Medieval stone statues at a modern monument in the Issyk-Kul depression

This article analyzes the Medieval stone statues placed in front of the modern monument to the famous Russian scholar and geographer P.P. Semyonov-Tyan-Shansky, which was erected not far from the village of Balyksu in the Issyk-Kul Depression in Kyrgyzstan. The research has revealed that four out of five studied stone statues near the modern monument were discovered in the Issyk-Kul Depression and one of them was brought from Burana. Each of these anthropomorphic stone statues is described; their parallels from Central Asia are identified. These stone statues belonged to the Medieval culture of the Western Turks living in Central Asia. One of the stone statues has distinctive large head with representation of anthropomorphic face without moustache and may depict a Turkic female. Pendants are represented on both sides of the face. Arms which are bent at the elbows and hands holding a chalice are depicted on the frontal side of the statue. Large face with moustache on the other statue renders the image of a Turkic male. Previously, similar statues with the images of the head or face of adult males have been many times discovered in the Issyk-Kul Depression. The third statue shows the face of a male wearing a conical headdress, with arched eyebrows, oval eyes, straight nose, big moustache, and angular chin. The fourth statue is somewhat larger than other statues. The fifth statue shows the anthropomorphic face without moustache and may also represent a Turkic female. Despite the absence of information about initial location of the statues, they can be used in further research of Old Turkic anthropomorphic sculptural tradition.