Everyone has heard about the Polovtsian stone women and statues of Easter island. In Ingushetia, there are their statues, which depict men and women. But from among them the portrait of the gorilla remains a mystery.
In the Caucasus, there are many man-made buildings of stone, the purpose of which is still not precisely determined and is controversial among scientists. Suffice it to recall the dolmens and cyclopean buildings. Similarly puzzling are and stone anthropomorphic statues that have survived in mountainous Ingushetia. They have a tradition, stretching back to ancient history when people worshipped the stone, believing it to be the most durable material on earth and giving it magical powers.
These monuments represent a massive stele with a height of 1 to 3 meters with bas-relief images of human faces. Today they can be found in the area of the medieval tower complexes, Bars, Myashkhi, Ankit, Harah. Scholars date them to the late middle ages to the XV—XVII centuries.Cam.
By the way, in Ingushetia there are other monuments, which depict human faces. For example, the residential tower with the face of the men on the facade of the tower complex Paling in Dzheirakh area or silingi — pillars of the sanctuary in a nearby tower complex Tions, in which is mounted a bas-relief with a male person. They all have different features and expressions.
One of the anthropomorphic stelae were recorded in the village Furtoug dzheyrakhsky district in the early twentieth century. She was taken to the Museum, after which she disappeared without a trace. Many of these monuments have remained generally outside the field of view of scientists who have studied architectural complexes, for one simple reason: the stelae, as a rule, located outside the village and from a distance they are easily mistaken for ordinary stone pillars, which are in great abundance occur in the mountain Ingushetia.
only a few years ago the staff of the Archaeological center named after E. I. Krupnova during the field work found very interesting from the point of view of science statues and stelae.
Perhaps the strangest two stelae were found by archaeologists near the village of Mashi dzheyrakhsky district. They are next to each other, and one of them clearly depicts a woman in a high cap. Perhaps the ancient sculptor depicted the medieval Ingush woman’s headdress — chickens-Khas, which in XVII century was mentioned by Russian ambassadors, on their way to Georgia via Ingush land: “And zhonka wear on their heads… what the horns up in half yard”.
the Second stele — one of a kind. Perhaps it depicts the husband of a woman in chickens hasa. Stone portrait reminiscent of the somebody, gorilla somebody, bear, but this is not the mistake of the artist. Expressive features of the stone faceyou speak about how the stele worked talented wizard, although perhaps this is his only work in this animal genre.
Whom he depicted? About the gorilla in the Ingush folklore, there is no information. But perhaps the stele is connected with the maker of Damascus blades, which inflicted on them the stamp with the image of the so-called “wailing” or “howling monkeys”. These blades were quite popular in the Caucasus until the early twentieth century, the Ingush, they are known as “tours-has mamal”, which translates as “monkey damask blade” or “Damascus blade monkey.”
But about the bear preserved an interesting legend. Once the bear dragged the young girl from the village and married her. They had a son — a human child by the name of Citong, which translates as “bear”. After many adventures of Chitang married a beautiful girl and began to live among the people. Maybe people put these stone monuments in honor of this bear and his wife? Ingush archaeologists speculated. According to them, this stele has no analogues neither in Ingushetia, nor in the North Caucasus.
the Purpose of these stelae remains a mystery too. It was hardly the object of worship. All the sacred temples, shrines and clearings, which took place in religious rituals, are usually at higher elevations. But stone steles of such regularities in the location can not be traced: they were set in different places and on the hills and in the lowlands.
Pair statue, depicting a man and a woman, is suggestive of funerary monuments. The fact that in the twentieth century in the Muslim Ingush cemeteries deceased spouses often put down almost two of the same monument (traits), which clearly is not female and male figure with the head (but not face images), items of clothing and jewelry men and women. This tradition tells us that is depicted on the medieval stone stelae male and female spouses. But there is one “but”. In the later middle ages tombstones are installed, the dead were placed in tombs, each family was the family crypt.
Perhaps the stone menhirs — the cenotaphs-symbolic tombs of those who died abroad and whose bodies it was impossible to rest in the family vault.
Another version connects the Ingush of the stele with the so-called stone women, occurring in all areas where once was inhabited by the Scythians. Archaeologists suggest that they represented deceased ancestors, which in this stone form was present at the ritual feasts. But against this version speaks Dating: Scythian idols appeared before our era, and Ingush of the stele in the middle ages.
whether they were mythical pokrovitel��s or guardians settlements, images of enemies or monuments masters-gunsmiths — none of the proposed versions is not proven. The mystery left by our ancestors requires further research and analysis.
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