysu tract, where we organized our base camp. From here, radial one-day trips were made to the areas of Kalitsky peak, the “Mushrooms” tract, to the mountains of Sirkh and Tuzluk, to the table mountain Kurulkol and in the gorge of the Malka River, to the Irakhiktyuz and Irahitsyrt plateaus.
Literally every route was marked by new finds - settlements and sanctuaries. They were found on the northern slopes of Elbrus and in all gorges, up to a height of 3000 meters or more above sea level. Settlements and sanctuaries belong, in our opinion, to different epochs and different peoples.
Historical periods of residence different peoples- engaged in gathering, farmers, cattle breeders and miners “superimposed” like a layer cake, sometimes touching, sometimes far apart from one another, and sometimes rudely displacing the natives. All this happened over many millennia.
On the identified man-made objects, dowsing studies of energy flows, their spatio-temporal characteristics and their effects on humans were carried out.
This expedition did not set itself the task of opening and digging anything. All information was obtained from observations, logical reflection, extrasensory dialogue and, of course, needs to be proved or refuted by traditional methods of scientific research.
The Elbrus region is a whole world that has not yet been touched by archaeologists. But who needs this world? Who wants to know who and how lived here many thousands of years before us?!..
If there are such, please respond, and we, the expedition members, are ready to help interested people, public, commercial and state enterprises and organizations in the scientific knowledge of this unique area, or accept their help.
We are ready to provide them with all the accumulated data with accurate coordinates and will gladly take part in new expeditions.
The current expedition of 2006 began on a rainy August day. The first day of the hike is always the hardest. In backpacks, a supply of provisions and fuel for 12 days. In addition, tents, sleeping bags, warm clothes and protective clothing from the rain, change of shoes and underwear. There is also mountain equipment - ropes, ice axes, crampons, accessories for cooking and eating it.
To the upper reaches of the valley of the Kyrtyk River we went in rain, sleet and strong headwind. On the last breath, quite late, we dragged ourselves to an empty shepherd's kosh on the right tributary of the Kyrtyk - the Subashi River. Here, in the clearing, and camped.
The next day, divided into two groups, we leave for the Kyrtykaush pass.
Stasenko and his group come to the Dzhelysu tract a day earlier than Tokarev's group and manage to devote the whole day to inspecting the Kuraikol table mountain, an impregnable plateau located at the confluence of the Malka and Shaukol rivers. This place is very convenient for sheltering the surrounding population from enemy raids and could serve as a natural stronghold.
During the same time, Tokarev's group explored the upper reaches of the gorges of the Kyrtyk and Ilamchat rivers, and discovered a lot of interesting things.
Findings began almost immediately upon entering the route. The first appeared near the confluence of the Subashi and Mkyara rivers, which form the Kyrtyk River. There was found an iron bracelet for a narrow female wrist with a carved relief image of a snake. Difficult to identify reliably, tk. rust has also imposed its pattern on the metal. Iron is porous, spongy. Age - approximately 3600 - 3700 years.
When climbing to the pass, in the place where the path passes from the right bank of the Ulluesencha to the left, stone piles and calculations of several ancient burials were found on the right side of the valley. One of them is paired, the other is male. Made probably in 2900 - 2600. BC. Nearby is a relatively young prayer place.
Here is a circular laying out of stone slabs, very young - made only 150-300 years ago. Why it was built almost in our time remains a mystery. Once upon a time, burial places were designated in this way.
In front of the exit to the pre-pass take-off above the fork in the gorge there is a stone structure 3.0x3.5 m and a wall height of 1.1-1.5 m. The structure is relatively recent. It could have been built to protect the Immanuel detachment or during the Second World War as a mortar nest.
The descent from the Kyrtykaush pass to the gorge of the Islamchat river goes along a fairly well-visible path, mainly along the right edge of a wide moraine above the stream. Having descended into the valley, the trail passes to the left side of the Islamchat River. Somewhat lower, at the confluence of sources from under the passes of Kyrtykaush and Islamchat, at the left side on a slightly hilly area, there are the remains of an ancient settlement-sanctuary. Here we found numerous sandstone tiles. On some fragments, hieroglyphic characters are visible, as well as traces of man-made processing - cutouts and chips.
In the place of our transition to the left bank of the stream flowing from the Islamchat pass, we found a circle made of stones with a diameter of about 4.5 m and a height of 0.6-0.7 m. The stones are ancient, mossy and grown into the ground. To the south, up the slope, on the upper terrace, grassy hills and pyramid-shaped mounds of ancient burials are visible.
Presumably, on the site of the site there was a settlement-sanctuary, founded approximately in 900 BC. Its heyday took place in 500-100 years. BC. The population ranged from 50 to 200 people. A 12x25 cm sandstone tile with a scratched and traced dark-colored pattern (a figure of a man with a crown or a trident) was found here. It most likely has an age of about 4700 years. Apparently, it was brought here from some more ancient place.
We leave down the left side of the Islamchat valley. At the crossing of the path through the stream flowing from the northern slope of Mount Karakaya, at a height of about 80 meters from the bottom of the Islamchat gorge, we find a circular layout of mossy stones 0.3 - 0.4 m high and about 3.5 meters in diameter. The building was erected - about 650 BC. The place of the solitary residence of a monk who died about 500 BC. from people who came from below, from the gorge. The monk was buried next to his stone dwelling. The burial is marked with a circular layout. In front of the monk's dwelling, on the bank of a stream, there is a block of black andesite 1.1 m high, apparently an altar or sacrificial stone.
At the crossing over the stream, there is a platform cut into the rocks and leveled with a clear flanging from the side of the stream. Rock outcrop ahead. The size of the site is 15x30m. Presumably - it was a cult place.
Camp was set up on this ritual site. There is a special microclimate here - it was warm to sleep, despite the cold night. On the left side of the stream, 30 meters above the monk's dwelling and 200 meters closer to the kosh, there is a rock outcrop. Below it, 20 m below, stones protrude from the grassy slope, forming a circle with a diameter of about 3 m. All together, the rock outcrop and the stone circle are covered by a large circle, about 30 m in diameter, lined with separate flat stones. Inside the circle, the herbage is noticeably more abundant. All this place - a playground, a monk's dwelling, circles - is distinguished by a special microclimate. A hundred meters from the ritual site in the evening, as usual in the mountains, it is cold, and on the site itself, even at night, it was warm, despite the icy stream flowing nearby.
On the area of the large and small circles, dowsing marks the ascending flows of energies. In the upper part of the rock outcrop, a place has been cleared - in the form of an armchair. It is very convenient for meditation within the energy flows of the large circle and at the top of the small one. From here opens beautiful view to the pyramid mountain Dzhuvurgen in the east and to the previously described settlement-sanctuary in the upper reaches of the Islamchat gorge in the south. Presumably this place was used for ritual purposes 3200 years ago and later. The most active - 2800 years before our days.
The trail then ascends along the stream, which flows from under the Severokarakaysky pass, and then, after 800 meters, goes up the slope to the right. At the exit point of the trail to the crest of the slope, 40 meters above the trail, a rocky massif is clearly drawn against the sky. Having risen to it, we saw that its upper part, weighing about 3-4 tons, was split off along the plane, turned 45 degrees, raised and set with its edge on the other part with the substitution of a stone fragment. Everything was done in such a way that a free space formed under the stones, sufficient for the passage of a person.
Similar stone structures-sanctuaries are found in the Russian North and the Caucasus. They belong to the sanctuaries of the “Underground Gate” type.
Dowsing established the flow of directed energy at the aisle. From the west, the flow deep into Mother Earth, from the east - up, towards the sun. This sanctuary served, probably, for cult ceremonies connected with the passage under the stone. Such were the rituals of consecrating a newborn child, when he came to the light not just from the womb of a woman, but came out of the dark depths of Mother Earth to the light of the Sun. Only after this the child was given a name and accepted into the community (Kin, tribe). In ancient times, the significant role of the female deity in the ideas of death and rebirth was identified with the “Mother Earth”. “Underground gates” were also used in the rituals of consecration, cleansing from ailments of an already adult person and his new births already in a pure incarnation.
This sanctuary was built approximately 2800 - 2900 years ago. And rituals were held here until 600 AD.
(If you happen to be here, try to walk west to east through this or another "Underground Gate", sit at the exit and try to relax well. We would be interested to know how you feel.)
Further, having walked along a gently rising path for about 300 m, we came to a wide saddle of the Severokarakaysky (Eldarbashi) pass (2889 m). To the right along the course, with a gentle cap, the top of Eldarbashi rises with numerous leveled scree platforms and rock outcrops with grottoes and ledges. Here all of us were seized by some feeling of goodness and ascending energies. From the top, a wonderful view of the gorges of Malki, Kyzylkola and the tract of Djilysu - in the west, the peaks and gorges of Shaukol and Islamchat - in the east.
The gentle cone of the top of Eldarbashi is located on the same line between the Sirkh and Dzhuvurgen mountains, clearly included in the system of the sacred mountains of the Elbrus region. The top of Eldarbashi is an attractive place where even now local shepherds like to stop, and where there were probably places of worship, now destroyed. A reminder of that time were piles of stones and a grassy mound.
Having descended from the top and the pass, we camped near the trail 300 meters from the Karakayasu River at the meeting point of the groups - Stasenko, Tokarev and Yuri Sergeev from Nalchik.
Before the approach of other groups, the members of the Stasenko group explored the Kuraikol table mountain and managed to bathe in the springs of “Purgatory”, taking several healing narzan baths in the spontaneous folk hospital Dzhylysu. The approached groups also performed a ritual washing-cleansing of the bodies from ailments and earthly dust (dust).
Table Mountain attracts attention with its impregnability. Its flat peak is crescent-shaped, 1.5-2 km long and no more than 350-400 m wide. From the west, with steep hundred-meter walls, the mountain rises above the Malka River directly opposite the Sirkh and Tuzluk mountains. From the east, the walls are half as high, but they are also difficult to access. Only one narrow path leads upstairs at the southern tip. This is an ideal place for shelter and defense.
Panorama from the Kayaeshik pass to Mount Tuzluk, the gorge of the Malka River and the table mountain Kuraikol
The surface of the mountain, contrary to expectations, is covered with a thick herbage, preserved due to the fact that there are no traces of grazing. But there are bear tracks. Water is often found in a hummock, which means that it could be accumulated somewhere. On the surface there are various stones, including cups.
So, having cleansed ourselves in the lower world of “Purgatory”, and meeting with the groups of Vyacheslav Tokarev and Yuri Sergeev, we went to the upper world - “Iriy” or “Paradise”. Here, on the Irachituz plateau, not far from the “Rock of Immanuel”, we settled the base camp, from which we began to make daily radial exits to the objects of interest to us.
We make the first radial exit to the Kalitsky peak (3581 m). You can go to it either on the left or on the right bank of the Birdzhalysu River. Along the right bank, the trail stretches up the moraine hills - even and simple, without any ups and downs and loss of height. It goes to the ice lake Dzhikaulgenköz, on which water fields, streams and ice funnels are everywhere. Access to the peak is only from the south. Walking on the ice of the lake is not dangerous, but difficult. Before the upper moraine, which limits the ice lake from the north, you can cross to the left bank of the river. A moraine leads from this moraine to the northern side of the peak and an artificial ritual platform on it, covering the ice with a stone cover.
Sacred stone blocks (megaliths) located on this site are described in the 2005 expedition report.
The trails on the left bank of the Birdzhilysu River are more difficult, but also much more interesting. The most beaten ones go from the Silver Spring among the rocky outcrops of lava flows, along glacial moraines and dry lakes. On the lava flows there is a mass of rocks of bizarre shape, often having boulders similar to sculptural forms. Does not leave the feeling that they are the result of human creativity. People who see them can tell a lot about the galleries of various anthropo- and zoomorphic images. Everyone is presented with an image of their own.
lava sculptures
For example, a whole composition - “the parting of a climber with his wife and children”. (We also saw such a sculptural group.) But you should be careful with these rock sculptures. Some of them are somehow magically set up very actively and can remove energy from a person. At least, having looked at the “Grasshopper's Mouth” (this is how one of the rocks was perceived), last year Stasenko V.D. lost color vision for some time, and acquired a blind spot, which he could not part with even a year later. As soon as he closed his eyes, a negative image of that physiognomy immediately arose. When he depicted it on paper, the face of a certain “green” man appeared on the drawing. Whom should I contact after that: an ophthalmologist or a psychiatrist?
Somewhere after the first third of the way to the Kalitsky Peak, we descended from the bizarre lava rocks and ended up on a large flattened place. On the left, along the gorge, the river Bardzhilysu roars, on the right, a steep, high scree of a moraine slope rises with a horseshoe.
In the far corner of the plateau, another sanctuary was discovered - the “Underground Gate”. It is composed of three blocks of andesitic lavas. One of the boulders was lifted and placed on the other two. The same three points of support, as in the previous, similar places near the peaks of Kalitsky and Eldarbashi. Flows of similar energies near the hole-passage between blocks of stones from the west: down, into the Earth (negative), from the east, up, into the Cosmos (positive). The sanctuary was built around 1000 - 800 BC. Here and below, the concepts of positive and negative are relative concepts. It could also be taken vice versa.
On the stones in the support of the sanctuary and others three meters from it there are cuts similar to drawings, and on the stones 20 meters next to the circular layout there are inscriptions. The technology of drawing drawings and inscriptions is different. Stones are also of different types.
Cut or burn through basalt fragments.
Of interest are traces of stone processing and splitting it. In the blocks there are various cuts and holes that penetrate deep into. The walls are very smooth and even, and at the bottom there is a crust of swollen reddish rock. Where a wide platform has cut through, low scallops are visible at the bottom. As if the selection was made with a cutter or a beam in 2-3 passes. After that, transverse channels were cut. There are traces of the exit of a mechanical tool to the scallop.
There are cuts at different angles to the surface and even inside the blocks.
Our next exit was on the Irahisyrt plateau. It is sandwiched between the northern glaciers of Elbrus in the south and the Tashlysyrt ridge in the north. The plateau rises from east to west from 2570 to more than 3000 m with inconspicuous gentle ledges. The historian and writer from Moscow Asov Alexander Igorevich describes seven ledges on the plateau, each of which has its own flora, different from the neighboring ones.
At the beginning, the ascent to the plateau from the Kyzylkola valley is quite steep, but then the plateau flattens out.
At the bend of the rise, geologists once chose a flat platform for a drilling rig and destroyed what it was built for in antiquity.
Higher on the plateau, about 400 m from the drilling rig, we found a sanctuary among the herbage. To the left of the road, its boulders were scattered. On one of the flat stones, a multi-pointed cross is deeply cut by grooves. From the north towards the top of Sirch, it has a drain tray.
This sanctuary was used starting from about the 8th-7th centuries. BC e. Donations were made, including meat, of livestock to the Solar God in gratitude for the abundant food.
Half a kilometer to the west lies a thank-you stone, in which a recess is carved in the form of a multi-pointed cross oriented North - South.
Higher, in the north-eastern part of the plateau, on the edge of its cliff to the Kyzylkol River, there is a stone monolith, visible from afar on a flat plane. Probably, it was once brought here and installed. There are smaller stones nearby. Most likely, this is the “Cup of Surya” noted by Moscow historians. It has bowl-shaped holes that could serve for sacrifices or lighting a ritual fire.
“Anvil of Perun” and “Bowl of Surya” on Irahitsyst
An interesting coincidence - the rocks of the Tashlysyrt ridge directly opposite the "Anvil" are pierced by adits, and according to rumors, they pass through the mountain into the Kuban valley. In the same place, on the ridge, earlier Yevtushenko Alexei Grigoryevich, director of the Center for Children and Youth Tourism in Pyatigorsk, found ancient metallurgical slags.
There is no anvil without a hammer. And it is in the surrounding terrain. You should look up at the rocky crown of the Tashlysyrt ridge, and there you will see a powerful lonely rock-pillar elevated in the sky - “Perun's Hammer”.
The district near the “Anvil” and “Surya Chalice” we investigated especially carefully. Here, on the plateau, 7,000 years before us, people came from below. They were collectors of forest gifts and hunters, who ate mainly plant food and, less often, wild animals. In those days, in the Elbrus region, especially on Irahitsyrt, the climate was close to subtropical. Abundant forests grew here. The plateau still keeps layers of chernozem up to 40-60 cm thick and more.
Having settled here, in a new fertile place, the ancient people began to arrange sanctuaries for the one God of the Sun - the main object of their religious and mystical worship.
Civilizations have changed, other times and peoples have come. On the edge of the plateau under the slope of Elbrus, almost 2800 years ago, an ancient city settled. Its population was engaged in agriculture, kept poultry and livestock. About 400-450 years. AD a great war broke out on the plain below, and related tribes of a settled culture, presumably the Scythian-Alans, were defeated. The city was finally empty by 600 AD, and the plateau was already used as a pasture by other, alien nomadic pastoral peoples. The forests were destroyed by people, or disappeared by themselves, due to the tightening of the climate. Be that as it may, they gave way to shrubs, and those to grasses. Soils are still noticeably degraded and destroyed.
With those who came in the first millennium AD. pastoralists cults of beliefs in the ancient gods are dying out, and abandoned sanctuaries are being destroyed.
For a short time here, in the 17th - 18th centuries, an aul appeared, but, apparently, the harsh climate of the highlands did not allow a person to take root in this place.
The next object of the visit was Mount Sirkh (Surkh), which is the root eastern peak of the Tashlysyrt ridge.
The northern part of the Tashlysyrt ridge from the Buruntash pass on the left to Mount Sirkh on the right.
The Tashlysyrt Ridge (“Rocky Plateau”) closes the Irahitsyrt Plateau from the west and north. In the west, it starts from the Balkbashi pass (3700m) and after a deep saddle of the Buruntash pass it turns sharply to the east and ends with the dominant Sirkh peak.
From the top of this mountain, wonderful panoramas open up in all directions. In the south, in the skies - Kalitsky Peak under the “highest protection” of Elbrus and the ice lake Dzhikaulgenköz (“Gina of the Dead Eye”), glaciers and lavas, moraines and turbulent rivers. Below and closer - Iriy (Paradise) - Irahitsyrt and Irahiktyuz (Paradise Meadow and Paradise Garden) with invigorating narzans of "silver" sources of "living" water.
To the west - the peaks of the Tashlysyrt ridge, sheltering Iriy (Paradise) from the cold northern winds. In the north - the mysterious mountain-pyramid Tuzluk (Az bow), here the impenetrable Malki gorge snakes and in the distance, in a haze of sultry air, cliffs (cuestas) of the plateaus of the Rocky Range (Kumbashi, Gudgora, Bermamyt, Kanjol) are visible. From the east, the panorama is closed by the Kyrtyk and Tashorunbashi ridges, and at the bottom is the Jelysu tract with natural springs of mineral “dead” water that heals the body.
The summit of Sirch is not easy. Not in the climbing sense, but in the secret, intimate, sacred. The dowsing frame at various sanctuaries of the Northern Elbrus region that we examined indicates Mount Sirkh. Priests of ancient beliefs, who lived there in seclusion, performed their rituals on it. There and now preserved under the top, on the ridge on the eastern side, two pits left from the former dwellings. Neither the logs of the roof nor the masonry of the walls have been preserved, but by the size of the recesses among the rocks one can judge that 2-4 priests in each could live in the former cells. These dwellings were built in 600 BC, and already destroyed in about 450 AD. Sensitive people here and now can feel the state, as in ancient prayer temples. Streams of favorable, healthy energies embrace everyone who has risen here. You just need to slightly adjust yourself psychologically in order to plunge into the temple atmosphere of the mountain.
Mount Sirkh from the south of the “Mushrooms” and from the north from the top of Mount Tuzluk
With Sirchus in the period from 4000 BC. before 1200 BC different cult rituals of belief in a single God-Sun were connected, and the period from 800 BC. and up to 600 BC. belief in one of the solar deities.
At the top of Sirkh, as in other sacred places of the Elbrus region, by joining the energy flows of bioinformation fields, you can learn a lot about the surrounding worlds. The stones themselves can “speak”!...
Here is the legend that the gray cliffs of the Kali (tsky) peak told us:
“Stood on the northern slope of Mount Karakaya (3350 m) above the Djilysu tract, the monastery “Bosom of the Earth” (Lan-ta), where the chief abbot was the priest Tkha-Mannu (“High Servant of God Mannu”). This priest had great spiritual power and he owned the “Book of Genesis”, which he took from the sanctuary located in the underground storerooms of Elbrus (“Breast of the Mother of Nations”). This book was like a bottomless well, where all the destinies of the world, all the events of the past, present and future are recorded.
Tha-Manna saw in this book the terrible upheavals and disasters that threaten the planet and the peoples inhabiting it. He decided to intervene in the future course of events and prevent the inevitable.
For interfering in the destinies of the peoples, the high priest was punished by the gods and turned into stone along with the book on the top of Kali peak. As he wanted, he could now see and know everything from a height, but now he will never be able to influence the fate of peoples.
This sad story happened around 1550 BC. She talks about the fact that human life is like an accumulation of pebbles - black and white, depending on relationships with other people. The very touching of the stone "Book of Genesis" and now, too, can be punished by changes in destinies. And if a curious person had a lot of “black stones” in life, then the most serious consequences will be possible for him.
And the stones also told about fantastic stone sculptures full of mysterious meaning and purpose, which contemporaries call “Mushrooms” (“Tables of the Gods”).
This place attracts many lovers of esoteric teachings, first of all, those who were able to discover in themselves the ability to receptivity to subtle sacred informational energies. One of the statues depicts “Screaming Mara” or “Death Well” - the ancient name of this “final” place, where before leaving a person all the events of his past and future take place. Here, in the structures of the stone, the sources of timelessness are sealed, information about human souls and their rebirths. It is in the energy-informational flows in front of the stone sculptures of the “Mushrooms” that it is most possible to connect with the Universal Mind and comprehend the full truth of the Universe Existence.
In one cult complex with Sirch, the priests involved Mount Tuzluk - Az (As) bow. We wrote about it in last year's report. This year we did not manage to devote enough time to Tuzluk, but to visit the mountain and collect additional information still tried.
A remarkable coincidence is that the peaks of Mount Tuzluk and Peak Kali fit with great accuracy on one meridional line. On the same line there are cells under the top of Mount Sirch.
For ritual purposes, Mount Tuzluk began to be used as early as 4500 BC. Then the top of the mountain was a flat solid slab, abruptly breaking off towards Mount Sirch. This site was used as a ritual site.
Later, in 3200 BC. e. The slab was cut lengthwise and across. The sections are oriented to the cardinal points. In the body of the mountain, under the thickness of dense quartz sandstones, an underground temple of the “Earth Mother” with four chambers was built. Rituals of initiation and purification of the soul took place in them.
Caucasian pyramid - Mount Tuzluk and Menhir. Once they stood around the entire perimeter of the mountain.
Since then, on the western slope of the mountain, there has been a stone block resembling a bull (female cult) - a stone cup with a depression in the upper part. And around Tuzluk, stone pillars-menhirs are installed as a belt of its energy-information protection. One of the phallic menhirs with the face of a knight stands over the canyon of the Malka River, between Tuzluk and Sirkh. Shepherds speak of the existence of at least six more similar stones in the area. Thus, the “feminine” principle on the bosom of the mountain, as it were, was taken under protection by the energies of the “male” principle.
900-800 BC, a stone temple presumably existed on the summit platform of the mountain. It was abandoned in 450-600 AD, apparently with the end of the "Golden Age" of the "Trojan Ages". Time has scattered his stones. There are only a few tiles left.
"Pillars" on the top of Mount Tuzluk. View from north and south.
A part of the gorge of the Malka River is somehow connected with Tuzluk, Sirkh and the menhir. The gorge is located between these mountains and the table mountain Kuraikol opposite them. The Malki gorge, up to the confluence with the left tributary - the Khasaut, is difficult to pass, and in some places it is completely impassable. From this confluence, over Malka, its left side, stretches a very interesting trail of one of the former all-Union tourist routes, along which thousands of novice tourists have passed.
The easiest way to get to the part of the Malkinsky Gorge that interests us, the region of Mount Tuzluk, is to climb from the new bridge across the Malka below the Dzhelysu tract along the road under construction, or along the old disappearing path, from the Emmanuel stone to the Kayaeshik pass.
From the bridge you can see the vertical rocky wall of the gorge. At the very edge of it stands a menhir. The gorge wall is a geological atlas of petrified sedimentary rocks. Multi-colored stone layers of various thicknesses and strengths stirred in an amazing bend like a covered sheet.
Among the seams there are also thin seams of coal of various quality.
Under the wall are piles of stone blocks of various sizes, formed as a result of landslides. The surface of all stones is flat. Some show extremely amazing imprints of what appear to be prehistoric trees, and perhaps even animals.
A rune on the surface of an almost regular stone cube with a side of about 2.5 m.
At the end of one of the largest stones facing the canyon, which has an almost regular shape of a rectangular parallelepiped, there is a relief pattern resembling a face. On the upper surface of this stone block, there are many mysterious lines and drawings, some of which, apparently, were made by a man. A drawing is striking, which depicts a cross and an equilateral triangle, and one of the sides of the cross is a continuation of the side of the triangle.
Something similar is noted on the northern slope of Sirch. (See 2005 report). In the middle of the stone there is another larger cross.
The entire surface of the boulder is covered with lichens. Near the walls of the canyon, you can also find stones of a spherical shape, the size of an ostrich egg and more. In the split, they have a layered-concentric structure.
No less amazing finds awaited us when we returned to the village of Upper Baksan (Urusbiev village - the village of the Russian prince).
At the start of the expedition, we “ran” with heavy backpacks through terrible bad weather up the Kyrtyk Gorge without seeing anything. Fatigue and overstrain prevented observation. But on the way back, going down with lightweight backpacks, in sunny weather, and having a decent margin of time, the group filmed and sketched amazing old buildings.
A couple of kilometers down from the Ullukaya Mountain, near the Ulluartykol tributary, the left side of the gorge of the Kyrtyka River recedes from the road and forms a meadow that is quite extensive for a mountain gorge.
In the northern part of the meadow, the ruins of the skeletons of many dwellings protrude from the turf. From them, along the side of the gorge, there is an ancient road. It was made, unlike the current one, with intelligence and diligence. On a slope of any steepness, a retaining wall of the required height is neatly laid out. The space from the slope to the wall is filled with stone until a horizontal road surface is obtained. Small gravel and sand are poured on top. In rock-fall hazardous places above the road, another retaining wall made of stone is arranged, which serves as a trap for stones rolling from above and as a storage building material.
This road leads to a building near the bed of the Ulluartykol river. The 16x17 m building was built from huge tree trunks, which have long been absent from the immediate vicinity. The walls are assembled from logs 40 cm or more in diameter. The ceilings are made of thinner trunks (30 cm), and they do not rest on stone walls, but on wooden columns with a diameter of more than 80 cm, on which beams from slightly thinner trunks are laid. Rafters half a meter thick rest on the beams. And already on them lies the rolling of the floor logs. From above, the roll is turfed. The building on the side of the valley has an open veranda the entire length of the house with a depth of 4-5 meters. The other room is dark. It has a wide entrance on the left side and an opening in the wall from the middle of the veranda. The roof is turfed and merges with the slope. It was built in the second century AD. It means that such trees grew here then. Otherwise, with an abundance of stone around, it would be easier to collect stone walls than to carry such tree trunks from nowhere up the steep gorges.
The builders of this structure were tall, blue-eyed, with long blond hair, braided in front in two pigtails to reveal their faces. They were called Cumans. (Kumans is one of the many names of the Alans. (Ovs or Osses in Georgian sources; Ases - in Persian and Arabic; Yazy, Yazigi, Yazamats, Yaksamats - in Russian chronicles; Yak-tsai - in Chinese chronicles). Russ - “ruhs- as”, bright aces are one of the leading Alanian tribes).
Ptolemy (1st century AD) places them near the mouth of the Tanais (Don) River. “... The Alans tribe is a part of the Scythians living around Tanais and Lake Metiysky,” Joseph Ben Mattafia noted.
In the 2-3 centuries AD. the Alans become the most powerful tribes in the region. “The Alans, little by little, exhausted the neighboring peoples with constant victories and extended the name of their nationality to them,” writes Ammianus Marcellinus. “These peoples adopted one name over time and now they are all generally called Alans for their custom and wild lifestyle, and the same weapons,” he says.
Alans did not build anything. They were born, lived and died in tents. However, nomads always start by robbing farmers, and end up settling on the ground themselves.
Now the room we found is constantly used by cows. They are saved here from the sun and horseflies. Due to centuries of cow dung, it is now difficult to determine the original height of the premises.
Next to this building there is a well-preserved skeleton of a residential building with door and window openings. The roof and ceiling collapsed. The ceiling beam is carved into a square from a trunk more than half a meter in diameter. At one end, she buried herself on the floor.
The tree of the buildings is remarkably well preserved, although they are believed to be over 1800 years old. For radiocarbon analysis, a piece of wood was taken from the outer, decomposed part of the roof for age.
By the way, at the Saltan waterfall on Dzhelysu, from under a nearby ancient lava flow, a slope composed of ancient deposits recently collapsed, washed away by the river. About five or seven meters from the top of the formed wall, a log was exposed, sticking out of the sandy mass. It looked fresh enough. But how old is he, if he was in the depths of loose sediments?
We will return to the Kyrtyk gorge. The ancient road described above passes over the buildings, crosses the Ulluartykol River and smoothly, without steep ascents and descents, follows the next tributary - the Gitcheartykol. Everything that has been seen before is repeated here, but only on a smaller scale. Smaller is the meadow, smaller is the settlement, smaller is the upper structure made of wood and stone, now occupied by a kosh and guarded by ferocious dogs. Because of them, it was not possible to examine the building in more detail from the outside and from the inside, and we continued along the same road to the next tributary of the Kyrtyk - the Zugulla River.
Everything is the same there, only the walls of the buildings are stone. The masonry described in last year's report turned out to be a retaining wall of a flat horizontal platform 16x5 meters. The walls of the house 16x5.5 meters with two rooms adjoin the site. The first entrance (general) and the second smaller - deaf. Above the slope, 15 meters, is the skeleton of another, apparently, a cult building. It is 17x10 m in plan, with walls one meter thick and a wide entrance from the side of the valley. The side walls towards the valley are extended by buttresses by three meters. From the front wall at the entrance there is a horizontal semi-circular platform, limited along the perimeter by five large boulders.
On the left bank of the river, several smaller buildings built of stone have been preserved.
Traces of the next settlement are found where Kyrtyk breaks out of the gorge into the valley of the Baksan (Altud) river. The relatively recently grown village of Upper Baksan used everything that came to hand for its construction. In addition, in the 60s of the last century, a powerful mudflow passed through Kyrtyk, destroying many buildings.
In conclusion, I would like to note that the Elbrus region is still an untouched tourist Mecca. Its value is much more significant than the top of Elbrus itself. A multiprofile powerful tourist center is possible here. From “Risky tourism” to equestrian and water tourism. With or without treatment.
It is only important to prevent its wild development. The mountains are fraught with many dangers that are unusual for people from the valleys, and therefore it must develop with careful republican planning and control.
Our second expedition to the Elbrus region is over, but our interest in this area has not dried up. The next expedition is already planned here, because every day of our stay there brought more questions than answers.
Vedun - a person who knows (knowing). But the content of the words “know” and “know” is different. You can only know what a person has studied in his life from books, received from teachers orally, or on the basis of his own life experience. The concept of “to know” includes not only what is listed in the concept of “know”, but also the knowledge that is received or is being received at the right time by a person on the esotericlevel (on a whim, or intuitively), i.e. from some information resource(field), which Vernadsky called "Noosphere".
Expedition members:
Stasenko Vladimir Dmitrievich - full member of the Russian Geographical Society;
Tokarev Vyacheslav Viktorovich - St. Petersburg, Doctor of Technical Sciences, full member of the Russian Geographical Society;
Linets Sergey Ivanovich - Pyatigorsk, Doctor of Historical Sciences, Professor.
Makhov Anatoly Viktorovich - Moscow; candidate of technical sciences;
Kravchenko Igor Dmitrievich - Barnaul, candidate of technical sciences.
Tuzluk against the background of the city of Sirkh, and the city of Sirkh against the background of the city of Elbrus
