To know more about Sikachi-Alyan, I made my way
to the Far Eastern State Research Library on Muraviev-Amurskiy street near the museum. It was the old red-brick building of early 1900s. On the left to this library, there stands the Holy Assumption Cathedral Church, Uspensky church in Sobornaya (Cathedral) Square, which is one of the largest Russian Orthodox cathedrals in the Russian Far East. From the Cathedral square people can descend to the the bank of great Amur river. This is the one of the most spectacular viewpoint of the river. Unfortunately, as the river was still flooded, there were no excursion ship in operation for tourists.
The Library looked a little bit majestic. But as I entered into the building on Sunday afternoon, I saw an old woman sitting on the reception desk. She was kind enough to take the trouble to issue a permission card to let me in, although I was absolutely a stranger from an Asian country and her English was as terrible as my Russian. Here I found interesting legends related to Sycachi-Alyan in the book titled "Down The Amur from Khabarovsk to Nikolaeusk-na-Amure"
Legend in stones
Some long time ago in the location of the present-day Sycachi-Alyan a small nomadic camp existed. Its inhabitants led a quiet life but once misfortune came. The volcano awoke and burst out the fiery lava that in an instant destroyed the small camp and everything alive around it. Only two persons got saved, a husband and wife who had gone hunting across the mountains. Upon coming back home they saw a terrible picture. The land was covered with ashes and there was nobody alive around. For several days they shouted and cried in distress until losing voice. In the meantime the earth got cool and started looking like a choke-cherry cake. And the stones of the Amur river bank were still soft. The husband and wife strolled along the river drawing on the stones by finger. They wanted to leave memory of the perished and the native camp. The local inhabitants believe that these people who avoided death were the predecessors of the Nanai nationality.
Legend of the three suns
In Sikachi-Alyan they will tell you the legend of the three suns:
"... Many centuries ago things were different. We had many animals in the taiga, much fish in the rivers, and forests were rich in berries, nuts and medicinal herbs. But once three suns were seen in the sky and they burnt the earth so it grew black, the trees and herbs got extinguished. The heat was so strong that the birds' wings were broken. They say then ravens appeared among birds. The people trying to find refuge from the three suns excavated deep dugouts where they stayed till late at night daring to come out only in the evening to see the horrible picture: burnt earth and dead fish in the river. The people began praying to the God of the Earth - Dragon Kailasu felt sympathetic and sent his twin sons Ado. The brave warriors took sharp arrows and shot two of the suns that rolled down to the underground world so order reigned on earth again. And the twin brothers became gods since then and the people called them Ado-seveni ..."
The plot of these two legends today can be seen in the art of the local painters and craftsmen, in the bright choreography of the folk lore ensemble Aioga and of the Ethnographic Museum exhibits.
(to be continued)
Sycachi-Alyan petroglyphs
First let me cite the description about the Sycachi-Alyan petroglyphs from the web site of "Amur Region Historical Heritage Fund<(1)> "
"The Sycachi-Alyan petroglyphs are the disguise masks of the animals, birds, snakes, boats, pits with concentric circles; anthropomorphic images. In total, there had been found 300 drawings (presently only 160 are left). The images are created by the stone instrument by a deep channeled striking method and by the iron tool in a threading style technique. The graffiti belonged to the Mesolithic time (early Neolithic), early Iron Age and early Middle Age and are dated the 12 millenniums B.C. to first half of the millennium 1 A.C."
I don't know how the creations of these 300 drawings found in total lined up chronologically, but looking at the several Sycachi-Alyan rocks displayed at the front garden of the Archaeology Museum, it seemed that there were two prominent eras in which the Ancient inhabitants particularly got frantic about the rock arts with more than 5,000 years separating them.
Mesolithic era (early Neolithic, 10-13 millenniums ago)
In Mesolithic, when the art of clay pottery production was still unknown in the Lower Amur, the first carvings of animals and birds had appeared on the Sycachi-Alyan stones. These elks, horses and oxen are, most likely, the samples of the ancient fauna of the Lower Amur.
Bellow are the Sycachi-Alyan rocks at the Archaeology Museum; The museum signboard says in Russian that they are "the most ancient rock carvings (petroglyphs) created in the Early Neolithic (10-13 thousand years ago)"
Neolithic era (6-5 millenniums ago)
In the Neolithic, a culture of the fisherman and hunters was developing. A particular feature of the neolithic culture is rich developed curvilinear ornamental: spirals, "Amur wicker-work" (a net from the interweaving curved lines). In Neolithic, and maybe even earlier, the anthropomorphic drawings had appeared - masks or disguise, that can be seen on the Sycachi Alyan stones.
Various masks on the rocks;
Actually, I see more elaborate and thinner curves on more abstract images in the creations of Neolithic. I imagined that this advancement were brought about by the development of their striking tools along with the change of their aesthetic appreciation.
I looked for the Nanai souvenir shop in Khabarovsk to know the arts and crafts of modern Nanai people. Could we identify any similarity between the images on the Sycachi-Alyan rocks and these modern arts by today's Nanai artisans?
(to be continued)
<Trip to Siberia, Russia>
Sycachi-Alyan is the Nanai indigenous settlement on the right bank of the Amur, located 75 km north from Khabarovsk. map to Sycachi-Alyan
Its population is 300. There have been found totally 300 rock drawings of the disguised images of animals, birds, snakes, and boats, which had been created in 12 millenniums B.C. to first half of the millennium 1 A.C. One guidebook describes these rock arts as this; “It seems some powerful spirit scattered huge rocks with faces of northern gods, witch masks, scenes of hunting and those from legends and tales”. The place has been sacred for Nanai and the other Priamurye low-number peoples. The sacred complex is named Sycachi-Alyan petroglyphs after the Nanai settlement nearby. < (2) >
This mysterious place had lured me to travel to the far east of Russia, Siberia. I arranged one night's stay at the lodge of Sycachi-Alyan, two local guides who speak only Russian, and a taxis to and from Khabarovsk. I was planning to visit there while I would be in Khabarovsk for 6 days from August 29, 2013 to September 4. A local guide is must, because the majority of the petroglyphs are hardly accessible and known only by a small number of specialists, local hunters and fishermen.
But two weeks before my departure, the Amur regions were hit by the massive flooding, the most devastating in the century with the lodge standing near the river also submerged. I postponed my trip until September 19, hoping the village would be recovered from the flooding at that time. But when I landed on the Amur region, I found no transportation to Sycachi-Alyan from Khabarovsk as the route was still shut down and the city people did not care about that remote small village after the disaster. So I visited the Archeology museum which exhibits the Sycachi-Alyan rocks at the front garden, which were all brought in from the original places. I also visited the historical library of the city to look for the guide books on the Sycachi-Alyan and its rock paintings. Those provide me with the useful knowledge for this blog. I list them at the last part of this blog. Bellow on the left is the Archaeology Museum and the old habarovsk Library on the right;
(to be continued)
