The stone statue “Verkhnebidzhinsky ram” was part of a quadrangular stone embankment on the chaatas near the village of Vershino-Bidzha, Ust-Abakan region of Khakassia.
The chaatas are the burial mounds of the ancient Kyrgyz, which they built in the Khakass-Minusin Basin. The Khakass legend says that these mounds are fragments of rocks that ancient heroes fought each other. The very word “chaatas” in Khakass means a “stone of war”.
The statue is made of a massive block of red sandstone. Monuments of this type are unique for the art of the Early Bronze Age of the Khakass-Minusinsk Basin.
The statue was discovered in the first half of the 20th century, and in 1948 the archaeologist Albert Lipsky transported it to the Khakass Museum of Local Lore. Scientists date the sculpture to the end of the 3rd — the beginning of the 2nd millennium BC, it belongs to the Okunev archaeological culture — the South Siberian culture of cattle breeders of the Bronze Age. It got its name from the Okunev ulus (nomad camp) in the south of Khakassia, where in 1928 the archaeologist Sergei Teploukhov excavated the first burial ground of this culture.
The statue is an image of the face of an ancient deity. The upper part, presumably, is made in the form of the head of a wild argali ram with twisted horns, which in ancient times was found in the mountains of Sayano-Altai.
The central part of the sculpture depicts a three-eyed mask with animal horns and ears, under which the chest is marked. In the center, the statue is divided by a horizontal line. In the upper part of the face, three circles schematically depict the three eyes of the deity. They are separated from each other by short, curved vertical lines. Two more circles are likely to resemble the nostrils. Curved short lines are carved on both sides of them at an acute angle. The mouth of the creature is shown with an oval stripe. On the head of the mask, a headdress is depicted in three short lines, and oval-shaped ears are engraved along the edges.
On the left side of the statue is a solar sign — an ancient symbol of the universe in the form of a bezant with four rays, enclosed in two rings. Bezant is a simple emblem figure — a gold or silver circle, symbolizing wealth and good luck. The same sign of a smaller size is engraved on the head of a ram.
The chaatas are the burial mounds of the ancient Kyrgyz, which they built in the Khakass-Minusin Basin. The Khakass legend says that these mounds are fragments of rocks that ancient heroes fought each other. The very word “chaatas” in Khakass means a “stone of war”.
The statue is made of a massive block of red sandstone. Monuments of this type are unique for the art of the Early Bronze Age of the Khakass-Minusinsk Basin.
The statue was discovered in the first half of the 20th century, and in 1948 the archaeologist Albert Lipsky transported it to the Khakass Museum of Local Lore. Scientists date the sculpture to the end of the 3rd — the beginning of the 2nd millennium BC, it belongs to the Okunev archaeological culture — the South Siberian culture of cattle breeders of the Bronze Age. It got its name from the Okunev ulus (nomad camp) in the south of Khakassia, where in 1928 the archaeologist Sergei Teploukhov excavated the first burial ground of this culture.
The statue is an image of the face of an ancient deity. The upper part, presumably, is made in the form of the head of a wild argali ram with twisted horns, which in ancient times was found in the mountains of Sayano-Altai.
The central part of the sculpture depicts a three-eyed mask with animal horns and ears, under which the chest is marked. In the center, the statue is divided by a horizontal line. In the upper part of the face, three circles schematically depict the three eyes of the deity. They are separated from each other by short, curved vertical lines. Two more circles are likely to resemble the nostrils. Curved short lines are carved on both sides of them at an acute angle. The mouth of the creature is shown with an oval stripe. On the head of the mask, a headdress is depicted in three short lines, and oval-shaped ears are engraved along the edges.
On the left side of the statue is a solar sign — an ancient symbol of the universe in the form of a bezant with four rays, enclosed in two rings. Bezant is a simple emblem figure — a gold or silver circle, symbolizing wealth and good luck. The same sign of a smaller size is engraved on the head of a ram.
