Firefighters Went on a Routine Patrol—and Stumbled Upon a Breathtaking Ancient Face

 

• Modern Kazakhstan is built upon a foundation of different cultures, khanates, and empires across history. 

• A routine fire patrol, operating some 200 miles northwest of the country's capital, Astana, discovered a nearly foot-long face carving in a granite boulder. 

• Although experts have analyzed the carving, it's possible that its origins could rest in the ancient Bronze Age or even Turkish cultures dated to the medieval period.

---

The land known today as Kazakhstan was formed and founded by the crucible of history.

 

Home to a variety of cultures in the Bronze Age, including the Srubna, Afanasevo, and Andronovo, this country of the Eurasian Steppes hosted the Dark Age Huns, medieval Turks, and a variety of Khans. And that’s all before becoming subjects of the Russian Empire and the Soviet Union until eventually gaining independence after the latter’s dissolution in the 1990s. Because Kazakhstan sits at such a crossroad of history, it’s also one of the most archaeologically rich places on Earth—and a new discovery by unsuspecting fire crews once again proves this fact.

 

While patrolling the Sandyktau region, an area located some 200 miles northwest of Kazakhstan’s capital, Astana, Nursultan Ashkenov and Akhmet Zaripov, both employees of the district fire service, stumbled upon an austere face carved into the side of a granite boulder. According to local news sources, the department immediately contacted the country’s Ministry for Emergency Situations as well as the local museum. 

 

The face is around 10.5 inches long and roughly 8 inches wide, and some archeologists hypothesize that the carving was likely part of some ritual complex.

 

“The face is clearly visible,” Sergey Yarygin, a scientist at the Alkey Margulan Institute of Archaeology, said to Archaeology Magazine (click link to see images), “with large eyes, a long straight nose, and protruding lips. Kazakh archaeology not only enriches the scientific world with its remarkable discoveries but also reveals the main stages of the ancient and medieval development of Kazakhstan society.”

 

 

Source:  Popular Mechanics