Finding ancient petroglyphs in the mountains of Kyrgyzstan

Author:Penny Boviatsou

数千年来，人类以岩画的形式在全球景观上留下了痕迹，形象刻在岩石露头中，最初是用石工具和后来的金属仪器。这些古老的标记经常在几千年的几千年中雕刻，证明了它们随着时间的流逝。因此，可以将岩画遗址理解为神圣的露天“历史书籍”。

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

1902年，军事地形尼古拉·克鲁多夫（Nikolai G.Zima和Alexander N. Bernshtam分别于1946年和1950年进行了竞选活动。自从最初进入该地点以来的几十年中，一直进行零星的实地调查，直到2000年代初。

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.

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. Furthermore, the team hoped to identify what appeared to be traces of as many as nine ancient settlementsand 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 team调查了大约4,500个带有岩画的石头和25,000至30,000张单张图像. The location of each of the petroglyph bearing stones 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.

“The Leica Zeno GG04 Smart Antenna was a unique tool for our project considering the demanding environmental conditions of the valley,”said Schenker.“鉴于其高精度技术,able to accomplish our goal and gather the most accurate data.”

为每个岩画记录了方向（方位角），以及照片和描述。研究区域的数字高程模型（DEM）和矫正图像是由无人驾驶汽车（UAV）拍摄的航空照片创建的。Leica GG04 GNSS智能天线还用于调查地面控制点（GCP）improve 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.

From this dataset,结果以交互式2D和3D Web应用程序的亚搏彩票手机版下载形式生成各种信息产品, as well as in the form of traditional paper maps showing the location and categorisation of the petroglyphs. The web-based maps and applications will be made available via ArcGIS Online and can be used for filtering and further analysis.

Additionally, the数据还将用于在ESRI实验室创建的Augeo应用中使用. 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,”said Schenker.“We are delighted to be part of this transformation.”

Saimaluu Tash的Petroglyphs代表了将近3000年的时间跨度，并反映了各种各样的主题。由于他们的创作者从自己的周围环境和经济中选择了图案，而这些图案又取决于气候条件，因此可以在岩画，气候和当地经济之间建立相关性。通过揭示过去的这种信息，我们可以更好地了解这些年来的历史背景和我们的社会发展。

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”.