PECULIAR STONE STATUES FROM THE MUSEUM NAMED AFTER V. A. LAPKO IN NOVONIKOLAYEVKA VILLAGE, KYRGYZSTAN
Purpose. We analyzed peculiar stone statues from the collection of the public museum named after V. A. Lapko, which is situated in Novonikolayevka village in the Chuya Valley of the Kyrgyz Republic. Results. One of these statues is an upright fixed stone stele outside the museum, with an image of a sitting man. The stele reproduces an appearance of an Old Turkic man with a bowl in his right hand. The man is depicted with his head uncovered and shaved. The face has clear eyebrows, eyes, a straight nose, moustache, lips and a wedge-shaped small beard. He is dressed in shoulder-length clothes, probably, a robe with lapels on the breast. The man is depicted with his legs bent in knees, sitting on the ground. He has a straight short dagger embedded in the sheath on his belt. The other stone statue is located inside the museum. It depicts quite a young man without moustache and beard with a dagger on his belt. He is depicted wearing a spherical head-dress with horizontal streaks on his head. The man also has some pendants on his head that include a few small balls. The young man is dressed in a robe with lapels on the breast. He holds a bowl in his arm, which is bent in the elbow. His left arm is also slightly bent in the elbow, with the palm on the belt. There is a ferrule at the front on the belt strap. It is suspended from the front of the dagger in the sheath. The dagger is shown with a barbed handle and a guard. The sheath has two semicircular protuberances for fastening it to the belt strap. The lower part of the sculpture has another longer sabre with two semicircular protuberances on the sheath. There is a small strap from one of these protuberances. Probably, it was a sabre depicted embedded in the sheath and suspended to the belt. However, its handle and the guard are not shown. There is a discoidal object on the right-hand side of the statue. Apparently, it is a sack with fire steel. Judging by distinctive details depicted on the stone statues analyzed, they can be related to the culture of Western Turk of Tian Shan and Jetysu of the era of the Early Middle Ages. Conclusion. Introducing into scientific circulation the two peculiar Old Turkic stone statues from the yard and from inside the school museum named after V. A. Lapko located in Novonikolayevka village in the Chuya Valley of Kyrgyzstan, we significantly widen existing views on similar statuary monuments characteristic of the culture of the Western Turkic in Tian Shan and Jetysu. In addition to well-known types of stone statues studied in previous decades on the territory of Kyrgyzstan, we discovered some new, not previously analyzed forms of anthropomorphous figures. The stone sculptures studied testify that the Western Turks could make and erect quite unusual and original anthropomorphous steles and statues.