Тюркские изваяния из Музея археологии и этнографии Алтая Алтайского государственного университета

Abstract

The article presents a description of stone statues from the collection of Museum of Archeology and Ethnography of Altai in the Altai State University. It is established that there is no information about sculptures in the documentation of this organization. Analysis of a significant amount of publications devoted to the introduction into the scientific circulation and interpretation of stone sculptures of the early Middle Ages allowed to attribute two figures. A detailed description of the two other sculptures is given in the publication. All stone sculptures from the museum show different stages in the formation and evolution of the tradition of sculpture creation by early medieval Turks in Altai. Less definitive is the dating of figures, which required additional justification. Analysis of the context of detection, as well as the fixed characteristics of objects allowed to establish the chronology of the sculpture from Tadila place, as well as the facial sculpture found near to Cheposh village, in the VI–VII centuries AD. Two other figures, judging by the depicted realities (vessel, belt, blade weapon), can be attributed to the second half of VII – VIII centuries AD. Significant prospects for further focused work on the study of museum collections and the introduction of Turkic sculptures into scientific circulation are obvious. The optimal variant of the presentation of such studies is the publication of illustrated catalogs, including a detailed description of the sculptures, as well as their cultural and chronological interpretation.