Qazaq Historical Review

From the Editor

Dear readers!

We are pleased to present you the latest issue of the academic journal Qazaq Historical Review, published by the Institute for Humanities Studies ABDI. We are pleased to present you the latest issue of the academic journal Qazaq Historical Review, published by the Institute for Humanities Studies ABDI. The present issue’s articles concern the history, archeology and ethnography of Qazaqstan. The authors are historians from Qazaqstan and other countries who published the results of their research. We hope that the published material will help Qazaqstani historians in further research.

Four articles are published in the Archaeological Research in Qazaqstan section. The article by Alexander Goryachev and Tatyana Egorova, researchers at the Institute of Archaeology, focuses on the petroglyphs of the Serektas Mountains in the Zhambyl District of the Almaty Region. They have documented approximately 800 petroglyphs from various historical periods, from the Bronze Age to the Modern Period, depicting scenes of humans and predators hunting, grazing livestock, and dwellings. The article by Prof. Dr. Gulnara Jumabekova, and Prof. Dr. Galiya Bazarbayeva, leading researchers at the Institute of Archaeology, presents the first analysis of the decoration of a ceramic vessel from the 4th–3rd centuries BC from Mound No. 10 at the Berel burial ground. According to the authors, the vessel's decoration is associated with the cult of a female deity and fertility. Prof. Dr. Asemgul Kasenova, leading researcher at the Institute of Archaeology, analyzes and systematizes Spatial Structure from the Turkic period in the territories of Zhetysu and Saryarqa. Currently, the digital registry of ancient and medieval stone sculptures in Qazaqstan includes 998 objects, but this figure is not final and requires further expansion. Emma Usmanova, a research fellow at the Saryarqa Archaeological Institute of Qaragandy University, and Polina Frikke, an independent German researcher, are examining specially hidden objects in nine Bronze Age burial structures in the Ural-Qazaqstan steppes. According to the authors, the objects in these caches demonstrate the professional and social status of the buried individuals.

The Ethnography and Cultural History of the Qazaqs section includes three articles by contemporary Qazaq historians. Dr. Napil Bazylkhan, a senior expert at the Turkic Academy, examines the Bitig Turkic script. It represents a compact system for recording the phonetic, phonological, and morphemic processes of the ancient Turkic language. Aliya Bolatkhan, a doctoral student at the University of Zurich and our regular contributor, examines the origin and spread of the term “beshbarmak” during the Russian imperial period as a name for a boiled meat dish. According to the researcher, this term reflects not the name of the dish, but the methods of its consumption. Prof. Dr. Zhanerke Shaygozova, a professor at the Qazaq National Pedagogical University, explores the characteristics and specifics of traditional Qazaq carpet art, classifying carpets according to territorial and ethnic characteristics.

On behalf of the Journal’s Editorial Board, I would like to thank our authors, reviewers, editors and translators for their contribution to this issue. Great help in translation and editing of texts in English were given by Dr. Zarine Dzhandosova (Saint-Petersburg State University).

Editor-in-Chief of the academic journal Qazaq Historical Review, 

Associate Professor, Dr. Qanat Uskenbay