Cross Pendants from the Monastic Complex of Churches at the Ancient Settlement of Ak-BeshimАрхеологические вестиSyriaca.org: The Syriac Reference PortalThe National Endowment for the HumanitiesThe International Balzan Prize FoundationDavid A. Michelsoncbsc_adminRecord added to Zotero bycbsc_adminSyriaca.org: The Syriac Reference Portalhttp://syriaca.org/cbss/K4F8JXZN/tei
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2025-05-20-05:00
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CREATED: This bibl record was autogenerated from a Zotero record.Bakyt E.AmanbaevaAnna A.MikheevaKazuyaYamauchiCross Pendants from the Monastic Complex of Churches at the Ancient Settlement of Ak-Beshimhttp://syriaca.org/cbss/K4F8JXZNhttps://www.zotero.org/groups/a_comprehensive_bibliography_on_syriac_studies/items/K4F8JXZNhttps://www.zotero.org/groups/4861694/items/K4F8JXZNАрхеологические вести372022201-213In spring of 2021, archaeological excavations were resumed after a long interruption at a monastic complex of churches of the 10th–11th centuries in the south-eastern section of the site of Ak-Beshim (Kyrgyzstan). While digging in the area of the external southern wall of structure “А”, we retrieved a well-preserved nephrite equal-arm cross. A similar nephrite cross was found in room No. 5 of the same complex during G. L. Semenov’s excavations; two crosses were found not far from our site at the settlement of Krasnaya Rechka, and a nephrite pendant with a green stone in the centre of the cross was revealed in the Kazakhstan part of the Chuya valley — at the fortified site of Aktobe (Stepninskoye). An examination and comparative analysis of the Ak-Beshim cross showed that this object had not been finished possibly thrown away because of the loss of one of the bars of the cross. The terminals of the cross arms are schematically shaped, the eye for threading a cord had not been made, the bars of the cross were not levelled — all these facts suggest that we are dealing not with a completed/ready object but rather with its blank. Taking in account the dimensions of the cross it is likely that it would have been worn over the clothes. The stylistic features and the shape of the cross have parallels at sites of the Nestorian Christianity in China, East Turkestan and, in the subsequent period, in Inner Mongolia. It must be noted that no direct analogues are here involved — at present, nephrite crosses are known only in the region of Semirechye (Zhetysu). The finding of the Ak-Beshim cross allows us to suggest the presence of manufacturing workshops at the monastic complex of churches when it was functioning. Nephrite, both in the form of ready products and as raw material was imported to the region under consideration from East Turkestan, from Khotan and Yarkand, or with trade caravans passing from China.
Amanbaeva, Bakyt E., Anna A. Mikheeva, and Kazuya Yamauchi. “Cross Pendants from the Monastic Complex of Churches at the Ancient Settlement of Ak-Beshim.” Археологические вести 37 (2022): 201–13. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.31600/1817-6976-2022-37-201-213.
Bakyt E. Amanbaeva, Anna A. Mikheeva, and Kazuya Yamauchi, Cross Pendants from the Monastic Complex of Churches at the Ancient Settlement of Ak-Beshim,Археологические вести 37 (2022): 201–13, https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.31600/1817-6976-2022-37-201-213.