CC BY
18OF PRESERVATION AND USE OF STONE MONUMENTS IN
PARTICULAR ISSUES
Tuychibaev Bahodir Basymovich
Candidate of historical sciences, associate professor of Gulistan State University https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.7841891
Abstract. The number of archaeological monuments in the territory of our country has been decreasing sharply in recent years. Unlike other archeological monuments, ancient rock paintings are considered to be at high risk of disappearing under the influence of anthropogenic factors. Ancient rock paintings are an integral part of nature, and it is considered a very difficult issue to preserve them from human influence. Ancient rock and cave images are an open-air museum. That is why it is important to preserve them and bring them to the attention of the general public in a meaningful way.
Keywords: primitive art, the spiritual world, Nio andLascaux in France, Altamir in Spain, Kapova in the Russian Federation, Ignatevsky Paleolithic rock art monuments, Red Rock Canyon in Nevada, Zarautkamar, Sarmishsoy, open-air museum, ancient rock art monuments, petroglyphs, tourism, documentation of rock monuments, rock image database, tourist guides.
Actuality. Today, there is great interest in visiting historical places: urban settlements, religious and religious centers, holy places. Visiting ancient sites is central to many tourist programs and routes. Some famous archaeological centers are being turned into open-air museums.
Primitive art reflects the first ideas about the world around a person, serves to preserve his knowledge and skills and leave them to the next generation. As much as the stone weapon played an important role in the activity of the primitive period, art has such an important importance in the formation of the spiritual world of the primitive man. These monuments, which were created in the era when human writing was not discovered, serve as an important source that expresses the economy and religious outlook of people of ancient times.
According to the information of the Ministry of Culture, the number of archaeological monuments preserved in the territory of our country was 4308 in 2019. If we compare this number with the number of monuments in the 30s of the 20th century, 14,500, and in the 80s of the 20th century, about 7,000 [1- 115 p.]. It should be noted that more than 70% of archaeological monuments have disappeared in the last 90 years. Unlike other archeological monuments, ancient rock paintings are considered to be at high risk of disappearing under the influence of anthropogenic factors. Ancient rock paintings are an integral part of nature, and it is considered a very difficult issue to preserve them from human influence. They cannot be turned into museum exhibits like material objects found in other monuments. Ancient rock and cave images are an open-air museum. That is why it is important to preserve them and bring them to the attention of the general public in a meaningful way. Due to the growing interest in the historical past in recent years, preservation of historical sources and making them available to the general public remains one of the important issues.
Methods and level of study. It is known that one of the unwritten rules that archaeologists followed for a long time was to hide the locations of stone monuments from the general public. But this way did not justify itself. Historical monuments cannot be hidden from the public. Curious people have always sought to see such monuments. Especially with the development of modern
mass information technologies, electronic encyclopedias, and various other sources on the Internet, this has become impossible. As for the famous (Zarautkamar, Sarmishsay) rock monuments located in Uzbekistan, photos of these petroglyphs and a lot of information about their location can be found in special literature, tourist guides and Internet resources.
In recent years, many examples of rock and cave art have been turned into places of pilgrimage in various countries. European specialists have a lot of experience in the preservation and museumization of stone monuments. The Paleolithic cave monuments of Nio and Lascaux in France and Altamir in Spain are open to visitors. Rock paintings in Kapova, Ignatevsky caves in the Ural Federal District in the Shulgan-Tash reserve of the Republic of Bashkortostan, Russian Federation, are also included in the tourist programs as an open-air museum.
Today, about 180 monuments of rock paintings in the chronological sequence from the Mesolithic to the late Middle Ages have been identified in the mountainous and foothill regions of Uzbekistan. Famous rock art monuments in the territory of Uzbekistan during the 20th century Zarautsaya images [2, 3, 4, 5] Suratlisoi and Okhna rock monuments (on the northern slopes of the Aloy mountains) [6 p.75-80], Khojakent rock monuments (western Tien-Shan, on the southeastern slope of the Karjontog mountain) [7 p.188], Sarmishsay rock paintings (southern part of the Karatog ridge, which is part of the western Tien-Shan, Nurota ridge) [9. p.17], Eshma rock paintings (northern slopes of the Oloy ridge, southern part of Qatrantog), Yangariqsoy gorge rock paintings (northern slope of Karantog peak) [12], Suratlisoy [13], Varzik rock images [14.p. 16. 15, p. 55-67], many monuments such as the Qorqiyasay monument (on the southern slope of Korjantog), the Khojakent monument (the western slope of the Chotkal Gorge), the Saikhonsoy monuments (the northern slopes of the Turkistan ridge) [16], the Aksaqolotasoy monuments (the Aktoq and Karatog branches of the Nurota ridge) [16] identified and studied.
Among them, Zarautkamar cave, Sarmishsay petroglyphs, images of Khojakent, Suratlisoy, Karaqiyasoy, Bukantau are considered famous among the scientific community [8. p. 173. 18].
For expert archeologists, the study of rock and cave paintings is considered a primary concern. Some experts believe that rock photography objects are not for the general public, but only for science. Of course, while studying these monuments as a special research object is an important issue for science, it is also important to bring them to the attention of the general public.
Research results. Below, we aim to focus on the processes involved in transforming these ancient rock monuments into open-air museums.
As a result of the hidden location approach to preservation of monuments, visits to places where invaluable historical resources are located are left unsupervised and left to their own devices. At the same time, state structures for the protection of historical monuments do not feel their obligation to ensure the safety of rock images and do not take constructive measures. This situation is observed in many rock monuments around the world.
It is necessary to form a regulatory legal framework for the activity of rock monuments open-air museums. The legal framework should determine the use of open-air museums and their legal status. In the organization of open-air museums, the activity of evaluating the state of monuments is important. In this process, technical studies carried out by qualified specialists who have the authority to determine the condition of the rock paintings and propose the necessary measures for their preservation play an important role. While monitoring the state of preservation of stone monuments, the state of the adjacent areas should not be neglected.
The conversion of ancient rock and cave images into open-air museums requires significant financial costs and special research. Therefore, it is necessary to develop special complex programs to solve the problems of preservation of rock paintings for long periods of time.
In the documentation of the monument, it is important to create a detailed description, to form a general understanding of the monument, and to create a database that allows you to monitor its periodic changes. For the formation of such a database, it is necessary to involve a team of specialists with special, narrow specializations, such as biologists, geologists, restorers. But the initial description of the monument is formed by archaeologists. In the general database of the monument, it is necessary to give information about its general description, factors affecting the stone monument, i.e., the surface of the monument is covered with lichens or calcite, its exposure to erosion or anthropogenic influences.
Of course, it is impossible that the mass visit of people does not affect the external condition of the monument. Petroglyphs located on the surface of rocks are often not visible under sunlight and therefore are not protected from damage caused by various factors. Naturally, it is impossible to protect petroglyph monuments from various natural and anthropogenic threats. Therefore, it is necessary to take measures to protect and restore them. In the matter of museologicalization of rock monuments, each monument needs an individual approach. That is, the primary issue should be the protection of monuments. A certain part of this work is carried out by archaeologists or open-air museum specialists. But direct work with monuments should be done by qualified specialists.
The work related to the preservation of stone monuments can be divided into the following
stages:
Stage 1: Keeping the rock monument imaged object under constant control. For example, keeping the territory of the museum clean, cleaning the level of horizontal rock monuments from dust and dirt.
Stage 2: Protection from external factors affecting the stone monument. That is, removing vegetation and tree branches blocking the rock monument surface, controlling that rain and snow water does not fall on the rock surface, and that runoff does not damage the surface of the rock.
Stage 3: Partial reconstruction of the rock images, returning it to its original appearance. That is, cleaning the rock surface from lichens.
Stage 4: Reconstruction of rock images. At this stage, restoration of partially damaged or damaged images to the monument is carried out. Stage 3 and 4 work related to the preservation of stone monuments should be carried out by qualified specialists [17. p. 179-180. 19].
Converting ancient art monuments into open-air museums can also be used for educational and commercial purposes. People living around historical monuments have the opportunity to improve their material condition by actively participating in the creation of tourist infrastructure. In addition to the scientific and commercial aspects of the issue, aesthetic, spiritual and religious factors should also be taken into account. Everyone tries to find interesting information and answers to their questions from these monuments. Therefore, it is necessary to evaluate these monuments based on their social significance, not only to evaluate them scientifically.
The installation of information boards that provide information about the monuments will help protect the works of ancient artists from accidental damage. On the other hand, they can draw too much attention to the rock paintings and cause damage to them.
Given that long-term preservation of the object is a primary concern, some monuments may not be open-air museums and may be closed to the public. Such monuments may include small, inconvenient places, fragile rock images, rare or religious monuments. Other monuments may be open to the public under certain conditions.
The first of these conditions is that rock monuments must be perfectly documented and changes in it must be constantly monitored. Today, the global experience of attracting permanent specialist staff for issues such as protection and preservation of material monuments, that is, constant monitoring of the state of monuments, keeping the environment clean, has shown its results. Clean, neat and tidy open-air museums increase the value of the monuments. The lack of cleaning of the areas where the monuments are located, lack of care, shows their lack of importance and causes a disrespectful attitude that leads to the damage or destruction of the rock paintings.
The second condition is that, based on the condition and nature of the monuments, the visit schedules of the expected tourist flows should be regulated. Monuments should be visited by small tour groups and a special infrastructure created for them. For example, it is necessary to build special corridors for walking, viewing platforms for objects, special barriers separating pilgrims from the monument. Installation of visitor registration offices, road signs, and information boards in open-air museums is considered effective. An example of this is the national parks in the United States of America. Here you can see the rock monuments on foot, by bicycle, by car or quad bike. In such parks, visitors have the opportunity to observe the monuments from special places, and even conditions have been created for people with disabilities to go close to the monuments and observe them. A vivid example of an open-air museum under such conditions is the rock paintings in the Red Rock Canyon National Park in Nevada.
The third requirement is that any visitation program in open-air museums must have an explanatory and informative educational component. It should be taken into account that how visitors are presented with information about these monuments and how they create imagination will determine the behavior of visitors. People appreciate and respect things that they understand the meaning of. Although the meaning of many ancient petroglyphs is abstract even to experts, today there is a database that can be used to interpret any petroglyph object. Even in cases where complete information about the monument is not available, it is possible to create a database based on the concepts already formed on the basis of local local history and ethnographic data, in which the existing archaeological contexts can be used. In addition to providing scientific hypotheses about the origin and interpretation of rock paintings, local tales and legends can also be used. All this together allows you to understand the history of the country and dive into the mysterious past [17. P.179-180. 20].
Basic knowledge about rock paintings and monuments can be found in regional tourist guides. This allows you to prepare in advance for the visit of pilgrims. It helps to form general knowledge about what visitors see, what information the monument gives, and about ancient images. The practice of providing visitors with audio guides in different languages in open-air museums in Europe has proven to be effective. This allows the tourist to explore the monument independently at a convenient time, or spend more time on some images that interest him and travel independently.
There can be both positive and negative consequences of tourists visiting rock art monuments. On the one hand, the flow of visitors negatively affects their situation. But on the other hand, public interest in rock paintings puts an end to and draws attention to the problems
associated with them, that is, the practice of responsible organizations not doing any work on these objects.
Conclusion. Today, the importance of the income that the tourism industry can bring is increasing more and more. In some areas, such income can be very large. Sooner or later, it is inevitable that rock art monuments will be included in tourist programs. Therefore, finding ways to combine these visits with the preservation of these unique monuments remains one of the main tasks today. Organized tours, sometimes on a commercial or non-commercial basis, can be one of the ways to preserve these unique monuments for the long term. Especially if we take into account that until now some unique monuments are being visited by the public in an irregular and uncontrolled manner, this issue remains a very urgent task.
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