Kalbak-Tash III Chuyozy Confluence
Калбак-Таш III Чуя-Озы · Chuyozy Mouth Petroglyphs · Chuya-Katun Fork
Bronze Age to Turkic·Afanasievo, Andronovo, Pazyryk, Ancient Turk·🇷🇺 Altai Republic, Onguday–Shebalino District, Chuya-Katun confluence zone, Chuyozy mouth, Russia
About
About Kalbak-Tash III Chuyozy Confluence
Rocky promontory 800 m south of the Chuya–Katun confluence, 7 km downstream of main Kalbak-Tash, where the two rivers meet beneath a 40-m granite bluff. The bluff foot exposes glacial polish with 130+ petroglyphs: Bronze Age carts and sun-wheels, Pazyryk deer superimposing them, and a unique 1.8-m Turkic inscription with tamga marking the ford toll point. The site controlled the Bronze Age Chuya Trakt ford — the only winter crossing of the combined river — explaining its condensed high-status iconography versus the diffuse Kalbak-Tash linear gallery. Three Pazyryk kurgans on the bluff top seal Turkic slabs.
Why it mattersSacred confluence rock-art controlling the only winter ford of the Chuya–Katun, with palimpsest sun-wheel→deer→runes.
Open questions
Mysteries & theories
Mysteries
- 01Translation of tamga–rune ford inscription
- 02Solar wheel link to Okunev
Theories
- 01Confluence toll claimed via cliff marks
- 02Pazyryk chieftain cemetery marking
Theories are interpretations, not findings. The seal above tells you how much scholarly weight the place carries.
History
How it came to be
- Built
- c.2000 BCE–800 CE (Early Bronze to Turkic)
- Period
- Bronze Age to Turkic
- Culture
- Afanasievo, Andronovo, Pazyryk, Ancient Turk
- Builders
- Altai confluence ford custodians
- Purpose
- Ford-toll marking and sun-wheel ritual at sacred river meeting
- Abandoned
- c.850 CE
- Rediscovered
- 1995 Molodin confluence survey; 2003 Polosmak bluff kurgans
- Excavation
- Partially excavated
c.1500 BCE
Sun-wheel and cart carving
c.400 BCE
Pazyryk deer superimposition
c.700 CE
Turkic ford inscription with tamga
On the ground
Structures & features
50.4200° N · 86.6800° E · 860 m · 2 mapped features
Chuyozy Bluff — Sun-Wheel Cart Panel (Panel CZ-3)
petroglyph panelTwo sun-wheels with ox-cart and driver, Early Bronze 0.9 m
50.4210° N · 86.6810° EChuyozy Bluff — Turkic Ford Inscription (Panel CZ-11)
inscriptionOld Turkic runes 28 signs with tamga, 1.8 m band marking ford toll, 7th–8th c.
50.4190° N · 86.6790° E