Archaeoastronomy and Ancient Technologies 2019, 7(1), 24-88
DOI: 10.24411/2310-2144-2019-10002
Archaeoastronomical object on Tuzluk Mount in the Elbrus region (Northern Caucasus)
Aleksey A. Alekseev1, Tamila M. Potemkina2
1Moscow, Russian Federation; E-mail: jumorin5@yandex.ru
2Department of the Bronze Age, Institute of Archaeology of Russian Academy of Sciences, st. Dm. Ul'yanova 19, Moscow, 117036, Russian Federation; E-mail: tamilapt@mail.ru
Abstract
The article presents the results of a study of an object of four megaliths (outcrops) of fairly regular forms on the top of Mount Tuzluk. Outcrops are separated by mutually intersecting passages, forming a shape similar to a cruciform with orientation to the sides of the World. Almost all the sides of the stone-outcrops within the aisles are flat, plumb or slightly inclined, visually artificially aligned and treated. It is assumed that the outcrops were used in ancient times as near-sight sights for observing sunrises and sunsets of the full moon on significant astronomical dates, while the complex of four outcrops was an ancient near-horizon 'observatory'. Field studies using the methodology of archaeoastronomic research and measurements (Potemkina, Yurevich, 1998, pp. 17-35, 46-47), with direct observations in nature from the supposed relative observation center during the solstices, were carried out by a group of enthusiastic experts from 2001 to 2012. In this case, targeted archaeological researches were not conducted. The works were carried out at the exploration level using data from topography and astronomy. The main attention was paid to survey from the top of Mount Tuzluk a circular panorama of the horizon with a mark on it of the calculated and observed directions of rising / setting of the main luminaries on significant astronomical dates. The adjacent territory was also explored, where archaeological monuments were revealed: anthropomorphic stone sculptures (6), plates with molds for casting tools (3), stones with different indentations and traces of strong fire (2), tours of ethnographic modernity, more than 10 in total. There were done photography and mapping of the location of all the artifacts found on the ground and linking them to the object on the top of Mount Tuzluk. Subsequent systematization and analysis of field research results obtained over 10 years allows us to reasonably assume the use of an object at the top of a mountain as an ancient observation point for the annual movement of main luminaries on the surrounding horizon. This conclusion is based primarily on the coincidence of the azimuths calculated and observed relative to the prospective observation center of not only significant astronomical directions, but also with the undercut sides of the outcrops as near viewers and with noticeable sight on the far horizon, which cannot be accidental. The presence in the vicinity of the mountain of these archaeological objects of a cult nature, located on significant astronomical directions, suggests the existence of a cult center on the mountain Tuzluk and the adjacent territory. The beginning of the time of its functioning, if we proceed from the proposed by researchers for the stone sculpture No. 1 located near the Tuzluk mountain, date - VII centuries BC, can be pre-determined by pre-Scythian time. The most similar analogue to the archaeoastronomic object on Mount Tuzluk is the rocky sanctuary Kabile in Bulgaria, reliably functioning in ancient Thrace at the same time and located at the same geographical latitude, in the same Circumpontin region.
Keywords: Mount Tuzluk, outcrops, near and far sight, horizon, relative observation center, azimuth, sun and moon rises and sunsets, observation point.
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