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Khereksurs (Kyrgyz-Uur) - Y.S. Khudyakov


Photograph: David Dector. The photograph was taken in 1993 in Mongolia.

“Khereksurs (from Mongolian khirgisuury) is a term used in archaeological science to describe burial mounds with circular stone heaps and a ring or square enclosure connected to the mounds by stone "rays" or "paths." The name "Khereksur" comes from the Mongolian phrase khargas uur, meaning "Kyrgyz nest" or "Kyrgyz tomb."


The Kyrgyz were the last Turkic-speaking people to dominate the steppes of Central Asia during the era of the "Kyrgyz Empire (Khaganate)" in the 9th-10th centuries (see the state of the Yenisei Kyrgyz), before Mongol nomadic tribes migrated into these lands.


Therefore, the Mongols referred to all ancient burial mounds as "Kyrgyz" after the preceding people. Russian scholars and travelers who conducted expeditions in Mongolia in the late 19th and early 20th centuries introduced the term "Khereksur" into scientific usage.


Among Khereksurs, some very large structures are found, with mounds up to 60–80 meters in diameter, 15 meters high, and ring enclosures reaching up to 250 meters in diameter. Often, circular rows of sacrificial structures were laid out around the enclosure. Nearby, stone steles, known as "deer stones," were erected in one or several rows, bearing images of animals and weapons belts.


Under the mound in the center of the Khereksur, at the level of the ancient ground surface, there is usually a chamber or tomb made of large stones, within which the skeletons of buried individuals were found, laid in an extended position, on their left side, with their heads facing west. No items were placed in the graves.


In many Khereksurs, no burial traces remain. However, secondary burials were made in the mound and within the Khereksur area in later periods. Archaeologists initially dated Khereksurs based on these later finds. For many decades, Khereksurs in Mongolia and Transbaikalia were dated to the Medieval period and were associated with the ancient Turkic or Uighur culture.


However, excavations in Tuva and later in Transbaikalia revealed that the circular enclosures of Khereksurs were overlaid by slab tombs and mounds from the Late Bronze Age and Early Scythian period. This enabled archaeologists to date Khereksurs to the Late Bronze Age and Early Iron Age.


The people buried in Khereksurs were ancient nomads of Europoid racial type. During the Late Bronze Age, these ancient Europoid nomadic tribes occupied the steppes and mountain valleys of the Sayan-Altai, Tien Shan, Mongolia, and Transbaikalia.


They moved across the steppes in wheeled wagons and owned large herds of domestic animals. The warriors of these ancient nomadic tribes fought in chariots and attacked their enemies with bronze weapons, bows and arrows, spears, battleaxes, and daggers.


The military advantage of charioteers over foot soldiers from the Mongoloid Central Asian tribes was so significant that they conquered all of Central Asia. This led to the formation of a military aristocracy within the ancient Europoid nomadic society, reflected in their social structure and ideology.


The construction of Khereksurs reflects the sun and chariot cults.

The construction of labor-intensive, grand Khereksurs and rows of commemorative steles with images of weapons and animals, built in open, visible steppe areas, was meant to glorify the feats of ancient warrior-heroes.


Over time, the adversaries of the ancient Europoid nomads, the Mongoloid nomadic tribes of the slab grave culture, who inhabited the eastern regions of Central Asia, learned to successfully resist their formidable enemies on the battlefield.


They began using metal cast helmets and protective belts and attacking their enemies with bronze swords. However, decisive changes in warfare, which reduced the role of chariots, occurred with the advent of horseback riding at the transition to the Early Iron Age.


The emergence of a new type of military force—the cavalry, significantly more mobile and maneuverable than chariots—led to the loss of the latter’s former power. Following these changes in warfare, the ancient aristocratic chariot warrior caste lost its leading position in nomadic society.


The chariot symbolism lost its prestigious significance. The steppe areas of Transbaikalia, Eastern, and Central Mongolia were conquered by Mongoloid nomadic tribes of the slab grave culture. In the western regions of Central Asia, the once unified ethnic mass of ancient Europoid nomads disintegrated into separate nomadic tribes of the Early Scythian culture.


In the construction of burial structures of the Early Scythian cultures of the Sayan-Altai and Tien Shan, elements can still be seen that trace back to the constructive features of Khereksurs.


The descendants of the ancient Europoid nomads who built the Khereksurs and erected the deer stones were known in Scythian and Xiongnu-Sianbei times in Chinese historical records as the "Di" and "Dinglin." – Y.S. Khudyakov.


KAF supplement:


“The culture of the inhabitants of the Minusinsk region emerged as the result of a long period of economic development, starting from the mid-3rd millennium BCE, and belonged to a blond, long-headed population type, known to the Chinese as the Dinglin.


This Dinglin society, which was a confederation of tribes, was connected to the western part of Asia until the 1st millennium BCE. However, from the 1st millennium BCE onwards, it began to increasingly interact with the tribes of Central Asia.


For a time, during the 5th–3rd centuries BCE, this society was culturally united with the powerful Scythian confederation. During this period, while maintaining ties with Central Asia, by the early centuries BCE, the Dinglin came under its direct influence.


Before the Dinglin’s relations with Central Asia, they underwent a long history of ethnogenesis, which involved various tribal components that were sometimes located far apart geographically.


The well-established independent development of the Yenisei culture, its continuous evolution over nearly two and a half millennia, allows us to observe Dinglin ethnogenesis throughout all the stages of its culture previously discussed.


It was based on this Dinglin ethnogenesis that the changes occurred, which led to the crystallization of a new ethnic phenomenon—the Kyrgyz. However, this new ethnic phenomenon—the Kyrgyz—was a direct result of the earlier Dinglin ethnogenesis.


It was here that the foundations were laid for the distinctive forms of pastoral economy, culture, and racial characteristics that would later distinguish the Kyrgyz tribes from their related Turkic tribes for a long time.


This is why the origins of the Kyrgyz tribes, and thus the history of the Kyrgyz people, must begin with the archaeological evidence of the Afanasievo culture and the analysis of Dinglin ethnogenesis, on which the ancient Kyrgyz society was founded." – Alexander Nathanovich Bernshtam


“The T'ieh-lé (dok-lak/t'iet-lak = ti-lig, teg-reg) of the 6th century Chinese sources are connected by Chinese historians with the earlier Ti-li (d'iek-liek, tig-lig, teg-reg; Pulleyblank : dejk-lejk, drik-lok, dok-lok, t’et-lek), Ch'ih-le (t'isk-lok) and T’e-le (d’ak-lok).


They, in turn, are identified with the Ting-ling (Dinlin) in whose habitats we later find them. All of these forms have been viewed as renderings of an Altaic term meaning "cart," cf. Mongolian. telegen, terge, tergen ("cart") and connected with the Kao-ch’é/Kao-chii (Chin. "High Carts"), a later term used for the T'ieh-lé.


These are to be connected with the earlier Ting-ling. Pulleyblank suggests : tejng-lejng = tàgrág which he renders as "circle, hoop. "Actually, tegrek ( < tegre "(all) around, surroundings") originally appears to have meant (earliest attestation is in 11th century Qaraxanid) "the rim of anything." In 15th century Qipéaq it came to designate "ring, circle." This is a less than perfect match.


The reconstruction of the early history of the Ting-ling is equally problematic. Kyzlasov connects them with the Tagar culture (7th-3rd century B.C.) in the Khakas-Minusin Basin and believes that they extended to the forest-steppe region from the Ob’ to Lake Baikal.


In the period from the 3rd century B.C. to the 3rd century A.D., they remained in South Siberia, from Lake Baikal to the Middle Yenisei, the source of the Culym, north of the Chien-k'un (Kyrgyz) and westward to the Irtyš.


They appear to have been distributed in two groups, heavily concentrated in Northern Mongolia, north of the Hsiung-nu and another branch, northwest of the Hsiung-nu, around the Irtyš. It would also appear that they had an equestrian culture. Kyzlasov, however, does not necessarily view them as Turkic.


The Ting-ling were conquered, along with the Hun-yü, Ch'ü-she, Ko-k'un (Kyrgyz) and Hsin-li, ca. 200 B.C. by the Hsiung-nu under Mao-tun. They were pushed northwards and perhaps mixed with Chien-k'un (Kyrgyz) elements (the Tashtyk culture according to Kyzlasov).


They revolted against the Hsiung-nu several times in the 1st century B.C. until being brought more or less under control by Chih-Chih in 49 B.C. These activities brought the Kien-kun to what became their Yenisei habitat.


This seems to have opened the path to the Ting-ling to occupy the Kazakh steppes. The Wei-lüeh by Yü Huan (mid-3rd century A.D.) places them north of K'ang-chü in a region that provided access to the fur trade of the forest and lesostep' zone. They are described as nomads, capable of producing 60,00 soldiers. Subsequently, the Chinese accounts identify their southerly groupings with the T'ieh-lé.


Kyzlasov has put forward the following reconstruction of Kyrgyz ethnogenesis : the Turkic Chien-k'un and their neighbors, the Tingling (Tagar culture), were attacked by the Hsiung-nu in 201 B.C.


Some Ting-ling, pushed northward and mixed with the Chien-k’un (Kyrgyz/Tashtyk culture in the Minusin Basin). The Chien-k’un and Hsiung-nu introduced new cultural elements (e.g. cremation of the dead) associated with the nomadic world of Central Asia. In the mid-1st century B.C., clashes with the Hsiungnu of Chih-chih brought more Chien-k’un to the Minusin Ваѕіп.


"Khakas" became the name for the whole of this mixed Chien-k’un (Kyrgyz)-Ting-ling state.” - Peter B. Golden


"On the Yenisei, where the Europoid Dinglin people had long lived, a new group of tribes (the Kyrgyz) emerged as a result of the mixing of the Dinglins with the Huns and Xianbei, known in Chinese sources as Ge-gun or Jian-gun" (same source; should be: Ge-kun, Jian-kun). – Alexander Nathanovich Bernshtam


“The Khirgisüür, etymologically linked to Kirgizstan, is a burial monument consisting of a central stone mound, stone enclosure, and external satellite mounds and circles. A stone burial chamber was usually found under the central stone mound.” - Ma, Jian; Wang, Yinchen


"However, some of the most impressive deer stone groupings, such as those at Ushkiin-Uver and Tsatsyn Ereg, are also found in the vicinity of khirgisuur. For that reason, it has become a rule of thumb among many archaeologists that deer stones belong together with khirgisuur in a single culture, one referred to as the “Deer Stone-Khirgisuur Complex” (DSK).


The cultural phenomenon denoted as the “Deer Stone-Khirgisuur Complex” has, for better or worse, become widely accepted, but primarily by reference to materials within the central Mongolian aimags.


Within the Altai region, despite one major, surviving coincidence of deer stones and khirgisuur (Tsagaan Asga), burial mounds of the early Scythian Pazyryk culture are the only monument type with which deer stones are regularly associated.


This fact suggests that it might be fair to test the validity of the DSK concept by what we can find in the Mongolian Altai and specifically in Bayan Ölgiy aimag.". - Jacobson-Tepfer, Esther


🧬 DNA Science Data:


“Haplogroup R1a1, more specifically, its subclade R1a1a1b2 (defined by mutation Z93), is the genetic marker of the Indo-European pastoralists, who migrated from modern-day Ukraine to modern-day Iran, India, the Kazakh steppes, the Tarim Basin, the Altai Mountains region, the Yenisei River region, and western Mongolia during the Bronze Age.


Naturally, R1a1, more specifically, its subclade R1a1a1b2 (R1a-Z93), occurs at high frequency among the Turkic peoples now residing in the Yenisei River and the Altai Mountains regions in Russia.


Compared to the Tuvinians, the Khakass (whose name was created by the Soviets from Xiajiasi (黠戛斯), a Chinese name for Kyrgyz, since they were regarded as descending from the Kyrgyz have noticeably higher percentages of R1a1 (35.2%) and much lower percentages of haplogroups C (1.1%) and Q (4%). However, N is also the most prevalent haplogroup (50%) of the Khakass (Gubina et al. 2013: 339; Shi et al. 2013)


As for the Altaians, the Altai-Kizhi (southern Altaians) are characterised by a high percentage of R1a1 (50%) and low to moderate percentages of C2 (20%), Q (16.7%) and N (4.2%) (Dulik et al. 2012: 234).


 The major differences between the Khakass and the southern Altaians are the lower frequency of haplogroup N (in another study, haplogroup N is found at high frequency (32%) among the Altaians in general: see Gubina et al. 2013: 329, 339) and the higher frequencies of haplogroups C2 and Q among the latter.


The descent of the Kyrgyz (Kyrgyz) of the Tien Shan Mountains region (Kyrgyzstan) from the Yenisei Kyrgyz is debated among historians.


However, among the modern Turkic peoples, the former have the highest percentage of R1a1 (over 60%). Since the West Eurasian physiognomy of the Yenisei Kyrgyz recorded in the Xin Tangshu was in all likelihood a reflection of their Eurasian Indo-European marker R1a1a1b2 (R1a-Z93), one may conjecture that the Tien Shan Kyrgyz received their R1a1 marker from the Yenisei Kyrgyz. That is, the former are descended from the latter.


The other Y-chromosome haplogroups found among the Kyrgyz (Kyrgyz) are C2 (12~20%), O (0~15%) and N (0~4.5%).50 The lack of haplogroup Q among the Qirghiz (Kyrgyz) mostly distinguishes them from the Altaians.


During the Bronze Age and early Iron Age, the Yenisei River region was inhabited by Indo-Europeans. The dna study of 26 ancient human specimens from the Krasnoyarsk area dated from the middle of the second millennium bc to the fourth century ad shows that the Yenisei pastoralists mostly belonged to haplogroup R1a1 (Keyser et al. 2009: 401)


The high frequency of R1a1 among the modern-day Kyrgyz and Altaians may thus prove that they are descended from the Yenisei Kyrgyz. In addition, this may explain the reason why medieval Chinese histories depict the Kyrgyz as possessing West Eurasian physiognomy.


The Y-chromosomes of the Kök Türks have not been studied. After the collapse of the Second Türk Khaganate in 745 ce, the Kök Türks became dispersed and it is difficult to identify their modern descendants.


If they were indeed descended from the Eastern Scythians aka Saka (Suo) or related to the Kyrgyz, as the Zhoushu states (Zhoushu 50.908), the Ashina (royal Türkic dynasty, possibly related to the Turko-Jewish Khazar Khaganate, according to Peter B. Golden of Rutgers University) may have belonged to the R1a1 lineage.” - Joo-Yup Lee and Shuntu Kuang, University of Toronto, Canada


Source: “A Comparative Analysis of Chinese Historical Sources and Y-DNA Studies with Regard to the Early and Medieval Turkic Peoples’

Authors: Joo-Yup Lee and Shuntu Kuang from, the University of Toronto of Canada


“Kyrgyz are an admixed population between the East and the West. Different patterns have been observed in the patrilineal gene pool of the Kyrgyz. Historically, ancient Kyrgyz were considered to be the Yenisei Kyrgyz that may perhaps be concerned with the Tashtyk culture.


Extremely low Y-diversity and the presence of a high-frequency 68.9% Y-chromosome haplogroup R1a1-M17 (a diagnostic Indo-Iranian marker are striking features of Kyrgyz populations in central Asia. It is believed that this lineage is associated with Indo-Europeans who migrated to the Altai region during the Bronze Age and mixed with various Turkic groups.


Among the Asian R1a1a1b2-Z93 lineages, R1a1a1b2a2-Z2125 is quite common in Kyrgyzstan (68%) and Afghan Pashtuns (40%), and less frequent in other Afghan ethnic groups and some Caucasus and Iran populations (10%). Notably, the basal lineage R1a1a1b2-Z93* is commonly distributed in the South Siberian Altai region of Russia.


According to the published ancient DNA data, we found that, in Middle Bronze Age, Haplogroup R1a1a1b2a2a- Z2125 was mainly found in Sintashta culture population from Kamennyi Ambar 5 cemetery, western Siberia, in Fedorovo type of the Andronovo culture or Karasuk culture population from Minusinsk Basin, southern Siberia, and in Andronovo culture populations from Maitan, Ak-Moustafa, Aktogai, Kazakh Mys, Satan, Oy-Dzhaylau III, Karagash 2, Dali, and Zevakinskiy stone fence, Kazakhstan.” (Wen, Shao-qing; Du, Pan-xin; Sun, Chang; Cui, Wei; Xu, Yi-ran; Meng, Hai-liang; Shi, Mei-sen; Zhu, Bo-feng; Li, Hui (March 2022)


Source: "Dual origins of the Northwest Chinese Kyrgyz: the admixture of Bronze age Siberian and Medieval Niru'un Mongolian Y chromosomes", Nature


Authors: Wen, Shao-qing; Du, Pan-xin; Sun, Chang; Cui, Wei; Xu, Yi-ran; Meng, Hai-liang; Shi, Mei-sen; Zhu, Bo-feng; Li, Hui (March 2022)


“The modern-day descendants of the Yenisei Kyrgyz, the Kyrgyz people, have one of the highest frequencies of haplogroup R1a-Z93. This lineage believed to be associated with Indo-Iranians who migrated to the Altai region in the Bronze Age, and is carried by various Türkic groups. The Zhoushu [the book of the Zhou Dynasty] (Linghu Defen 2003, Chapter 50, p. 908) informs us that the Ashina, the royal clan of the Kök Türks, were related to the Kyrgyz.


If so, the Ashina may have belonged to the R1a1 lineage like the modern-day Tienshan Kyrgyz, who are characterised by the high frequency of R1a1 (over 65%). Haplogroup R1a1, more specifically, its sub- clade R1a1a1b2 defined by mutation Z93, was carried by the Indo-European pastoralists, who reached the Kazakh steppes, the Tarim Basin, the Altai Mountains region, the Yenisei River region, and western Mongolia from the Black Sea steppes during the Bronze Age (Semino et al. 2000, p. 1156, Lee, Joo-Yup (2018)


Source: Lee, Joo-Yup (2018). "Some remarks on the Turkicisation of the Mongols in post-Mongol Central Asia and the Kipchak Steppe ''. Acta Orientalia Academiae Scientiarum Hungaricae. 71 (2): 121–124. doi:10.1556/062.2018.71.2.1. ISSN 0001-6446. S2CID 133847698.


Kazakh DNA researcher Zhaxylyk Sabitov states: “Until the 9th century, the Kyrgyz lived along the Yenisei River in the Minusinsk Basin. In the 9th century, the Yenisei Kyrgyz migrated to the Altai and Irtysh regions.


“From 1326 to 1329, some Altai Kyrgyz moved to Semirechye and the territory of modern Kyrgyzstan.” He also published DNA sample data from the Sintashta culture, which he claims “is related to the Altai and modern Kyrgyz, while the Arban-1 samples from the Karasuk culture are ancestral to modern Kyrgyz. Genetic data from Arzhan complex (8th century BCE) also show parental genes of the Kyrgyz.”


It is known that the structure of Arzhan has similarities with the Sintashta-Andronovo kurgans (M.P. Gryaznov). It is known that Saka tribes lived in the territory of Kyrgyzstan, and later the Wusun tribe arrived from the east. The high percentage of R1a1 among the Kyrgyz appeared through three routes: from the Saka tribes, from the Wusun Sakas, and from the Dingling tribes. There is also a theory about the migration of part of the Yenisei Kyrgyz to the territory of modern Kyrgyzstan.” (Zhaxylyk Sabitov)


Source: “Historical-Genetic Approach in the Study of the Ethnogenesis and Material Culture of the Ancient Kyrgyz” - International Journal of Experimental Education


“The land of Modern Kyrgyzstan, populated at the turn of the eras by the Saka and Wusun tribes, was overrun by the Yenisei Kyrgyzes (Khakasses) in the 8th c. AD.


Since Kyrgyzstan is a natural mountain fortress of the Tian Shan mountains, it is an island similar to the Lithuanian Tatars, with high genetic inertia and limited influences. Essentially, all four are Scythians, the Saka Scythians, Wusun Scythians, Yenisei Kyrgyz Scythians, and the Lithuanian Tatar Scythians.”


Source: “The Lithuanian Tatars: DNA Ancestry Traced To The Eurasian Steppes”, Academy of DNA-Genealogy, Tsukuba, Japan, Igor Rozhanski


"Samples from the burials of the Andronovo, Tagar, and Tashtyk cultures were identified using Y-STR analysis, which allows for the comparison of these samples with each other and with samples from representatives of different populations, both ancient and modern.


The Andronovo haplotypes S10 and S16 have the following structure:


ANDRON S10, S16:

13-25-16-11-11-14-10-14-11-18-15-14-11-16-20-12-23


The greatest number of matches is observed with the Tian Shan Kyrgyz and the Southern Altaians. Complete matches of haplotypes in populations that are geographically close and share a common history are possible only in cases of genetic relationship; random matches are unlikely.


Thus, the Southern Altaians and the Tien Shan Kyrgyz are likely descendants of close relatives of the Yenisei Andronovites, most likely the descendants of the Altai Andronovites. It is well established by linguists and ethnographers that there is close linguistic and ethnic kinship between the Kyrgyz and the Southern Altaians (Baskakov, 1966: 15-16).


These peoples share the same names for their clan divisions (Mundus, Telos-Doolos, Kipchak, Naiman, Merkit, etc.). Kyrgyz legends refer to Altai as the ancestral home of their people. Several historians believe that the Kyrgyz and Southern Altaians once formed a single community and that the migration of the Kyrgyz from Altai to Tien Shan occurred relatively recently (Abramzon, 1959: 34; Abdumanapov, 2007: 95, 114).


Source: Volkov V.G., Kharkov V.N., Stepanov V.A. Andronovo and Tagar cultures in light of genetic data."

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