Rock carvings of southern Kazakhstan
A detachment of the Taraz expedition of the Institute of History, Archeology, and Ethnography of the Academy of Sciences of the Kazakh SSR investigated petroglyphs on the territory of the Dzhambul region.
The greatest concentration of drawings was recorded in the Maymak gorge, above the confluence of the Teris and Asy rivers. On a plane (30X15 m) facing the river Teris, hundreds of images of people, animals, predators, chariots, and various signs are carved, forming independent compositions. In addition to traditional hunting scenes, people are depicted dancing in animal masks with their hands up; moments of hand-to-hand combat of giant people, tormenting herbivores by predators, etc. Some images are made in the geometric style characteristic of the Bronze Age - the bodies are rendered in the form of rectangles and triangles. Engravings of the Saka time, represented by figures of animals standing on the tips of their hooves or with bent legs, partly overlap the images of the Bronze Age.
To the east of the city of Dzhambul, in the Karasan gorge, on a small rocky hill, single and group images of goats, deer, camels, cat predators, birds, horses were found. Of interest are the three times repeated images of opposing horses, as well as the image of a dancing anthropomorphic creature with a tail and a staff (?) in one hand. The other hand is connected to the figure of a bird. The head of this syncretic creature is interpreted as an animal muzzle (a bird's beak?).
To the west of the city of Dzhambul, opposite Lake Kamennoye, at the northern foot of the Ulken Burul mountain, petroglyphs of the ancient Turkic period were examined - images of horse warriors and hunting scenes. Of interest are the rock paintings of the Kazakhs, apparently dating back to the 16th-18th centuries. In composition and themes, they are close to the images of previous eras. Often there are tamga of individual clans and tribes of the Kazakhs of the senior zhuz. Rare finds include nine-fold repeating holes hollowed out on even horizontal planes - depressions (diameter 3-5 cm, depth 2-2.5 cm) for playing toguz kumalak (a Kazakh folk game).