YENISEI KYRGYZ “FORTS” IN THE RUSSIAN REPORTS OF THE 17TH CENTURY AND THE ARCHAEOLOGICAL REALITY*

The article aims to refute the view that the information of Russian written sources of the 17th century on the existence of “stone forts” belonging to the Yenisei Kyrgyz, which could serve as shelters during the period of military danger, is erroneous. This view has become common in Russian scholarly literature. The followers of this view believe that the slabs which were set vertically on the burial mounds of the Tagar culture, were mistaken for a stone fort on the Bely Iyus River; the fortification at the mouth of the Syda River was not a fortress, but the simplest “defense walls and loopholes” on a mountain top; the stone wall on the “Tagyr Island” on the Yenisei River was not an artificial structure, but a natural formation. Based on our field research in these areas, it was found that the stone fort on the Bely Iyus that appears in the sources of the 17th century, could be Mount Pervy Sunduk with a long stone wall protecting access to its elevated and steep part. A large structure with two lines of robust stone and earthen wall-ramparts is actually present on Mount Unyuk near the mouth of the Syda. The remains of a wall more than 1 km long made of Devonian sandstone slabs and defending a large area on the flattened top of a mountain, can be clearly seen on “Tagyr Island” (currently, Kamenny Island) on the Yenisei River. Thus, Russian explorers knew the territory which they traveled through and adequately reflected its main features in their reports.