Bronze Plaques from Northern Kyrgyzstan with Representations of Horsemen

Bronze Plaques from Northern Kyrgyzstan with Representations of Horsemen

Bronze Plaques from Northern Kyrgyzstan
with Representations of Horsemen

DOI: 10.17746/1563-0110.2018.46.3.100-106

A.Y. Borisenko1 and Y.S. Hudiakov1, 2
1Novosibirsk State University, Pirogova 1, Novosibirsk, 630090, Russia
2Institute of Archaeology and Ethnography, Siberian Branch, Russian Academy of Sciences, Pr. Akademika Lavrentieva 17, Novosibirsk, 630090, Russia

We describe bronze plaques representing armed horsemen, found in the Issyk-Kul Basin and in the Chuya valley, northern Kyrgyzstan, and owned by public and private museums in Bishkek. Similar plaques from southern Siberia and Central Asia have been described by many Russian, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Mongolian historians and archaeologists. A form al classification of the plaques is proposed, and their chronology, cultural attribution, and function are assessed. Such items, associated with early medieval Turkic-speaking nomads of Tian Shan and Semirechye, are similar to those worn by the Yenisei Kyrgyz of the Minusinsk Basin in southern Siberia, by the Kimek of the steppe Altai and the Upper Irtysh in Kazakhstan, by the Karluk of southwestern Central Asia, and by other Turkic tribes inhabiting areas from the Urals to Mongolia.

Keywords: Kyrgyzstan, Issyk-Kul Basin, Chuya valley, medieval nomads, ancient Turks, bronze plaques.