Technical report on results of laser scanning of the Por-Bajin Island on Tere-Khol Lake (Republic of Tuva), in Russian only.

Origin

Mysterious ruins on the small island on a taiga lake drew the attention of travelers and scientists a long time ago. The rumors about the city “on the top of the Yenisey River” reached Semen Remezov – a famous author of chronicles, Siberian cartographer. On his “Sketch of land of Krasnoyarsk region” at the coast of the lake in the river head of Yenisei, the city is conditionally specified and there is such inscription: “stone city old two walls are safe, two are destroyed, but the city is unknown”.

The discovery of Dmitri Klementz

The fortress was studied for the first time in 1891 by the ethnographer and archeologist D.A.Klementz, participant of the Russian Orhonsk expedition in the Middle of Mongolia. Along with the examination of the monument, Klementz made a visual draft of its plan. In the archeological diary published by Klementz there is some information about Por-Bajin. Klementz considered that this monument in Tuva “takes the first place among antiquities”. Also he indicated the similarity of the external ruins on the Tere-Khol River with the remains of the Kara-Balgasun city on the Orhon River, in Mongolia. He supposed that the constructors of Por-Bajin were “not the Mongolians or the Chinese and hardly the Kidans and the Djurdjens. Most likely they were the same nation or related nation to the nation of the builders of the ancient Karakuroma. At the end of his message, Klementz says with regret: “But which and whose this town is – we don’t know”.

Research of Sevian Weinstein

The further research of the fortress was kept on only during the Soviet epoch. For the first time the research worker of the Institute of Ethnology and Anthropology Academy of Sciences of USSR S.I. Weinstein visited Por-Bajin in 1952. He collected elevating material, made the description and the plan of the island. In a small article published after the expedition he supposed (after D.A.Klements), that monument had been built by Uigurs during Uigur kaganate (the middle of VIII - middle of IX century).

The excavations of Por-Bajin were started by Sevian Weinstein in 1957. In 1963 the excavations were continued by the East Tuvinian group of the Tuva expedition of the Institute of ethnography and the Academy of Sciences of the USSR together with the scientific research institute of language, literature and history, and also the Tuva republican museum. M. Mannai-ool (scientific researcher), S. Bice-ool, T.Liberman (architector), P.Demchev (artist), and also diggers – for the most part members of the collective kolkhoz “Tere-Khol” took part in the excavations with Weinstein.

In his article “Ancient Por-Bajin”, published in 1964 in the «Soviet ethnography» magazine he made an attempt of the complex historical analysis and the description of this historical monument. In particular, he wrote: "Por-Bajin is located on an island of approximately 6 hectares. The island is located approximately in two kilometers from the wetland of the southern coast of the lake, it is covered by dense grass and bushes. Practically the whole area of the island is occupied by the fortress. According to the plan the fortress is rectangular and the walls are oriented towards the cardinal points. The length of the fortress is about 211 m, and its width is 158 m. Its walls, even though they are destroyed by time, rise on a height of about 10 m. The walls were wattle-and-daub; they kept the remains of the cross-sectional and longitudinal laid wooden poles with a thickness up to 15 cm. In the middle of the eastern wall are located the gates with consolidated towers. The entrance ramps, parallel to the walls, rise on these towers from the interior parts of the fortress. In the southwest corner of the fortress are saved the remains of the tower moved out”.

Inside the fortress, near the walls, archeologists have discovered 27 dwellings and service constructions. The external inspection, as well as the excavation of some of them allowed to establish that the dwellings were about 7х8 m and consisted of two rooms. Each dwelling had a small court yard separated from the next by a low wattle-and-daub wall.

In the central part of the fortress two buildings were discovered. The first building was raised on a thick basis – a stylobate, a platform made of carefully rammed clay and soil and decorated by burnt bricks. From the eastern side two wide eight stepped main stairs made of plates and bricks leaded to these buildings. The roof of the building was supported by 36 massive wooden columns leaned on granite bases. In the excavated part of the first building some rooms of various purposes were discovered. During excavation ornamental frescos were also found, mainly of geometrical forms, executed in surprisingly bright, warm colours with prevalence of red, orange and yellow tones.

To the West from the first building a second building was located, connected to the first by a covered passage. In the building there are several rooms, the roof is covered by a cylindrical tile and supported by eight columns, leaned on granite bases. Both buildings, in S.I.Vajnshtejn's opinion, formed a palace complex which was lost as a result of a strong fire. All wooden parts of the building were severely burnt, and some of them were burned down almost completely. Near to the second building in 1963 was discovered a barn, there on the floor multiple fragments of ceramics were found. In the floor was discovered a carefully laid treasure made of 101 iron forging bars.

Also the participants of the expedition assumed that the stone stele, raised on a small hill on the shore opposite to Por-Bajin, was also connected to the fortress. On the south-east plane of the stele was found a runic alphabet inscription.

Ancient Uigur settlements of Leonid Kyzlasov

A real breakthrough in studying the monuments of the Uigur culture in the territory of Siberia, became the research of L.R.Kyzlasov, lead within the limits of expeditions of the Moscow State University of M.V.Lomonosov.

In the collective monograph "Steppes of Eurasia during the Middle Ages epoch", Leonid Kyzlasov described in detail the history of foundation of Uigur settlements and fortress on the territory of Tuva. He noted that during Uigur epoch was built a huge system of boundary fortifications, protecting the kaganate from the north side. Its beginning was in the north of the Hemchik River and passed through its valley, crossing the river Chaadan, the outfall Ulug-Hema and then went on the left shore of the Ulug-Khem between its inflows Chaa-hol and Baryk. On the entire extent 17 fortresses were located. All of them represented quadrangles from 0,6 up to 18, 2 hectares surrounded by thick cob walls or walls made of brick raw. Some walls had round defense towers, located on corners or near the gate. The fortresses protected the central Tuva from the side of the Sayan edge from any possible intrusion of northern neighbors – the ancient Khakases.

Some fortresses were administrative centers at the same time. Five fortresses of this kind were located in the area of Shagonara city.

In 1977, Leonid Kyzlasov discovered an earlier unknown fortress on the left shore of the Hemchik, the swampy Edegey River. It was located on a low plateau to the northeast from a low hill, called Malgash-Bazhyn. On the left shore of the Hemchik, L.R.Kyzlasov researched one more fortress – Balgash-Bazhyn, its remains are located in the middle of the Bora-Taiga settlement.

Research of Vladimir Semenov and Marina Kilunovskaya

In 2003 and 2005, the Committee on Protection of Historical and Cultural Heritage of the Republic of Tuva in association with research workers of the Institute of History of Material Culture of the Russian Academy of Science in the name of V.A.Semenov and M.E.Kilunovskaya carried out an expedition on research of the fortress.

During the first research a modern fortress was discovered and was collected some small elevating material. The basic purpose of this expedition was to research the ancient landfill on the island Chavaatyr neighboring with Por-Bajin, where were discovered washed away remains of a big height soldier, presumably of European type. The presumable landfill is dated to the XV-XVI centuries, discoveries - tips of arrows-whistles, a spear, remains of wooden utensils, fabrics, and bone and iron products.

A part of the gathered material is placed in the funds of the Archeological service of the Republic of Tuva, the remains of the soldier - in the museum of Kungurtuk.

The researches of 2005 lead together with the archeologist from Japan - Tezu Masumoto, confirmed the participation of the Sogdians - natives of China in the construction of the fortress; with the help of Tezu Masumoto were brought analogies to the similar building technology, which existed in China in antiquity and till now, noticed in the architecture of ancient monasteries.

Also Tezu Masumoto confirmed that most likely, the fortress was first of all a temple construction. This is indicated by the building arrangement, as well as the assumption that the central, so-called "palace" construction was a two-storeyed temple. For the full confirmation of this theory it is necessary to conduct a full research of the given monument, carrying out extensive excavation works in order to reveal the remains of material culture. The excavation lead by S.I.Weinstein in 50s-60s included only the central premise and the adjoining workshop premise which gave only partial information. The necessity to carry out excavations is also required by the fact that the shores of the island where the fortress is located are washed away by water. There is an assumption, that the fortress was constructed in a valley where then a lake was formed, surrounding the fortress. But the process of flooding is continuing and the lake is constantly extending, therefore there is a danger of washing out and collapsing of fortress walls, which can lead to the full disappearance of this unique monument of history and culture.