Иволга - главные ворота Бурятии

                                                               Гимн Бурятии

«О, мать – Земля»

(слова Д. Жалсараева, музыка А. Андреева)

1.Таежная, озерная, степная,

                Ты добрым светом солнечным полна

   Цветущая от  края и до края,

        Будь счастлива родная сторона.

2.Брусничный дух, черемухи дыханье,

Лилового багульника настой

Я не дышу, а пью благоуханье

Моей Земли равнинной и лесной.

3.Прими, Земля, сыновнее спасибо,

Святой водой аршана угости.

Чтоб я обрел невиданную силу

Для дальнего, нелегкого пути.

4.Таежная, озерная, степная,

Ты добрым светом солнечным полна.

Цветущая от края и до края,

 Будь счастлива родная сторона

Oh, Motherland

      Words: D. Zhalsarayev

Translated by O. Togonoeva

1. You are taiga and steppe and lake – land

                                              Rich in the light of the sun,

From west to east in blossom every year

Be happy, my dear Motherland.

2. Cowberrie’s bream, bird – berry’s blooming

Infusion of me purple leidium

I’m not breathing, but drinking sweet smell

Of my loving and forest Motherland.

3. Adopt, my Land, the son’s “Thank you”
4.  And give me some coldest spring gulp,

For me to find unknown will and strength

To go a long and difficult path.

4. With you, my Land, we’re merged together,

Your faith became the destiny of me.

We worship you, my dear Land, and bow

The beauteous, Buryatia!

Oh, Motherland

                                            Гимн муниципального образования

«Иволгинский район»

(слова А. Бадаева; перевод С. Нестеревой.)

Моя Иволга

1.О, земля отцов, свежесть родника,

Ширь твоих степей сохранят века.

Здесь у гор святых плещет Селенга,

Здесь мой дом родной и мой очаг,

Иволга моя.

2.В путь Хамар - Дабан манит и зовет,

А Баян – Тугад силы придает.

Здесь Халюты бег освежит тебя,

Милый отчий край, храни судьба!

Иволга моя.

3.Ожерелье гор, колыбель степей,

Песней радости – вы в душе моей.

Ты сынов своих прославляй земля,

Сторона моя, цвети всегда!

Иволга моя.

                      Without history there is

  neither present nor future

I know we are given the birthplace.

                  Peoples wander and change their roots.

               And my homeland has changed a lot.

                                   But I still remember my native        nest

.                  («In the Valleys of Mongolia

 by Bair Dugarov)

    Я знаю, что родину не выбирают

    Кочуют народы, и кров свой меняют

    И там, где родился я, там выше деревья

    Но есть еще память о первом кочевье        

….. We still remember our native nest.

What is it about?

 Warlike Huns: two thousand years ago they lived in Transbaikalye. In those immemorial   times those nomadic people set up the first state in the Central Asia. The Hunnu Empire had kept the Eurasian continent in fear for about five centuries.

 It is known that one of the legendary Hunnus reached Rome.

 That period of the history of Transbaikalye is linked with the name of shanyui Mode. When he took power in 2058 B.C., all territory of Mongolia and the south of Transbaikalye turned out to be under the dominion of the Huns.

    The Hun state, which had excited for three centuries, consisted of different tribes; proto-Mongolian, partly proto-Tungus and proto- Iranian.  

  So, the Hun period (the end of the 3d century BC – the end of the first century AD) is considered to be the most interesting period in the history of Zabaikalye. According to the historical evidences it was a powerful state of the nomads in Central Asia.

   Mobbing forward – in the direction to Lake Baikal – the Huns reached the outskirts of the present capital of Buryatia. Here there is the northern most monument of the Hunnu culture – the so called Ivolginsk (Hunnu) site of ancient settlement, which was found by a famous Russian archeologist A.P. Okladnikov in the outskirts of Ulan –Ude in the twenties of the last century.

                             Nizhne – Ivolginski settlement

      The settlement of Nizhne – Ivolginski, which is opposite to the village Suzha on the left bank of the Selenga River, is considered to be the most northern part, where the Huns built their settlements. The settlement had a form of a regular rectangle*. Three types of dwellings such as dug outs, half dug-outs and surface dwellings were discovered in the settlement. Together with dwellings 519 pits* were found in the settlement, the majority of which represented various kinds of household buildings. Archaeologists find lots of bones of domestic animals. Mattocks, hammers*, scrapers* for hide treatment were made of bones and horns. Tubular bones of sheep were used for making various hilts*, awls*, bow covers and barrel-like* appliances for arrows, needleboxes, shoulder blades used for fortune telling*, dice*, eartwirles, fragments of harness* and jewelry.

  The excavations of the Ivolginsk ancient settlement witnessed that 2 thousand years ago the Empire of the Huns had reached the peak in its development. It is known that the Huns had ploughed the land, made steel – the archeologists found the forger for producing iron and bronze and made pottery. The Huns handicrafts reached a very high level: there are artifacts made from bronze and covered with a thin layer of silver. Filigreel bone things are masterpieces of art. The articles made of bone, iron,

 and bronze were parts of household implements among which there were mattocks, ploughshares*, chisels*, axes*, sickles*, knives, fishing hooks and net plummets*.

The excavations of Nizhne-Ivolginski Hun settlement proved that the Hun people were good at building complex constructions and were skillful at erecting defense

systems around settlement.       Besides, the Huns were skillful engineers: they were good at building complex irrigation system.

   The rich collections of finds from Nizhne- Ivolginski settlement are now kept in the State Hermitage and the  Museum of History after M.N. Khangalov.

Nizhne – Ivolginski burial ground

      The Nizhne – Ivolginski burial ground located on a hill, 800 meters away to the north, in the estuary* of the Ivolga River. Children under the age of one were buried in a clay* vessel under the floor of their dwellings, children under the age of one to three were buried also in clay vessels, but in graves on the level fossil* soil, children under the age of eight to fourteen – in coffins*, put into a shallow hole* on the level of the fossil soil. Many burial places were very richly arranged. Lace cast bronze buckles in the form of the plates with animals. Beads, pedants and other things adoring women’s dresses. Beads were made of different local materials, such as fluorite*, serpentine, carnelian*. Rich burials displayed jewelry made of imported materials, such as turguoise*, agate and many of which were glass- inlaid. In the men’s graves the usual things were a guiver* with arrows, a knife, a dagger*.

Ceramic things

   Ceramic things like parts of big and small vessels, unbroken vessels were found in large numbers in the Nizhne – Ivolginski settlement. The vessels were made of gray or red clay on the primitive potter’s wheel*.The surface in most cases was decorated with striped gloss, relief stripes, horizontal and wavy drawn lines, straight and wavy plastered rollers.

The Tapharski burial ground

     The Tapharski burial ground located on the Taphar Hill opposite the village of Ivolginski is of great importance. It consists of khereksurs*, tombstone and nomadic graves, which were very numerous sometime ago, were located along the northern and   remarkable watch stone. The Ivolginski Deer Stone, standing near one of the largest burial grounds in Ivolginski valley, is a wonderful monument of

that kind. The surfaces of such stones very often cut and galloping deer were depicted on them. Covered pictures of ‘deep in gallop’, known as ‘the Ivolginski Deer Stone’ was rising there sometime ago.At present this stone is exhibited in the Irkutsk Museum of Regional Sudies. The excavations were undertaken by G.P.Sosnovski in 1928. He found the bones of horse and sheep. Bronze boiler, bronze and bone needles, fragments of ceramics.

   There are six khereksurs on the top of the south – western part of the Taphar Hill. All khereksurs are small with round fences and ritual masonries in form of rings. Their burial mounds are not high, round, with a small hollow in the middle. Close to the khereksurs the burial grounds of the late nomads are found off to the east, west and south. All these six khereksurs were discovered by G.P. Sosnovski in 1929, where he excavated 5 graves. Later in 1954- 1955 N.N. Mamonova and E. A. Khamsina excavated 43 graves (12 mens, 7 women’s, 7 children’s, 12 ritual ones and 5 of them were not determined).

The khereksurs located near the villages of Selenga, Siberia, Kibalino and about 21 graves near Ganzurino. On most graves the stones were dragged out.

 The Rock paintings – a remarkable art of the ancient people. They are ancient rock pictures.

    The pictures were made by red color paint. Ochre was mixed with fat, and then put on small smooth* plates of cornices or wide edges of cliff ledges*. They are represented by the same symbols pictures of circles or rectangles*. There are a lot of small spots, crosses, stylized animals and human figures. The latter usually stand in line joining hands.

    There are a lot of rock paintings on the both banks of the Selenga River (Zabochka rock paintings under the Omulevi Mountain ,Kibalino rock paintings in the mouth of the Bolshaya Baranovka River, Boshkati – in the   Orongoi valley, Beshegtu – near the village of Ganzurino )

    The remains of the Hun settlements have been preserved till the present day and are monuments of history and culture and places of tourists’ pilgrimage (паломничество).

    The famous Huns site ancient settlement has got a status of the archeological monument of the federal significance and is likely to become one of most popular tourist attractions in our region.              

Let us go to the late period of the ancient Stone Age.

    One of the ancient Paleolithic settlements, located not far from Ivolginski district, is known as the ancient settlement of Oshurkovskaya (discovered by the academician A.P.Okladnikov in 1951) In the cultural layers there were found the bones of hare, horse, ancient bison, deer, elk*, northern deer, wild boar, goat antelope*, vole, birds and fish.

Let us go to the period of Bronze and Early Stone Age.

     It is represented by isolated settlements and burial grounds in the form of tombstone graves.

     Tomstone graves were also found on the left bank of the Selenga River 1 kilometer away to the north of Sotnikovo village. G. P. Sergeev found the burial ground in 1936.

    There were thirty eight graves in the burial ground. All of them were plundered. One of the graves untouched. The scull was lying on a granite slab*. Splintered sheep bones were found near his head and iron badges. In other graves there were ceramic fragments with arch ornaments, turquoise and pasta beads, lumps of ochre, bone bandage for bows and arrow tips*, a fragment of an awl, bronze badges, bones of horses, sheep and jaw of fish. The people who had left those graves were excellent found rymen*

Nizhne – Ivolginski settlement

Vocabulary

1. rectangle        [ rek,t әe gl]       -         прямоугольник

2. pit                                              -        яма

3. dug out              [ dΛgaut]         -        землянка

4. filigreel bone things     -            -         филигранно отшлифованные изделия

5. mattock [mәetәk]                       -         мотыга

6.hammer [hәemә]                         -         молоток

7. scrapers for hide treatment          -         скрепки для выделки кожи

8. tubular bone [tju:bjulә  bәun ]      -       трубчатая кость

9. hilt                                                 -        рукоятка

10. awl [o:l]                             -                  шило, проколка

11. barrel- like appliance for arrows –    бочкообразное приспособление для стрел

12.bow covers                                    -        накладки на лук

13. shoulder blades                              -      лопатки для гадания

14. dice                                                -      игра в кости

15. fragments of harness                      -      детали конской сбруи

16. buckle                                                   пряжка

17.brooch [brә ut  ]                                 -   брошь

18.bead [bi:d]                                         -   бусы, бисер

19.pendant [pendәnt]                               -  подвеска, кулон

20. ploughshare [plau]                              -  плужный лемех

21.chise [t izl]                                          -   резец

22. axe [әe ks]                                          -   топор

25. plummet                                              -   грузило (удочки)

Nizhne – Ivolginski burial ground

Vocabulary

1.estuary [estju ri] –           устье реки

2. clay vessel         -            глиняный сосуд

3. on the level fossil soil – на уровне погребенной почвы

4. coffin                           - гроб

5. fluorite                          - флюорит

6. serpentine [sә:pәntain] - серпентин

7. carnelian                       - сердолик

8. dagger [dәegә]              - кинжал

9. turquoise [tә: kwa:z]     - бирюза

10. quiver with arrows     - колчан со стрелами

11. agate [әegә t]              - агат

12 shallow holes              - неглубокая яма

13.potter’s wheel             - гончарный круг

                          The Tapharski burial ground

Vocabulary

1. khereksurs                         -   херексуры (могильники)
2. ‘the Ivolginski Deer Stone’-  Иволгинский олений камень
3. nomadic graves                   -  кочевнические могилы
4. masonry [meisnri]                - каменная кладка            
5. hollow                                   - углубление, пустота, полость

                                                   The Rock paintings

Vocabulary

1the Rock paintings  - древние наскальные рисунки

2.smooth                   - гладкий, ровный

3. edges of cliff ledges  - широкие ребра выступов скал

4.Zabochka rock paintings under the Omulevi Mountain  -писаницы Забочка  под Омулевой горой

5.Kibalino rock paintings in the mouth of the Bolshaya Baranovka River – Кибалино в устье реки Большая Барановка

6.Boshkati – in the   Orongoi valley – Боччкатэ в Оронгойской долине

7.Beshegtu – near the village of Ganzurino ) – Бэшэгтуу около с.Ганзурино

                   Let us go to the late period of the ancient Stone Age

Vocabulary

1 еlк                     - лось

2.granite slab  -      гранитная плита

3. arrow tips    -     наконечники стрел

4.rymаn            -    мастер – литейщик