The search for rock art in East Kazakhstan
The Ust-Kamenogorsk Pedagogical Institute and the local history museum researched rock carvings on the western spurs of the Kurchum and Narym ridges. 15 km northeast of Amanat, on the Buirek hill, several images of mountain goats were stamped, found on rock outcrops of crystalline schist. The largest location of petroglyphs is located 2 km from Pyatiletka in the town of Moinak. On five low hills forming a chain with powerful outcrops of porphyrite rocks along the banks of the Kurchum River, thousands of drawings are carved. In addition to the traditional images of mountain goats, argali, horses, deer, camels, wild boars, wolves, dogs, solar signs (simple and paired circles with intersecting lines inside, with 6-12 spokes) and spectacled signs are depicted here, which often accompany images of bulls and chariots. People are depicted mainly in the front, with their hands down or outstretched to the sides, less often with their arms raised to the sky. Several scenes with the participation of "tailed" people and animals are obviously connected with the idea of fertility. Let's note four images of chariots. One of them, as part of a complex multi-figured composition, is depicted with a team - a trio of horses (one in a coupler): each wheel has five spokes, a cargo platform in the form of a steep with a longitudinal line inside is placed in front of the chariot axle. These images have wide analogies in the adjacent territories and can be dated to the end of the 2nd - the first half of the 1st millennium BC.
On the southern and southwestern slopes of small rocky outcrops 21 km from Kurchum, an interesting scene was captured on a stone (1.5х1.0 m). In the center, two men in "mushroom" headdresses are depicted in profile; a straight line connects the right hands, and the left ones are lowered down. Below is a camel with disproportionately long, tangled legs. Above it is a sun disk with seven spokes. Realistically executed two pairs of horses opposing each other on the right with muzzles tied to hitching posts. To the left and above are images of a man, a deer and a dog. At the very base of the stone are two dogs with their tails curled up. Another stone shows a scene, possibly a magical hunt. An archer with a head in the form of a circle, kneeling, shoots a mountain goat. The head of the second man, riding a camel, is also depicted as a circle but with several processes. Of interest is the image of the wagon in plan. It has a rectangular body, four disk-shaped wheels, two parallel drawbars and a transverse yoke bar with vertical devices. The most probable date of the image is the first half of the 2nd millennium BC. e.
In East Kazakhstan, a group of petroglyphs known in the literature (162 drawings) was examined on the left bank of the Irtysh, 3 km from Menovnoye village. 38 drawings were reviewed 60 km from the city of Ust-Kamenogorsk near Novo-Kanayka, on the hill Zmeinaya Gora. At the foot of the hill, a Bronze Age settlement was recorded.