Finding ancient petroglyphs in the mountains of Kyrgyzstan

作者：Penny Boviatsou

For thousands of years, humankind has left its mark on the global landscape in the form of petroglyphs—images etched into rocky outcrops, initially with stone tools and later metal instruments. Often carved over the course of several millennia at a singular locale, these ancient markings attest their historical relevance over time. And thus, petroglyph sites can be understood as sacred open-air “history books” rendered in stone.

In this context, petroglyphs are an important complement to archaeological data gleaned from burial sites. In broad terms, petroglyphs tend to provide insight into burial rites, social norms and material culture. They tell us about life events and the mythical ideas associated with them.

虽然在所有五大洲都发现了岩画，但中亚，西伯利亚南部和蒙古西部的山区尤其富裕地在青铜时代，铁器时代和土耳其时期。在这一广阔的岩石文字中，吉尔吉斯斯坦的Saimaluu Tash的地点是最大和最高的。它位于宽阔的费尔加纳山脉东部，位于OSH市东北约115公里处。

Due to Saimaluu Tash elevation, which ranges from 2,860 to 3,350 metres, the site is covered by snow 11 months of the year and is only accessible from mid-July to mid-August. In 2017, Esri, a global market leader in Geographic Information System (GIS) technology, helped a mixed team of local and international scientists to overcome the challenges and assisted with their research. Hexagon Geosystems supported their efforts providing the latest GNSS technology.

“Hexagon Geosystems’ technology facilitated the data collection, its high-level of accuracy, efficiency and precision exceeded our expectations for this demanding project,”瑞士ESRI的首席技术官Matthias Schenker说。“The direct support for the Leica GG04 Smart Antenna in Collector for ArcGIS made it really easy for us to directly integrate the data collection in our workflow.”

重新发现历史

The military topographer Nikolai G. Kludov officially re-discovered Saimaluu Tash—meaning “stones with drawings” in the Kyrgyz language—in 1902. However, more than four decades would pass before SM. Zima and Alexander N. Bernshtam conducted campaigns there, in 1946 and 1950, respectively. In the decades since those initial forays to the site, sporadic fieldwork was conducted up until the early 2000s.

The objective of the researchers’ most recent expedition was to thoroughly survey, photograph and map the site with a view to produce a monograph and 3D interactive maps.

Expedition participants included:

1. Three archaeologists and petroglyph experts
2. 两个GIS专家
3. A local ground support team.

他们的目标是establish thematic clusters of petroglyphs within certain spaces。Furthermore, the team hoped to identify what appeared to be traces of as many as nine ancient settlements和卫星图像上的埋葬地点，分辨率为50厘米。

The expedition

The petroglyphs are concentrated in two valleys, divided by a steep ridge in the Saimaluu Tash Mountain Range—at the relatively large site Saimaluu Tash I in the western valley and at the smaller, and slightly more recent, site of Saimaluu Tash II in the neighbouring eastern valley. Saimaluu Tash I covers some 1.3 square kilometres while Saimaluu Tash II Covers less than 1 km2.

在三个星期的过程中，团队surveyed a total of around 4,500 stones with petroglyphs and between 25,000 to 30,000 single images。每个岩石雕刻的轴承的位置tones was surveyed using Leica Geosystems GNSS receivers with decimetre accuracy in combination with the Collector for ArcGIS application on mobile devices. The application was configured to allow offline data collection on the basis of a high-resolution satellite image of the area for more timely and informed decisions.

“考虑到山谷苛刻的环境条件，Leica Zeno GG04智能天线是我们项目的独特工具，”said Schenker.“鉴于其高精度技术，我们能够实现我们的目标并收集最准确的数据。”

The orientation (azimuth) was recorded for each petroglyph, together with a photograph and description of it. A digital elevation model (DEM) and orthorectified imagery of the study area were created from aerial photographs taken by an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV). The Leica GG04 GNSS Smart Antenna was also used to survey ground control points (GCPs) to提高DEM和正射原的水平和垂直位置精度。然后将数据分类并存储在地理数据库中，以分析整个站点内和单个类别中岩石诗的空间分布。结果最好在交互式2D和3D应用程序上可视化。

对于空间和统计分析，将数据分类并存储在地理数据库中，并使用ESRI使用ArcGIS Pro进行了评估。这允许分析整个站点内以及单个类别的岩画中岩画的空间分布。

From this dataset,various information products are generated as results, in the form of interactive 2D and 3D web applications，以及传统纸图的形式，显示了岩画的位置和分类。基于Web的地图和应用程序将通过ArcGIS Online提供，可用于过滤和进一步分析。

Additionally, thedata will also be made available for use in the AuGeo app created by Esri Labs。This allows to use this data in an augmented reality (AR) environment.

革命性考古学

“Archaeologists embrace technology, adopt new tools and accept revolutionary techniques that transform archaeology like never before in the past,”said Schenker.“我们很高兴成为这种转变的一部分。”

The petroglyphs at Saimaluu Tash represent a time span of almost 3,000 years and reflect a great variety of themes. Since their creators selected motifs from their own surroundings and economies, which in turn were determined by climatic conditions, it is possible to establish a correlation between the petroglyphs, the climate, and the local economy. By revealing of such information of the past we gain a better understanding of the historical context and our social development over the years.

All information about the Saimaluu Tash petroglyph area is derived from the official expedition report by Christoph Baumer, a Swiss scholar and explorer, as it was published in the Fall 2017 edition of “The Explorers Journal”.