在吉尔吉斯斯坦的山上找到古老的岩画

Author: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.

While petroglyphs are found on all five continents, the mountainous areas of Central Asia, southern Siberia and western Mongolia are especially rich in sites dating from the Bronze Age, the Iron Age and the Turkic Period. Within this expanse of petroglyphs, the site of Saimaluu Tash in Kyrgyzstan is one of the largest and highest. It lies in the eastern part of the expansive Fergana Mountain Range, some 115 kilometres northeast of the city of Osh.

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,”said Matthias Schenker, CTO at Esri Switzerland.“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.”

Rediscovering history

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.

研究人员最近的探险的目的是彻底调查，拍摄和映射该站点，以产生专着和3D互动地图。

探险参与者包括：

1. Three archaeologists and petroglyph experts
2. Two GIS specialists
3. 当地的地面支持团队。

Their goal was toestablish thematic clusters of petroglyphs within certain spaces。此外，该团队希望确定看起来多达九个古代定居点的痕迹and burial sites on satellite imagery with 50 centimetres of resolution。

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.

Over the course of three weeks, the teamsurveyed a total of around 4,500 stones with petroglyphs and between 25,000 to 30,000 single images。使用Leica Geosystems GNSS接收器对每个岩画轴承结石的位置进行了调查，其精度与移动设备上的ArcGIS应用程序结合使用。该应用程序的配置为允许根据该区域的高分辨率卫星图像进行离线数据收集，以及时和明智的决定。

“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，”申克说。“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) toimprove the horizontal and vertical location accuracy of the DEM and orthophotos。The data were then categorised and stored in a geo-database in order to analyse the spatial distribution of the petroglyphs within the site as a whole as well as of individual categories. The results are best visualised on interactive 2D and 3D applications.

For spatial and statistical analysis, the data was categorised and stored in a geodatabase and evaluated using ArcGIS Pro by Esri. This allowed analysis of the spatial distribution of the petroglyphs within the site as a whole as well as of individual classes of petroglyphs.

从这个数据集，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。

另外，data 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.

Revolutionising archaeology

“Archaeologists embrace technology, adopt new tools and accept revolutionary techniques that transform archaeology like never before in the past,”申克说。“We are delighted to be part of this transformation.”

的岩画Saimaluu小胡子代表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.

有关Saimaluu Tash Petroglyph地区的所有信息均来自瑞士学者和探险家克里斯托夫·鲍默（Christoph Baumer）的官方探险报告，该报告发表在2017年秋季版的《探险家杂志》（The Explorers Journal）上。