Decorated bronze plaques from the Chuy valley and Issyk Kul hollow in Kyrgyzstan

Purpose. The article analyzes findings of bronze plaques decorated with anthropomorphous guises and different sorts of animals and plants. These findings were discovered in the Chuy Valley and Issyk Kul Hollow of Kyrgyzstan in previous years and are exhibited in several museum collections of Bishkek. Such finding help to study the history of applied arts in the Middle Ages on the territory of Kyrgyzstan and now they are considered as primary sources of such information. We described the features of the images on the plaques in terms of studying toreutics of the period. Results. On the plaques, we identified figures of camels, a cat predator, fish, floral buds, anthropomorphous guises and wings and bells. Some of these images might have represented benevolent symbols that had to ensure good luck for their owners. We traced the spread of these images, which appear to be similar to those on several explored plaques from the territory of northern Kyrgyzstan and artistic metallic ware from the contiguous territories of Central Asia steppes and remoter regions of Southern Siberia. Our analysis speaks in favor of such bronze plaques spreading from the Chuy Valley and Issyk Kul Hollow during the Early Middle Ages. The objects under study supposedly belonged to items of belt and harness furniture and could be manufactured in urban handicraft centers on the territory of Jetysu. Conclusion. Findings from contiguous territories prove that such plaques were utilized by the Turkic nomads as adornments of composite belts of the early medieval warriors and were used for the ornamentation of bridle and saddle straps as a part of decorating riding horses. Plaques of similar forms with analogous and thematically close ornamentation were prevalent during the 8-10th century in the object complexes of cultures of the Yenisei Kyrgyz and Kimak peoples, who dominated in the Central Asian historical and cultural region in that period. It is quite possible that similar objects of belt and harness furniture gained distribution among the Turkic-speaking nomads of Tian Shan and Jetysu, as well as the Yenisei Kyrgyz people in the era of Kyrgyz Khanate rising. The study of bronze plaques with images of anthropomorphous guises, domestic and wild herbivorous animals, birds and fish, flowers and bells from the museums and private collections in Kyrgyzstan has allowed us to essentially widen the range of sources on applied arts of the medieval nomads of Tian Shan and Jetysu. Resembling objects of toreutics present in the cultures of medieval nomads of Southern Siberia and Central Asia can testify to the development of steady cultural contacts between them. The period of similar plaques spreading in Central Asia is related to the Early Middle Ages.