The Warrior Found at Tishinka

From the Excavation Diary: September 26, 1986 аccording to a report by Yuri Vladislavovich Klassen, a junior researcher at the City Museum of History and Local Lore, an ancient burial site was uncovered near the Soldatov Zaimka (homestead), close to the Tishinsky mine. The discovery was made in the eastern section of a pit wall by specialists from the "Leninogorsksvinetsstroy" trust during the construction of sewage treatment plants. A bulldozer bucket exposed the ancient grave, revealing protruding bones and metallic chainmail rings dangling from the cut of the wall. The depth of the find was determined to be two and a half meters from the surface.
To conduct a detailed inspection of the discovery site and provide a conclusion, a group of senior students from School No. 8 was dispatched. Carefully, layer by layer, they removed the soil from the ancient grave. After examining the area and interviewing the construction workers and the bulldozer driver who had worked on this section, it was established that the ground removal for the pit had been carried out in May—five months before the burial was officially discovered. Throughout this time, the site had been exposed to weather conditions and human interference, which explains why the usual funerary items were not found.
During the movement of the excavated soil heaps and partial sifting of the ground, individual rings of chainmail, fragmented bones of the buried warrior, remnants of his horse, and bone fragments of a large animal—presumably a sacrificial bull—were discovered.
A surface inspection of the terrain revealed no traces of above-ground burial structures. Typically, such structures are laid out using large, local fragmented stones in the form of mounds (kurgans), which are oval, ridge-like, or ring-shaped at the base, with the interior filled with gravel and soil. Their architectural appearance resembles a turtle shell, a truncated cone, or a ridge with a height of 0.2 to 0.4 meters.
Interviews with local elders revealed that ancient items made of bronze, iron, and ceramics were occasionally found in this area. Apparently, these objects had been churned out of the earth as a result of the economic activities of later settlers, suggesting that a subsequent settlement and cemetery once existed here. Stones from the ancient burial mounds were found in the foundations of ruined houses. Subsequent land reclamation at the site of the burial ground and the construction of residential housing eventually erased its traces.
The structure of the ruined warrior's grave is highly similar to Kazakh burials. Based on the pattern of the chainmail weaving and the manufacturing technique of the rings, it can be hypothesized to be the work of a 14th- or 15th-century Iranian master. The oldest chainmail shirts found in the burials of Gorny Altai date back to the 15th and 16th centuries. Considering the preservation state of the chainmail and the nature of the burial soil, the warrior's burial period can be dated to the 17th or 18th century—the era of the wars between the Turks (Kazakhs) and the Dzungars.
During the clearing of the buried warrior's remains, it was noted that he was positioned on his right side in a crouched (fetal) position, with his head facing east. An opening, pierced while the bone was still alive, was discovered on his left and only remaining shoulder blade. Unfortunately, the condition of the bones was extremely poor; the slightest careless movement destroyed the findings irreversibly. The skull was missing, evidently stolen by someone prior to the investigation.
Due to the approaching nightfall, photographing the burial site was postponed until the following day. The excavation was covered, temporarily conserved, and work was halted.
The next morning, a scene of absolute vandalism presented itself: unknown individuals had overturned the remnants of the chainmail and tossed the warrior's bones down from the burial niche into the pit. The best-preserved piece of the chainmail had been stolen.
Historical Note: It is worth noting that by that time, only 150 intact pieces of chainmail had ever been found across the entire country, along with no more than 500 fragments, about two dozen of which were from the Altai region.
Had the construction workers immediately reported what they saw to the city executive committee, the police, or to us at the museum, these artifacts could have been preserved. Currently, only a few fragments of the chainmail are kept in the storerooms of our museum.
Oleg Kudryvstev, one of the authors of The World History, asserts that this type of warrior burial is characteristic of ancient Turks during the prehistoric period. The antiquity of the burial is evidenced by the chainmail itself, certain sections of which had transformed over time into solid, ingot-like colloidal clusters. Notably, several parts of the armor were reinforced with flat, forged rings, indicating that the chainmail had been repaired after its owner engaged in fierce combat with an enemy.A day or two later, I traveled to the right bank of the Ulba River, to the Soldatov Zaimka, to see the remarkable excavation site that had sparked such passionate discussion in the city. The construction site for the treatment facilities was already completed, as more than five months had passed since the initial opening of the burial. Part of the chainmail and bones were still in place because the mechanical excavation had deepened the construction territory by nearly a meter.
The grave had been crudely breached. I noticed that the bulldozer bucket had cut it directly in half; the portion of the burial containing the skull was missing. One of the local residents mentioned seeing local troublemakers carrying off the "head," a helmet, and a sabre.
The city museum staff, Lyudmila Sytova and Larisa Sitnikova, were finishing the processing of materials and the photography of the burial site. They very gently transferred the fragments of the chainmail into a separate package and placed the bones into a prepared case. One could feel the reverence with which they finished their work, as if performing a sacred ritual. All that could be heard was their quiet murmuring: "If only we had been called right away! Everything would have been preserved, and the historical conclusions would be so much more concrete."
Batyrs and local folk have always had to stand up multiple times to defend their native land from foreign raids. It is always a momentous occasion when this earth—the true guardian of history—suddenly cracks open its secret vaults.
On September 21 of that same year, during a practical training session on a tractor at a newly built sports field, a student from SPTU-7 named Viktor Glushenkov made a discovery. The soil of the sports field consisted of imported earth brought by builders from that very same pit. Viktor accidentally spotted a bluish, ellipsoidal slate stone. The size and color of the stone resembled a standard student eraser, but its surface gleamed with tiny crystals of pyrite, reminiscent of the distant universe.The teenager's attention was particularly caught by an engraving on the flat surface, which resembled a child's drawing of a sun with nine rays. A small depression was carved into the center, likely meant for the insertion of a mineral to mimic the solar disk. After lightly cleaning the stuck mud from the surface, it became clear that the drawing on the stone token was man-made.
Seeking answers, Viktor turned to V.N. Larionov, the head of the "Mechta" (Dream) Paleontological Club. The experienced researcher informed the owner of the mysterious object about its meaning: it was a "solar sign," a "pass" into the afterlife belonging to the ancient Turks. It was an amulet meant to accompany a warrior who fell on the field of battle. The pyrite crystals glittering on the solar sign indicated that it was crafted from local stones, not brought from afar. The mythical sun personified a deity that symbolically resurrected the deceased for the afterlife, shining upon him for eternity.
Historical Context: The Epoch of Kazakh-Dzungar Wars
The artifacts from the "Soldatov" grave were sent to the Academy of Sciences of the Kazakh SSR, where it was confirmed that the discovered chainmail belonged to a warrior from the period of the Dzungar invasion!
According to information from Oleg Boronin, a researcher at Altai State University:
"In 1643, a 50,000-strong Dzungar army invaded the Kazakh nomad lands. Khan Zhangir did not have enough time to assemble a full army and marched against the enemy with a small detachment of fewer than 600 Kazakh batyrs. The two armies met in the locality of Kyzyl-kiya. Having no chance of winning a victory in an open battle, Zhangir ordered his men to dig a trench and build a rampart to prevent the enemy from passing through the gorge. Here, the Kazakhs used firearms en masse for the first time. At the height of the battle, reinforcing troops led by Zhalantos Batyr from the Tortkara clan struck the enemy from an unexpected flank. The Dzungars were crushed and retreated in disarray, losing ten thousand men."1710: A Kurultai (assembly) was convened, where it was decided to create a people's militia led by Bokenbay Batyr of the Tabyn clan. A year later, this militia invaded Dzungar territory and defeated their forces.
1726: The Battle of the Bulanty River took place in the Kara-siir valley, resulting in a complete victory for the Kazakh army. The area subsequently received the name "Kalmak Kyrylgan" (The Place Where the Kalmyks Perished).
Winter of 1757–1758: Detachments of Sultan Ablai invaded the lands of the Altai people. Representatives of the Russian and Chinese authorities intervened on behalf of their tributaries. It is not without reason that, according to the Russian ethnographer L. Sherstova, until quite recently, children in Altai villages were frightened with the name of the Kazakh Koshkarbay Batyr.
1758: Together with their powerful ally, China, the Kazakh people destroyed the Dzungar state. Led by Ablai Khan, the entire nation celebrated its victory in the Maylyshat tract in Eastern Kazakhstan.
1771: A Kalmyk army of 180,000 men invaded the territory of the Kazakh Khanate but was utterly crushed by Kazakh batyrs. This marked the final, definitive victory in the Dzungar-Kazakh war.
R. Suleimenov, in his book From the History of 18th-Century Kazakhstan, writes:
"The famous Koshkarbay Batyr (son of Sagalay) from the Bura clan was born and raised in the aул (village) of Karazyuk, which was founded at the end of the 18th and beginning of the 19th centuries. The name of the village comes from the Kara-ozek River, which means 'Black Riverbed'."
Together with Ablai, the Khan of the Middle Juz, Koshkarbay liberated the Middle Irtysh region from the Dzungars. He is considered the founder of the Kazakh clans of the Karazyuk village. Koshkarbay Batyr had twelve children, after whom the main lineages are named: Konay, Tatybay, Torpak, Kenyrbay, Zhetybay, Koten, Tolybay, Khangeldy, Nak, and Zhakyl.
According to a version proposed by Professor A. Bykov of St. Petersburg University, during the intertribal conflicts of autumn 1758—taking advantage of the destabilization in Gorny Altai caused by Qing aggression against the Dzungar Khanate—a 5,000-strong detachment under Starshina (Elder) Barak and a 4,000-strong detachment under Starshina Koshkarbay invaded the nomadic lands of the Altai people. They routed the district of the Altai elder Menko, who used to camp along the Katun River.
Conducting military operations against the Altai people in January and February of 1759, Koshkarbay defeated the Zaisans (local chieftains) Kokshin and Namykai. Pursuing them, he advanced right up to the Biysk fortress. According to the accounts of the combatants themselves, during the "winter campaign" of 1759, they managed to capture up to 1,500 Altai people, who resisted the Kazakh raids as best they could. During one of these armed clashes, Koshkarbay and one of his sons were killed.
According to oral folk legends passed down through generations, all of this took place on a mountain pass in the Altai Mountains, on the right bank of the Irtysh River (the outskirts of modern-day Ridder), where the mountain river Ulba flows. In an unequal battle, his body was riddled by the enemy's arrows. As a gallant horseman, he could no longer ride his mount and died right on the field of battle. The remains of the batyr were buried in a local tract right there.
Who knows? Perhaps the fragments of chainmail preserved in the Ridder Museum of History and Local Lore truly belonged to Koshkarbay Batyr.